Voices of Grace

Second Sunday of Easter – Year C

April 7, 2013

Acts 5:27-32

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

My two girls are growing up far too fast.  It seems as if every time I pause and really take notice of them I’m shocked by how much they have changed; how much bigger they are, how they are using bigger words, how they are reading things they couldn’t read just a few weeks ago, how they are beginning to understand concepts that would have been completely foreign to them just a short time ago.  But, even as they grow, I still see within them the bright shining light of innocence that only a child can have.

One of the many things I treasure about my girls is the way in which they act when they are happy.  They can’t hide it.  They run around, they jump and squeal, they literally are bouncing with joy and happiness.  The same thing when they feel they know something that no one else knows, or if they have a secret they want to share with you.  They rush over, cup their hands over their mouth and your ear and loudly whisper their treasured information.

I’ve read in parenting books and heard from many-a-person that you should never trust a child with a secret.  And I can see the truth in that.  Children want to share the things they know and discover.  Every day when Addy comes home she has some new piece of information she learned in first grade, which she wants to share with me.  She tells me of her new found knowledge as if it’s something I have never heard before.  “Daddy, did you know that an eagle is bird of prey?”  She’s thrilled with knowing, and sharing what she knows gives her joy.  Or, I will be told with a voice that is almost trembling with excitement of the upcoming birthday party plans of a classmate who is going to have balloons, a rainbow cake and Bratzilla cups and plates!

Secrets are tough for children to keep, because everything they see or hear or learn is new; if it’s something that makes them excited they want to share that excitement with others.  If you’ve ever thrown a Mentos in your mouth, followed up with a big gulp of pop and sought to keep everything contained, it gives you a pretty good idea of what it’s like to be a child asked to keep a secret about something that’s totally cool and exciting.

The apostles in our text had a tough time keeping their mouths shut too.  Sure, what they had to share wasn’t a “secret”, but it was definitely something that some people wished they kept to themselves.  But, like a child that can’t keep their mouth shut, the apostles keep telling everyone the wonderful news they have to share.  I wonder if the religious authorities felt like so many teachers and parents who tell the children to be quiet, and the second they turn their backs the whispering begins again.

Did you know that the amazing things the apostles couldn’t keep to themselves are things that we know too?  That’s pretty cool.  All that stuff about Jesus being the Messiah, all that stuff about how Jesus came and lived amongst us, teaching and bringing healing and hope to people, all that stuff about how he died on the cross and on Easter broke out of the grave.  Yeah, that stuff.  You know, the good news.  The stories we hear every Sunday, the events we celebrated and recalled just last week with our festive hymns and songs.  You know, that big secret.  Only it’s not a secret.

It may not be a secret but, we sure are pretty good about keeping it to ourselves.  The disciples were threatened with imprisonment, if we read our text a bit further, we read how they were flogged; yet they couldn’t stop themselves from sharing the wonderful news.  What’s stopping us?  How often do we find ourselves keeping the good news to ourselves, in our words and actions?

I know that talking about our faith with other people, talking about how our relationship with God has provided us with comfort, hope, joy, assurance in our lives is something that can cause most of us to experience a shaking of our knees, sweaty palms and a pit in our stomach.  I understand, I’ve been there, I sometimes still am there.  And we don’t have flogging to look forward to if we get caught telling someone about our God.

When the apostles were brought before the council and given their stern lecture, followed by their flogging, Christianity had yet to separate itself from Judaism.  There was no New Testament, only the memories and stories about Jesus.  There were no new churches, they still gathered with the Jewish people in the synagogues and Temple in Jerusalem.  They saw themselves as Jews who had experienced the Messiah.  The voice of the apostles was just one more added to the multiple voices of Jewish faith in Jerusalem.  Yet, they kept talking, they made themselves heard, and the Holy Spirit gave power to the words they spoke, to the faith they lived out.

In this day and age, in the places and neighborhoods we live in, we may feel ours is just one more voice within the multitude of voices proclaiming Jesus; what do we really have to offer that isn’t already being said? 

Once again, I’m reminded of my children.  I don’t know about the rest of you who are parents, but in our house, it seems that directions have to be repeated multiple times before anything happens, or I have to raise my voice and turn into ‘mean Dad’ before anything happens.  Pick up your dirty clothes has to be repeated again and again, and sometimes I have to stand there and watch to make sure they actually do it.  “Put your shoes on, it’s time to go”, has to be said at least three or four times before a shoe gets anywhere near a foot, much less on it.  But, if I want them to respond, if we are ever going to get to leave, I have to keep speaking even if they seem to be ignoring me, or not hearing me.

We’ve all experienced times when we hear something, only to be told that it’s been said multiple times before we ever heard it.  Sometimes we may not have been paying attention, maybe the emphasis had been on wrong syllable, maybe it was the way it was said, or the accent of the speaker.  In the news media, the accent they look for is the one we hear a lot here, the Midwestern accent.  Some people have gone so far as to say that Tom Brokaw who was from South Dakota had the perfect accent for television news.  People tend to look for certain accents, they find certain voices pleasing to their ears, they understand some accents better than others.

What we do in our day-to-day lives, we also tend to do in our faith lives.  In Christianity today it seems like there are lots of people speaking, and lots of different accents being heard, lots of different things that people are emphasizing; and we are all drawn to certain accents, certain voices.  What is the voice, what is the accent of your faith, of your Christianity that you are most drawn to, that you hear best, that brings you that feeling of peace?

Is it a voice of love?  Is it a voice of judgment?  Is it a voice of acceptance or of exclusion?  Is it a voice that tells you that there is only one way to think about things or a voice that says that things are rarely black and white?  What is the voice of faith that you have been given to speak?

We have all been given a voice, we have all been given the task and calling to share the good news.  We do it in our own ways, with an accent that is, in many ways, uniquely ours.  How are you using your voice and your accent?  Is the voice we have been speaking and sharing with others the same voice that gives us comfort and hope, or have we been creating a fake accent, thinking that others will hear it and like it better?    Are you listening to the accent of society, culture and popularity or the accent of God?  How’s your accent?  Amen.