Third Easter
Acts 3:12-19, Luke 24:36b-48, I John 3:1-7
It happens all the time to me. I turn on the television and glance at my watch.It is 10-15 minutes past the hour and I know what I am about to find. Whatever channel I turn to the program is already in progress. That means that I will have missed the opening part of what ever program is being tuned in. This is no particular big deal in the case of home remodeling programs, game shows or most sit-coms. Tuning into any of these types of programs ten minutes or more into the show usually means there is still plenty of time to catch a number of commercials as well as the ending of the program which should be the completion of the remodeling construction, the selection of the game show winner, or the final laugh from the laugh track. But if the story is a drama--say a murder mystery or law and order episode then entering the story late can sometimes mean that I may not even be able to figure out who the good guys are or what purpose some scenes and characters play. Fortunately I, like many of you, have seen enough television that I have also learned how to guess at what the plot is probably about based on the part of the story I am viewing.
Life is more complicated then television. Time and again we enter people's lives well into their story which means that we have missed far more than ten minutes of their story. It is amazing how often we make judgments about someone only to discover that the simple reading we are making of those around us is missing whole dimensions of meaning, purpose and value. I can't tell you how often I have judged someone I met by a few words or actions that proved me later to be totally wrong about them once I found out what I had missed about their life story. People with amazing life experiences in other parts of the world People who have triumphed over disease or personal crisis. People with talents, education, training in areas that I never knew. The missing parts of the story often change the meaning we had given to what we heard or know. Each Sunday we read lessons from scripture. There is a danger that we assume that everyone knows the back story to the verses being read.
We sometimes forget that often the various lessons that we read, like those on the Sundays after Easter, are actually fragments of stories that are missing their first ten minutes or more of narrative.
Our Gospel lesson for today begins with the second part of a Bible verse. It is literally in mid sentence. Fairly quickly we realize that it is Jesus speaking, but there are clearly a number of minutes missing from the story.
And the first lesson for today from the book of Acts is like an hour long drama that is missing the first 40 minutes or so of plot development. It seems our texts for this morning beg for a sermon on the unspoken portions of the story. Let's look at the first lesson from the book of Acts but let's back up the narrative a dozen or so verses before our Sunday morning tune in to the story.
A sermon by Pastor Robert Elder presents this description of the back story:
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus described a set of elegant bronze doors in the Corinthian style at the first century Jerusalem Temple. The story from Acts begins with a disabled man sitting at this gate to the courtyard of the Temple, the gate some called the Beautiful Gate. Hour after hour, day after day, his life was composed of the same monotony. Each day began when he would cajole someone, friends, family, maybe even strangers, to gather up his lifeless legs and carry him to a place where he could catch a little shade and beg for spare coins. Usually just enough coins to get food for a day. How long had life been like this? He could not remember. In fact, it seemed as if life had never been any other way at all.
Our story begins one spring day not long after the Passover. There he sat in his usual heap with filthy rags for clothes, a toothless face turned up to the passing parade of humanity, a still presence amid the ever-moving swarm of activity around the Temple. By three in the afternoon the sun had moved toward the western sky, and he had lost his shade under the massive, cool stones of the gate. Now he was baking in the sun. It was plenty hot, heat radiated from the street, the stones of the gate, and he wished for the millionth time in his life that God had given him legs like other people so he could move just those few feet back into the cool, retreating shadows. When he saw that two strangers returned his glance, he shook his coin bowl, strips of ragged cloth dangling from the arm of his garment like a filthy fringe. He was covered with the dust of the street, which clung to him tenaciously because of his now profuse sweating.
"Alms!" was all he said. "Alms!"
No point extending his verbal appeal much beyond that, he thought. Anyone with eyes could see what he wanted and could make up their mind about helping him. He wasn't even looking at them, really. Not until he realized they were looking at him.
The larger one said in a commanding voice, thick with the broad Galilean accent, "Look at us."
This was something new. No one ever wanted to notice him at all, much less asked that he look at them. In fact, most people hurried by, worried as they approached the Temple that this sullen beggar might be unclean and liable to contaminate them before they could get into the Temple, preventing their worship before they had entered.
