"... Responding to the Silent Quest for Dignity." Sermon at the KED 40th Anniversary Celebrations in Berlin

Sermon
At the EKD 40th Anniversary Celebrations
Berlin - Germany

October 16 -17, 2008

RESPONDING TO THE SILENT QUEST FOR DIGNITY

Acts 3:1-10
“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three o’clock in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful where he was put everyday to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter and John looked straight at him then Peter said, look at us and the man gave them his attention expecting to get something from them. Peter said, Silver or Gold I do not have but what I have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth; walk. Taking him by the right hand he helped him up and instantly the man’s feet and ankles began to be strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk then he went into the temple courts walking and jumping in praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit back at the temple gate called beautiful and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him”.

I must confess brothers and sisters that this is one of those passages that I find informative for the shape of Christian ministry and particularly pastoral ministry. I want to share my personal understanding of the text. Whenever I’m asked to do bible study, I like confessing from the beginning that I am more of a preacher than a bible study exponent. Please bear that in mind and do help us to be more faithful to what scholarly bible study would require.

The first thing that I wish to observe about this passage is how in verse 3,4 & 5  attention is given to the response given by Peter and John upon the request of the man seated at the beautiful gate. Elsewhere Jesus visits a Pharisee by the name Simon and when he is in the house, a woman comes in washes Jesus feet and anoints Jesus and Simon the Pharisee responds in his heart by saying, “doesn’t Jesus know how immoral this woman is? How can he just sit there and allow this woman to touch him in this way?”

I am citing this to make a case discernment. Back at home we have many beggars found at traffic lights and as you stop they come running asking for money. I find it interesting that it is easy to stand there and watch people pulling out money and giving to the beggars and so forth and I have this strong feeling that if you were to stop and say to a person maybe at the next traffic light, “who did you meet at the past traffic light?” They would respond, “a beggar that I gave money to!” “What did he/she look like?” “Oh I’m not sure.” “What was he/she wearing?” “Oh you’re asking too much.” I think the genius of John and Peter at this instance is their capacity to take time to listen, to engage and seek to establish what it is that the person is looking for. As a matter of fact we do not ask beggars what they are looking for, we just assume they are looking for money and then just pull something and give through the window without taking that time. I want suggest that maybe one of the key things that the church today needs to learn, is the skill to discern. The word discernment is used a lot within the Evangelical communities as well as Pentecostal communities and I’m not entirely sure whether we have devoted enough attention to this. I think one of the first questions we need to be asking ourselves is how should the process of discernment take shape today? Is it a question of just saying the spirit has told me or does it require a process of identification, social identification, social analysis, reflection, engaging the situation? I recall the days when in Latin America, there was a strong initiative by the theological schools to actually do the study of theology and biblical analysis in the context of ministry, in the context where people were engaging situations everyday trying to understand it deeply.

Conclusively I must say that this narrative is very   clear:  No one can be fairly and legitimately be accused of his state of lameness even if is from birth. It is all consciously clear that the fact they are doing him well i.e.  giving him alms i.e. gifts of charity it suggests that they  are good people . But the lame man is also not asking any critical questions. It seems he does not wish to embarrass anybody.  Hence he accepts his station in life uncritically! He only asks for alms and accepts the word of society as adequate to define him. “Fate has become definitive of my Destiny!!” Oh Africa!! Let us pause and re-think; of those who continue with the paradigm of charity do they bother to read the anguish on the face of Africa? Yet Peter and John have upset their planned programme of the Good Samaritan. They looked at the man in the eye and gave him the Affirmation of dignity. And thus the truth was spoken to him;

- Relationship of Honesty…. Opened their hearts
- Relationship of Transparency …Opened their pockets/Books
- Relationship of Trust ….Not to ridicule them

These enabled him to reclaimed his humanity and restore his confidence.

The passage goes on and says that Peter and John indicated that they did not have silver, nor gold but what they had, they would give the man. Perhaps it’s interesting that the man himself specifically asked for money and I’m amazed that this man was willing to listen and hear what it is that they were willing to give him if not money. But they told him, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk! I guess that a lot of skill is needed in pastoral work and it is a dangerous thing to take things very literary and just get on and do them. This is one of the passages that puzzle me a lot. I remember when I was a young person, I was sent a lot of times with my superintendents, senior ministers trying to understand this thing about naming the name of Jesus. Then my superintendent was a charismatic and he would tell me many things about naming the name. I realized that to name the name is first of all to publicly commit yourself to the person that you are dealing with by saying; I am doing this in the name of the person called Jesus. By that I mean I’m under his authority, I am committed to offering this ministry in the way I understand Jesus wants this ministry to be offered. If you want to go and study yourself and see how Jesus did it and judge the way I’m giving this ministry to you, you are free to do so. I am in my rational mind and I am committed in humility to you saying that the person called Jesus who I believe would have responded to your needs and I am therefore responding to your needs.

According to his authority he’s told us to respond to needs like yours but even more, I am doing it in his spirit, in the way I believe he would have done it. Now that would take courage for us to actually analyze as well but in short that means I’m doing it prayerfully, without claiming the answer is in me, the answer is in God whom I represent. I’ll do it with all the compassion that I believe Christ offers his ministry and I’ll do it in every way that I think Christ would have done it in. I think to name the name is more than we see people do; say in the name of Christ!!

This passage goes a step further to describe how Peter and John went on their knees to take the man by his hand and they slowly lifted him up. I think this is the skill that is required in the church and the pastors today. How do we go down to those who need us most, identify with them at the level of their greatest need and slowly stand up with those people as Christ would want us to?

John Wesley said, “Do not go where you are needed but go where you are needed most.” The need to be able to discern where the need is greatest and the need to be able to act like Jesus, the God who has become flesh in order to identify with us is our point of greatest need. This continues to be the biggest challenge of the church and I am convinced that our church history has tended to create a situation where most Church Leaders are hesitant to engage in people deeply at the point of their greatest need, in their social, political and other needs and at the same time understand this great call to identify with people at that level need. Sometimes we are afraid to name the name or say we are doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In our modern lives, the greatest challenge is not only of balancing our evangelical call and caring for the people, analyzing their situation, bringing transformation beyond the transformation of an individual, but also the transformation that transforms all that our people are encountering.

When the man was being lifted by the two apostles, his feet and ankle became strong. One of the things that troubled me as a minister 5 yrs ago is that people used terms like, “we are not called to be successful but faithful”. Such statements meant that Church Leaders did not have any business trying to measure the effectiveness of the ministry of Christ. From this passage we deduce the transformation of this man’s feet and ankles getting stronger. Thus, a meaningful ministry has to earn questions like; “are the feet of the people getting stronger?” “Are their ankles getting stronger?” “Is this community that I minister to, becoming a better community?”

Why should we be involved with people who need us most? I know of a church from my own experience that will ask, “If we put a hospital there”, and “if making people Christians prioritize where to offer a ministry?” In the healing ministries of Jesus, in one instance he healed people and they never came to say thank you and that never stopped him from offering the ministry of healing. We have the responsibility to help the church realize that when we do any healing ministry, for individuals, the community or nation its not because first and foremost we want them to come to church, it is because we understand it to be a vision of God that people should be whole and that people should be able to make their choices for God and against God.. When we use the name of Christ we can only but say we offer a person healing so that God’s dream in his/her life can be fulfilled and that dream among other things is restored to for him/her to choose what he/she wants to become.

Amen!