May 17, 2020
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Acts 4:1-11; John 14:8-24[1]
Have you ever been challenged to defend yourself, what you
believe, what you have done, or what you have said? It can come as a shock,
startling us into defensiveness. Sometimes we know what to say, but when we’re
caught off-guard, we often draw a blank. How could the other person not
understand things the way I do? How could my intentions not be clear? In the
scripture passages for today, Peter is challenged by the high priests of
Israel, and Jesus is challenged by Philip.
Peter has healed a man, and the priests are threatened. They
are the ones who are supposed to hold the power. People are supposed to come to
the temple to be healed. But this Peter person has side-stepped all of that.
“Who do you think you are?” they seem to ask. “By what power or by what name
did you do this?” (v. 7) We’re the authorities here, and we didn’t give you
authorization. Peter answers, “I have done a good thing! This man has been
healed by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” But the priests don’t see it
that way. Jesus and his followers are a threat to their power.
Philip challenges Jesus in a similar way. He seems to ask,
“Where does your power come from? If it is from God, then show us God and we’ll
believe.” Jesus answers, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you
still do not know me?” (v. 9) “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my
own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (v. 10) Power, real
power, comes from God.
Power is often measured by control over others. It is
control based on money, fear, and ignorance. Peter and Jesus have a different
understanding of power. Power is love, healing, truth-telling, moral clarity,
and love of God above all else. Power belongs to God alone, and we are merely
the instruments of God’s power.
Most of us do not truly understand the power of God that
resides in us. Jesus understood. He said, “I am in the Father and the Father is
in me.” (v. 11) Philip did not understand, even though Jesus did many things to
show him the power of God within him. Peter didn’t get it then, either. It was
only after the death and resurrection of Jesus, after the Pentecost, when Peter
was filled with the Holy Spirit, that he understood the power that was within
him.
If Peter and Philip didn’t get it, and they walked around
with the living, breathing, Jesus, it’s no wonder we struggle too. But the
power is there. The power of God is within each of us. And if we believe and
trust in God, that power will be revealed. Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you,
the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will
do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (v. 12) By the
power of God, Peter stood up to the powerful and brought healing. What works of
love, justice, and peace might we accomplish if we believe in the power of God,
and trust God to use us well?
Now, we can’t expect to become miracle workers like Jesus.
Faith healers that put on a show for the TV cameras are doing just that –
putting on a show. I haven’t ever been able to move a mountain just by having
faith and praying for it to move. The storms on Thursday didn’t stop when I
said “Peace, be still,” and I’m an ordained minister! However, by connecting to
God, praying for God to increase my courage and strength, I have been able to
calm the storm in myself, and help others move metaphorical mountains. With the
help of God, I have helped others to connect to the love and grace of God in
moments of joy and pain. And when others have shown their love and care for me
in my time of need, I too have experienced the power of God’s love.
The greatest power Jesus possessed was love. As he nears the
end of his earthly ministry, Jesus makes plain to the disciples the most
important aspect of his mission: “I give you a new commandment, that you love
one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”[2]
This commandment, so simple and yet so hard at times to follow. This is the
core of all the teaching, the motivation for all the miracles, the source of
the Savior’s power.
The Gospel of John was written in a time when the empire of
Rome dominated the world of this budding faith, when violence ruled, and rebels
might have raised a call to arms. In a striking contrast, the Gospel makes a
different claim about power. Real power, the power to transform lives and
relationships, is the power of God’s love, love that endured the cross, and
even death, and will not abandon the disciples. As Jesus prepares to leave them,
his parting message is that love abides. “They who have my commandments and
keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them” (v. 21).
If this were simply the love of greeting cards and romance
movies, the disciples would have been lost. This was not sunshine and roses but
the lived reality of Jesus, a person they knew from Nazareth, who looked and
talked like them, and lived as one of them. Revealed in that life of healing
the sick, feeding the hungry, touching the lepers, and treating each person
with compassion, was the powerful love of God. In challenging the ethics of
legal scholars, and lifting up the value of each person, even sinners, even
outcasts, Jesus made the powerful claim that each one of them, and each one of
us, is worthy of love, respect, and peace.
In the command to love one another, to love our neighbor, to
love God, is the call to recognize the image of God that lives in every other.
Love requires that we see them, those people, the “other” as people whom God
also loves and wants us to love. It is not a love that is hierarchical, superior,
or condescending but mutual, understood in serving one another, sharing in
common what is needed for life to thrive. Jesus poured water into a basin and washed
the disciples’ feet, telling them, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”[3]
As the early church was formed, “All who believed were together and had all
things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute
the proceeds to all, as any had need.”[4]
With love as the source and rule of life, the Christian community became known
for their love.
My friends, you may not have magical healing powers, but you
are connected to the power of God. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep
my commandments” (v. 15). Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love
one another as I have loved you. Ideas that seem so simple, and yet require of
us all our heart and mind and strength. But if you love Jesus, if you love God,
the Spirit of God abides with you.
In every act of compassion, in every work of kindness, we
encounter the power of God. In our time, staying home and wearing a mask while
out in public are simple yet powerful works of love. In every age, sharing what
we have with others as they have need, listening as the broken-hearted pour out
their grief, challenging the power of those who would use violence and hatred
to dominate others, we carry on the mission of Jesus to reveal the powerful
love of God to the world. Amen.
[1]
The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
[2]
John 13:34.
[3]
John 13:14.
[4]
Acts 2:44-45.
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