Easter 2 April 23, 2006 Title: Strike 3, Your are Out! Text: Acts 3:13-15, 17-26
Easter 2,
April 23, 2006
Title: Strike 3. You are Out!
Text: Acts 3:13–15, 17–26
Let us pray. Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
This past week I had a few extra minutes to just set and think about all the experiences one has in life. Most of them are truly universal, common to us all, like being born, falling in love, getting married, looking into the eyes of your newborn child for the first time, seeing the joy of a child, all universal experiences. There is one universal experience though, at least in America, that I have not mentioned and that is the experience of playing baseball.
There probably isn’t anyone here this morning that has not played baseball at least one time. It might have been softball or hardball, it doesn’t make any difference which one, for anyone that has played baseball has struck out at least once, for some of us, more than once. .
Do you remember how you felt the first time you struck out? You had probably waited a long time to get a turn at bat. But finally it’s your turn; you walk out to the batters box all by yourself. Standing there at the plate, swinging your bat around, there are all sorts of conflicting thoughts going through your mind.
On one hand there is excitement because you believe you can hit that ball over the fence, well at least into the outfield. On the other hand you are probably scared, for you are totally alone, all by yourself in the batters box. Everyone is watching and you know it. The pressure is on, but you try to push those negative feelings out of your head and get ready for the first pitch.
The pitcher winds up, you get set and bam! The ball snaps into the catcher’s mitt and the umpire calls, “Strike 1!” That didn’t sound good. Talk about being embarrassed. How could you have let that pitch get by? Your mind races as you try to think about what had just taken place. You got distracted. You weren’t paying enough attention. You straighten up and wiggle the bat. You swing it over the plate once, right where the ball should be, and you get set again.
This time you’re ready as the pitcher winds up and throws. You swing the bat with all your strength. You swing so hard you almost fall down, but you realize that you did not hit anything. You tried so hard you took your eyes off the ball and it sailed right past you. You start to sweat bullets.
Now you really are in trouble. You’ve got two strikes. Everything is riding on the next swing. Do you swing or not? You know your teammates are rolling their eyes. Your coach is yelling at you. Your friends who are sitting in the stands looking concerned. You think, maybe they are not telling anyone that they know you.
You know you’ve got only one more chance. You can’t afford to mess this one up in front of everybody. This time you’re going to do everything right. You make sure you have the right stance, the right grip, the right concentration. You don’t take your eyes off the ball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, but you’re not sure. Is it too high? Is it a little outside? Is it going to be a ball, or a strike? You hesitate for just a split second, and then it’s too late. Bam, the ball goes by you and snaps into the catcher’s mitt, and you’re standing there with the bat still on your shoulder.
Your stomach churns; your heart seems to stop as you hear those dreaded words, “Strike 3. You are out.” You think, “He didn’t really have to yell “You are out” that loud. After all, everyone knows you struck out. You’re sure that the umpire does it to rub it in and you drag yourself back to the dugout, where you just know that you are going to get laughed at by your teammates and chewed out by your coach. You could just die. What makes it so bad, is that you know you could have hit the ball, probably a home run. There should have been that triumphant run around the bases, the high-fives, but no, now there is just failure and condemning glances.
We all know about being a failure don’t we? “Didn’t I tell you about this?” your father asks. “Don’t you know better than to do that?” your mother lectures. “Honey, didn’t you promise me? Haven’t we been over this before?” your spouse says to you for the hundredth time. “I thought I told you,” your boss says. “Weren’t you at the meeting? Weren’t you paying attention? Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost the company? And last, but not least, “Do you realize the problem that you caused?”
It only lasts a minute, maybe even less than a minute, but it feels like a hundred years. It feels as if every word is dropping another load of bricks onto your back. It feels as if you’ll never recover from your failure. If you have ever had that feeling, then listen again to our Scripture lesson where Peter is addressing the crowd. Peter and John have healed a man who was born with crippled legs, and it was such a remarkable miracle, such a startling miracle, that everyone is running around talking about it. The man himself is walking and leaping and praising God.
And now, in this happy crowd, Peter says “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”
We saw what you did, Peter says. God finally sent the answer to all of our prayers, and you killed him! “You handed him over to be killed.” Strike 1. “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One.” Strike 2. “You killed the author of life.” Strike 3, you are out!
Imagine yourself standing there that day, rejoicing in miraculous healing of beggar you had seen sitting in the same place for years. You are thinking that Peter and John had some great power. Life is going to be good and then Peter tells you that it was Jesus, the one who you thought was dead, was the one who had actually healed the man they knew.
You hear those words and know that he has just called “Strike 3. You are out”. Your happiness is turned into shame, maybe even fear, as you learn that the Jesus who had made this lame man walk is the very same Jesus whom you had killed.
