This summer here at Loop Church, we are studying the book of Acts. Well, studying may be the wrong word; we are watching the story of Acts. Like an audience at the theatre, we have been gathering each week and watching a different act of this story, the story of the Holy Spirit, unfold. We sit back and we watch the Spirit move in the world and move within people to form a new community called church and usher in a new reality of justice, peace, and resurrection.
Last week, we watched Peter deliver the opening speech of this story. Peter told the audience that God had made Jesus, Lord and Messiah and now a new chapter of the story was about to being written. Peter invites the audience to step into this new direction with the Spirit, to repent and to be baptized into a new way of life.
And Luke tells us that a great many people took Peter up on this offer. That people were baptized and formed a new fellowship, shared their possessions, cared for those in need. They broke bread together in their homes and they continued to go out and pray in the temple.
And it is at the temple, the temple in Jerusalem, that the next Act in our story begins:
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man crippled since birth was being carried in. Every day, people would place him at the temple gate known as the Beautiful Gate so he could ask for money from those entering the temple.
The narrator begins by introduces us to the cast list: we have Peter and John, two Jewish disciples of Jesus, two leaders in the new church community. And there is also a third actor, we don’t know their name, but the narrator describes them by their condition: this is a person who has been paralyzed from the waist down since birth.
Unable to walk on their own, we see this character being carried on stage by others. It is a picture of dependence and humility. At this point in the story, the person who is paralyzed is quite literally a burden, they are dead weight that others must pick up and carry, every single day.
They are also not only a burden, but they are, quite literally, an outsider. Everyday, this person is carried to the Temple, and placed outside at the gates.
We watch as the person who is paralyzed is gingerly lowered to their mat, given a plastic cup and cardboard sign, and offers up a prayer to each person that walks by: “Can you spare some change, can you help me eat today?”
We watch as able-bodied people walk past the person who is paralyzed and walk through the gates. We watch as people step inside the temple, to worship and offer up their prayers to God.
As we watch the scene unfold, the narrator continues telling the story:
When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John and said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
This scene opens with a question. The question is: will you help me?
The question is asked from the lowly place of the mat on the ground. It is a question that carries the fear of rejection and holds the faint hope of new possibility.
Will you help me?
Seeking to catch the people who pass by, the question is thrown out like a lasso, and it lands on Peter and John.
Will you help me?
Now, the question itself carries no real weight. Without thought or effort Peter and John could easily brush off the question and walk into the Temple and go about their worship.
But Peter and John do not ignore the question. They let themselves be wrapped up in it and allow themselves to be drawn toward the person who asked it. They even risk eye contact.
And it is no side-ways glance either, it is an intimate stare. They look straight ahead into the eyes of the person who is paralyzed and they say, “Look at us!” In this encounter, Peter and John demand “Optical Reciprocity.[1]” They want to be seen, and not as saviors or patrons, but as fellow human beings.
Staring at each other, the three characters of this act collide. In the shadow of the temple, the three are tangled up in the reality of real need and limited resources. This encounter catches Peter and John between the command to Love God and Love Neighbor. Caught by the question, “will you help me?” Peter and John must respond:
Then Peter said, “I don’t have any money, but I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk!” And Peter took him by the right hand and helped him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk and he entered the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.
Now, the person who was paralyzed, they woke up that day with very little expectations. They expected many people to pass them by; and of the few people who stopped, they expected many to apologize and give nothing. They expected their persistent begging would earn them a pita, enough daily bread to get through the day and do it all again tomorrow…
And when the person who was paralyzed looked up and saw Peter and John standing there in patched up cloaks and sandals hanging on by a thread, any fanciful expectation they had for a donation quickly vanished. When the two rather rough looking disciples said, “sorry we don’t have any money,” the person who was paralyzed was not at all surprised.
But the next line out of Peter’s mouth was one they never could have expected: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth stand up and walk.”
