Lord God, may your peace and Holy Spirit fill this place. Open your scriptures to us, and may I clearly communicate that which you intend us to receive. May your Word take root and flourish within each and every one of us. Through it may we be strengthened and transformed by your unconditional, living, and limitless love for all of your Creation.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
One of my earliest memories is of sitting in the front pew at our new church with my mother and brother; my father’s voice booming out as he sang hymns and preached. (Although I was mostly interested in raiding the treat table after the service, before they all disappeared.)
Eventually I realized that something went missing during our first few weeks there. I overlooked it for a long time, a very long time, before realizing it was gone. So, five decades later, I asked him about it. In response, he told me the following story…
The church had a new sound system. The first one Dad ever used; and he wasn’t sure how to work with it. The Church Moderator was Pony Felch, a true old time Vermonter, right down to his accent. One day, Pony came to my Dad and said “You know Reverend, we appreciate your strong voice. But when singin’ the hymns, could you take a step or two back from the Mic?”
Humans are wired to quickly detect when something new appears. A new thing might be dangerous; a predator or enemy. Detecting something new and reacting quickly is an important survival skill. Like, when your wife comes home, expecting you to immediately notice her new hairdo.
On the other hand, when something disappears, it’s no longer a threat. We tend to not react as strongly to the sudden absence of something, if we consciously notice it at all. How often has it taken days or even weeks for us to realize that an old friend is no longer around. Or, that someone changed the photos in the parlor?
What interests me about today’s scripture, and much of the Book of Acts, are the recurrent themes of things missing, of voids, and of emptiness being filled.
Filling the emptiness inside and around us is a big part of what the Holy Ghost does. It was essential to the Apostles’ ministry, and ours: filling that God-shaped void within every human soul.
In our reading, the Jewish leaders, perceiving the Apostles’ emerging ministry as a threat, put them in prison – taking them away from the people. That night, they vanish from their cells. Even the guards, who are right there, have no idea they are gone. But the Apostles weren’t hiding. Their word was not missing. The next morning, they were preaching and healing, right back where they’d been all along.
This was an unwelcome surprise to Jerusalem’s leaders. The threat they kept trying to make disappear kept on returning.
To me, an obvious lesson here is that the Word, the Truth, refuses to be lost or hidden. It is always present, and will find a way to make itself known, no matter what. You can’t assassinate it. You can’t imprison it. It’s always there, and will inevitably break free again.
Peter and the Apostles say “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” They are called to bear witness to Truth – capital T – and the works of God; not change their truth – small t – to conform to the expectations of others.
So, does speaking Truth mean we have to demand change, confront those in power? Not always. In an earlier passage, Peter and John testify that the Council had to judge for themselves the truth of their words. The Apostles were not called to force others to listen and change. They were there only to bear witness to Truth; to testify to the power of the Name of Jesus.
The rest of the chapter makes this clear. We learn of Gamaliel. While debating with those on the Council who want to kill these troublesome Apostles, Gamaliel convinces them that if God is in the Apostles, then persecuting them means they are fighting God. And, if God is not in the Apostles, they will fail and fade away on their own.
Now, I don’t think the Council was fully convinced by Gamaliel’s logic. Since, before releasing them, they flogged the Apostles anyway. It seems they accepted Gamaliel’s advice, but didn’t really buy into the logic behind it.
Maybe they saw it as an opportunity to avoid blame by doing nothing. They were clearly afraid of inciting the wrath of the people. And, such riots would displease their Roman masters, which was never a good thing.
Gamaliel believed the Truth of God will always make itself known. That Truth is self-sufficient. The choice we’re given is whether we will bear witness to that Truth, or not.
The end of Chapter five tell us that when they were released, the Apostles “rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the Name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.” They continued to testify to Truth, to preach and to heal, as the angel commanded them.
This call to bear witness to Truth was not new. Plato wrote of it, 4 centuries earlier. His “Apology” records Socrates defending himself against charges that he had broken Athenian law by failing to observe the state gods, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth. …Not that different from what the Apostles were accused of.
Come to think of it, similar accusations are being made against those testifying to Truth today. Even more interesting, the accusations against Aristotle were intended to erode his influence in Athens. The accusations weren’t intended to expose truth, but to gain power. How little the world has changed.
