From Event To Reality
Dr. Jim Wilson, April 6, 2008 One day a couple of weeks ago, my cell phone rang. However, it was not my usual ring tone. When I looked, the screen told me I had a text message. Immediately, I knew I was in trouble. I am among the uninitiated when it comes to text messaging. Nevertheless, I called up the message which looked like some ancient and long-forgotten biblical language. I had absolutely no idea of what was being said. A copy of that message is on the blue slip of paper in your bulletin. “Dad @ hvn, ur spshl. we wont wot u want & urth2b like hvn. giv us food & 4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz. don test us! sAv us! Bcos ur boss, ur tuf, & ur cool 4eva! k?” I am sure the confirmands with us can translate without difficulty. I did get a few words. A few minutes later, my cell phone rang again. This time it was the familiar, “Go U Northwestern,” ring tone. It was a friend calling. He asked if I got his text message. I said, “Yes.” “Could you read it?” he asked. “No,” I replied. “I’m surprised,” he chided, “a man of the cloth not able to interpret the Lord’s Prayer!!” He then read the message to me: “Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. Give us food and forgive our sins like we forgive others. Don’t test us! Save us! Because we know you are boss, you are tough, and you are cool, forever. Okay?” He told me he ran across a story about this text message in a journal. According to the story, the author of the post modern version of the Lord’s Prayer won a contest in England sponsored by an online Christian magazine for an updated version of the prayer using 160 characters or less. Welcome to the world to text messaging. I watch kids do it. I hear it. But I do not understand it. I do understand the language is being challenged and I am not sure for the better. The event I see and hear. It’s the meaning and the reality it represents that is beyond me. Much the same could be said of the post Easter experiences of the disciples. They heard about the event, the resurrection. Some had seen the risen Lord. Now those gathered in Jerusalem have experienced those mysterious happenings on the Day of Pentecost---the rush of a mighty wind; the tongues as of fire; and disciples speaking in foreign languages, telling of the mighty acts of God. “What does this mean?” some ask. It is an appropriate question. Events must find interpretation, must be given meaning if they are to have significance. So it is with Easter. We must move from event to reality, from what happened to its meaning for us. To that end, we turn once again to the upper room in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. Peter rises to offer an interpretation of these rather strange happenings, one that seeks to move those who hear him from event to reality. Last week we listened as Peter spoke of Easter and now the Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel who foretold such events happening in the last days. We heard Peter boldly witness to Jesus, who had taught and done signs and wonders among them and who was crucified, as the risen Lord. This morning we hear Peter bring his sermon to a conclusion with the great proclamation of the meaning of the Easter Event: “Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” That is the event. Now we must move to the reality. Peter’s sermon had a dramatic impact. Luke tells us that those present, “…were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” Now that is powerful preaching. Peter got through. His words convicted them, confronted them, forced them to see their sinfulness, even their participation in the death of Jesus, at least indirectly; if nothing more than their failure to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They were “cut to the heart,” convinced of a need to change. Keep in mind that heart in Jewish thought is not the seat of emotions but the realm of the will, the place of decision making and action taking. Peter answers their question clearly and without hesitation, “Repent and be baptized, so that your sins may be forgiven and you will receive the Holy Spirit.” Note that Peter did not say, “What would you like to do?” He is clear, “Repent and be baptized.” The question asked for direction, for instruction on how to move from the Easter even to its meaning. That move calls for us to enter the even and experience the reality. Such entrance calls first for repentance. To repent here is much more than remorse, or being sorry for our wrong doings. Repent means a radical reorientation of our lives, a complete turn around, a moving in a new direction. The Greek word means a radical change of mind, one that leads to a radical change in direction of our lives. Baptism here marks our entrance into the community of those being redeemed---not redeemed but being redeemed. In others words, baptism is the movement from one way of life to a new way of life. This is where the Easter event leads---to a reorientation of our lives and to sharing life in a new community, one that “devotes itself to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.” In such movement, the meaning of the event is experienced and the salvation initiated in the event is realized in the response. Luke tells us that some 3000 people made such a response that day. Talk about church growth!! We have been to Easter and celebrated the event. But have we made the move to the reality, the new reality, Easter establishes? A story is told about a four year old little boy. He had a rather serious vision problem, one that the family did not realize until a routine eye exam. The recommendation was that he wear glasses. The first night after getting his new glasses, the little boy awakened the entire family in the middle of the night. He ran into his parents’ bedroom, shouting, “Mommy and daddy, look, look up at the sky. There are little pieces of light in the sky!” He had never seen stars when he looked into the night sky before that night. Now he saw the world differently. A new reality was born for him. So, Easter is the event that frees us to see the world, indeed all of life, differently. But we have to turn around, move in a new direction, have our lives reoriented, to enter that new reality. God made Jesus both Lord and Messiah---that is the event. What it means is that now there is forgiveness for us. We no longer need to be burdened by guilt. Now there is reconciliation. We no longer need live in brokenness. Now there is hope. We no longer need to be held hostage to despair. Now there is new life. We no longer need to be a prisoner to the powers of death. Now there is freedom. We no loner need live in bondage to the powers that destroy. Indeed, there are pieces of light in the night sky, the light has penetrated the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out. Now we, you and I, are hard-wired by the Holy Spirit to live fully and freely, to witness boldly and confidently to God’s salvation come in Christ Jesus. It’s a new reality, the old has passed way, behold, the new has come. Will we receive it? Will we allow God’s grace to reorient us that we may engage it and be engaged by it? At first it may be confusing, not unlike those text messages. But listen to Jesus, to Peter, to Paul, to John, to the voices of witness through the ages; these are the interpreters for us, those who help us move from event to reality. As noted Jewish scholar, Abraham Heschel, writes, “The Bible is not a book to be read, but a drama in which we participate.” May we enter the drama! Thanks be to God! Amen! |
