New Testament Lectionary Passage for April 19: Acts 2:14a, 22-23

I find the lectionary reading from Acts a curious choice for several reasons: (1) it is more properly associated with Pentecost, which falls on  May 31, this year; (2) the reading snips out of the passage verse 14 (and only the first half, at that), and verses 22-23, which, de facto, takes the reading out of context.; and finally, (3) we are reading only about the crucifixion of Jesus - on the Sunday after Easter, no less - and leaving out the very next paragraph in Peter's sermon, which explicitly mentions the Resurrection.

Verse 14a will be repeated again on Sunday, April 26, signifying that the passage, once again, is a snippet of Peter's Pentecost sermon, and another (albeit fuller) excision from the text will be read (once again eliding out the Resurrection). 

Verses 22 and 23 are the "meat" - a thin slice - of the passage for Sunday.  Peter calls to mind to the "Israelites" in his audience the miraculous works of Jesus, about which they presumably heard, and being people of the Covenant, should have recognized that these miracles were evidence of God's anointing on Jesus (which, indeed, is the meaning of the word, "Messiah").  And yet, these same hearers Peter accuses of turning Jesus over to those "outside the Law" to be executed.

Older translations use the phrase "lawless men"; however, a more accurate translation is the NRSV's "those outside the Law," that is gentiles - the Romans.  The implication is a rubbing of salt in the wound, much like serving Jesus bacon or ham for his last meal before execution.

Can we directly blame the pilgrims standing at the Temple listening to Peter's sermon for Jesus' death?  That doesn't make sense to the Western mind, so immersed in individuality. However, in communal cultures, the concept of corporate sin is a reality (and should be in our culture as well).  To put it another way, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good (persons) do nothing" (attributed to Edmund Burke and Martin Luther King, Jr., among others).

The surprise in the passage comes in the last verse, where Peter, having only recently realized this himself, tells the congregation that this tragedy - the execution of the Messiah - was not an accident, because God foreknew and planned for this tragic event.  Herein lies the great paradox of Providence.  How can God agree to, accept or accommodate the execution of God's own Son?  Again, to our rational paradigm of thought, which is dualistic, it needs to be one way or the other.  But if we can begin to comprehend "both/and" thinking - to see more of a yin-yang than an either-or, we can begin to understand how God can be in control and yet out of it.  Or as John Calvin presciently put it, "nothing is done without God's will, not even that which is against his will" (Institutes, I.18.3).

This is the kernel, I think, that will preach.  When we are confronted by the darkest hour, God is still present, and in control.  As former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Dr. Joan Gray often says, "God will make a way where there is no way."

Today we are facing a crisis not known in our lifetime, as if the world literally stopped spinning because of a tiny snippet of RNA (not since the Spanish flu of 1918 have we been so affected by a pandemic).  We are in the midst of it right now, without a clear path to the other side.  Perhaps it is appropriate, this year, that the Lectionary passage ends abruptly before the mention of the Resurrection, because we are still walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and new life is only a vague mirage in the distance.

Many of us won't make it through the dark valley.  None of us will make it to the other side unchanged.  So what is the good news in the dark valley in which we find ourselves?  The good news is that God is here in the valley with us.  God did not bring COVID-19 upon us any more than God forced Judas to betray Jesus or the Romans to crucify him.  But God was at the cross - even when Jesus didn't believe it ("My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?").  And God is with us today. At the bedside in ICU.  At the drive-by testing site.  At the grocery store and in the grocery delivery van.  Sheltering in place with us.

God did not create COVID-19, but neither did the virus throw God a curveball. Even though the death and illness brought upon us by the virus was against God's will, it is still somehow encapsulated and overcome by God's Providence.

And even though the Lectionary text ends before the Resurrection, we know there is a Final Word that belongs to God, and not to the powers of darkness. Because we celebrated Easter last Sunday.  Even if I become infected, and, yes, even if I die, yet I will live again, because He lives.  Alleluia.