Jarrett McLaughlin
The Church Finds Its Voice
May 26, 2024
Acts 4:13-20 and Acts 5: 17-33
Scripture – Acts 4:13-20 (Earlier in the Service – Prior to Confession)
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.
When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another.
They said, “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it.
But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; [but] we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Introduction
We may laugh and make jokes about it…but only once safely on the other side. When you’re going through it – it’s not funny at all.
The larynx expands. The vocal chords thicken. Then comes the cracks and the honks and the squeaks. It’s that cruel rite of passage from childhood into adulthood – the moment when your voice changes.
Last week we celebrated Pentecost – the birthday of the church – when the Spirit settled on all of the disciples and gave them the ability to preach the Gospel in different languages. This week, let’s say that the Church is hurdling into adolescence – figuring out its identity; finding its voice.
A reading from Acts, chapter 5:
Scripture – Acts 5:17-33
Then the high priest took action; filled with jealousy, [they] arrested the apostles and put them in prison. But 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.” 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 sent to the prison to have them brought. But the temple police did not find them; “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
Then someone arrived and announced, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
They had the apostles stand before the council [and] 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, who you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him 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.”
When they heard this, the priests were enraged and wanted to kill them.
This is the Word of the Lord
THANKS BE TO GOD.
Sermon:
It’s been nearly a year since I traumatized you all by singing some Johnny Cash in this pulpit – don’t worry, there’ll be no encore today.
A story instead:
Johnny Cash’s voice was not always that deep, nor did it change as you might imagine at an unnaturally young age. In fact, his voice didn’t change until late in adolescence. It just showed up one day, suddenly and unannounced.
“When I was 17,” he wrote, “I had been cutting wood all day long with my father and I came in and I was singing a gospel song.”
When he opened his mouth this time, however, a deep, otherworldly sound burst through. His voice broke into something new, or to take his own perspective, a different voice broke into him. From that moment on, His mother…referred to his voice as The Gift.
Did you notice how dramatically Peter’s voice has changed.
Maybe not the tone of it but the content of what he says.
Consider where he was just a couple of months before – cowering by a campfire while Jesus was arrested, saying in a self-preserving murmur “I do not know him.” But now he’s bold and brave – even a little brash. Speaking to the High Priest himself – the one who orchestrated Jesus’ death, he says:
“Whether it is right to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; [but] we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
That is a complete, 180-degree turn.
The Priests told him to stop – but like many a teenager – if you say don’t do that – then that is precisely what they will do. Peter will not remain silent. Even if it means spending a night in prison.
His voice has broken into something new….or perhaps a new voice has broken into him.
I don’t want us to miss how much his voice has changed here so allow me to pick this apart a bit, because this speech he makes before the Priests is far more confrontational than it reads at first.
Peter recites current events about the crucifixion of Jesus, but he’s not just stating the facts here – he’s telling a version of the story that unequivocally indicts the Priests. It’s helpful to imagine the scene as a standoff.
So close your eyes and picture Peter standing with the Apostles on one side, the Temple Priests on the other side hoping their collective authority will cow Peter into submission. Then there’s a crowd of spectators huddling close to see what will happen.
Now open your eyes. If I may paraphrase him, Peter says:
“The God of OUR ancestors raised Jesus up from the dead – yep, the same Jesus that YOU killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted HIM as Leader and savior – NOT YOU – but HIM. And I am a witness to that and so is the Holy Spirit…so no, I will not listen to you and I will not remain silent about what is true.”
This is quite the accusation. What you have to understand is that Crucifixion is a distinctly Roman form of execution. Jews did not crucify – in fact Deuteronomy 21:22 specifically discourages hanging anybody on a tree.
If I understand this text, for Peter to say that it was the Priests who crucified Jesus…it’s as if he is claiming that the Jewish Priests of the Jewish Temple are not really Jewish at all…they are Romans – traitors to God and traitors to their ancestors.
This would explain the Priests’ violent reaction –
“When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them.”
Peter has gone from saving his own skin at any cost
to proclaiming the truth no matter the cost.
The Church found its voice and is learning to use it.
Here’s the thing though – do you know what got Peter and the Disciples in in hot water to begin with? Back before the night in prison, before they were censured by the Priests?
They got in trouble for healing somebody – there was a man in the Temple who was incapable of walking. Peter saw him and recognized a valuable disciple. Peter told him to stand up and he did. It’s right there in Acts, chapter 3.
