Sermonstudio

What do athletic coaches, politicians, and preachers have in common? They are expected to give inspirational pep talks, speeches, or sermons that fire up powerful emotions. They are supposed to motivate their listeners to "give 110%," overcoming all obstacles to victory no matter what the cost.

Coaches know that the best pep talk can only get athletes through the first football collision, the first gymnastics tumbling pass, or the first baseball at bat. Politicians know that the most stirring speech is forgotten when the auditorium clears or the channel is changed. Preachers know that emotions raised in the most energizing sermon quickly dissipate with the last chords of the final hymn.

Emotions fire and fizzle without a game plan. With specific directions to follow, athletes, voters, and parishioners find themselves trapped in an endless and random pattern of emotional highs and lows. It's the "same-old-same-old"; "almost-but-not-quite" search for meaning. It's the "woul-da'-coulda'-shoulda -- if-only" self-deceiving quest for success.

Today's text begins with the conclusion of what may have been the most inspiring and motivational address ever given by Peter. Peter had just described how God's plan of love was poured out for them by the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:14-35). Now Peter declares "with certainty that God has made him [Jesus] both Lord and messiah" (Acts 2:36). This fulfills God's game plan of salvation not just for everybody in the crowd but for all of Israel. God's promised Messiah had come to them and he was Jesus of Nazareth. God's promised Christ, Peter told them, was "this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36).

Wow! That really fanned their emotional flames. Our text states that "when they heard this, they were cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37). In one powerful address, Peter had described how God still claimed them as God's own children, even though they killed their own God-given messiah. In one inspiring sermon Peter made clear how God still had placed them within the center of God's love, framed by the outstretched embrace of Christ crucified.

Of course the people were cut to the heart and stung to the soul. Of course they were deeply grieved and saddened when they experienced the full implication of Peter's words. Claimed by God, yes; framed within God's love, yes; but now they were brokenhearted (see Psalm 109:16) and stunned by their own past misguided behavior.

So, now what? What could they do about it all? What can you do when your emotions are stirred up? Well, you can ignore them and push them down deep inside and pretend they just don't exist. However, that doesn't work for very long. Emotions aren't imaginary. They remain in the brain. Somehow they will come out and show themselves. Like it or not. Push them down long enough and they will burst through our best efforts to keep them under control... just like a shaken up bottle of soda when the cap is removed. Sometimes this emotional spray looks like uncontrollable rage. Other times it looks like a flood of tears. Still other times, overwhelming emotions seek release through repeated physical symptoms.

Emotions are real. Being "cut to the heart" is powerful. However, the crowds who were listening to Peter did not ignore their emotions. They did not express them in violent outrage. Instead, the crowds acknowledged them and asked for help. In other words, they asked for a game plan saying to "Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what should we do?' " (Acts 2:37).

This is also a crucial question for us today. God has claimed us as God's own children in baptism. With the outstretched embrace of the crucified Christ God has framed us at the center of divine love. When God raised Jesus from the grave we were filled with overwhelming joy. Now what? It would be so easy to go right back to the same-old-same-old reality. It would be easy to slip back into our almost-but-not-quite faithful enough lifestyle.

However, today the crowd's question becomes our question. Today, God's response becomes our answer. Pay careful attention here. Our text is not a handy dandy three step game plan for the crowds to follow in order to stop emotional pain. The text is not a guaranteed action plan for us to earn God's love. It is not a magic formula detailing how we can convert others to Jesus all by ourselves.

Remember, Peter has just described God's own well-planned acts of love in Jesus. God had taken the initiative then and is continuing to take charge of that saving action plan.

So, what are the crowds to do? Peter responds, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation" (Acts 2:40). At first glance, it looks like God wants us all to save ourselves. However, a closer look at this phrase shows us that it can also be translated, "Let yourselves be saved." Aha! It is God who does the saving. It is God's people who let God act through them and for them. It is God's people whom Peter encourages to "let go" of their need to be in control of everything and "let God" show them what God has promised for them and for their children and "for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him" (Acts 2:39).

