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Easter Sunday

Acts 10
34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”


Sure she’s small, but that doesn’t make her any less powerful as a witness.

Baby Elliot, of course, is not a witness in the worldly sense of the word. They do make provision for children to testify, to function as witnesses in a court of law. They even have a modified vow, less ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ and more in the realm of a simple promise to be truthful. But Elliot can’t talk—through no fault of her own—she seven-and-a-half weeks old. Nevertheless, she’s a powerful witness.

For you see, having so recently been baptized, having become the newest member of the Christian Church (for a moment at least, until she was superseded by some other Easter baby), having her slightly modified immersion into the waters of new life—we can say she “put on Christ.” Again, a powerful witness.

St. Paul makes this compelling argument, when he’s busy rebuking the church in Galacia. In the same chapter that he famously begins “You foolish Galatians!” (3.1) he ends with this:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (26-27)

Now, there is an Easter Sunday rule that I shouldn’t trouble you with Greek verbs (except Anesti and Alithos!). It is important to note, however, that the verb “to put on” is the same verse that says “you have put on a new self” (Col 3.10) and you stand “having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” (Eph 6.14)

So consider all we have done in the seemingly simple act of Christian baptism. We have helped Elliot put on an entirely new self, we have helped her put on Christ, someone that she now wears like a tiny suit of baby armour, the breastplate of righteousness. The Spirit of God, moving through this congregation, has made her a powerful witness to the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

And she is not alone. All of us who ‘put on Christ,’ as armour-clad babies or youth or adults carry the same testimony within us. We are clothed with the Gospel of Christ Jesus, something that was established in the earliest days of the church. Let’s hear Peter preach once more:

“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Now, we could be accused of jumping ahead—here on Easter morning—when really all we’ve had so far is the empty tomb. Easter Sunday begins with some confusion, and an encounter between Mary and the Risen Jesus. He begins by saying “Woman, why are you crying?” And mistaking him for the gardener, she says “if you have carried him away, can you tell me where you have put him?” He calls her by name, and she understands. She rushes to tell the other, the very first witness to the resurrection.

Back to Peter’s sermon, it’s on that very first evening that Jesus appears to a chosen few, those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And we could simply mark how fortuitous it was to be counted amid that number, and continue on, except that there is more going on.

First, we have to collapse time itself. In the same manner that Elliot (baptized 20 minutes ago) and I (35 years ago this week) are fully equal in God’s eyes, we can extend this all the way back to the early church. When you put on Christ, time no longer has meaning, and wherever it says “the disciples” or “the followers” or “witnesses” the text is talking about us too. We are witnesses to all he did in country of his people and in Jerusalem, and we are part of that great ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12) that can testify to Jesus, “pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

Next, we have to travel back 500 years to Wittenberg, on this, the anniversary of the Lutheran revolution, and remember that in addition to being witnesses and disciples, we are all priests. Martin Luther read and reread his Bible until he became convinced (through the power of the Spirit) that we are all members of a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2), and that as many the number of believers there also priests.

So we’re all witnesses, and disciples, and priests, and with Elliot we’ve put in Christ, but there is one more element to this story, hiding in plain sight in Peter’s sermon and self-description: [we] who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Having shared the body and blood of Jesus twice this week, we are part of this meal too, we also ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

So having established who we are, and to whom we belong, and further having collapsed any sense of time or place, and still further having assumed the weight of all this history, where do we go from here? Clad in our ever expanding armour (it wasn’t going to remain baby size, was it?) we must have something to do. We’ve heard from Peter, Paul and Martin, so what about Marshall McLuhan?

Actually, before I share the McLuhan quote, i give you a glimpse inside the sausage factory I like to call sermon-writing. From the moment I have a general sense of where these things are going, I try to open myself to where the Spirit might be leading, ideas, concepts, quotes and such. On cue the Spirit sent me this from Toronto’s most famous public intellectual: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” Wonderful quote.

Then I got this: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Okay, where’s that quote from? Anyone? Anyone? (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Strange thing, the Spirit.

Here’s what I think it means: The church, like Spaceship Earth, is made up entirely of crew members, and there are no passengers here. Quite fitting, really, since from earliest days one of the symbols of the church was a ship. Everyone on board the ship has a job to do, some large, some quite small, but a task nonetheless. Even seven-and-a-half week old believers have a job to do, even of that job is quiet (and not so quiet) testimony to the ways of God.

The Bueller quote fits too, since the busy crew of any vessel need to be reminded to look up from time to time, to look beyond the task you are busy doing and see the water, or what’s in the water, or the horizon at the edge of the sky. And beyond that, look at each other, fellow crew members, and give God thanks for them and what they’re doing. It’s a miracle this ship we’re on, all together.

Now McLuhan might say “I heard what you were saying, and you know nothing of my work” (Annie Hall) and I would apologize and say ‘of course, you were addressing the plight of our little blue dot in space, that we have to look beyond borders to safeguard the future our common home.’ And just a few moments ago we pledged to “to live with respect in Creation,” part of the so-what of being the church of Christ. I think the professor would be pleased.

So our final task and believers and priests is also the last part of Peter’s sermon, instruction for an ever expanding crew:

42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

We need to preach. We need to share this message of belief and forgiveness in Christ’s name, and enlist others in the unfolding story of the church. We have to give thanks for Elliot and all the other priestly crew-members that testify to Jesus and his way. And most of all, we give thanks, for the Spirit and for each other, now and always, Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:22 AM