“Proclaiming Christ’s Resurrection” Acts 17.16–31 Easter 6A, May ‘23

1.                Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!!! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray we will never get tired of this message. We’ve been saying it to one another all through the season of Easter. It’s a proclamation of truth that restores all mankind and creation from death to life. It’s a message that brings hope to a dying world, a world that can’t save itself. It’s the message that makes all the difference in the universe. In fact, as Paul understands, but as even he himself discovers in new ways as he preaches in Athens, our text today, the resurrection of Jesus drives the whole divine story. The message today is entitled, Proclaiming Christ’s Resurrection,” and it’s taken from Acts 17:16-31.

2.                The resurrection of Jesus drives the mission of the Church. In today’s Gospel, Jesus, preparing to leave the disciples in death to take the sins of the world to the cross, calls upon them to keep his Word. This is how God shows love to his creation, for his Word gives life and presence with God. Jesus said to the disciples when he met them after his resurrection, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Lk 24:46–47). That message of the resurrection is what sent the apostles on their way.

3.                Our sermon text begins with Paul in Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him. But he can’t wait! Acts 17:16–17 says, “Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” The spirit within Paul is provoked by all the idolatry in the city, people ignorant of the true and living God, enslaved by false gods. He can’t wait for the arrival of his companions to begin speaking to the people. He has a message of the resurrection of Jesus that drives him forward! It must be told!

4.                Paul preaches the resurrection of Jesus first to his fellow Jews and those devoted to the faith. God is known to them. They wait expectantly for God to save them. Still, this is not a guarantee that, in their fallen state, they will trust Jesus to be the Christ.

5.                The resurrection of Jesus drives away false wisdom. Paul next moves into the marketplace. Like Jesus’ parable of the great banquet (Lk 14:23), the servant, Paul, goes out into the streets and marketplaces, where people gather to call for all to come and receive life. Paul’s call is to proclaim Jesus and his resurrection. The philosophers in Athens overhear this proclamation and find it strange. Acts 17:18 says, “Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.”

6.                The Stoics looked for their god in nature. Nature revealed truth. So, if something died, it was for the betterment of the cosmos and was the will of nature. The Epicureans believed that the gods were material and made of the same basic building blocks as man. The Epicureans did not bother with rituals or observances. Their way to live in harmony with the gods was the pursuit of happiness through moderation and relationships. The Stoics and Epicureans labeled Paul a babbler, one who didn’t know what he was talking about, a pseudo-intellectual.

7.                Still, they wish to know more about this teaching. “What does it mean, its implications?” So, they invite Paul to speak formally at the Areopagus, where new ideas are discussed (Acts 17:19–25). Paul uses the altar of the unknown God as his starting point to speak of the living God. This God they do not know created all. And since he is Lord of both heavens and earth, there is nothing God needs from us. Rather, he gives to the Athenians, Paul, and you sitting here today, life and breath and all things required to sustain them. Paul then alludes to the problem of man’s separation from God (Acts 17:26–28). The natural man, the old Adam, is like a man in the dark groping about, feeling and searching for God. This seeking is not a virtue but a symptom of a dead soul devoid of the Word of life.

8.                This illuminates two false ways to God: mysticism (using feelings or emotions to find God) and rationalism (reason or logic as a way to him). Not that feeling and reason are bad. God intends them for good and, when used in service to his Word, edify you and neighbor. But the resurrection makes no sense to these men so dedicated to their own false wisdom. They thought death was a liberation of soul from body. “Who’d want to be back in a body? What foolishness!” (Acts 17:29–32).

9.                Here’s an illustration that reasons and our feelings and emotions can’t help us to reach God. For anyone who’s in the hospital, the first thing staff might do is draw blood. Doctors and nurses may come in and ask how you feel. But they are not asking you about emotions, whether you’re happy or sad. They are more likely to ask about pain, nausea, or dizziness. They’ll take your blood pressure and temperature, listen to your heartbeat and lungs, using instruments to take an objective measure to be compared to a standard. But even these don’t lead to a diagnosis or prescription. Rather, they wait for the blood tests to come back. It isn’t until all the facts are assembled that one uses reason to make a diagnosis. Reason and feelings serve the facts. If a doctor were to prescribe a treatment based on your emotions without tests or limit the prescriptions to what you can comprehend, you may not find continued life but death.

10.             Such is the case when we use our desires and emotions to determine a church service’s effectiveness or if we base our opinion of a service on whether it makes sense to us. God isn’t found in methods that cater to the sinful nature, as the Athenians expected of Paul (Acts 17:32). Instead, he’s found where he promises to be: in the right preaching of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments. Here, we are certain to obtain life though death.

11.             Nevertheless, the resurrection of Jesus drives you back into the arms of God. Despite the Athenians’ foolishness, Paul proclaims that God is not far from them—or you. Not that they would ever find him by their own groping; sin has made that impossible. But Jesus’ cross has removed the sin that separated us from God, has reconciled us to God. The resurrection announced that God has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as sufficient! God is no longer angry with the human race!

12.             So now God is where he promises to be for you. In proclamation of Jesus crucified and raised, in water, bread and wine, he embraces you. By Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, he has authority to fulfill these promises.

13.             The proclamation that Jesus is risen means life for you! This is the certainty, the proof. Jesus risen from the dead means you can be certain that you, being baptized, will also rise to life with him eternally.

