Postcard from Resurrection City

POSTCARD FROM RESURRECTION CITY Rev. Karen Pidcock-Lester First Presbyterian Church, Pottstown, Pa. Easter 4 May 7, 2017

Acts 2:37-47 John 10:1-10

Introduction to the Reading of Acts 2 We are now four Sundays into the season of Easter. The lectionary texts for this season give us snapshots, postcards from events that occur after the resurrection of Jesus. These postcard texts show us the risen Christ’s appearances to disciples, and the things Jesus does in his “first 100 days” of the new age which dawns on Easter morning.

The postcard we receive here in Acts 2 comes from the city of the resurrection, Jerusalem. The postcard has not just one picture, but a collage of pictures. They are taken on the day of Pentecost and during the weeks that followed, after the sensational outpouring of the Spirit of the risen Christ with wind and fire, and the apostle Peter’s first sermon which followed the Spirit’s appearance.

Let us hear the Word of God, the postcard messages sent by Luke from Resurrection City, Jerusalem, in the first days of the resurrection era. Acts 2:37-47.

Let us pray.

Can you see the pictures Luke sends us in this postcard collage? In the top, left-hand corner, there is a crowd of smiling faces of people standing in Solomon’s Portico in the Temple complex in sunny Jerusalem. Do you see the portico, the 225 ft long covered walkway with its massive pillars on the eastern side of the Temple Mount? This is the portico where Jesus had taught his disciples when they were in Jerusalem. Now a huge crowd gathers every day to hear the apostles as they continue Jesus’ teaching.

In another snapshot, the postcard shows believers gathering in private homes to break bread and pray together. Another shot shows some believers selling their possessions …and in the next shot, those same believers are giving clothing and food to folks who are naked and hungry. The shot in the bottom right-hand corner of the postcard shows a crowd laughing and singing, (and if you look closely, some of them are playing together), and notice the ones who are inviting bystanders to join them. The expressions on the faces of the people are – in turn -- vibrant, buoyant, reverent, peaceful, content. This is an attractive crowd – oh, not physically. Some of them look quite battered and rough, physically. But there is something about the gathering that stirs a sense of goodwill, invites favor. Clearly, these are open, generous people, who get along with one another – a family having a good time together is always attractive. Who are these people in these postcard pictures?

They are Jews. Jews who have come to believe Jesus is the Messiah. They are messianic Jews, that’s the best way to name them at this point. They have not yet become known as Christians, it’s too early for that. Soon they will become known as People of the Way, but it is even too soon for that. When these postcard scenes were taken, the Jews are fresh from hearing Peter’s speech about what YHWH, God of Abraham, had done in Jesus of Nazareth. Only recently have they experienced the onrushing of the Spirit of the risen Christ, and come to believe in him.

Look closely at the people in the scenes. Not all of these Jewish believers are from Jerusalem. They are from all over North and Northeast Africa, South Asia, from Turkey, Libya, Rome, Egypt, Crete, even Europe. Notice the dyed cloth and cosmetics on some of the women? They are from Egypt. The men wearing pants rather than robes, and boots – see the ones with the bare chests?-- they are from Crete. The women with them wear garments that are sewn, not draped and folded – see the brooches? You don’t see them on women from Israel. The men in tunics are from Asia, and of course, the men in togas are from Rome. If you see a woman with a shawl and a clasp at the shoulder, she is Greek. These are wealthy women, educated.

You can spot the Jews from Judea by the sandals under the robes of rough cloth. The veiled women are Israelites too. If you look closely, you can see some of the people in the crowd have the ankle bracelet of the slave – and others have the headdresses and jewelry of the upper classes. The women who have piercings are from the lower classes, and probably can’t read.

In this resurrection crowd, there are blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes; hair is piled up, shaved, bearded, braided, unbound, turbaned; and if this postcard were a FaceTime message, you would hear all kinds of accents and languages – Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic.

But here, after Jesus’ resurrection, they are all together in one place, with one heart and one voice, in one community…

This postcard from Resurrection City captures the profile of the new body of Christ, transformed, re-shaped for the new age. Acts says there were many signs and wonders being done in the months after Christ’s rising from the dead –Peter will heal a lame man in the next chapter, other apostles will heal the sick people and cast out spirits in Jesus’ name.

But the first sign accomplished by the Spirit of the Resurrection , the most spectacular wonder the risen Christ performs in the resurrection age, is taking this group of disparate, wildly diverse people, from different countries, different classes, different races with different cultures, different food, different lifestyles, possessing different power, different privilege, different education and opportunity, and forging them into one community, one society, living together in gladness.

How does this happen? How do people as disparate and wildly different as this live with such commonality, community, such peace, together?

We may have read this text a thousand times over the years, but reading it today, in the world and society we live in, it takes on a new sense of wonder. We struggle so to live as one community: would that the world in the 21st century, the US in 2017, knew the secret of taking people who have come from North and Northeast Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and parts of Europe, from Libya, Crete, Turkey and Rome, those who are “far off” as Peter said in his sermon – would that we knew the power that would transform us into one community, one glad and generous people.

