Sermon went ok. I had preached this text a few weeks ago, and the whole sermon focused on the waiting part aspect, but with a little bit different approach. This time as I studied the text, I was really interested in the staring going on in the text, so the sermon started from that perspective. But, the waiting part still seemed important, so I worked it so both parts could fit in the sermon. Not sure if it felt more like two sermons or if the two sections flowed together.
The sermon preparations reminded me why I do not use weekly lectionary commentaries where the theme of the sermon is laid out for the preacher. once I read the commentaries theme, that's all I see, much like this week I had waiting on my mind, so it had to be part of the sermon. Perhaps I could have expanded the staring section and made it the whole sermon.
“Staring and Waiting” SAPC, Denton; April 15, 2018; Acts 3: 1-16
11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. 12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites,[b] why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant[c] Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus[d] has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
introduction: Lots of staring and waiting going on in this story.
What it means to be Easter people, to be an Easter church.
Move 1: First, the staring.
a. Peter stares at the man. John stares at the man.
1. probably not the first two people to stare at the man laying daily at the Beautiful Gate on the way to and from the Temple in Jerusalem.
1. the man had been lame from birth.
2. his friends bought him daily to lie there and ask for alms.
3. Sounds like a pretty good place to wait - people are going in the gate to the Temple and coming out from the Temple. Maybe they were in the mood to take pity on him and give him a coin or two.
4. I suspect that many people who walked through those gates stared at him.
5. We teach our kids not to stare at others.
“Don’t stare. It will make the person uncomfortable,” we tell them.
6. Maybe it makes us uncomfortable.
7. if we avoid eye contact, maybe we do not make the person feel bad. But, if we avoid eye contact, maybe we avoid a feeling of responsibility?
8. Peter and John stare. No avoiding the man.
b. Then, Peter commands the man to stare at him.
1. the lame man stares back
2. Surely this exchange of stares will be worth a little bit of silver or gold.
3. Peter surprises him - no silver, no gold; but, he reaches down, takes the man’s right hand, and in the name of Jesus Christ, he helps heals the man and lifts him up to walk.
c. The tex may not tell us explicitly, but w know lots of staring going on now.
1. Everyone who see the mans stares at him. They are astonished. how can the lame man be walking?
2. When they are done staring at the lame man who can now walk, they stare at Peter and john.
3. Peter calls them on it. “Why do you stare at us?”
“Do you think it is by our power or our piety we made him walk?”
It is not what we did. It is what God has done through Christ.
4. the point is not Peter and John; the point is Jesus Christ and the amazing things that are done in his name.
d. A clue for us as Easter people, as the Easter Church.
1. It is not about what we can do. It is about what God is doing.
2. The Easter story is not a story that begins with God raising Christ from the dead and then moves on to what we can do because of our talents, or gifts, or desires.
3. the story of resurrection is about the God who raises Jesus from the dead and then sends people like us into the world to empowered to participate in what the Risen Christ is doing in our midst and witness to the Risen Christ.
4. if people stare at us because of what we have done or said, we need to be like deflector shields - deflects their stares away from us toward Christ.
5. Giving new life and new hope in the name of Jesus Christ may cause people to stare, but when they do, we need to point beyond ourselves to the God of resurrection.
Move 2: the story is about waiting as well.
a. this day for the lame man begins just like many days before.
1. The lame man waits for people to come and get him to take him to the Beautiful gate.
2. The lame man waits all day propped up outside the gate.
3. he waits and hope for some alms.
4. He waits for whomever will give him whatever, and he waits to be taken from place to place.
4. His life is defined by these endless days of waiting.
b. We know about waiting.
1. Think of how many times we wait in life.
2. most of us could tell a story or two about waiting.
3. Or waiting for something in our lives to change or happen.
“I was waiting in line at the grocery store, and ….”
“I have been waiting to hear about that job application….”
c. From a Christian perspective, we know about waiting.
- In some ways we are defined by it.
- We move through each day waiting and hoping that God is going to sort things out one day.
- We celebrate the Lord’s Supper and proclaim Christ’s resurrection until he comes again.
- We may have lost the sense of urgency the early church had as they waited, but still we live and wait for God to be at work.
c. We also know that we are called to be at work while we wait.
1. peter and John would have been like the rest of the early church that believed Jesus would return again in the near future.
2. But they were not sitting around waiting - they were out among the people, healing and telling them about Jesus Christ.
3. In fact, the Risen Christ gives the disciples tasks to do while they for him to come again.
4. From the Great commission in Matthew to Christ’s famous command in John, “Feed my sheep,” the followers of Christ are called to work.
5. Immediately following the healing of the lame man, Peter begins preaching to the crowds about Christ’s death and resurrection.
d. our story as Easter people and the Easter church is about waiting for the next resurrection moment.
1. Every once in awhile our waiting is interrupted.
1. this particular day, the lame man’s waiting for a miracle comes to an end.
2. In an instance, at Peter’s command, his waiting ends.
3. Peter and John could not give him silver or gold, but in the name of Christ, they could heal him.
4. his daily waiting has been interrupted with a clear example of God’s power to resurrect.
5. That is our life as Easter people - waiting and working until that next moment resurrection moment when God transforms the moment and gives new life.
5. When I lived in KY, there was a cave-in at one of the mines in Eastern KY.
Hundreds of tons of rock and coal burying Joe and four other workers in the cave.
Help immediately arrived from all over. They began to dig feverishly, working in shifts around the clock to get through to those buried in the mine.
The work was hard, but the worst of it was the all the waiting. Everyone had to wait…. rescuers who could only move as fast as they could and still be safe…. the media who covered the story, waiting for the next piece of news to report…. the people who watched the news, waiting for the next news break to interrupt their regularly scheduled shows…. Families of those trapped, waiting for news of loved ones…workers trapped waiting deep inside the mine.
They had enough oxygen to last awhile so they could breath. At first they had the lights on their helmets to see, but after about 8 hours the batteries began to wear down. The light began to fade. Soon they were in total darkness.
So they waited in the dark.
After they were rescued, one of the men who had been rescued from the cave said that the hardest thing was waiting for the return of the light. He said all he could think about was anticipation of the light. Just to be able to see light. His eyes filled with tears as he recalled what it felt like when he had first seen the light. He said: “It felt like I was in a grave, and when the light broke in, it invited me back to life.”
6. Easter is one of those glorious moments when we see the light.
7. Then, we wait and work until the next resurrection moment.
conclusion: We are Easter people and part of the Easter church. We work and wait not for what we can do, but for those moments when the God of resurrection is revealed and we can point to God and say, “In the name of Jesus Christ.”
Amen.
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