I CAN TELL THE WORLD
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Texts: Acts 5:12-42
“I can tell the world about this. I can tell the nations I am blessed. Tell them what my Jesus has done. Tell them that the comforter has come.” I first heard this spiritual at a meeting of the Idaho Baptist Youth Fellowship in the early 60s when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. I was probably about Oscar’s age. My home church, First Baptist, Boise, was hosting the event and it was packed with some 600 teens, rocking out to this old song under the charismatic leadership of Chuck Boddie. He was the featured speaker for the event. In fact, I believe he may have been making the rounds of state Baptist youth meetings that year, holding forth on the theme, “I Can Tell the World." I don’t know if any of you ever encountered Charles Emerson “Chuck” Boddie, but he was powerful preacher, consummate song leader and passionate disciple, who went from the American Baptist Educational Ministries to long tenure at the American Baptist College and Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. He moved many young people in those days toward a sense of discipleship that included racial justice alongside faithful witness. I know he touched my life deeply.
Today’s text tells the tale of one transformed by the gospel; one who, because of that transformation, would not, could not keep still. Is this really Peter who has taken center stage? We left him last running away from the empty tomb, back to the other disciples, full of wonder and unanswered questions, but still shaken. Only a couple of days before that experience at the empty tomb, wasn’t he the one slinking around the palace courtyard, denying that he had ever known Jesus? Peter, the big, strapping man of action; the impetuous one who first called Jesus Messiah, denying Jesus, to his deep shame. What has happened in the interim to bring about such change? What has given him the courage to stand in the temple portico day after day proclaiming the good news, ignoring all that seemed life-threatening only weeks before?
As we said last week, the meaning of Easter is fulfilled, neither in Jesus’ sacrifice nor the empty tomb. It is a personal encounter with the risen Christ that makes all the difference. And this is what has happened in Peter’s life. He has met Jesus on the other side of death and his life is completely turned around. He is changed forever. He has encountered the Holy Spirit on the streets of Jerusalem and is filled with the Spirit’s flaming power. How can he keep quiet? How can he keep from sharing such amazing news? How can he not testify to that of which he has been a witness? “I can tell the world about this. I can tell the nations I am blessed. Tell them what my Jesus has done. Tell them that the comforter has come. And he brought joy, joy, joy to my soul!”
Though that is Peter’s personal story of transformation, the context in which he operates is little changed. In fact, it may be worse than when Jesus was crucified. The religious leaders, in particular the Sadduccean party, who controlled the temple and tended to collaborate with the Romans in order to maintain their own wealth and power, may have felt more threatened than ever since they apparently had been unable to squash this Jesus’ movement by having its leader executed. Instead of fleeing back to Galilee, their tales between their legs, these rude peasant followers had taken the teacher’s place on the temple portico, preaching and teaching, healing and exorcising in his name, as if his powers lived on in them. The authorities were frustrated and angry. They ordered the disciples to keep quiet. They had them arrested and brought to trial. They admonished them to stop doing all these things in Jesus’ name. But Peter and the others would not, could not be silenced.
What follows is a great comedic scene. The Sadduccees arrest Peter and others again. This time they throw them into jail to hush them up. Problem handled until they can figure out a permanent solution. Only, someone comes to the prison in the middle of the night – an angel perhaps? - some messenger from a higher authority and the prisoners are freed, with the clear instruction to get back to their life-giving work. “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” And they show no reluctance to return to their post at daybreak to share their wonder-working, life-transforming good news.
Now midmorning, with all appropriate pomp and ceremony, the high priest and those with him arrived on the scene. They called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel. Then they sent to the prison to have the prisoners brought before them. Only when the temple police show up, there are no prisoners to be found – not in the jail anyway. They return to port, with wonder and their own embarrassment, “Well, you see, it’s like this, we found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” Flabbergasted and fuming, everyone stands around in confusion until a messenger arrives with the news that the disciples are right back at the temple, carrying on as before.
These very important leaders are furious, not to mention completely embarrassed themselves. So much for their power and authority! Once more, they have the disciples arrested and hauled into court. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching…” Now we see Peter’s new being come to the fore, “You know, we must obey God rather than any human authority. God called us through Jesus Christ and gave us this amazing ministry. Then the Spirit gave us the power to follow through. We are committed to being the body of Christ in his physical absence. The power of his spirit drives us on to bear witness to the good news.”
