Harold grew up in the Episcopal
Church. He even served as an acolyte,
but never paid much attention. It has
been years since he attended a service.
Harold is not a bad person, but church is not for him. He has one
passion – the ponies. One day at the
track Harold is surprised to see the local Episcopal priest, outfitted in full
liturgical garb. Before the first race,
the priest approaches one of the horses – a real nag and a long-shot – and gives
it a blessing by tracing the sign of the cross on its forehead. Playing a hunch, Harold places a small wager
on the horse and sure enough... it wins the race and pays off handsomely. The priest blesses an entrant in the second
race, Harold bets on it, and once again wins.
Well, this pattern repeats itself through the first eight races.
Harold watches intently as the
priest approaches a horse before the ninth and final race and proceeds to pray
over it with an elaborate series and gestures and motions. This pony is the longest shot of the day and
Harold decides to bet all his winnings on it.
If it pays off, he’ll nab more money in one day than most people do in a
year. Well, sad to say, Harold’s horse
comes in dead last and all his winnings are lost. He is mystified and little more than angry at
the priest. Harold tracts down the
reverend and lets him have it. “How
could you bless eight winners and then have the last one do so poorly?” The priest puts a hand on Harold’s shoulder
and says, “My son, you need to come to church more often.” “Why,” says Harold, “so God won’t play such
cruel tricks on me?” “No,” the priest
replies, “so you can learn the difference between a blessing and the last
rites.”
During the Easter season the Lectionary
replaces readings from the Old Testament with passages from the Book of
Acts. This affords us the opportunity to
hear the earliest sermons and missionary activities of Jesus’ first followers. With everything else going on at this time of
year, it is easy for these readings to fall through the cracks so allow me to
provide a brief recap of what we have heard over the last seven weeks.
On Easter Sunday we hear a portion of one
of Peter’s sermons. In it, he puts forth
a succinct summery of Jesus’ story; touching on his baptism, message of peace,
healing ministry, death, resurrection, and appearances to his followers. Peter concludes by remembering how Jesus
commissioned his followers to testify he was ordained by God.
On the Second Sunday of Easter we read
about Peter and John being brought in for questioning by the same council that
condemned Jesus to death. Even though
they have been told not to speak of Jesus they continue to preach, “filling
Jerusalem with his teaching” according to council.
By the third Sunday
harassment has given way to all out persecution. Its most rabid proponent in a Pharisee by the
name of Saul. Travelling to Damascus,
which lies just north of present day Israel, he is confronted by the Risen
Christ and blinded by the encounter.
Three days later, a church leader named Ananias prays with him, leading to
the restoration of his sight. Saul
becomes Paul, an effective missionary of the early church.
On the next Sunday
we find Peter being called to meet with disciples in Joppa, a port city on the
Mediterranean coast west of Jerusalem. A
woman in the town is very sick and the disciples there ask Peter to pray for
her. The text tells us her name is
Tabitha and adds “which in Greek is Dorcas.”
It is a tidbit hinting these early believers are culturally diverse with
associations cutting across ethnic divides.
Peter prays over Tabitha and she recovers.
By the Fifth Sunday
of Easter Peter has returned to Jerusalem to report to fellow disciples what
happened to him in Caesarea, a city some twenty miles to the north of
Joppa. He was called there to visit a
Gentile family. While with them, the
Holy Spirit fell upon the members of the household and they began to speak in
tongues, just as the disciples did on the Day of Pentecost. Peter, sensing God’s movement, baptizes
everyone present and they become the first Gentile converts to the Christian
faith.
The Sixth Sunday
finds Paul in Asia Minor. He has a
vision of a person in Macedonia (a region in northern Greece) calling out to
him. Paul travels there and settles in
the city of Philippi. He meets a woman
named Lydia, who is a merchant and a follower of God. Paul tells her the story of Jesus and she
decides to be baptized, becoming the first convert on the European
continent.
Today, on the
Seventh Sunday of Easter, we learn of the impact of Paul’s preaching and
ministry. An enslaved girl is freed of a
tormenting spirit and a man who profits by her is enraged. Paul and Silas are imprisoned, survive an
earthquake, and convert their jailor and his family.
This unfolding
drama hints at the growth of Christianity; how it begins in Jerusalem as a sect
of the Jewish faith and expands across a geographical region and ethnic
divides. The Book of Acts focuses
primarily on the growth of the faith in the northwest Mediterranean, an area
spanning Jerusalem to Rome. At the same
time, other faithful followers are taking the message of Jesus to Egypt, the
Southern Mediterranean, and parts of Africa including Ethiopia. Still others travel the Silk Road and
proclaim the faith in Persia all the way to India.
One thing is
clear. These early followers do not
experience the faith as a private enterprise.
It is Good News to be lived and told.
They can do nothing but share the love and joy made known to them in
Jesus Christ. No court order, no
cultural divide, and no geographic barrier stand in their way.
Last Sunday I
worshipped at an Episcopal church in an area known as the West Hill in
Akron. While parts of the neighborhood
are being resettled by urban pioneers, much of what surrounds the parish still
maintains its rough edges. People with
resources live side-by-side with people in need. The Sunday congregation reflected this. It was a diverse lot who shared a common love
for Jesus and one another.
In the pew in front
of me sat a young family with two small, reasonably busy children. An elderly man in a wheelchair occupied a
space across the aisle from me. Several
times during the service one of the parents rose to take the smallest child to
the back of the Nave and more than once a person was called to tend to the
elderly man. No one seemed to mind any
of this and none of it eclipsed my ability to pay attention.
At the announcements
several people spoke of community events in which they were involved and
encouraged others to join them. The
Junior Warden thanked folks who participated in a work day and the building –
123 years old – was well maintained.
They welcomed me with great warmth and invited me to their Pizza Lunch
in the Parish Hall after the service.
They have a food pantry and Panera Bread delivers leftovers to them for
distribution. Several people encouraged
me to take a loaf, but I declined. I met
a boy from the neighborhood who started coming to the church a few weeks ago
when he learned about the bread.
Everyone seemed glad he was there.
Two things struck
me about the parish. First, in their own
way, the people reminded me of the early Christians in the Book of Acts. There is no containing their love and joy in
the Lord and they are open to extending it to their neighborhood in a great
many of ways.
And second, the
people there reminded me a lot of the people here. Here at St. Paul’s we take our faith into the
world and welcome the world into our church.
I felt the same warmth there I feel here, and that does not always
happen when I visit other churches.
It is tempting to
listen to the stories from the Book of Acts and sense a disconnect between their
faithfulness and ours. The main figures
of the early church gave much, travelled far, and risked all to share their
faith. Compared to them, it feels like
we here do so little. And yet we share
something crucial in common with them.
Like them, our belief in Christ overflows with love and joy. We cannot help but express it as we worship
God, as we greet one another, and as we move throughout our community.
Our hearts, like
those of the people I worshipped with last Sunday, are made alive by the presence
of God’s Spirit in all we say and do.
You can feel it. You can hear
it. You can see it. Those who know us know it. No matter who they are, they know God loves
them because we love them with the love of Christ. God’s Spirit – so active and vital in the
Book of Acts – is active in and through us here at St. Paul’s.
This is what I
thought about and felt last Sunday as I worshipped with the good people of the
Church of our Savior in the West Hill neighborhood of Akron.
