Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy temple; *
praise him in the firmament of his power.
Let everything that has breath *
praise the Lord.
Amen1
Happy Easter, everyone!
So many things happening in this morning’s lectionary readings, as is often the case. And so many things happening in these last few weeks – we’ve gotten through Palm Sunday and Holy Week and Stations of the Cross and 1,700 Easter eggs – and the evening joy of the Easter Vigil and the Sunday morning celebration of the Resurrection – and this morning, we’re hearing the doubts of Thomas, the Alpha and the Omega – and the Alleluias and the Hallelujahs are back!
And then, in Acts, there are the apostles, who keep getting arrested. I’d like to look at the reading from Acts this morning, and especially to look at some of the text from Acts that we didn’t hear this morning – in particular, what comes before this excerpt, and what comes after. Because this is not the first time that the apostles have gotten arrested or taken in by the authorities in the first five chapters of Acts – or the second time – this is the third, and they’re really starting to get on the last nerve of the religious leaders and political leaders, who are already not pleased that there have been reports that Jesus did rise from the dead on the third day, and at this point has ascended into Heaven and thousands – thousands – of people – men and even women – are flocking to the follow this new faith, this new promise – they’re bringing their friends and family for healing, just laying them down on the ground, sick or paralyzed or possessed, where the shadows of the apostles might touch them and give them new strength, new sight, new life.
And all of these new followers of Jesus – who was supposed to be dead – didn’t we crucify him, and then seal him up in Joseph’s tomb? – they’re doing really strange things – they’re selling all their valuables, and putting the money together, and giving it to the poor. They’re donating their wealth to good causes – feeding the hungry, healing the sick, taking care of the homeless, supporting the widows and orphans. You know – really, really dangerous stuff.
I know. It seems… compassionate. Merciful. Selfless. Peaceful. But something in it scares the authorities – maybe it’s that the numbers of Christ’s followers are growing, and it’s making them, to quote Chapter 4, verse 2, “much annoyed” – it’s making them nervous. So, in the fourth chapter, they arrest Peter and John, who’ve had the audacity to heal a man who couldn’t walk. “By what power or name did you do this?” they ask the apostles, and Peter and John say, well, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified – you remember that stone you rejected? He’s now the chief cornerstone.
There’s not much the authorities can do except let them go and order them to stop healing and teaching and preaching in Jesus’ name. Of course, Peter and John don’t listen, and they don’t stop, so they’re arrested again, and this time they’re put in prison. And in the middle of the night, an angel opens the doors of the prison, frees Peter and John, and tells them, “Go, stand in the temple and tell people the whole message about this life.” Tell people the message – the whole message – about this life. And so they do.
And the next day, the authorities find the prison cell is locked, but empty – and John and Peter back in the temple, preaching and healing and teaching in Jesus’ name.
So, they arrest them, again, and that’s where we find them in today’s reading. They bring them to the council. They say, “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.”
We told you to stop teaching in Jesus’ name – nevertheless, you persisted.
And the authorities are afraid of the crowds, so instead of killing Peter and John, they flog them, and send them home, and tell them, stop teaching and preaching and healing. And still – and this is what comes after today’s reading – Peter and John don’t stop. “Every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.”
And it’s interesting, what the angel told them when opening the doors of the prison. The angel didn’t say, go out and tell people about Jesus rising from the dead, or the empty tomb, or about his ascension into heaven. The angel said, “tell them people the whole message about this life.”
It’s not that Jesus’s death and resurrection and ascension aren’t important – they are very important – but the angel is saying that the Easter story, the good news, isn’t only about that. It’s about what came before, and it’s about what comes next.
Tell the people about this life. Teach them what Jesus was teaching, what Jesus died and rose again for. Remember the Good Samaritan. The Prodigal Son. The woman at the well. Suffer the little children to come unto me. Remember Martha and Mary and Mary Magdalene and Matthew the tax collector. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and remember – love your neighbor as yourself.
Tell the people about this life.
What is this life?
For the apostles and the early church, it was about gathering together and praying together, as we do. Breaking bread together, as we do. Putting their resources together to help others who had less or nothing at all, as we do. They were following what Jesus practiced – building a new kind of community that was about loving and welcoming one another.
Richard Rohr writes about the meaning of Jesus’s death and resurrection in his book The Universal Christ, which Fr. AJ’s book group has been reading this spring. In the book, Rohr argues against a theology you may have heard of – penal substitutionary atonement theory – an old and still commonly held belief that Jesus was punished instead of us, by a God who required justice, a violent justice, to be done because of our sins. Rohr argues against that theory for a number of reasons. Rohr points out that the theory makes Jesus’s death a matter of transaction, of trade, instead of transformation. It pushes us to “thank Jesus” – which is important – but to thank Jesus instead of imitating Jesus. Jesus’s mission wasn’t to punish people, but to heal them, Rohr writes. And that kind of healing happens in community.
Pope Francis, who died this week, one day after Easter, and was buried yesterday, took Jesus’s mission seriously in his own ministry, and followed, imitated, Jesus’s practice of radical hospitality, spending time with and listening to prisoners, homeless, refugees, the LGBTQ community. Here are some words from his final Easter message2 : “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!
“The light of Easter,” said Francis, “impels us to break down the barriers that create division.”
There’s a term for Pope Francis’ message, and similar messages offered by popes – from the Latin, Urbi et orbi – for the city and for the world. It’s a message or a prayer for the city, Urbi – Rome, home to the Catholic Church, in the Pope’s context – and to the world, Orbi – a message, a prayer, not only for those familiar faces who surround us and are like us, but for the whole world, every nation, every faith, every life.
I’ll share one more voice of wisdom, closer to home: Yesterday I was in North Carolina for the celebration of new ministry of a friend and colleague, Samson Mamour, whom some of you know – he was ordained with me in this church back in 2023. Mother Sue Bentley, a longtime priest in this diocese who guided many of us through discernment as the head of the Commission on Ministry – she preached, on the work of the priest, and on the work of all of us, and she reminded us that this work is done together, that we need each other, that we write the story of our shared life and ministry together. She said:
“We are acutely aware that there is a deep yearning for the healing, loving, resurrecting good news that Jesus, the Lord of Lords, brings. We are all desperate in these times to feel the peace that passes all understanding. We want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, just like the Apostle Thomas,” that we heard from this morning, “that Jesus is alive among us, and that the light of Christ is shining in the darkest places of our lives, our culture, and the world.”
The light of Easter that Mother Sue and Pope Francis both spoke about, that light shining in the darkest places, is the joy and the good news and the hope of Easter – the resurrection that follows us through these 50 days and beyond. And we, as people of faith, as followers and imitators of Christ, help carry and shine that light. We are lamp-bearers. And that is the joy, the good news, and the hope of Easter.
Hallelujah! Praise him for his mighty acts; praise him for his excellent greatness.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah! Amen.
1 Psalm 150, from lectionary for Easter 2
2https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/urbi/documents/20250420-urbi-et-orbi-pasqua.html
