The First Sermon?

[Our readings were Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; and Luke 24:36b-48.]

It’s an ancient tradition that, during the Great Fifty Days of Easter, we hear from Luke’s account of the earliest days of the Church in the book of Acts. Today, we hear what Peter says to a crowd that has gathered around him and John in Solomon’s Portico of the Temple after the healing of the crippled beggar at the Beautiful Gate.

What did the crowd want? Healing for themselves? More miracles? An explanation? Perhaps they didn’t know themselves. What they got was a sermon, which is likely not what they expected. (In other words, you’re hearing a sermon about a sermon!) In fact, Peter’s sermon, not the miracle, is the center of the reading.

This sermon is probably the first where Jesus’ resurrection is preached. And, as Archbishop Rowan William has written, the crowd is not ignorant of Jesus and is neither neutral nor wholly innocent. The audience for this sermon is itself part of the story. So, when Peter said “you rejected” and “you killed”, there was some literal truth there.

Some of these words have been the excuse for hideous acts of anti-Semitism over the centuries. Jews as late as our time have been forced to pay the penalty for an act that occurred almost two millennia ago. But Peter’s purpose is not punishment but reconciliation, in fact, he excuses them and, I believe, would have been horrified to see how those who called themselves Christians used his words to persecute Peter’s own people.

The first point Peter makes is that the people misunderstood the source of the healing and thought it came from Peter and John. It seems to be human nature to assume that some person has healing powers and they can make them available to us. We desperately want to believe that they can bring healing and wholeness to our lives. So we order that CD, go to the tent rally, or watch the TV program. As Peter tells the crowd, “Why do you think it was our power that healed? This is about God’s power.”

Peter’s second point is that the crowd wrongly thinks that brokenness is the rule and healing the exception in life with God. We often tend to think this way—that life is apart from God, only punctuated with astonishing acts by God. That’s why the crowd rushed to the Temple; Peter and John’s ministry of healing seemed to be an astonishing exception to life as usual. But Peter asks “Why do you wonder?” and teaches of the Kingdom of God, where God’s healing and forgiveness are as commonplace as sunshine and rain.

Finally, the crowd (as often we do) thinks that healing only calls for astonishment. When we see a sign of God at work in the world—someone is healed, a broken relationship is restored, a hungry child is fed, despair yields to hope—people are filled with wonder and joy. But Peter calls for more. God’s healing reveals a different place, a different kingdom that we can glimpse amidst the ruins of this one. These glimpses summon us to repent—to change our path to God’s path—so that we can claim our citizenship in the Kingdom of God and truly become a part of God’s work in the world.