First Presbyterian Church
Angelic Activity
Sermon for April 18, 2004
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our psalm reading is found on page 565. Listen for the word of God as we read it together in Psalm 118:14-29.

14 The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; 16 the right hand of the LORD is exalted ; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly." 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deed s of the LORD. 18 The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!

26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD. 27 The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. 28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you. 29 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

This ends our reading from the psalms. Our new testament reading is from Acts. Acts is the story of how the apostles spread the gospel of Christ, and how the early churches began. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Acts 5:16-41.

The apostles have been performing signs and wonders, curing the sick and healing the possessed. 16 A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

17 Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, 18 arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, 20 "Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life." 21 When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

22 But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, 23 "We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside."

24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. 25 Then someone arrived and announced, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!" 26 Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

27 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us."

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. 35 Then he said to them, "Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail;

39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them-- in that case you may even be found fighting against God!"

They were convinced by him, 40 and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. 42 And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

This ends our reading of God's word.

Anthem

Let us pray:

O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, strength of the thoughts that seek you: help us so to know you that we may truly love you, so to love you that we may fully serve you, whose service is perfect freed om; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I don't know if Gamaliel's words were sarcastic or genuine. I was surprised that the narrator said Sadducees were convinced by Gamaliel's arguments. Once again they ordered the apostles not to speak in Jesus' name and flogged them. That's not my definition of leaving them alone.

In the United States, we have freed om of speech. We don't arrest or flog people for talking. But there are plenty of laws that need to be changed and leaders that need to be ousted and policies that can stand improvement. We have processes for changing laws, and proced ures for electing officials, and citizens argue and work for how best to change the laws and elect the officials.

I was at a meeting a few weeks ago where a very politically conservative man and a politically liberal man, both Christians, though not from the same denomination, agreed on the need for increased voter registration and participation in Baker County. Voting is a peaceful way to work for justice and improve government. That option wasn't available to the citizens of Israel.

Most of the time, in the United States, we can follow God's law and the civil law at the same time. But there have been times when non-violent civil disobed ience is an effective way to change the law, a way to follow God's law but defy human law. There were protests against slavery, for women's suffrage, and for civil rights, as well as for human rights.

I appreciated words from Pastor Carl Schenk who asked, “What kind of criteria do we use to judge those occasions when we would willfully and deliberately violate the civil authorities in order to be loyal to a higher authority which is God?” He said “we have to make sure that our action is firmly grounded in the biblical tradition: love of neighbor, commitment to justice and peace, desire to assist the heavy-laden and down-trodden. Our actions ought to be calculated to serve others rather than serve ourselves. We would do well to consider our actions prayerfully and in conversation with others. Those others should share our commitment to the will of God, may help us clarify our thinking and ensure we are not doing something simply to grandstand and get attention for ourselves, but that our actions are in harmony with what God wants for us in our time. Whenever we break human law for the sake of God's law, we should do so openly and ready to accept the consequences.”

That's what Peter and the apostles did.

So Peter disobeyed the high priest, and because of his protest, he was arrested.

The apostles chose to follow God's law and break the civil law. They had the strength to do that because they knew Jesus, they knew who he was and what he taught and how he lived, and how he died. They knew when he rose again. And they knew why. They knew he came to save humankind. They had the power of the holy spirit. They knew that the Lord was their strength and their might, as the psalm said.

And they also had an angel, who broke them out of jail. And isn't it interesting that Peter returned to the scene of his crime and picked up where he had left off teaching. Until the police found him he was free to tell the story a few more times to a few more people. He would not be found in hiding. The whole point of being free was being free to do ministry…The high priest is “beset with anger and fear over his mission of shutting Peter down.” But Peter “is focused on the dissemination of the gospel—a mission that affords him a joyful and resilient attitude”.(1)

I'd like to know more about the angel. We just have two verses: “during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, "Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life." To Luke, who wrote Acts, an angel was a given. Peter needed help preaching the gospel. You'll notice the angel didn't keep the apostles from being arrested, or protect them from being flogged. The angel just got them out of jail so they could return to temple and preach.

