... Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ... let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
(Acts 2:14a & 36-41)
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I struggled with this reading from the Book of Acts. In fact, I struggle with a lot of Peter's sermon. It's a significant passage, if only because - at least as far as is recorded in the Bible - Peter's sermon is the first Christian sermon ever preached. To ignore it seems wrong somehow; to try to explain it away seems disrespectful. But I can't help having the feeling that I'm just a bit uncomfortable with the way Peter puts things. As a matter of fact, it makes me so uncomfortable that I wondered whether using it as a preaching text was appropriate for a visiting preacher. But I decided to plow ahead with it anyway. Sometimes it's safer to talk about controversial texts with people who don't know you than it is with the people who do! If you read the whole sermon - and it's not that long (it's actually much shorter than what you're going to listen to this morning!) - you discover that Peter is addressing his words to his "fellow Israelites." That kind of leaves me with the same bit of queasiness as reading the Passion story in John's Gospel and hearing all of John's references to "the Jews." Peter's exhortation to his hearers to "repent and be baptized" sounds vaguely like a slam at Judaism - especially when we read the sermon (as we inevitably do) through our own lens, with two thousand years of often unfortunate (and sometimes tragic) relations between Christianity and Judaism behind us.
But just maybe that's the key to really understanding what Peter meant with these words; what the author of Acts is trying to get across - maybe what any Scripture is really trying to tell us. Perhaps we have to fight the temptation to interpret this passage by looking backward through our own history and try instead to interpret it by looking forward through the eyes and experience of Peter. What was going through Peter's mind as he offered these words? Peter knew nothing of a "history" between Judaism and Christianity; neither was he thinking in terms of slamming Judaism or condemning the Jewish people. I think it's more likely that as Peter looked at the crowd to which he was preaching, more than anything - he was baffled. As a Jew himself, Peter had become convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. He didn't have two thousand years of theological language and jargon and doctrine to unpack. He was simply convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. And he was baffled. Why his "fellow Israelites" couldn't see that was a mystery to him. And let's be honest - there's a bit of Peter in all of us. Don't we always find it a mystery when others don't see things as clearly as we see them? Doesn't it baffle us when we know we're right and those around us fail to grasp the wisdom of our position? Peter found himself befuddled by the strange turn of events that had taken him (by now) from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to the crucifixion, to the resurrection and now - in this passage - to the amazing events of Pentecost. In spite of the way we might interpret this passage by looking backward into the past, for Peter - looking forward into the future - there was no desire or intention to guilt anyone or to condemn anyone. All he wanted to do was to explain what it was that was so clear to him. And he did it by using two lenses - repentance and baptism. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven" he said. Repentance and baptism.
Peter also mentioned forgiveness, of course - but, really, forgiveness is easy. Repentance is hard work, but asking for forgiveness is easy. Acknowledging that we've done wrong is is pretty easy. But repentance? Repentance is a very different story, and Peter was in trouble from the moment he used that word! Repentance is more than asking for forgiveness. Repentance is more than simply acknowledging that we've done something wrong. Repentance is more than just being sorry or filled with regret. Repentance is actually turning away from the thing that makes us sorry or that makes us acknoweldge that we've done something wrong or that makes us ask for forgiveness. Repentance is a call to turn away, to turn over a new leaf - to change our perspectives and our priorities. This is hard. But this is what Peter is asking for. He's not attacking anyone or criticizing anyone - he's simply saying that in order to truly serve God one has to have a mind that's set on God and that filters out the things of the world that prevent us from setting our minds on God. And that's where the story connects with us. It's not a negative story intended to convince people that they're wrong - it's a positive story intended to convince people to look more carefully; more deeply. And he links it to baptism. "Repent and be baptized ..." Turn away - and start a new life with a fresh way of seeing the world.
That is what we need. A new way of seeing the world. A turning away from that which oppresses people or marginalizes people or casts people aside, and a turning toward the way of God - in which all are honoured and all are upheld and all are welcomed. That's what we as a baptized people are about. When I speak of a baptized people, I'm not talking about water baptism - I'm talking about the baptism that immerses us in God's Spirit and that fills us with Jesus' life and that points us always forward, and that makes us and how we live a sign of the presence of God around us.
I think of the story of those two unnamed disciples on the Road to Emmaus. They were walking, soon after the events of the crucifixion and resurrection. They were dazed, confused, baffled and bewildered - just as Peter was. They didn't understand what had happened. All they knew was that the women had found an empty tomb where there should have been a body laid. And they were lost - not in the sense that they didn't know where they were, but because they didn't really know where they were going or what lay in store for them. As disciples of Jesus they had focussed their lives on Jesus. They had followed him, listened to him, worked with him and learned from him. And now he was gone and they wondered what the purpose of it all had been - or even, had there been a purpose? Or was this time that they had followed Jesus - however long it had been - just a waste; a mistake? It seemed that way on the surface. Looking at it with worldly eyes, Jesus had seemed beaten and the story of the empty tomb just a mystery at best; a figment of someone's imagination at worst. And so they walked, without aim or purpose. And then - suddenly - an encounter. A stranger comes beside them, and slowly they realize - this is Jesus! And everything changes. I tend to think of this as their baptism - not with water, but as their moment of enlightenment. Suddenly, they understood. All of a sudden, they got it! Jesus wasn't dead - Jesus was alive, and Jesus was still guiding them in the way of God. Their only response was to follow. That's all they could do. To bake bread with this stranger (whom they knew was Jesus) and to start this new life he had called them to.
Sometimes our own lives of faith can seem that way. Sometimes we drift, we're not sure where God is taking us, we're not sure what we're being called to. But then - well - when does this stranger appear at your side? When does this stranger point you forward? When does this stranger lift the veil from your eyes and let you see that - in some way and in some form that we can't fully understand - this stranger who walks alongside us and leads us is none other than Jesus? Whatever your baptismal certificate (if you have one) might say - this is your real baptism: the moment Jesus appears and says "follow me, and do my work; follow me, and love my people; follow me, and serve my God - and your God." As a baptized people - that's what we do!
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