This testimony enrages the leaders and they want to kill the whole bunch of the disciples, but wise old Gamaliel cautions them “…keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” Though the assembly accedes to Gamaliel’s wisdom, they still flog Peter and the others before sending them on with the same orders not to speak in the name of Jesus. Roll the closing credits. As the camera pans in from the distance, it shows Peter and the disciples where? On the road back to Galilee? No. As they leave the council, they continue to rejoice in their calling. The scene under the credits shows them right back at their post on Solomon’s Portico, preaching and teaching, healing and exorcising in Jesus’ name.
Friends, this is the discipleship to which we, too, are called. This is the story to which we bear our own witness. The challenge of the text, of course, is that it is a story. Though a powerful, amusing tale of how one bears witness, it is not exactly your story or mine. What do you or I know personally of the empowering spirit of Christ in our lives? Where have we met Jesus on our own journey? When has he reached out to us, calling us by name and inviting us to join in the work of bringing God’s realm to reality on earth? What is your Easter encounter and mine? Each of us meets the risen Christ in ways and at times that are uniquely ours. Some are dramatically transformative, the kind of experience that takes a shamed, cowering Peter and turns him, through his faith, into the kind of rock on which the church is founded. Some are as quietly and gently observed as in these words of Mary Oliver,
“Oh, feed me this day Holy Spirit, with
the fragrance of the fields and the
freshness of the oceans which you have
made, and help me to hear and hold
in all dearness those exacting and wonderful
words of our Lord Christ Jesus saying:
Follow me.”
(Mary Oliver, “Six Recognitions of the Lord” in Thirst, p. 28.)
Some reflect a life time of struggle to come to full acceptance of the way in which God accepts us through Jesus Christ. Still, it is some personal encounter with the risen Christ, uniquely our own, that makes all the difference – in our lives and in the world.
What makes today’s text such a wonderful story is, first, the delicious, though perhaps ultimately sad comedy that plays out between the authorities and the disciples. The authorities, so caught up in their own importance, so determined to keep the peace with Rome, so afraid of the strange persistence of these Galilean peasants, miss the good news. We get to laugh at what looks like a keystone cop comedy of errors at the expense of pomposity and misguided authority. At the same time these characters miss an opportunity to encounter the risen Christ. They miss Peter’s invitation to them to repent, that is, to turn around and walk in God’s way. Ironically, in spite of their treatment of him and the other disciples, Peter’s message is not one of hostility or judgment. It is an invitation to receive the forgiveness and redemption that God offers through Jesus Christ. I wonder where we would find ourselves if such a conflict was current today. Certainly one of the challenges to our own discipleship is the degree to which we are open to seeking out, hearing and following God’s guidance for our lives – even when that guidance brings us into conflict with assumed authorities. It is important to remember how vulnerable any and all of us creatures are to taking our sense of self-importance so seriously that we lose sight of God and God’s ways.
Secondly, we have this amazingly persistent witness of the disciples. There is no sense in this story that the disciples want to embarrass the council, that their purpose is to make life hard for the authorities. Theirs is in no way a negative witness. They are not preoccupied with saying “No” to those in power; their preoccupation is in saying “Yes” to the new power they have found in Jesus Christ and through his spirit. The authorities understand this. They see the disciples as deliberately defiant, when the truth is that the disciples are just joyful about good news they simply cannot hold in. Remember, Jesus saying, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Where do you or I find such deep joy? What is the song that Jesus has placed in your heart and mine? Is there anything in your experience of discipleship that makes you want to shout out the good news? Though it may cost something dear, this sort of discipleship is in no way laden with obligation. It is discipleship that liberates us to live into the reality of God’s desire for our fulfillment, our wholeness. And because he has come, the world will never be the same. Fear, oppression, cruelty, enmity, hatred, death are all done! Life lies before us, stretching out to eternity. “I can tell the world about this. I can tell the nations I am blessed. Tell them what my Jesus has done. Tell them that the comforter has come. And he brought joy, joy, joy to my soul!”