Grace to you and peace from God, who sees everything about us and calls us Beloved, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.
You know what it’s like to be on autopilot? Going through the motions, doing something without a lot of thought. I think we’ve all had that experience.
I know that sometimes I have a task or issue pressing on my mind, and my brain is really good at doing other things in the background. I have been thinking a lot about the multiple forms and essays that are due at this time of year for interns, and they’ve taken up a lot of my mental energy. Yet, my brain and body still coordinate to prepare coffee – Thankfully!! – to get myself ready and at the right location, and if I’m really, really lucky, I’ve arrived here today with matching shoes and socks, and a few words that don’t sound completely foolish. And, well, if any of those things aren’t true, I trust you’ll give me the grace that seems to be plentiful around this place.
Peter and John in today’s reading may have been in a similar situation that day in Jerusalem. There was a LOT going on in their lives. Jesus had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended. We skip over Acts 2, but the handful of disciples had just experienced the Holy Spirit coming into their midst in a powerful, mind-blowing way, that story we will come back to a month from now at Pentecost. They had baptized about 3,000 people in a weekend. Sasi and Cheryl, what a JOY to welcome Chessie into our family today through baptism, and I love the fact that today is really special and wonderful and uniquely her day. Imagine if we were greeting, baptizing and welcoming thousands of new believers, with all of their questions. What do we do next? How do we live out this Way of Jesus? I imagine Peter and John and the other disciples were overwhelmed and came to the temple on autopilot that day. How often had they been to the temple for prayer? How often had they walked in that gate? How often had they walked by a beggar or maybe a handful of them, people who weren’t allowed to enter the temple, and mindlessly dropped them a few coins?
We know how that looks in our world today. We exit the highway or stop at a traffic signal, and there they are. Alms seekers, with a bucket or a sign. “Anything helps.” And uncomfortably, since I don’t often carry cash, I shrug, or smile, or maybe don’t even make eye contact. I have heard of folks who carry $5 bills or blessing bags with a bottle of water and a granola bar – but I admit I haven’t planned so well. I’m still on autopilot, getting from one location to another. So often, I’m aware of them, but I really don’t SEE them.
But today’s story takes a turn. Somehow, newly filled with the Holy Spirit, something clicked for Peter. “John and I are just a couple a guys headed into the temple. Too bad Jesus isn’t around anymore to heal this man. Whoa – we’re here now. We’re it. We’re filled with the spirit of the Resurrected Christ. And you, Sir, are one of my brothers. Look at me.”
Do you know how powerful it is to really look at someone? Like the children did a few minutes ago, to meet someone’s gaze and really acknowledge their humanity? To see them as someone worthy of your attention, another beloved Child of God?
But Peter continued. He told the man he didn’t have money, but what he had been given, he would give. He reached out his right hand, the hand of hospitality, of connection. He offered it to this 40-something year-old man who had been asking for spare change most of his life. And Peter healed him. He looked at him, really SAW HIM, and made him whole. Peter brought him into community and restored him. And the man rose and went walking, leaping, filled with joy into the temple with them for the first time.
I’ve never touched anyone and healed them. Physical healing is not one of my gifts. I’m not even sure I’m crazy about the healing stories in the Bible, because they make people with disabilities and the people who love them uncomfortable. Because not everyone is healed. In some faith communities, if you are blind or deaf or paralyzed or have a chronic illness, you stay away, because people will try to lay hands on you to heal you. Or they will assume that you just don’t have enough faith, because if you did, you would be made well. Healing stories are just troubling sometimes.
However, I’m not sure that’s the point of healing stories. In every healing story, we get a glimpse of the power of God. Certainly the power to restore someone’s body, mind, or life itself. But mostly, to restore someone to a right place and relationship among others. A demon-possessed man is restored to his community. A woman with a bleeding disorder is no longer unclean. A blind man can earn a living. And a lame man can walk and leap and join the community in worship. Can you imagine the power of healing there? Because one person really saw someone else?
And a thousand such acts of healing happen every week because of you, Trinity. In your partnership with Circle of Concern and Gateway 180, people are seen and given a way to have a decent meal around their tables. You fill a freezer full of meals that people take to others and see them. You create music together, and listen to one another in small groups, and talk about books and scripture, and SEE each other while you’re doing it. Moms of preschoolers and AA groups SEE each other when they meet here. Thousands of times a week it happens. In the atrium over donuts or at the store or in your neighborhoods. You really SEE other people.
