Repeat Offenders

Friends, we have had another great Easter weekend. Now we have the opportunity to grab a ring side view and see how the Holy Spirit, working through those everyday followers of this now risen and ascended Jesus became a movement of people; a community on the move in their world that changed the world.

As Luke tells the story you get the sense these first Christians were a bit like mosquitoes!

Mozzies are repeat offenders around the BBQ. It does not seem to matter how much spray spray or lotion you plaster on or bug zappers you hang up, those pesky mozzies still turn up and do their buzzing around you!

It seems that Peter, John and the others were like mozzies, at least to those in charge of the city’s religious institutions.

This is the third time the Apostles have been ‘shooed away’ by the city council who are very annoyed and actually a bit scared by them.

But, like water through your fingers, there seems to be no stopping these “Sent ones’ of the Holy Spirit!

They are called in and given a dressing down by the religious council of the nation. But this is now the third time the Spirit ‘springs them’ in a jail break, and the second time they break their conditions of parole!

The conditions of their last two releases were that they were not to proclaim what they saw and heard in this man Jesus who they know is the Son of God who did actually die a horrible human death but then rose to a glorious new life.

The rather disturbed religious councilors say,

Peter and John and the others say,

Jesus had already named this powerplay and the trouble it will cause.

Luke tells us that the Spirit surely did tell them what to say and they simply continued to say it, at any cost.

Surely Luke is telling us that this needs to be how robust and resilient we need to be for his mission. He wants to affirm you and us as his ‘Sent Ones’ (Apostles) who now live in the calling to speak of what we know and have experienced of God’s forgiveness, hope, light and life in this event, this man and this community movement of the good news to which we belong.

I know that I struggle to be this robust and resilient. I suspect you do too. Not everyone is in the movement or wants this gospel movement to be!

Some are like Thomas – they want living proof on their terms. Unless something happens the way they want it to happen, they write Jesus and his people off. We can only show them good words about the greatest miracle that has already happened – resurrection of a human being to defeat death matched with our loving actions. That is not enough for many.

Some are like the Sanhedrin – they want to be in power; in control of their lives and sense that this Jesus and his claims and his people are dangerous to self-powered living. He is, and they know it and don’t want him.

Some are like the crowds of people surging into the city to be close to Jesus and now we hear, Peter, or even his shadow to get their disease and despair instantly fixed. That was what was going on in all of this first church formation at this beginning of which Luke speaks. Many were healed, but did many return to live their thanks long-term?

Some are like the soldiers and guards of these very leaky prisons in the city. They are just confused and feeling very unsure of what it all means and what it might mean for them. I read once that an inmate escaping from the prison of which you are in charge means death!

I am not sure which one you are today?

Robust, resilient and ready and able to speak and do and bear witness to this event and the man who achieved it and proud and glad to be in this good news movement.

Or, looking for more proof that this happened before believing what I am saying it means.

Or sensing danger – saying yes to this event and this man who achieved it for you and belonging to his community of good news means saying ‘no’ to living on your terms and instead living out his calling on your life.

Or just a bit confused and a bit scared of what this Easter resurrection event and this Jesus and this church movement on the move really means for you.

Whoever you are today, I find very good news for myself and for us all when Peter and the others say WHY they keep turning up, keep being repeat offenders, keep speaking and going and breaking their parole.

They keep ‘buzzing’ around the BBQ not to take but to give, not suck the life out of people but to put life into people!

That does not mean skirting around the truth of things though.

They hit the Sanhedrin right between the eyes with the stark truth of the situation

This really offended (and worried) the Council! But it was the truth.

But it was not to simply pay back or judge or condemn them and feel good for a minute. No, it was for life.

Friends, we are called to be like these pesky ‘mozzie Apostles’. We are to be gladly ‘repeat offenders’, not to simply offend people but to bring this event and this man and his good news people to their life as we are able.

I know I am often not robust and fearless and resilient and inspired as Peter and the others. I also know that there is still a power struggle going on in our town and time.

If there was a Sanhedrin in Nuri, it’s goal might not be to protect religion but probably to protect current secular Aussie culture, lifestyle and belief on many issues we face.

“Keep this faith of yours a personal thing. Leave it at home. Don’t say a word. Don’t share this good news that has changed your life. Sure, do your work through your great schools, aged care facilities, Lutheran Care and Family Centre and Messy Church and Shed Happens and all your Sunday church services, but don’t talk about Jesus, this resurrection from death, the human guilt at rejecting this man of love and that thing called repenting and being forgiven, dead people being raised to life, healing within and without by God’s touch and etc … ”.

But Luke shows us without the truth of Jesus and his suffering and death and rising and ruling, and of the wrong and our guilt in rejecting him, and the call to repent of these things as we trust this resurrected Saviour and his work for us and in us, Jesus’ life-giving saving gifts are lost. The hope and the gifts of this Easter Saviour get shoed away and the world loses.

But the Spirit of God is the repeat offender here. No matter how much personal protection we plaster on ourselves, or super-duper technology we employ or control we want to have or confusion and fear we feel, he speaks, he breathes, he loves, robustly, truthfully, kindly and with resilience.

The Spirit breaks us out of our lostness and gives us the words to say and the ways to say it. He will not be stopped when we so easily can be!

For us weary, worn, tired, shy, forgetful, doubtful or sleepy at times Christians, we gain that robustness, that compassion, that resilience we need that they had.

When we forget to show up. He does. When we can’t find the words, he speaks. When we water it down a bit to save ourselves the difference, he remains who he is. When we settle for the easy way, Jesus always goes the full way and calls us back to it – the way of proclaiming things like resurrection from the dead, forgiveness for wrong, healing for broken bodies and spirits, community belonging for isolated people.

I hope we can be repeat offenders who break the parole conditions of our community as we turn up and do our ‘buzzing’ around BBQ’s at peace and at rest in the Spirit’s resilience and robustness so that the good news gets heard and resurrection life occurs.

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