Acting Up and Out ~ The Church Today

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand. The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!  If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone." Acts 4

The C.S. Lewis quote is one that hovers and hangs around my heart daily...not saying much...but it's presence is constantly there.  "If you were brought into a court; accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

It is easy to lapse into listing all the things I do to live the hymn lyric, "They will know we are Christians by our love."  I volunteer time in a social justice ministry.  I visit the sick.  I try to preach meaningful sermons and blogposts.  I love my family.  I recycle.  I give money.  Part of the problem with these lists we form, these outward actions we offer a hurting world, is that they are so often centered in what we do rather than what God is doing through us.

This is a thin line.  Might seem like spitting syntax in frustrating ways.  But the call of the church to act up and out has always been immersed and infused by the Holy Spirit.  What sustains us is something deeper than a "good feeling" or moral high...it is a Spirit that compels and challenges us that how we live every moment is how we live our life.  A Spirit that cannot be contained or confined or even comprehended.  A meddlesome, meandering Spirit that stirs in serendipitous ways.   A kind of Spirit that sees a man laying by a gate, rather than tossing or throwing a coin, stops and says, "Look at me."  A Spirit that knows the truest sense of compassion is companionship.  That the two fit together.

Perhaps we as a church have offered too easy a path to compassion, offered it at a reduced price so that you don't have to stop your other activities.  Write a check.  Just one hour.  Keep on praying.  But we know that the cost of sharing God's love means more than quickly dropping off a hot meal with a quick, "Hello".  It means looking the one in her eyes and realizing one day it might be you on the other side.  It means learning her name.  It means asking how her foot is feeling.  Yes, there are other meals in the car and others waiting who need more than the warmth of mashed potatoes, but the warmth of human love and interaction that truly feeds the soul.  The warmth of more than a meal to a homeless person but the warmth of hearing why he is there.  The warmth of more than a blanket wrapped around in the cold night, the warmth of hearing how cold our world still is to those on the fringes.  It takes more than a check or signing a quick petition.  It takes our life.

How we live every moment is how we live our life.

Not to say, we don't need rest...renewal...recreation.

The book of Acts will not let us off the hook as easily as we might like.  To act up is to act out in the world.  To act up means we will go out and show the world what the wisdom, "Love your enemies" looks like embodied today.  What the wisdom, "So as you did this to the least of these, so you did to me," might sound like today.  What the wisdom, "Look at me," might feel like today.

So may that truth rummage and roam around your mind, heart, soul, and whole life this day.  And may more than a trace of God's grace guide us all in such a time as this.

Amen.