But these two, they looked at him, almost through him. "Look at us!" he said. Well, fine, he would look; perhaps these two our-of-towners would be good for a silver piece or maybe even a gold piece. He worked his face into his best imitation of a smile, and began to utter the first prayer he had managed that day, "O Lord, if only these two would give me a bit of silver or gold, I could go home for the day and get out of this sun. Lord, that's my prayer, just a bit of silver."
Before he had even finished with a nice "amen", his prayer was tossed overboard. "I have no silver or gold," said the large one. "What is this?" he thought. Had they read his mind? So why stop? Why make his miserable day, his miserable life any more miserable by standing there, lording their good legs over his useless ones? Then came the answer to a prayer the man didn't make, in fact it had been so long since he had ever prayed about it he wasn't sure if there had ever been a time when he did pray it. The large man said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and ...." Before the lame man could think what was happening, the same large fellow grabbed his whole upper arm in one of his big hands and hoisted him right off the ground as he said, "...walk!"
And he walked. Well, no, first he stood, for just a second. He stood until he realized that he was standing, and then he took a step, and then another, and another. It was as if he had been sitting for only a few minutes, not a whole life time, a few more steps and then a little leap in the air.
It was then that the man thought, "Wait a minute. What was I just praying for a moment ago? He didn't want to forget that prayer, it must be powerful!" But try as he might, it had been such a half-hearted prayer that he couldn't recall it. He realized it must have been such a puny prayer that this miracle came from beyond his prayers. It was as if he had asked for a small cup of water and someone had turned on a waterfall. It was an answer to a prayer he hadn't made. The one he should have perhaps made but not the prayer he was making. He just wanted a coin or two, but now this. Now this. Now what? All he could think to do was walk right on into the Temple courtyard with Peter and John and praise God like he had seen thousands do for years and years. Suddenly he knew what praise was.
And the book of Acts says, "While he clung to Peter and John all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's Portico, utterly astonished." It was this scene that provided the occasion for Peter's address to the Temple crowd that was read this morning. To a people surprised by a man who was surprised by grace. The ten missing minutes of the story. The back story of limited human vision, hope and dreams.
The gospel text is not much different except that we know that back story. Jesus was crucified, dead and buried. But then came the reports that the tomb was empty. It is hard to even imagine what prayers went through the minds of the disciples. But whatever prayers they prayed it is almost certain none of them even considered the possibility of resurrection. And then there he was. Standing before them and asking for something to eat. A miracle of grace that embraces the ordinary. Let's eat. Let's go for a walk. The Easter miracle translated into the daily possibility of grace surprising us with answers not to the prayers we pray but to the prayers we could have prayed. The prayers we should have prayed. If only we had the vision to see what God's grace means for our world The prayers we should have prayed, if only we knew the whole story. The story of God's gifts intended not just to meet the snap shot moments of our lives and needs but to be a blessing to a much greater story of humanity and history. The prayers we could have, should have prayed.
I ran across such a prayer. It seemed at first just another poetic meditation and then I considered praying it as a disabled man at the gate to the temple or praying it like a desperate disciple hiding from the Roman authorities. And suddenly it sounded different:
Oh, God:
I asked for hope, you gave me a challenge;
I asked for healing, you gave me patience;
I asked for riches, you gave me friendships;
I asked for friendships, you gave me opportunities to be a friend;
I asked to be useful, you required of me my riches;
I asked for love, you taught me to give;
I asked for peace, I found myself sorting my way through trouble;
I asked for rest, you gave me energy;
I asked only for solace and comfort, and you brought resurrection.
Lord, your giving answer seems always to be ahead of my wisdom in asking.
The things I ask are too small, or too selfish,
or too far beside the point of my own life's calling;
you seem to know.
You seem to grant me what I need rather than what I want.
Grant me this always, in Jesus' name. Amen.
And the man walked into the temple. And they gave Jesus a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate in their presence. What more could you ask?
Amen