What Does It Take?
Commentary
What does it take to become the church? Where is Jesus to be found in our midst? What rituals are essential for us as Christians and where do they come from?
We break bread, real bread, to symbolize the body of Christ in our presence. We use words on a page to discover the Living Word in our midst. Our symbolic cleansing of baptism is based on the real cleansing we desire in our daily lives.
That about which we may say, “It’s nothing special” is where we draw what is truly special and eternal.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
In this short passage from Peter’s Pentecost oration, he makes a brief reference to “…this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now who exactly crucified Jesus? The Roman army detail that was skilled in the barbaric practice, to be sure. The Roman governor who condemned him to death despite his suspicion that Jesus was innocent. The Judean religious leaders who cynically condemned Jesus in their religious court but passed him on to the civil authorities so they could claim to their people that the Romans executed him. Those people in Pilate’s courtyard who shouted “Crucify him! Crucify him!” But were those people sincere? Or were they hired? Were there even very many of them? Many people encountered Jesus in Jerusalem that final week of his earthly ministry. It sounds like most of them delighted in his message and supported him. But there were no doubt tens of thousands of people in Jerusalem who were there for the Passover, and probably most of them simply didn’t care, or even know Jesus was there.
They didn’t care. I’m reminded of a famous quote from the late Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who spoke out against hatred and violence his long life. Think about these words: “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
Who are we indifferent about? And where does that put us? Who dies because we don’t care?
1 Peter 1:17-23
What lasts? When talking about how we were ransomed from our futile ways, he makes the astounding and confounding statement that we were not ransomed by “perishable things like silver or gold...” Hmmm? Silver tarnishes, to be sure, but gold holds up pretty well, and both seem to be holding their value on international markets, and have done so over the centuries. Certainly in biblical times gold was the standard for wealth as well as coinage.
Blood does not seem to be something that lasts. Everything living is fleeting. Like Isaiah (and Peter is quoting this prophet) says, “All flesh is like grass…. The grass withers, the flower falls…” Our blood is spilled, our life flees, and we decompose. Given enough time and there is nothing left for a DNA test, nothing to identify that we were who we were.
But the blood of Christ is identified as an imperishable substance. I love the way Peter connects Isaiah 40:6-8 with Jesus, “but the word of the Lord endures forever.” The word of the Lord is the Living Word, the good news of Jesus Christ that we have received!
Peter connects the blood of Christ with the blood of the lamb destined for sacrifice. We’re connecting with John’s gospel here, both in Jesus as the word and Jesus as the lamb of God. And we’ll meet that lamb again, this time bearing the marks of slaughter, in Revelation. Worthy is the lamb!
Just as we know Jesus in the breaking of the bread (see below in the Emmaus story), so we know Jesus as the Lamb of God. Both bread and the lamb are essential for Passover.
Luke 24:13-35
After the resurrection two disciples walked seven miles with Jesus and didn’t recognize him until he broke bread with them. As they testified to others, he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
At every church there is something that reveals the Lord’s presence as much as that bread broken in Emmaus. It may be somebody’s cinnamon rolls, or barbecued chicken, a pot of beans, or tuna casserole. It doesn’t have to be fancy, because what makes it special is who we share it with, and how much the love of God is revealed when we share it together.
It doesn’t always take food to reveal Jesus is among us. He has walked with us through good times and bad. If your church is a place where every kid can shine, and every person can have a good time, then Jesus is present.
Lives are changed, Christ is lived, people become somebody, and the people of God are changed not for life, but for eternity.
The early church shocked the Roman Empire by bringing together male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free, to one table, where everyone’s on an equal footing breaking bread together. It ought to be the same here at our church — we all come together, just as we are, different, the same only in that we love God and love each other. Jesus, unseen, but obvious, is here.
We break bread, real bread, to symbolize the body of Christ in our presence. We use words on a page to discover the Living Word in our midst. Our symbolic cleansing of baptism is based on the real cleansing we desire in our daily lives.
That about which we may say, “It’s nothing special” is where we draw what is truly special and eternal.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
In this short passage from Peter’s Pentecost oration, he makes a brief reference to “…this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now who exactly crucified Jesus? The Roman army detail that was skilled in the barbaric practice, to be sure. The Roman governor who condemned him to death despite his suspicion that Jesus was innocent. The Judean religious leaders who cynically condemned Jesus in their religious court but passed him on to the civil authorities so they could claim to their people that the Romans executed him. Those people in Pilate’s courtyard who shouted “Crucify him! Crucify him!” But were those people sincere? Or were they hired? Were there even very many of them? Many people encountered Jesus in Jerusalem that final week of his earthly ministry. It sounds like most of them delighted in his message and supported him. But there were no doubt tens of thousands of people in Jerusalem who were there for the Passover, and probably most of them simply didn’t care, or even know Jesus was there.
They didn’t care. I’m reminded of a famous quote from the late Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who spoke out against hatred and violence his long life. Think about these words: “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
Who are we indifferent about? And where does that put us? Who dies because we don’t care?
1 Peter 1:17-23
What lasts? When talking about how we were ransomed from our futile ways, he makes the astounding and confounding statement that we were not ransomed by “perishable things like silver or gold...” Hmmm? Silver tarnishes, to be sure, but gold holds up pretty well, and both seem to be holding their value on international markets, and have done so over the centuries. Certainly in biblical times gold was the standard for wealth as well as coinage.
Blood does not seem to be something that lasts. Everything living is fleeting. Like Isaiah (and Peter is quoting this prophet) says, “All flesh is like grass…. The grass withers, the flower falls…” Our blood is spilled, our life flees, and we decompose. Given enough time and there is nothing left for a DNA test, nothing to identify that we were who we were.
But the blood of Christ is identified as an imperishable substance. I love the way Peter connects Isaiah 40:6-8 with Jesus, “but the word of the Lord endures forever.” The word of the Lord is the Living Word, the good news of Jesus Christ that we have received!
Peter connects the blood of Christ with the blood of the lamb destined for sacrifice. We’re connecting with John’s gospel here, both in Jesus as the word and Jesus as the lamb of God. And we’ll meet that lamb again, this time bearing the marks of slaughter, in Revelation. Worthy is the lamb!
Just as we know Jesus in the breaking of the bread (see below in the Emmaus story), so we know Jesus as the Lamb of God. Both bread and the lamb are essential for Passover.
Luke 24:13-35
After the resurrection two disciples walked seven miles with Jesus and didn’t recognize him until he broke bread with them. As they testified to others, he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
At every church there is something that reveals the Lord’s presence as much as that bread broken in Emmaus. It may be somebody’s cinnamon rolls, or barbecued chicken, a pot of beans, or tuna casserole. It doesn’t have to be fancy, because what makes it special is who we share it with, and how much the love of God is revealed when we share it together.
It doesn’t always take food to reveal Jesus is among us. He has walked with us through good times and bad. If your church is a place where every kid can shine, and every person can have a good time, then Jesus is present.
Lives are changed, Christ is lived, people become somebody, and the people of God are changed not for life, but for eternity.
The early church shocked the Roman Empire by bringing together male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free, to one table, where everyone’s on an equal footing breaking bread together. It ought to be the same here at our church — we all come together, just as we are, different, the same only in that we love God and love each other. Jesus, unseen, but obvious, is here.