14.             So, die, old Adam! And rise, beloved of the Father, to new life. Walk in the new life, proclaiming and assisting his sent ones to proclaim that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

 

 

“God’s Chosen People” 1 Peter 2.2-10 Easter5A, May ‘23

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word for this 5^th Sunday of Easter, and also this weekend, as we celebrate the Rite of Confirmation for our confirmands, Eddie & Tatiana. The message is taken from 1 Peter 2:2-10, it’s entitled, “God’s Chosen People,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                A nursing infant gazes at her mother’s smiling face while that mother ponders the wonder she cradles in her arms. She marvels at the tiny little life that the Lord has knitted together in her womb (cf Ps 139:13). Her heart bursts with love for her little child, and she ponders with hope her baby’s future, praying it will be filled with meaning and purpose.

3.                In so many ways, this little child is you, the Church of Jesus, for you in Baptism have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3). For this new life, God is nourishing you with “pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). Joined to Christ, you are chosen and precious to God. And he has work in store for you as, “a spiritual house, . . . a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Today, the living Savior exalts your status as God’s newborn, chosen, priestly people.

4.                Joined to the resurrected Christ by baptismal grace, you are a newborn people. Baptized into the risen Christ, his people are “like newborn infants” (1 Peter 2:2). Life is pure gift. In confirmation class I have taught our confirmands that we can give ourselves neither physical nor spiritual life. But, God, our Father in Christ, “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3).

5.                We are growing up into salvation (1 Peter 2:2). This is not growing toward a salvation we do not yet possess, but growing into a salvation fully bestowed upon us in Christ. For this growth, we need and receive the nourishment of “pure spiritual milk,” the Word of God. Our confirmands have learned that there are two teachings to God’s Word, God’s Law, and God’s Gospel. God’s Law warns us against the empty calories of idolatry, which simply “does not satisfy” (Is 55:2). God’s Gospel offers the nourishment God has lavishly supplied in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Here, we have tasted that the Lord is good (v 3, Ps 34:8), calling to mind the Lord’s Supper and all of God’s Means of Grace that our confirmands have learned about these last few years.

6.                Faith craves that Word over the empty and harmful food the world offers in its word and wisdom. A healthy newborn does not find nursing a chore. She lives for it. When Jesus told his disciples they must become like little children (Mt 18:2–3), he spoke of this absolute dependence on his grace. To grow, we also need and receive nurture from God’s Word and Sacraments.

7.                A newborn is nearsighted and can’t see very far away. But the distance from her mother to her face is just the right distance for the newborn to gaze upon her mother’s loving face. In a similar way, as the Church is nourished by “pure spiritual milk,” she is able to look upon the loving face of God in Christ.

8.                From that nurturing love, the infant children of God learn their identity as chosen people. Granted, the Church is not chosen or precious in the world’s eyes. In the world’s eyes, her Lord Jesus was “rejected by men” (v 4; Is 53:3), seen in his Passion and death. She shares in that rejection, as exemplified in Stephen being martyred for his Christian faith (Acts 7:51–60). This rejection tempts her to doubt her status as chosen. But she is chosen and precious in God’s eyes. Her Lord Jesus is chosen and precious, the living cornerstone upon which God builds his Church (vv 6–7; Ps 118:22; Is 28:16).

9.                We have the expression, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” On the one hand, you may think some abstract work of art is ugly or even offensive, even though art experts somewhere have valued it at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, stuck to your refrigerator door with a magnet is a simple drawing from your little child or grandchild, which leaves much to be desired in terms of technique and would mean nothing to anyone else, but to you, it’s a treasure.

10.             God treasures us. This is not due to some special beauty or quality in us. In fact, our sin had earned us the names “No Mercy” and “Not My People” (Hos 1:6, 9). Yet God in his redeeming love has joined us to Christ through Holy Baptism. Our confirmands are going to affirm their baptism in the Rite of Confirmation. Although the world sees no beauty in God’s people, we are connected to Christ and therefore, chosen and precious in God’s eyes (1 Pet 2:4).

11.             As she feeds on God’s pure spiritual milk, the Church is reassured: First, there is no reason to envy the world, which (apart from repentance) can only face eternal separation from God in hell (1 Peter 2:8). Second, her true status in God’s eyes is an exalted one. Once lost in sin, she was “Not My People,” but grace has made her the people of God. Once, her name was “No Mercy,” but now she has received mercy (1 Peter 2:10). In Christ, she is the Father’s beloved, infant child.

12.             Living in Christ and sharing his status, you also share in his priestly purpose. Joined to Christ, the Christian becomes a living stone (1 Peter 2:5), and is being built up: Into a spiritual house—the dwelling place of the living God (1 Peter 2:5), For a holy priesthood—qualified by grace to serve in God’s presence (1 Peter 2:5), To offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).

13.             Her spiritual sacrifices are in no way atoning sacrifices for her own sins. That work belonged uniquely to Jesus (cf Heb 7:27; 10:10). And “it is finished” (Jn 19:30), something his resurrection has confirmed.

14.             Rather, the Church shares in his priestly work of glorifying the Father. This includes sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise (1 Peter 2:9). It also includes the work of praying for others—including our enemies (as did Stephen, Acts 7:60). It finally includes our witness, in word and deed, to God’s love for all in Christ.

15.             As “elect exiles” (1 Pet 1:1), the Church will not enjoy an exalted status in the world’s eyes. But joined by baptismal grace to your resurrected Lord, you, his Church, our confirmands, have become his newborn, chosen, priestly people who glorify God and witness to his love for the world. Joining in his priestly work, you pray for the world and bear witness in word and deed to your risen Lord, whose love is working through his Church’s ministry, inviting the world to become with you his chosen people. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.