Let me tell you a secret, my friends. It happens every week. Every time that I hold the bread and place the wafer in your hands. I look in your eyes to SEE you when I hand you this little disk of bread and say “Body of Christ, given FOR YOU.” I have a momentary flash of our life together. Companionship. And I realize the word “companion” comes from the words for “with bread.” In this bread, we are restored to companionship, to community with one another. We are restored to one another, every week, and sent to take that grace and love and community into the world. To really SEE others.
That’s amazing. And moving. And wildly good news, all at the same time.
It’s pretty evident that was the response of those who saw the man healed. They knew this was the former lame beggar. They SAW him, and they were filled with wonder and amazement. Ekstasis – ecstasy! And many came to believe. Perhaps that’s where Peter should have left it – unfortunately, if you read on in Chapter 3, Peter just had to preach a sermon and stir up the crowd, so that he and John got hauled in front of the Council. Perhaps that’s also a lesson for us – do our work quietly and don’t talk too much about it.
Says the one who’s been preaching about it for 10 minutes now… I SEE you.
So I’ll just end with a story:
This is a story about an English teacher, Mildred Grady, and her student, Olly Neal, who had been deemed incorrigible, enough to make a teacher like Mrs. Grady cry. Mrs. Grady taught, and Olly reluctantly and sporadically attended class at an impoverished high school during years of segregation in the South.
In the fall of his senior year, Olly cut a class and wandered into the small school library that Mrs. Grady had pieced together. He wasn't a reader, but he spotted a book with a risqué cover.
Called "The Treasure of Pleasant Valley," it was by Frank Yerby, a Black author, and it looked appealing. Olly thought of checking it out, but he didn't want word to get out that HE was reading a novel. That would have been humiliating. So he stole it.
Olly hid the book under his jacket and read it cover to cover at home. When he returned it to the shelf he noticed another book by the same author, and he lifted that one, too. This went on for awhile. When he returned one Frank Yerby book there was another one waiting.
Yerby led to Camus, and to newspapers and to college and law school. Eventually, he became a prosecutor & then an appellate court judge. Then, here's the best part.
Mrs. Grady stunned Olly, now-Judge Olly Neal, by confiding to him that she had spotted him stealing that first book. Her impulse was to confront him, but then, she SAW him. She realized his embarrassment at being seen checking out a book.
So Mrs. Grady kept quiet. The next Saturday, she told him, she drove 70 miles to Memphis to search the bookshops for another novel by Yerby. Finally, she found one, bought it and put it on the library bookshelf.
Twice more, she told him, she spent her Saturdays trekking to Memphis to buy books by Yerby – all in hopes of turning around a rude adolescent who had made her cry. She paid for the books out of her own pocket.
Mildred Grady could have been on autopilot that day – rightfully confronting an student she saw stealing. But she wasn’t – she saw him. Really SAW him. And she changed his life.
Peter saw the beggar at the gate in Jerusalem, and changed his life.
We have choices every day. Some moments we zoom through on autopilot. Other times our Spirit-filled eyes are wide open, and we really see people. And those, my friends, are the moments that change lives. Not just theirs. Yours too.
Amen
Children’s Sermon
What Did You Notice?
Vicar Gail Kenny
Easter 3 Acts 3:1-10
April 14, 2024
Is there a difference between seeing something and noticing it? Or hearing someone and listening to them?
Right! If you see it – it’s in front of your open eyes. But if you notice it, you pay attention. And the same with our ears. We may hear when someone is talking, but we really listen if it’s our teacher, giving us instructions. Or I HOPE you do!
Let’s see if you were seeing or noticing this morning. I know many of you went to Sunday School. But did you notice who wasn’t there? That’s right, Miss Stacey was gone. Who was there? Mr. Graeme!
Did you notice we had something different at the beginning of worship today? Yes, Pastor baptized Baby Chessie!
I know you looked around the sanctuary, but who’s not where they usually are? Yes, the choir isn’t singing today. They had a big concert last week, and they’re taking a day off. And we’ll miss their music!
In today’s lesson, Peter and his friend John are going to the temple. They’re going to worship, like you!! And they see a person who can’t walk, asking for help. And instead of just seeing him, Peter NOTICES him. And he heals him.
I know we can’t all heal people. But we can NOTICE them. Let’s try something. Stand up and stand face to face with one of your friends, so you can look at them. I want you to look into their eyes, and say “I’m glad you came to church today.” And notice what they do.
What happened?
Did they smile? Did they say anything back?
You can do that at Trinity any time, or anywhere. Notice people. Really look and listen to them. That’s how you can show God’s love with them. It will make a difference.
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