“Heavy Lifting”
Acts 3:1-10, 4:1-22
Thursday night, I went into my room to go to bed. It was late and everyone had already gone to sleep. Since Drew sleeps in our bed with us, sometimes we ask Hollie or Kara to go get on my side of the bed and lay next to him until we come to bed. But as is always the case, they usually fall asleep. So on this night, Hollie was on my side of the bed.
As I stood over Hollie, it hit me
once again that I could no longer carry her to bed like I can carry Kara. It made me a little sad that I can no longer
carry her in my arms as I used to do.
Maybe it is because I am a older, maybe it is
because she is older, maybe it is a little of both, but that is how things are
now. As I woke her up to tell her to go
to her bed, I realized once again that there are
things in life, which we just can no longer carry on our own.
When we are
younger, not only do we think we can do anything, but we also think that we can
carry the weight of the world on our shoulders.
We have the energy and the stamina and the strength to carry anything
that comes our way. But as we get older,
we realize that is no longer the case, and we begin to rely more and more on
other people to help us carry the load.
I do not think it is so much
because we have less energy, less stamina, or less strength, I think it is
because we come to realize our need for other people to help us. We value the assistance and effort of others. We appreciate willingness of others to help
us with those things in life that are heavy for us to carry alone. But most of all, we realize that we can
accomplish more when others join with us, as one, than what we can accomplish
by ourselves. We realize that we can
accomplish much more than what we believe is possible, for the strength in the
oneness of many is stronger than the strength of just one person.
I am always
intrigued by the stories we find in the book of Acts, especially since they
occur after the resurrection. What
intrigues me the most about them is the way they tell about the change that
takes place in the apostles and disciples after having seen the risen Lord and
having received the power of the Holy Spirit. They are no longer a loosely connected band
of individual men and women, they have become something
much more. They have become the very
body of Christ, joined and knit together through their one baptism, united
forever with the Living Lord of Life, Jesus Christ. They have become the very agents and
instruments of God’s salvific mission in and to the
world.
But they have become something
much greater; they have become one with each other. The individual has become the communal. The one person has become the oneness of
many. The work of one person has now
become the work of the one people. The
mission of one person has now become the mission of one people. The power of one person has now become the
power of one people, for the strength in the oneness of many is stronger than
the strength of just one person.
In this world
in which we live, we are confronted daily by the great mission and ministry we
called to do. This work and mission as
God’s one people can sometimes become overwhelming to us individual
believers. I feel this way sometimes
when I see the hunger in the world, the homeless on the streets, the injustice
running rampant, the daily suffering that wreaks havoc on the people around us
and around the world, not even to mention what takes place in our own
community, and sometimes I can become intimidated by the heavy lifting I am called
to do.
The problem
is not that I am called to do heavy lifting; the problem is that I sometimes
believe that I am alone in doing it, that it is more than what I can do by
myself. The danger that can happen is
that I can either become so intimated by the work that I am called to do that I
become paralyzed to inaction, or I can burn myself out trying to carry the load
because I think that I have to do it by myself.
I cannot solve the worlds hunger problem alone. I cannot end homelessness by myself. I cannot eradicate injustice and suffering
from the world by myself. It is way too
heavy for me to lift. It is way too much
for me to do alone. But then I read
stories like the one we read for our scripture reading, and I realize that I am
not alone.
Peter was not alone that day as he walked to the
temple to pray. He walked with someone
else, another apostle who had also seen the resurrected Jesus Christ, and who
had also received the power of the Holy Spirit.
Together, with James and John, they become the model of discipleship and
together they embody for us the promise of Jesus Christ that where two or more
are gathered he is there. It was their
oneness with Christ and with each other that allowed them to confront the
challenge before them in the lame man at the gate of the temple.
It was their oneness with Christ
and with all the other apostles and disciples that gave them the strength to do
much more than just give the man what he wanted, but to give the man what he
truly needed, to give the man what they had already received – the power and
strength of Jesus Christ – the power and strength to stand up and walk – the
power and strength to join with them in praising the One who came to make the
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers clean, the deaf hear, and the dead alive
again.
Together as
one, they did more than just lift a few coins of silver or gold out of their
pockets and drop them in the man’s tin cup.
Together as one, they did more than just give the man what he expected. Together as one, they were able to do the
heavy lifting of their calling, and lift the man beyond what he believed was
possible, beyond his expectations, beyond what he even had come to believe what
he knew to be true. Together as one,
they were able to lift him to a new possibility, a new expectation of healing,
redemption, and wholeness, a new truth about the power and strength in the name
of Jesus Christ.
In those moments when I feel the
weight on my shoulders of our common calling to ministry and mission, when I feel
the weight of the heavy lifting I am called to do as an apostle and disciple of
Jesus Christ, as one who is sent out and who follows Jesus Christ, I remember
the stories I know about the first apostles and disciples. I remember that just as they were not alone,
neither am I, and neither are you. There are others with me. There are others who are one with me helping
me to do the heavy lifting that I am called to do. There are others who are one with me, one in
ministry with me, one in mission with me, whose power and strength have become
one with my power and strength, so that together, as one, we may make the
impossible possible, so that together, as one, we may break expectations, so
that together as one, we may do the heavy lifting God has called all of us to
as God’s Easter people, as the very body of Christ in the world all in the name
of Jesus Christ.
Today we
ordain a new class of Elders, and we are reminded of all those who have been
ordained as Elders in the