Now is God's saving game plan coming into focus? It begins with what God has done, is doing, and promises to continue doing. It begins with God's saving claim of us and God's loving frame around us. Because God is in charge, therefore, we can change. Because in Jesus God has turned the world's view of reality upside down, therefore, we are not trapped and entombed by old ways of thinking and feeling. Because God has turned toward us first, therefore it is possible now for us to turn toward God. Because God raised Jesus, we therefore can heed Peter's words and stick to the God's saving game plan: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus" (Acts 2:38).

Repentance can be a difficult and scary concept for even the most faithful Christians to understand. In our culture, many who encounter the word imagine a screaming football coach, a pleading politician, or a pulpit pounding preacher. These folks are often portrayed by the media as standing in front of frightened people promising punishment and pain unless they respond with lasting behavior change. "Return to the straight and narrow or be trapped and skewered by Satan's harrow" was a familiar threat that echoed throughout upper Midwestern farm country during the nineteenth century.

That would cut to the heart all right! So, might simply and quietly recalling the guilt and shame of our own sin. Stirred up emotions can, indeed, motivate us to change our ways of thinking and behaving... to repent. However, remember that emotions fire up fast and soon fizzle away, most often resulting in no change whatsoever. We are just not able to change all by ourselves. That's impossible. Paul describes his own captivity to sin in these words:

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do... wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from the body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-- Romans 7:19, 24-25

Nevertheless, the Easter message is this: because God has done the impossible in Jesus, therefore, we receive the impossible through Jesus. Because Jesus broke the bonds of sin and death for us, we can also turn away from their control over us. "Repent" now has a new meaning because God is in charge. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Now we can, as Peter proclaims, let ourselves be saved from sin's captivity. We can let ourselves be changed, forgiven, splashed, and loved into a new community.

Pastor Terry was trying to figure out the best way to explain the meaning of "repent" to four- and five-year-old Sunday school students. Finally instead of using textbook words, she decided to use a show and tell demonstration. First, she instructed their teacher, Miss Jean, to stand in the far corner of the room. At Pastor Terry's signal, Miss Jean would start chanting "Let's do bad things! Let's do bad things!" The teacher's helper, Thomas, a ninth grader and cross bearer during worship, was to be Jesus. He was told to stand in the opposite corner holding the processional cross used in worship. At Pastor Terry's signal Thomas was to follow the children closely, stand in their midst, and say, "Jesus loves you, follow him," and walk back to his corner.

Then Pastor Terry gathered the young children in the corner of the room near Thomas. She told them to stay near Jesus and sing "Jesus Loves Me" until they heard Miss Jean's voice. Then they would leave Jesus and move toward Miss Jean. Then when they heard Pastor Terry say "repent" the children were to turn away from Miss Jean and start back toward Jesus. Well, you can imagine what the next few noisy minutes were like in that Sunday school classroom. Over and over the same pattern took place. Children gathered and sung at the cross. They heard sin's enticing voice and stopped singing. They left Jesus and walked toward "the bad things."

At the same time Jesus followed close behind. When the pastor shouted, "Repent," the children turned around and began to walk across the room. However, when they turned around, they discovered "Jesus" right there in the center. Back and forth went the children, turning way from Jesus who never turned away from them; who was always with them whenever they walked.

Thanks, Pastor Terry. Thanks children, for showing us what it means to repent... turn toward Jesus who has already turned toward us. Thanks for showing us that following Jesus is much more than being fired up with emotional highs or being fizzled out with emotional lows. Thanks for showing us that we can follow Jesus because Jesus has already:

claimed us as his own with a baptismal splash; framed us in the forgiving center of his love with a crucified embrace; changed us by breaking the power of sin and death with an Easter morning shout of resurrection. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.