“We all” are Complicit Preached for Wollaston Congregational Church On April 18th, 2021 Scripture: Acts 3:12-21 Today we begin something I’ve put off for too long. Each Easter season – these 50 days between Christ’s resurrection and his ascension back to God the Father – the Lectionary offers a selection of readings from the book of Acts. Most years, I have considered doing a series of sermons on Acts and then I’ve changed my mind. Acts is a strange biblical book, which doesn’t quite fit into any of the usual categories. It is not a part of the Torah, or Jewish law. It is not a prophetic writing or poetic wisdom literature. It is not exactly “gospel” because it describes events that take place after Jesus’s life, and it is not a letter from an evangelist to the early church. Scholars agree that the author of Luke’s gospel also wrote Acts. This is affirmed by the flow between the two books. Acts is a story of the very early followers of Jesus, including the ones who were disciples at Jesus’s side during his lifetime. The events described in Acts take place in turbulent times. The story begins in Jerusalem only 50 days after Jesus’ crucifixion. Many supposed enemies of Rome, as well as petty criminals, are executed on crosses. Crucifixion is the mode of execution favored by the Roman occupiers of ancient Israel, because it is visibly agonizing. Not many years later, the tension in Jerusalem will erupt with the destruction of the temple and the genocide of many Jewish people. Somehow the early followers of Jesus live through these times. They ultimately differentiate themselves from other Jewish groups, and begin to spread through Asia Minor, converting both Jewish and Gentiles to “the way” of Jesus Christ. The story we heard this morning takes place very soon after the coming of the Holy Spirit, while many Jews are still gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost or Shavuot. As we heard from Mary’s reading, Peter and John, have just healed a lame man as they were on their way to pray at the temple. There is quite a commotion in Solomon’s Porch where the healing took place. Seeing the crowd, Peter takes the opportunity to deliver one of his five sermons in the book of Acts. This is one of the reasons I have decided against preaching on the story in the past. But this year, I’m going to do it. This is the kind of biblical passage that has been used for centuries to “blame” the Jewish people for Jesus’ crucifixion. I hesitate to preach on passages like this one, because I’m concerned about our initial response. We hear scripture with 21st century ears, not knowing that we are influenced by those centuries of Christian anti-Semitism. And yet, if we look a little more closely we will discover something in Peter’s sermon that is quite different from an accusation against the Jews. Peter begins “You Israelites …” Even though he begins with the word “you”, Peter and the other apostles are Jewish, Jesus was Jewish, and all those crowded around him in the porch are Jewish. This might as well be a speech that begins with the words “My fellow Americans …” Peter tells the assembled crowd that the healing of the man has been done by the power of the God of Israel, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all their ancestors. Their God has also glorified Jesus, the one who was so recently crucified, because, he says, they “rejected” him. Of all the people in the crowd, the one who is known to have rejected Jesus is actually Peter. The word rejected is better translated as “disowned.” This is the same word that is used to describe Peter’s denial of Jesus on the night of his arrest. No doubt the painful memory of denying that he knew Jesus three times that night, is fresh in Peter’s mind. Peter is not singling out anyone in the crowd to blame for the crucifixion. He is using the plural “you all” or even “we all.” He also tells the crowd good news. Even though Peter was totally complicit in the rejection or disowning of Jesus, he has been forgiven and restored. He is even given the position of leadership in the new movement that is being birthed. And so he invites those gathered to do the same as him. He invites them to repent from their communal complicity in disowning Jesus. And he invites them to look forward to a time of universal restoration. Sadly, we humans seem to have an incurable tendency to blame. And conversely, we have a tendency to interpret a call for accountability as blame. Looking at the scripture through a lens of blame, we will probably see only two options. Either Peter is blaming “the Jews” for Jesus’ crucifixion. Or with the inclusive “you all”, or even “we all”, he is blaming us. Seeing the crucifixion through the lens of blame has a lot to do with the way different branches of Christianity have dealt with it. Evangelical Christians have tended to focus the blame and the need for repentance on the individual. And mainline Protestants like ourselves, have rejected that notion, but still tend to avoid our own communal complicity and accountability. When I was in college, I was loosely connected with an evangelical Christian organization. This group sponsored a week-long mission, in