Easter, April 4, 2010

           This morning we receive two different pictures of the Apostle, Peter.  In the first picture, Luke shows us a follower of Jesus who was one of a group who had just received the witness of some women that Jesus was alive: risen from the dead.  Yes, he was a member of the group who considered their witness to be an idle tale.  But apparently he is unable to completely discount their witness without a look for himself.  So he got up and ran to the tomb.  He saw part of what the women saw: an empty tomb.  Luke tells us that after bending over and peering in he saw the linen burial cloths.  Seeing this, he went home in a state of amazement. 

          In this scene, though stunned by what he has seen, Peter remains unconvinced.  But that is not so hard to fathom.  The one thing that we know from the gospels is that Peter was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah.  But he was not convinced about the kind of Messiah that Jesus said he was going to be.  Now, in a state of grief over the horrid death that Jesus had suffered, and, struggling with his own guilt for having denied him, Peter was not about to be convinced of something that seemed to good to be true.

          Another thing that took even longer for Peter to be convinced about was Jesus’ inclusion of people whom Peter was not used to spending time with: people whom he would never have over to his house for dinner.  And, Peter also had a disdain for the kind of food these non-Jewish people liked to eat.  You might say that Peter’s ideas of socializing did not run in the direction of being multi-cultural.  This was after Peter’s Easter experience, and his and Jesus’ other followers’ incredible Pentecost experience.  Peter was sleeping on a roof of a friend’s house when he had a vision in which God told him to eat the meat of some animals that Peter had never eaten before.  It was forbidden by religious purity laws.  But this time God’s voice told him not to treat as unclean what God had declared to be clean.  And a centurion named Cornelius had a vision around the same time that he should send for a man named Peter to come to his house.  And this is how Peter finds himself in this centurion’s house in our reading from Acts this morning.  Peter finds himself crossing social boundaries that he has never crossed in his entire life.  And he finds himself giving a sermon in which he says, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”  And then, Peter connects this revelation to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: Lord of all. 

          What we are witnessing in Peter is the power of resurrection.  God did not raise Jesus from the dead so that he could have the last laugh and wave triumphantly at his tormentors, his skeptics, his enemies, and his inept followers as he ascended into heaven.  God raised Jesus bring new life to the world: a life where death no longer wielded power.  Peter’s sermon to Cornelius and his household was a witness to this new existence.  Through this resurrection of Jesus peace and reconciliation became the power to be reckoned with. 

          It is in resurrection that we witness God’s power to change the world.  Look how it changed Peter and that original group of Jesus’ followers.  Peter always thought that he had the answer before he even understood the question.  He was always so certain that he would outperform the others that he was unprepared over how miserably he would fail Jesus.  Who would have thought that the Holy Spirit would make such a profound change in Peter?  On Pentecost the power of Christ’s resurrection seized him and it never left him.  He spoke with power and courage.  The sniveling coward who denied Jesus ended up spending time in prison for proclaiming him.  He witnessed with such power that he was himself crucified by the same frightened powers who had crucified Jesus.

          Peter found the truth that Paul proclaims in our reading from 1Corinthians.  “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”  This life: what is this life?  It must be noted that on this day that we celebrate resurrection, we also remember the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  It was on this day 42 years ago, that he was felled by an assassin’s bullet.  He lost his life to those who feared his message that it is not for this life only that we have hoped in Christ.  Like Peter, he knew the power of Christ’s resurrection breaks down social boundaries that the force of evil erects.  Because he was filled with the power of this resurrection he was given the courage to challenge the force of evil.  In his words and life he proclaimed that it is not for this life only that we find hope in Christ.

          Today we proclaim that Christ has been raised from the dead.  His risen presence fills the world and says this life is not all there is.  Jesus came proclaiming the nearness of God’s kingdom.  What is that kingdom bringing?  In the gospels we hear Jesus articulate that the blind see, the deaf hear, the poor have good news preached to them.  And, forgiveness of sins is preached in his name.  In God’s kingdom the alienation between peoples is overcome.  In Galatians Paul wrote that “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  This is life in the kingdom of God.

          But for me to stand here and say that this is the way life is now would be a falsehood.  We have more divisions and factions in this world than any one person could ever think up on his or her own.  Yes, if it is for this kind of life we have in the world today that we hope in Christ, we indeed “are of all people most to be pitied.”  For we see around us the forces of evil and death.  We cannot proclaim that Christ lives and then say, “but the status quo rules.”

          There in the living room of Cornelius’ house, Peter says that the status quo is gone.  God shows no partiality.  God does not take sides in all of the bickering between the factions of this world.  God does not pit one group against another.  Quite the contrary: Peter says, “You know the message (God) sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.”  Jesus is not my Lord and savior.  He is Lord of all: of all factions and interest groups.  Peter continues; “That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”  Peter is saying that we do not continue to hope for this life.  Because, as Paul says, “Christ has been raised from the dead,” we anticipate a resurrected life.  We anticipate a new life where reconciliation is real: where forgiveness of sins is not only God’s gift to us, but our gift to one another. 

          There are many enemies of peace and reconciliation in this world.  Sadly, even we can be those enemies.  That is the face of this life: the life in which it is futile for us to find hope.  But, we are also filled and surrounded by Christ’s resurrected, living presence.  This is what the women told the eleven; and as they found out, it is not an idle tale.  Christ lives.  And so, even in this imperfect life, we can be a witness to his living presence.  We can begin to recognize the boundaries that Christ breaks down between us: the boundaries we have built.  We can proclaim along with Peter that this risen Lord is Lord of all.  We do not make this witness through arm twisting and shouting.  We make it by living what the body of Christ is: a fellowship of people reconciled to God and to each other.  This is what our gathering at the table is this morning: a fellowship without boundaries eating and drinking together with our resurrected Lord.  This is the truth that we proclaim.  Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed!

AMEN!