Note: The Lectionary text begins in Acts 3:12 but I am adding the preceding verses from Acts 3:1 for clarity
Some of you may remember going off to college and being required to purchase a little book called, “Elements of Style” by William Strunk. This was the official guide students were to follow when writing papers. To follow Strunk was good. Not following Strunk was bad. And violating Strunk’s rules for proper vocabulary and grammar was to risk getting a poor grade on your paper – no matter how much brilliance your paper might contain.
“Elements of Style” taught us how to write English good…or should that be “good English”?…or maybe “English well”?…or…well, in any event, Strunk’s book taught us the importance of words.
My good friend Herb Freitag once related to his congregation the old joke about the archivist in the Vatican library who one day caused quite a stir when his painstaking research into ancient church documents revealed that the word translated “celibate” should really be “celeBRATE”!
What a difference a single letter makes!
And so does pronunciation. Depending on how you pronounce the word P-O-L-I-S-H can make you either a relative of Dick Kolasheski, or a substance that shines up your furniture.
Words matter.
And punctuation. One of the things many Christians do not appreciate is the fact that the original language texts of the Bible do not contain punctuation. And it makes a big difference where you place something like a comma. For instance, those Christians who believe you go directly into God’s Paradise at the moment of death often quote Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you (COMMA), today you will be with me in Paradise.”
But many other Christians believe that at death, one falls asleep until the Day of the Lord when all the dead will be raised for Judgment. And that notion may be supported by the very same words of Jesus – “Truly I tell you today (COMMA), you will be with me in Paradise.”
Where would YOU put the comma? It makes a difference!
William Strunk was correct. Proper use and understanding of grammar is important!.
And that’s why we ought to pay special attention to the grammar of Easter!
In our post-resurrection reading from Acts today, Peter and John have just encountered a crippled beggar. Peter says, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
And it happened! The beggar was made well! And that caused quite a stir. People ran to see what had happened. They were all amazed to see the beggar man standing and walking and smiling!
Then Peter addresses the crowd. He explains to them that this wonderful thing has happened not by way of his and John’s own strength, but by the power of God. And listen closely to the grammar Peter uses:
“By faith IN THE NAME of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.”
Did you catch the prepositional phrase in that sentence?
Now it’s not clear whether Peter is referring to his and John’s faith IN THE NAME of Jesus, or the beggar’s faith IN THE NAME of Jesus. Probably both are true. Peter and John, and the beggar man all had faith IN THE NAME of Jesus, and something wonderful happened as a result!
I hear people talk a lot about having faith in Jesus. Usually what they mean is that they believe Jesus is the Savior, the one God sent to take away the sins of the world. As the Apostles’ Creed says:
“I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. On the third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead…”
For many people, believing those things about Jesus is what it means to have faith IN Jesus.
But in truth, all that doesn’t mean diddilysquat to crippled beggars lying by the side of the road.
Hurting people, you see, aren’t looking for creeds. They’re looking for help.
One of the great sins we Christians have committed against our own Faith is reducing Jesus to nothing more than a doctrine or theological principle. What we believe ABOUT Jesus has become virtually more important than Jesus himself and the mission he came to fulfill.
It was not Peter and John’s faith in the only begotten-ness of Jesus that brought life to the crippled beggar that day. It had nothing to do with the state of Mary’s virginity, nor was it related to Jesus sitting at the right hand of God from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
No, it was not faith in the things we think we know ABOUT Jesus that produced the good that happened that day.
It was faith IN THE NAME of Jesus.
Do you remember the story in Matthew’s Gospel?
Mary was pregnant. Joseph was upset. An angel of God came and said to Joe, “Don’t be afraid to marry Mary. This is all God’s plan. When she has the baby, name him ‘Jesus’…”
Now the Hebrew form of the name Jesus is “Joshua.”
It means, “God saves.”
The crippled beggar was helped that day because he and Peter and John had faith that “God saves.”
There are a lot of religious people in our world who have no faith in that name “God Saves.” They look out at the world and imagine that “God condemns” or “God rejects” or “God judges” or “God punishes” or “God sends suffering” instead of “God Saves.” I like to ask my Sunday School students if they really believe God will save the world. “Yes,” they answer. “God will save the world, but not all the world will be saved.” Hmmm.
They point out that there are bad people in the world who inflict all kinds of evil on others. And that’s true! And there are unbelievers who reject the idea of God. That’s true, too. And not only that, but there are even Christians out there who don’t take the Bible literally, or who believe science has it right when it comes to evolution, or who attend some other church besides ours – which we all know is the one true church! I know it’s hard to believe that people could be so lost, but it’s true.
In fact, when I press the question and ask “how many” people will be saved, the numbers shrink right down to almost nothing – maybe about 6 Presbyterians, and a Baptist or two. We can think of all sorts of religious sounding reasons for disqualifying people from salvation.
But the real reason we do it is this: we do not truly have faith IN THE NAME. We are not convinced that God’s only desire toward people is to save us and make us well no matter what our circumstance in life.