Now it is true that you didn’t personally hand him over to the Romans or actually drive the spikes into his body, but you know that you had rejected him. The one whom God had appointed was the very one whom was betrayed. The one whom all the prophets had announced and for whom they had all been waiting expectantly was the very same Messiah whom they had disowned, denied, beaten, and killed. “You killed the author of life.” With those words you know that it is all over. You can never be forgiven. You are definitely off his team. You are a complete failure.
Then Peter tells you, “But God raised him from the dead.” God fixed what we had totally destroyed. “We are witnesses of this”, Peter told them. And look at what he’s done. He’s repaired this man’s withered and shriveled legs and by doing so has given him a new life.
And now, my brothers and sisters in Christ, he has this new life for you as well. No matter how badly you’ve failed, no matter how many times you have rejected Christ by not saying something when someone has said something racist, or told a joke that puts someone down, or did not tell others of Jesus. It doesn’t matter how deeply you’ve stained your life, no matter how completely shattered your hopes are, you are still God’s children. You’re still welcome in his home.
Maybe you think that what I just said doesn’t apply to you, for after all you have led a pretty decent life. You have not done anything bad enough for Jesus to die for. In fact, God would be glad to have you on his All-Star team.
If you think that you deserve God’s grace, even in the littlest amount, you are in even more serious trouble than you think. You stand a chance of being thrown out of the game. All is lost and there is no hope. Or is there?
You see in God’s baseball game “Strike 3!” doesn’t mean it is over. It means that you are home safe. It means that in spite of your sin, in spite of your failure, in spite of the stain you could never remove, in spite of the fact that you think you deserve some extra points from God, God has forgiven you. He patiently, lovingly, and determinedly worked out his great plan of salvation. Over the centuries, he laid every piece in place, and at last came to us as a helpless baby.
Just 10 days ago we remembered Good Friday. The day Jesus was abused, rejected, disowned and killed, so that we could be made holy in his sight. We all still live in a Good Friday world, where there is suffering, questioning, unfairness, trouble, mistakes, hurts, losses, grief, and death. Yes, we still live in a Good Friday world, but because of Jesus’ resurrection on that first Easter morning we are no longer Good Friday people, but Easter people.
We are Easter people because we know that despite what we might have done or what we are going through right now Jesus’ rose from the grave victorious overcoming death and the power of the devil. He is truly King of kings, and Lord of lords. Amen
April 23, 2006
Title: Strike 3. You are Out!
Text: Acts 3:13–15, 17–26
Let us pray. Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
This past week I had a few extra minutes to just set and think about all the experiences one has in life. Most of them are truly universal, common to us all, like being born, falling in love, getting married, looking into the eyes of your newborn child for the first time, seeing the joy of a child, all universal experiences. There is one universal experience though, at least in America, that I have not mentioned and that is the experience of playing baseball.
There probably isn’t anyone here this morning that has not played baseball at least one time. It might have been softball or hardball, it doesn’t make any difference which one, for anyone that has played baseball has struck out at least once, for some of us, more than once. .
Do you remember how you felt the first time you struck out? You had probably waited a long time to get a turn at bat. But finally it’s your turn; you walk out to the batters box all by yourself. Standing there at the plate, swinging your bat around, there are all sorts of conflicting thoughts going through your mind.
On one hand there is excitement because you believe you can hit that ball over the fence, well at least into the outfield. On the other hand you are probably scared, for you are totally alone, all by yourself in the batters box. Everyone is watching and you know it. The pressure is on, but you try to push those negative feelings out of your head and get ready for the first pitch.
The pitcher winds up, you get set and bam! The ball snaps into the catcher’s mitt and the umpire calls, “Strike 1!” That didn’t sound good. Talk about being embarrassed. How could you have let that pitch get by? Your mind races as you try to think about what had just taken place. You got distracted. You weren’t paying enough attention. You straighten up and wiggle the bat. You swing it over the plate once, right where the ball should be, and you get set again.
This time you’re ready as the pitcher winds up and throws. You swing the bat with all your strength. You swing so hard you almost fall down, but you realize that you did not hit anything. You tried so hard you took your eyes off the ball and it sailed right past you. You start to sweat bullets.
Now you really are in trouble. You’ve got two strikes. Everything is riding on the next swing. Do you swing or not? You know your teammates are rolling their eyes. Your coach is yelling at you. Your friends who are sitting in the stands looking concerned. You think, maybe they are not telling anyone that they know you.
You know you’ve got only one more chance. You can’t afford to mess this one up in front of everybody. This time you’re going to do everything right. You make sure you have the right stance, the right grip, the right concentration. You don’t take your eyes off the ball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, but you’re not sure. Is it too high? Is it a little outside? Is it going to be a ball, or a strike? You hesitate for just a split second, and then it’s too late. Bam, the ball goes by you and snaps into the catcher’s mitt, and you’re standing there with the bat still on your shoulder.