Why would you ever get in trouble for helping somebody?
I get the sense that the author of Acts is setting up a contrast for future Christ-followers to consider. After breaking the disciples out of jail, the angel says to them “Go and tell the people the whole message about this life” – as if this life is categorically different from that life represented by the Priests and the Powers.
Power is not interested in serving those that society has cast aside.
A man who cannot walk will never do anything to advance the goals of the Empire. He is utterly and completely disposable.
Peter, however, notices a nobody.
In the name of Jesus Christ, he heals a man who is expendable in the eyes of the Empire.
He disrupts Power’s cruel and cynical calculus about who is worthwhile and who is worthless.
And the people flocked to him. Did you catch that detail – the Temple police bring Peter before the Priests, but without violence? They wouldn’t dare lay a finger on him for fear that the people would stone them?
The people were desperate for a different way – starving for someone who would take up the cause of the nobodies – inspired by this fledgling Church that found its voice and used its voice on behalf of the people rather than in service to Power.
I cannot shake the feeling that Acts is presenting a contrast here – setting the stage for a debate between this life (the Christian life that is in service to the least) and that life (life that is in service to profit and power).
There’s a film called The Great Debaters – it tells a somewhat fictionalized version of the Wiley College Forensics team. This was the debate team from an all-black college that participated in and won many of the first integrated debate competitions in the 1930s. The scene I have in mind is on the eve of their debate against Harvard University at the national finals.
The team captain, Henry, is encouraging a young freshman – James Farmer – who had recently underperformed in the prior debate. Henry asks him the questions – the questions that the team answers before every debate – the questions that give them the courage to lift up their voice in service to the truth – and to do so unafraid.
“Who is the Judge?” Henry asks
“The judge is God.” James replies
“Why is he God?”
“…Because he decides who wins and loses – not my opponent.”
“Who is my opponent?”
“My opponent does not exist.”
“Why does he not exist?”
“…Because he is merely a dissenting voice to the truth which I speak.”
In every time and place, the Spirit inspires the Church to find its voice – and use its voice – in service to a crucial truth; that everybody has value – that there is no such thing as a disposable person.
A couple weeks ago I attended an event at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh along with a number of other folks from UPC. It was a gathering to celebrate 35 years of Haiti Outreach Ministry, one of our treasured global mission partners.
Haiti Outreach Ministries (or HOM) began with Pastor Leon Dorleans gathering a worshipping community in an alley underneath tarps in Cite Soleil.
35 years later it is a Church with nearly 2,000 members.
Schools where nearly 2,000 children are educated.
Clinics where nearly 20,000 are treated.
It’s an amazing illustration of what the Church can do with a little grit, spit and the Spirit.
There was one young man present at the event – his name is Jameson. He described growing up in Cite Soleil and attending the HOM schools. He told about his mother dying when he was very young, leaving him orphaned in the poorest slum in the western hemisphere. If ever there is a profile for somebody that Power would deem disposable – this is it.
But HOM is first and foremost a Church – and a Church believes in the inherent worth of every person – so they invested in Jameson’s future.
As I listened to him speak, he dropped a quick reference to attending UNC Chapel Hill, so I found him afterwards to introduce myself.
“You attend UNC – I’m a pastor at a church right on Franklin Street,” I told him, “may I ask how you got to UNC.”
“Well,” he said, “I didn’t want to get into too many details about me – this is about HOM tonight – but I play soccer…..for UNC.”
“Oooooohhhh wow……you’re, uh….pretty good then” is what I think I said, idiotically.
What I should have said was “Well there goes the Church being the Church again – seeing the inherent worth in everybody.”
What a gift it is to be a part of the Church that makes such wondrously improbably things possible. What a gift it is when the Church finds its voice and uses its voice for nothing but the truth that every single person is a potential disciple of Jesus Christ.
When Johnny Cash’s voice finally changed – his mother called it The Gift, because that voice came from God…
The rest of that story about his voice change goes like this:
Cash decided that he should learn to master this new voice. He went to a local singing teacher, hoping to refine the Gift, but after the first lesson his teacher told him that his voice should not be polished or tamed. Not only was it bigger than he was, it seemed as if his voice had its own ideas about itself, distinct from professional norms. “Don’t ever take voice lessons again,” the teacher told Cash, “don’t let me or anyone change how you sing.”
May our changed voice be ever forceful, ever faithful, ever true.