So many people are frightened of the changing face of our nation, and there are so many dividing lines among us: lines of power, of privilege, of property, lines of education, and religion, and race, and gender; even among people of the same faith, there are dividing lines –

On Monday night, in the conversation of race, we welcomed 5 men and women from Bethel Community Church to our Conversations on Race circle in the Community Room. There, the Spirit led us into a humble, honest, grace-filled conversation about painful things. We white Presbyterians acknowledged that our lives and the life of the world are broken by our unintentional biases to which we have been blind. And our black neighbors acknowledged their own biases and divisions, even within the African American community – dividing lines between dark and light-skinned people, between urban and rural folks, between those who are college educated and those who are not. They told us about unintentional biases they have encountered between their Christian congregation and the Jewish congregation of the synagogue as they try to live and worship in the same building. Why are human beings are so prone to divide into groups? class, race, clan, faith, gender, generation? So many dividing walls exist, some of them quite high, and quite hostile.

But in that Community room on Monday evening, the Spirit of the risen Christ was working a sweet sign of His presence, helping to take down some dividing walls – or at least put doors in them. The risen Christ was showing us that he is alive, and near, and still on the job of taking the raw material of diverse humanity, and shaping and reshaping it into his body for the resurrection age. It might be overstating it to say that we were filled with awe – for we were not surprised. Those from our congregation figured Christ would do something like this, because he’s been working for months – been working for millennia – to get us together... But we were so grateful, and humbled by the presence of Christ’s Spirit helping something old to pass away, and bringing something new into being. It was a beautiful thing.

One brother from Bethel, John, said wistfully, “how can we make this happen across our country?”

How, indeed?

We sat, joining his wistful longing.

But we Christians are not without hope. We can look at this postcard we have received from a place, a moment where such a thing was accomplished. We can hold onto this postcard from the city of the resurrection, a sign that the Spirit of the risen Christ is able to overcome the barriers erected by our sin, our blindness or neglect, a sign that the Spirit of the risen Christ is able to draw out from many and hard differences the common things of our humanity, and move us towards a community which can live together in a spirit of generosity and gladness; a sign that the Spirit of the risen Christ is able to take strangers, even enemies, and turn them into friends, even brothers and sisters…

The risen Christ is not only able to; he wants to.

Lutheran minister Nadia Bolz-Weber – widely known for her sleeve tattoos and uncompromising straight talk -- pastors the mission church House of All Saints and Sinners in Denver, Colorado. This is a congregation of, as she describes them, quirky queers and punks and surburbanites…She remembers how, after one of her rants about stupid people having the wrong opinions, her husband Matthew said, “Nadia, the things that [stinks] is that every time we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is always standing on the other side of it.” (Pastrix, p. 57)

Every time we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is always standing on the other side of it.

Division, barriers, are not what God wants. How do we know this? Because he says so. Paul says in Ephesians, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing walls, that is, the hostility between us.”

And in Galatians, he says “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

And we know this because he shows us. Right out of the resurrection gate, right out of the empty tomb, what does the risen Christ do? What is his first priority? To overcome division, to cast out fear and enmity by pouring out his perfect love and bottomless grace. If we wonder where the risen Christ is in the world, if we question what God is doing, this is where we will find the Spirit: wherever dividing walls are being torn down, wherever differences are being overcome, and –in spite of all the forces of human sin that operate to tear people, families, neighborhoods, nations, classes, races, even religions, apart-- community is being forged.

Oh, to be sure, the moment captured on this resurrection postcard from Jerusalem doesn’t last forever. All too soon, the Greek Jews with the brooches will be arguing with the Hebrew Jews with the veils about how much food they are receiving in the daily distribution. This is a real body made up of real people after all…men and women who are 100% saint and 100% sinner, at the same time (Bolz-Weber, Pastrix). And they will need ongoing outpourings of grace to continue living together with generosity and gladness and goodwill.

This postcard of Luke’s is like the photo I have stuck in the frame of my bedroom mirror. It is a photo our three daughters, aged 2, 8 and 10. It is a sunny day, outside in the brilliance of early summer. They are smiling, even beaming, their heads leaning towards each other so their cheeks touch. Their arms are around each other, as siblings’ limbs often entwine. They are radiant, and it makes me glad.

But whenever I see this photo, I also remember that not more than an hour before it was taken, Carter and I had had the most memorable, fierce blow-up with them about something which is now forgotten. When I see the photo, I see both before and after.

What happened in between could only have been the coming of grace, an outpouring of the Spirit which overcame whatever it was that tore us up, and restored us to one another.

I have that picture on my mirror to remind me of that moment when unseen grace washed away the bitter old and brought something beautiful, something equally real and true into being.

Hang onto this postcard from the Resurrection City. Keep it somewhere you can look at again and again, as a sign of what the Spirit of the risen Christ can and wants to do, and is doing. In this era of division and hostility, if we live wide open to the Spirit of the Risen Christ, resurrection power does come among us in continual outpourings of divine grace and love, and accomplishes wonders.

And sometimes, in many places, by the power of the resurrection, there actually are Spirit-filled communities-- by God’s grace, we pray even this bunch of saints and sinners-- which look and act like this:

42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43 A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything. 45 They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47 They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.