Your stomach churns; your heart seems to stop as you hear those dreaded words, “Strike 3. You are out.” You think, “He didn’t really have to yell “You are out” that loud. After all, everyone knows you struck out. You’re sure that the umpire does it to rub it in and you drag yourself back to the dugout, where you just know that you are going to get laughed at by your teammates and chewed out by your coach. You could just die. What makes it so bad, is that you know you could have hit the ball, probably a home run. There should have been that triumphant run around the bases, the high-fives, but no, now there is just failure and condemning glances.
We all know about being a failure don’t we? “Didn’t I tell you about this?” your father asks. “Don’t you know better than to do that?” your mother lectures. “Honey, didn’t you promise me? Haven’t we been over this before?” your spouse says to you for the hundredth time. “I thought I told you,” your boss says. “Weren’t you at the meeting? Weren’t you paying attention? Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost the company? And last, but not least, “Do you realize the problem that you caused?”
It only lasts a minute, maybe even less than a minute, but it feels like a hundred years. It feels as if every word is dropping another load of bricks onto your back. It feels as if you’ll never recover from your failure. If you have ever had that feeling, then listen again to our Scripture lesson where Peter is addressing the crowd. Peter and John have healed a man who was born with crippled legs, and it was such a remarkable miracle, such a startling miracle, that everyone is running around talking about it. The man himself is walking and leaping and praising God.
And now, in this happy crowd, Peter says “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”
We saw what you did, Peter says. God finally sent the answer to all of our prayers, and you killed him! “You handed him over to be killed.” Strike 1. “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One.” Strike 2. “You killed the author of life.” Strike 3, you are out!
Imagine yourself standing there that day, rejoicing in miraculous healing of beggar you had seen sitting in the same place for years. You are thinking that Peter and John had some great power. Life is going to be good and then Peter tells you that it was Jesus, the one who you thought was dead, was the one who had actually healed the man they knew.
You hear those words and know that he has just called “Strike 3. You are out”. Your happiness is turned into shame, maybe even fear, as you learn that the Jesus who had made this lame man walk is the very same Jesus whom you had killed.
Now it is true that you didn’t personally hand him over to the Romans or actually drive the spikes into his body, but you know that you had rejected him. The one whom God had appointed was the very one whom was betrayed. The one whom all the prophets had announced and for whom they had all been waiting expectantly was the very same Messiah whom they had disowned, denied, beaten, and killed. “You killed the author of life.” With those words you know that it is all over. You can never be forgiven. You are definitely off his team. You are a complete failure.
Then Peter tells you, “But God raised him from the dead.” God fixed what we had totally destroyed. “We are witnesses of this”, Peter told them. And look at what he’s done. He’s repaired this man’s withered and shriveled legs and by doing so has given him a new life.
And now, my brothers and sisters in Christ, he has this new life for you as well. No matter how badly you’ve failed, no matter how many times you have rejected Christ by not saying something when someone has said something racist, or told a joke that puts someone down, or did not tell others of Jesus. It doesn’t matter how deeply you’ve stained your life, no matter how completely shattered your hopes are, you are still God’s children. You’re still welcome in his home.
Maybe you think that what I just said doesn’t apply to you, for after all you have led a pretty decent life. You have not done anything bad enough for Jesus to die for. In fact, God would be glad to have you on his All-Star team.
If you think that you deserve God’s grace, even in the littlest amount, you are in even more serious trouble than you think. You stand a chance of being thrown out of the game. All is lost and there is no hope. Or is there?
You see in God’s baseball game “Strike 3!” doesn’t mean it is over. It means that you are home safe. It means that in spite of your sin, in spite of your failure, in spite of the stain you could never remove, in spite of the fact that you think you deserve some extra points from God, God has forgiven you. He patiently, lovingly, and determinedly worked out his great plan of salvation. Over the centuries, he laid every piece in place, and at last came to us as a helpless baby.
Just 10 days ago we remembered Good Friday. The day Jesus was abused, rejected, disowned and killed, so that we could be made holy in his sight. We all still live in a Good Friday world, where there is suffering, questioning, unfairness, trouble, mistakes, hurts, losses, grief, and death. Yes, we still live in a Good Friday world, but because of Jesus’ resurrection on that first Easter morning we are no longer Good Friday people, but Easter people.
We are Easter people because we know that despite what we might have done or what we are going through right now Jesus’ rose from the grave victorious overcoming death and the power of the devil. He is truly King of kings, and Lord of lords. Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 5:54 PM
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