Do you know who brought those charges against Socrates? (I see nobody raised their hand, so probably not!) Gamaliel was right: if God is not in you and your words, you and what you are standing for will fade away and be forgotten. Aristotle’s accuser was Meletus. History tells us almost nothing about him, other than that in their remorse following the execution of Socrates, the people of Athens executed Meletus and his fellow conspirators. His untruths vanished with him.
Plato quotes Socrates as saying, “Men of Athens, I respect and love you, but I shall obey the god rather than you, and while I live and am able to continue, I shall never give up philosophy or stop exhorting you and pointing out the truth to any one of you whom I may meet…” Socrates speaks of his love for them first, before explaining why he refuses to comply. He spoke and did as he did out of his love for his people. He never says he will force them to accept his truth.
The Christian Scriptures were written by and for those who spoke Greek. The author of Acts and his audience knew this history. Nothing in this morning’s scripture was new or surprising to them. It connected an old story with a new one, weaving both into the fabric of our faith. Truth is sufficient unto itself. We don’t need to force others to accept it. We are called only to continually remind them of it; to make Truth inescapable.
A well-known line in Christian scripture is “Faith without works is dead” – from the Epistle of James 2:26. It was last quoted from this pulpit almost exactly a year ago, when our Youth were preparing for their Service Trip to Cuba.
We often understand this scripture to mean that our faith impels us to do good works. But, we can also interpret it as saying that works produced in the absence of Truth, in rejection of God, cannot last. As Gamaliel believed: if God is missing from what we are doing, we will fail and fade away.
In that worship service a year ago, our Youth spoke about how the trip was about service, connection, and mutual understanding. It was about filling voids with the Love and presence of God.
In these present times, misinformation, overblown egos, and obscene wealth, seem to have the upper hand: causing so much harm, loss, and pain, for so many, for no reason. Truth is not found in such things. Those who engage-in lies, or acquiesce-to them, are enlarging that God-shaped void within their own souls.
But, Truth is sufficient unto itself: they will not succeed. That does not mean there won’t be pain and loss. There will be, and is – a lot of it. But remembering the Civil Rights Movement, the words of Ghandi, of King, of Mandela, of the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, and so many other servants and prophets of nonviolent resistance: speaking truth to power requires bearing witness to Truth. It is the act of making the invisible visible, of finding the missing.
So, out of all this introspection and historical precedent, There are two lessons that I’m hoping we will take home from this morning’s reflection.
First, we’ve failed. The present grim situations all around us are our fault. We failed to anticipate them – or at least their magnitude. We failed to minister to those in need before they sought for answers elsewhere to fill their emptiness and despair. We failed to stop the madness. We failed at being superhuman.
Peter, John, Paul, the Apostles, all failed too – the scriptures make that clear. Even Jesus failed, or at least that is what those who engineered his death wanted us to believe.
And that’s OK. We are human. We all fail. Failure is never an option, it’s always a reality. We always miss the mark. Thank God for the Holy Ghost, and the resurrection of Christ. They are proof that failure is not the end, but a beginning.
Second, failure makes space for Truth to grow within us, as attested by the fruit of our works. Are we ministering to those in need, to those who are oppressed, or hurting, or alone, or hungry, or ill, or without a home?
Truth is what those who abuse their power cannot tolerate. Truth exposes their lies and weakness. Truth creates change. Because of Truth, they will eventually fail. They know this. That is why they try to make truth disappear. They deny there are problems. Deny that solutions are needed. Try to silence those who speak Truth, and hope we don’t notice.
This is why we are called to never stopping in the quest to uncover Truth for all to see. Making those who are missed, or ignored, visible; helping them live.
Truth is in the failure, pain, and loss, we and our neighbors are experiencing. The witness to Truth is found in our ministries to the oppressed and afflicted: preaching and sharing the love of God with all whom we encounter, never stopping. This is how we speak truth to power. This is how to restore what is missing from the God-shaped void within our souls.
Amen.
Readings:
Delivered at Memorial Congregational Church UCC in Sudbury MA, April 27, 2025: (First Sunday after Easter)
Copyright 2025, Allen Vander Meulen III, all rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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