That's what angels do. The Greek word, angelos, means messenger. Angels brings messages from God to human beings. In Matthew 13:49, and Acts 12:23. They helped execute judgment. In Luke and Matthew, Angels announced Jesus' birth. In Luke 22:43, an angel gave Jesus strength. An angel gave the disciple Philip directions to find an Ethiopian eunuch so he could tell him the gospel (Acts 22:43 ) An angel told a Roman centurion, Cornelius, to find Peter, and ask him about Jesus. (Acts 8:26 ). Later, an angel (Acts 12:11 ) rescued Peter from jail so he could rejoin the disciples. (Acts10:3) An angel told Paul not to be afraid when he stood before the emperor. So we have angels who don't take away all pain, but angels who work to keep the word of God going, so that people who need to hear it will hear it.

And the word of God was about Jesus. Jesus, who didn't let bad laws or pious priests prevent his work. Religious leaders were visited, treated with courtesy, sometimes corrected and their families healed. Jesus didn't let prejudice stop him either. He didn't just minister to his own people, but to the gentiles and the Romans occupying his people's land.

Starting with Jesus is the way the church has grown and continues to grow. “Start with Jesus” was the first on Susan Andrews' list on how to grow the church. She is the moderator of General Assembly in the Presbyterian Church, and preached here on Friday night. She spoke of the lessons she has learned from the worldwide church, in her visits to Presbyterian churches in Africa and Latin America. Her list was Start with Jesus, Consider the context, welcome the stranger, engage the world, and make a plan. Her list ended with “Stay with Jesus.” Keep talking about Jesus.

Susan came here because our church hosted a presbytery meeting. Because she was coming, we invited the youth from the Snake River Mission Area who were attending Triennium to come to be commissioned. We had youth from Ontario, two churches in Boise, and Baker City. Youth from Idaho Falls had planned on coming, but didn't make it. We had just twenty –some youth and leaders commissioned. I think that's more youth than we have ever had at presbytery worship service. They were commissioned for Triennium by the Moderator, Susan Andrews, and the Moderator of the Synod of the Pacific, Vince Mok, and the Moderator of Boise presbytery, Joanne Thiry, and the past moderator of Kendall presbytery Barbara Corwin, and the Executive presbyter of the Snake River Mission Area David Carlson and the Regional presbyter, Linda Toth, and the Stated Clerk for the Synod of the Pacific, Joey Mills. This was an important event in the life of our presbytery and our mission area.

When Susan spoke of “Welcoming the stranger,” She spoke of churches that are working with immigrant congregations and fellowships, churches with ministries to refugees and the homeless.

And I of course thought of all the people at presbytery being welcomed by this congregation. We had one of the best-attended presbytery meetings ever: there were 45 members at the meeting. We had guests from five other presbyteries: Cascades, Boise, Kendall, National Capital, and San Francisco. And then we had 40 other people from Oregon and Idaho, who came to eat dinner, hear the moderator, get commissioned and attend the worship service. That made 85 people. Not all strangers, but most of them. And they felt welcomed and fed.

Six of our church members worked in the kitchen in Rogers Hall, worked so that the rest of us would have a place to go after worship for coffee and cookies, where we could talk to the moderator and one another in comfortable chairs around round tables. The six people had just an hour and twenty minutes to do clean up 85 plates, bowls, glasses, cups, forks, knives, and spoons, to say nothing of the serving dishes and the twelve or so pans used to cook the meat. By the way, the moderator said it was the most delicious dinner she had had in her eleven months of being moderator. Apparently she has eaten a lot of rubber chicken.

Welcoming the stranger is important. Jesus demonstrated the importance of showing hospitality. So, I say to all those of you who helped in the kitchen, and I know who you are, and God knows who you are, “Thank you for enabling so many people in the presbytery and our congregation to hear the word of God from our moderator.” You made it possible.

I also thank those who brought a dessert, those who helped serve, those youth who served us all breakfast Saturday morning, and those who helped clean up the church building on our clean up day to get ready for presbytery. I thank the choir, and Judy and Lindy. You made it possible for the presbytery to be here and feel welcomed.

Most of us here in Baker City don't have to risk our well-being for the sake of the gospel. But we do work so that the gospel can be heard. The angels in the new testament helped people hear the word of God. I thank God for the angels in our congregation.

(1) Peterson, Heidi A. “Fanning the Flames,” Christian Century, April 11, 2001, p. 14.