which they invited a number of persuasive speakers to preach in the largest auditorium on campus. On the night that I attended, I was stunned by what I heard the preacher say. He described the crucifixion of Jesus in excruciating detail: each nail going in through flesh and bone, the process of asphyxiation on the cross. Once he had completed the horrific details of execution, he pivoted to the reason for the crucifixion in cosmic terms. This was consistent with the substitutionary atonement theory favored by conservative traditions. Substitutionary atonement says that because God is purely good and just, God must be paid a price for human sin. And because God did not want to punish us, he sent his own son, Jesus, to bear the punishment and to be sacrificed on the cross. Substitutionary atonement says that Jesus “paid the price for our sin” on the cross. In the auditorium that night, the preacher told us that every sin, every little thing that we had ever done, everything about which we felt guilt or shame, drove another nail into Jesus’ hands and feet. The only response to this was for each individual person to repent and believe, to confess Jesus their personal Lord and Savior. Then, and only then, would our sin and shame be forgiven. Then and only then will we be sure to avoid damnation. I began to sweat and hairs prickled on the back of my neck. I felt as though the preacher could see into my soul and read every less than holy thought. It was painful to imagine that I had caused Jesus’s pain on the cross, and at the same time I knew I did not need to do anything else to become a Christian. I had already been baptized and confirmed as a member of Christ’s family. I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I also knew just enough to perceive this sermon as a guilt trip. Of course, we all do things that need to be confessed. We all need to make amends and turn back toward God. But the kind of spectacle I witnessed in the auditorium that night focuses all the attention on the individual and their behavior. That perspective sets us on a path of sin and shame, followed by confession and forgiveness: rinse and repeat. In this approach, the need for communal confession and repentance is forgotten. On the other hand, mainline churches like ours also have a problem in our approach to the cross. Many of us dislike the notion of substitutionary atonement but we also do not like the part that is missing: communal confession and repentance. We avoid individual confession and at the same time avoid accountability for our complicity. I knew a woman, named Joan, in my home UCC church, who complained about the prayer of corporate confession in our weekly Order of Worship. “I am a good person,” she argued, “I care for the sick and the poor, I’m kind and generous. I don’t like being required to confess.” Joan was, indeed, a good and kind person. She went out of her way to care for others. She drove church members to medical appointments. She visited the sick and the dying even in the most awkward and unpleasant circumstances. She gave generously to the church and other organizations. But Joan was forgetting her complicity in the culture. She was forgetting that she, and you and I, are a part of “you all” and “we all.” Current day Christians remember that we were not around 2,000 years ago to crucify Jesus. But we are reluctant to confess our complicity in a culture that crucifies people in our own time and place. Our black, brown, Asian neighbors are experiencing violence in our culture and even execution in some circumstances. White mainline protestants were reluctant to confess the racism of the culture and stand with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the time of the civil rights movement. Perhaps many lives would have been spared, if we had fully supported the movement, not only in marching together, but challenging our own assumptions about race. We, mainline protestants have been reluctant to challenge our own assumptions about race, in case we find something shameful in ourselves. We prefer to stay out of the fray, and blame others for acts of violence against black, indigenous and people of color. On the one hand we dismiss the idea that our small indiscretions may add a nail to the crucifixion of Jesus. And on the other, we avoid the larger issue of corporate complicity. We avoid the “you all” and the “we all” of Peter’s speech. May we remember, though that Peter’s speech does not end with “you all” and “we all.” This is why I had Mary read extra verses from our text this week. Peter invites the crowd to repent and turn toward God. He reminds them that they can be restored, like the lame man. They can even play a part of God’s universal restoration for humanity and the world. If Peter’s complicity in disowning Jesus can be wiped out, so that he can assume leadership of the early church, so too can our complicity be wiped out. First we face it, first we address it, and then we turn toward God. If we do that we put ourselves in a position to be restored, to stand with our neighbors, even those being crucified in our time. May all God’s say Amen
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