Jesus Calls Us
The Birth of the Church
Jumping for Joy
Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5Isaiah 35 The Voice35 Imagine the wilderness whooping for joy,
the desert's unbridled happiness with its spring flowers.
2 It will happen! The deserts will come alive with new growth budding andblooming,
singing and celebrating with sheer delight.
The glory of Lebanon's cedars and the majesty of Carmel and Sharon
will spill over to the deserts.
The glory of the Eternal One will be on full display there,
and they will revel in the majestic splendor of our God. 3 So, with confidence and hope in this message,
strengthen those with feeble hands, shore up the weak-kneed and weary.
4 Tell those who worry, the anxious and fearful,
"Take strength; have courage! There's nothing to fear.
Look, here—your God! Right here is your God!
The balance is shifting; God will right all wrongs.
None other than God will give you success.
He is coming to make you safe." 5 Then, such healing, such repair: the eyes of the blind will be opened;
the ears of the deaf will be clear.
6-7 The lame will leap like deer excited;
they will run and jump tirelessly and gracefully.
The stutterer, the stammerer, and the tongue of the mute
will sing out loud and clear in joyful song.
Waters will pour through the deserts;
streams will flow in godforsaken lands.
Burning sands and hardened wastelands will become pools, shimmering with life;
the thirsty ground will drink deep from refreshing springs.
Abandoned villages where predators once lurked will become grassy playgrounds.
Dry, arid land will turn lush and green. 8 And the road to this happy renovation will be clearly signed.
People will declare the way itself to be holy—the route, "sacred."
Only those who are right with God
will be able to walk its pleasant path,
And nobody—no visitor, no dimwit—will get lost along it.
9 There'll be no lions lying in wait, no predators or dangers in sight.
Only those made right with God will journey there.
10 Those whom the Eternal One has recalled from a punishing exile,
they will go along so quickly. They will walk this path,
Come waltzing to Zion, singing their way
to that place of proper relation to God.
An aura of joy never-ending will attend them;
they will clasp gladness and joy in their hearts,
While sadness and despair evaporate into thin air.
For Reflection
Healing stories rarely operate only at the literal level. They usually hide other theological themes in the middle of further story details. For example, the lame man is a wise businessman. He is situated each day at the Beautiful Gate outside the temple to have the best chance to receive alms from those entering the temple (Acts 3:2). The lame man's location, on the other hand, begs outside the temple from those going inside. He is not there as part of the worshiping community but as someone seeking charity from that community. After he is healed, not only does the man's ability change, but so does his location. He "entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God" (Acts 3:8, emphasis added). The healing moves the man from outside the temple to inside it, from someone unable to participate in the worshiping community to being part of it. The first approach is based on the congregation seeing themselves as being in a place of offering healing to others by including them in the faith community. The inclusion of outsiders is in continuity with the ministries of Jesus and the apostles. However, for such a calling to have an impact, one must ask, "Who are those who sit near our gates, on the edges of the church or of society, who will find healing in being attributed with full worth and personhood by the church.
Note that Peter did not require the lame man's belief in Christ to offer him healing. Instead, it was Peter's belief in Christ that affected the recovery. Similarly, the church need not accept only those who believe and act like us. This passage calls congregations and individual Christians to reach out to the stranger, the other. In the name of Christ, we can offer healing to refugees, those of different socioeconomic statuses, immigrants, the disabled, people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, persons of other sexual orientations, and so forth. Those at the gates and the kind of healing they need may look different in different congregational contexts, but as we see in this text, the gift of inclusion is as old as the church itself. The second approach asks us to identify with the man who is healed. Take a good look into the mirror to see yourself as an individual who has experienced and is experiencing healing through their inclusion in the church. We often think of ourselves as "joining" the church in the fashion of a consumer choosing a restaurant at which to dine or a store to shop. Reminding hearers that the Rock of the church took them by the right hand, lifted them, and escorted them into the worshiping community is to help them celebrate that they are included in the body of Christ by grace instead by their own will alone. (Paraphrased excerpt from O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock Perkins, Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Dallas, Texas, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/peter-heals-in-jerusalem/commentary-on-acts-31-10) Pray
Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for God's gift, of healing, and hope, more powerful and valuable than riches. Pray for God to bring healing and hope into our world and show us evidence of God's Holy Spirit's presence.
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