I think it must have been a wonderful moment in the life of that beggar man when, in the face of a world that often says physical suffering is God’s judgment against us, he suddenly realizes that “God saves” – that God’s will for his life, God’s intention for his life is to be whole and happy and well! And what a great breakthrough in the lives of Peter and John when they see this man not in terms of his infirmity, but in terms of the salvation God wanted them to help bring to him.
They believed “God saves!”
And so they helped the beggar man the best they could!
They had faith IN THE NAME of Jesus!
Do you have faith IN THE NAME?
It makes all the difference in the world, you know! If you have faith that “God saves” – that God’s every effort is aimed at making life full and the world beautiful – it affects the way we relate with people around us who are hurting under life’s burdens. And it makes all the difference in your own life when you face hard times!
One of my favorite people during my seminary days was a young woman named Linda. At age 16, Linda was severely injured in an automobile accident. Tragically, Linda suffered a spinal cord injury. She became paraplegic. Learning that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair was pretty tough news for a 16 year old kid to hear. It was even more difficult to accept.
For a long time Linda wondered why God had done this to her. She wondered why God just didn’t heal her and make her well. She was very upset with life and its obvious unfairness.
But somewhere along the line, Linda made a discovery. Linda came to believe “in the name!” She came to believe that the God who SAVES is not a God who puts people in wheelchairs. But the God who SAVES devotes his every effort to helping people IN wheelchairs find life and hope and completeness.
And that faith made all the difference to Linda. She overcame her need to be a victim and took hold of the life she had. She fell in love – with a quadriplegic man! They got married ! They had a baby, a son!
And then Linda did something remarkable. She went to Harvard Medical School, and became a doctor!
God saves!
God fashions beginnings out of our endings, wholeness out of our brokenness, and even life out of death!
God saves!
When you place your faith IN THE NAME of Jesus, you open the door to possibilities you cannot even imagine for yourself and for others!
What a great prepositional phrase, huh?
And, there’s more grammatical beauty in this story.
Peter says, “By faith IN THE NAME of Jesus this man you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name, and the FAITH THAT COMES THROUGH HIM that has given this complete healing to him…”
The faith THAT COMES THROUGH Jesus. Another important preposition!
One of the reasons I believe the Church must center it’s life on Jesus – not on the Bible, not on tradition, not on theology, not on doctrines or any of the other things we obsess about in the Church – is because in the course of learning about Jesus, FAITH COMES THROUGH HIM TO US.
I love those who come from churches that center their faith on doctrines. I love them, but I think they’re missing something important.
Crippled beggars by the side of the road don’t need doctrines.
They need Jesus.
When you study and meditate about how Jesus related with people, you soon discover that he saw EVERYONE in terms of God’s salvation! How can I make this child well? How can I help this woman struggling with her relationships with men? How can I befriend this leper no one else will come close to? How can I set this person free from the sin that holds him captive?
To Jesus, the world was not full of sinners, but of PEOPLE needing to be helped and made well. He did not see the demon-possessed man as a demon-possessed man, but as a husband and father who God wants to make well. He did not see the prodigal son as a delinquent, wayward kid who blew his chance with his family, but as a boy who God wants to help find his way home.
Jesus did not look at people in terms of their sin, but in terms of the SALVATION God wants to bring to their lives.
How do you look at other people?
I know I have a hard time looking more deeply into others than just what’s on the surface. It’s easy for me to make all sorts of judgments about people on the basis of what they look like, what they live like, what they do with their lives. It’s much harder for me to look at others in terms of what God wants to bring into their lives – in terms of what they will look like when they are well.
Every year when I have to review and select a Medicare plan for old people like me, I find myself thinking about Jesus and all the sick people he encountered. In every single situation, Jesus did what he had to do to help the person have care and become well. He never denied anyone access to the healing powers God has placed in this world. Why? Because God saves. Because God’s main interest in people is helping them become whole and well which
– by the way –
is the meaning of the word “salvation.”
Words matter.
Faith IN Jesus. Faith THROUGH Jesus.
I wonder if you might just for a moment imagine how the world might be different if all our churches had faith IN THE NAME, and devoted all their efforts toward helping people into the wellness of God. How would it be for people without health care? How would it be for misguided kids? How would it be for those who struggle to make ends meet and feed their children? How would it be for YOU in the circumstances of your life if we all stood together and lived out a faith IN THE NAME that says, “God saves!”?
And how would the world be different if Christian people stopped living like we often do and instead began living like Jesus? What would happen if we simply stopped seeking a faith that comes through doctrinal purity, and instead sought a faith like Jesus’ faith. What would happen if we were to become less like Leviticus, and more like Jesus?
I have to believe that countless crippled beggars by the side of the road – and all kinds of hurting human beings – would get up and jump for joy if you and I went out living a faith IN THE NAME of Jesus, a faith that comes THROUGH Jesus.
What do YOU believe?
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