The person who was paralyzed since birth knew that it was irrational and unreasonable to expect they would ever stand on their own two feet and leisurely stroll down the street. They had dismissed that expectation a long time ago….
But Peter and John, they had a different set of expectations. Ever since Easter morning, death, disease, depression, and addiction could not dampen the disciples’ expectations for new life, new healing, new relationships, and new beginnings.
After watching the lifeless corpse of Jesus be raised by God to live and breath again, Peter wouldn’t have been surprised if God had this paralyzed person dunking by the end of the week.
Peter had the expectation of resurrection, but he knew that outrageous expectation would not be enough on its own. Peter needed to go a step further and needed to take a step closer. Peter does not pray, encourage, or invite the person to walk at a distance, but he offers a helping hand and a healing touch. It is a moment of encounter, a moment of faithful witness, and God enters in to it; God chooses to act.
As Peter and the one who is paralyzed hold hands, the radical reversals of God’s reign break into reality. The one sitting on their mat, is raised to their feet. Ankles that were weak become strong. The one who was carried now walks. The one who had to wait outside the temple, now steps inside, walking, leaping, and praising God.
It is a moment of resurrection, a moment most people never could have expected.
When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same one who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Inside the temple, the hushed and mumbled prayers of the faithful are interrupted by shouting: “Halleluiah, thank you Jesus!”
The person who was once paralyzed enters through the temple gates with no regard for the proper reverential posture of bowed heads, folded hands, and bended knees. They enter the temple courtyard with cartwheels and step into the sanctuary sprinting.
The other worshipers are surprised and amazed to see the one who was paralyzed from birth now walking, leaping, and dancing.
Filled with wonder they ask themselves: Isn’t this the same person who sat outside at gate? The same person we walked by each day? How are they now walking? Were they faking it all these years?
Questions swirl around in the congregation’s head as the scene comes to a close.
As an audience, we too are amazed at the story we just saw play out. It is a story with plenty for us to wonder about:
We wonder why Peter and John were going to the Temple anyway? Wasn’t their personal relationship with Jesus enough? We wonder why they didn’t invite the paralyzed person to their church community? With no cash in their wallets and no money to give the needy, we wonder how Peter and John survived without a personal bank account?
We ask ourselves these questions while we are at church, while we are inside the sanctuary, and so we wonder: who has been placed outside at the temple gates this morning? We wonder if we will stop when we step outside and stranger asks for help? Will we look them in the eyes, reach out our hand, and say, “Stand up and Walk?”
We wonder and we are filled with doubt, we start to feel inadequate and overwhelmed. And so it is at this point of wondering, that we must remember the fourth character in this story.
Now the fourth character is not listed as a part of the cast in your program book, but if you pay attention you will see the fourth character shows up all throughout this story.
If we look closely, we see the fourth character walking amongst the nameless group of people who wake up early everyday and carry the person who is paralyzed to the temple gates.
We see fourth character sitting on the mat with the person who is paralyzed. And as this person begs for money, we hear the fourth character say: “whatever you do for the least of these, you do unto me.”
We see the fourth character help the person who was paralyzed to their feet, when Peter and John stop and offer a helping hand. And as the person who was once paralyzed stands, and steps, and walks inside the temple, we see the fourth character, stepping, and walking, and leaping with them.
It is when we see the fourth character, when we see Jesus Christ on stage as Lord and Messiah, that this story starts to make sense. It is when we recognize Jesus in this Act, that we remember the Script is being written by a living Word, and we are only called to the role of supporting actors.
And if we are faithful to the script, our lives may just offer a witness to the fourth Actor, Jesus Christ. If we are willing to risk encounter, the Spirit may just enter into the story and those on the outside might just be brought center stage, walking, leaping and praising God. Amen.
[1] Willie James Jennings, Acts: A Theological Commentary, 41.
A Sermon delivered on Sunday, June 23, 2019 by Derek Elmi-Buursma
Word in the Loop 