Summary
Peter and John were walking through the temple gate called ‘Beautiful’ one day, when a man lame from birth called out to them for a gift of money. This man sat each day at the temple gate begging. That is how he survived. He was a fixture there, everyone who regularly used the ‘Beautiful’ gate knew him.
Well this certain day he called out to the two apostles as they entered the temple to pray. I am sure he was hoping for a coin or two from these simple men walking by, instead they gave him the unexpected. Peter said to him, “Look at me.” And the man did. Peter continued, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”
And Peter, grasping him by the right hand pulled him to his feet, and as this was done the lame man’s feet and ankles were made strong. He jumped up and began to walk, entering the temple with Peter and John, leaping and praising God. And the people in the temple recognized him as the lame beggar and gathered around to hear the story. To the gathered people Peter began to preach of the power of Jesus, whom the people’s leaders had killed, but they had seen and believed was risen from the dead. Peter told of how his faith in Jesus had healed the lame man, and how their lives too could be changed simply by turning to Jesus in faith and receiving salvation by the forgiveness of sins in God’s gift of grace.
Peter preached Jesus, crucified and raised to new life, to the people in the temple. The leaders fearing their preaching arrested them, and questioned them the next day. It is in this context that today’s reading from Acts belongs and that the leaders ask, “By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must by saved.”
Peter and John were simply going to the temple to pray when they were given the opportunity to give a man new life, by healing him. This act of healing was a deed of love, which in turn gave Peter the opportunity to share the truth about Jesus that he knew.
In today’s reading from First John we hear, “How does God’s love live in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
Might not John have been thinking back to the very moment when he and Peter stopped and helped a man in need, when he wrote these words in his epistle? An act of love, the healing resulted in an opportunity to tell people about the love that Jesus has for each of us. Words that caused him and Peter to be arrested, but again gave them the opportunity to share God’s truth.
John understood that you cannot only talk, but that one’s preaching needs to be a part of one’s actions. He knew that love is experienced in action, in truthful action. As we say, “You’ve got to walk the talk.”
Across from my High School was a little YMCA. Now this Y is different than any other that I know. There is no gym or pool. There is no weight room or showers. This YMCA is all about doing good in people’s lives through programs. There is a preschool. There are support resources and there is a senior high youth program. In my day it was run by Trent Treimer. He was a great guy! My friends and I would hang out at the Y after school talking with Trent and each other. We had a Bible Study every Tuesday evening that Trent would lead. In it he stressed how God loves us, and how we then need to love one another.
He was a great leader and we discovered that Trent was there for us and that he put trust in us.
He would allow us to borrow his car, to bring someone home, or pick someone up, that sort of thing. Once a bunch of us were talking with Trent, and someone asked how he would react if one of us crashed his car. Immediately he said, “I would be worried that one of you might be hurt or worse, I don’t care about the car, you’re what’s important. I love you guys.”
Well his reply surprised us. In our reality a car that cost a few thousand dollars was what was important. Some of the girls just couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t be upset. So they secretly decided to test him.
A month or two later they borrowed Trent’s car to pick someone up for Bible Study. While they were gone they called him and told him they had crashed his car. His first question to them was, “Is anybody hurt? Are you all alright? Do you need any medical help?”
Trent’s immediate concern must have touched the girls because they immediately confessed that they were lying and just testing to see what he would truly say when given this news. I think he was a little upset at them for lying to him and making him worry. It was a dumb, juvenile way for those girls to discover that Trent really loved us in a true way, in a Godly way. But after that we all had a great respect for Trent. He lived his talk.
Can we live out Jesus’ love in our lives not simply in word, but in truth and action, with God’s help?
Of course, yes we can, and we must!
Like Peter and John, like my youth leader Trent, we have to strive each day to put our Christian faith into action, and not selfishly, simply worrying about ourselves and our faith, but rather, Jesus calls us to touch others through our lives, our actions, and our words.
Does what we say to others matter? Yes, it does. We need to speak in grace and in humility when we speak. And we need to listen in the same way.
Does it matter how we act in relationship, or within the world? Yes, it does. We need to act, to live, in grace and humility too. What we do matters, because our lives affect other people, and the earth. Jesus tells us the same thing, the world will know whether we are Christians or not, by what we do, how we try and love, selflessly in his name.
Jesus lived his talk. He claimed that he would even lay down his life for us, and he did. Jesus loved us in truth and action. There is nothing more that one give but his life for us. His life for ours…his life in ours, forever.
As we experience the truth of God’s love in action, we strive to reach out in deeds of love into the lives of others. For Jesus calls us beyond our own selves, so that others may experience what we do in his love, that is…live as his people every day, trying to touch the world, in fact to change the world, through Jesus’ love.
Amen.
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