Moving with the Gospel

Last updated on: April 25, 2017 at 1:50 pm by John C Holbert

Moving with the Gospel 2017-04-25T13:50:02-05:00 John C Holbert

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I must begin with an apology. I have not been able to write my usual blogs for two weeks, not because I have been lazy, and not because I have tired of the task, one I have taken up for 6 or 7 years. I have not written, because my wife and I, after 32 years in our home in Dallas and after over 40 years in that same city, are pulling up our deep southwestern roots and relocating to Los Angeles, CA. At our age—we are both 70—this is a significant alteration in our life, not to say a ridiculous one.

Los_Angeles,_CA_from_the_air This change of place is fraught with tension and possible turmoil. We will be living in the back building—in fact, a two-story garage—behind the home of one of our children, his wife, and their two children, our grandchildren. Hence, the move! To add to the sweetness of it, our other child, a daughter and her husband, also live in LA. Thus, with this move we will reunite our once far-flung family; all of us will be in one city for the first time in many years.

Now, before you get any odd ideas about what this new garage home might look like—piles of tires and oily rags strewn around, suffused with the smells of gasoline and various sorts of lubricants—this garage is astonishingly clean and already plumbed and wired for a living space. To be sure, it is small—very small. 600 square feet could be stretching it. Our Dallas house is about 1750 square feet, so we are downsizing by about 2/3. We have, accordingly, held a very large yard sale, have carted some 30 boxes of books to a local book buyer, have made several trips to the Goodwill collection point near us, and are in the tedious process of boxing what is left of our earthly goods. There is some genuine delight in this process, I must admit, but I have always had very little attachment to the things of my life. You will need to ask my wife about her feelings on this score.

I am sure that is more than you wish to hear about our significant life changes; none of it can be of the remotest interest to your congregation who has come to hear from you the gospel, not the meanderings of an elderly couple, unless that couple be Abram and Sarai. Yet, there may be some important connec Dallas_Pkwy,_Dallas,TX-_panoramio tions between our life change and the famous sermon of Peter to the assembled crowd at Pentecost, nearly two millennia ago.

Let me first make clear to you what I have said already about this text in previous lectionary comments, both on Patheos and in other essays; I abhor the deep and repulsive anti-Judaism of Peter’s sermon. He goes out of his way, according to Luke, to pin Jesus’ murder squarely on the Jews of his time. There is no need for me to quote the disgusting calumnies that literally pour from his cankered lips against many of those who are listening to him. Of course, Peter is hardly alone in this noxious attack; the other gospels, especially John’s tirades, assault the Jews as killers in no uncertain terms. After reading the New Testament’s stories of Jesus’ arrest and trial and crucifixion, there can be no doubt in any careful reader’s mind concerning the guilt of the Jews in these acts. In fact, the Romans nearly get off Scott free as the Jewish authorities are excoriated and caricatured as bloodthirsty Roman patriots in their pursuit and murder of this Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, one of their own people. Once again, this year on Good Friday, I listened in unabashed horror as John’s gospel account of the last days of Jesus’ life was read to us in large chunks. It was the Jews, claims John again and again, who perpetrated the whole thing. Such storytelling is far more than painful; it is nothing less than ironically murderous itself, leading as it did historically to Jew-hating, Jew-baiting, and ultimately to anti-Semitism and the monstrous deeds of so-called Christians who purposely blamed the Jews for numerous acts of evil, from desecration of the communion hosts, to ritual infant murder, to world economic control. The ovens of Auschwitz follow directly from the anti-Jewish diatribes that appear in our beloved Gospels. That truth must never be forgotten or downplayed as we preach.

Despite that terrible reality, the sermon of Peter is still worth hearing for its convictions about the impact of the life and ministry of Jesus. Today’s portion is a good example. Peter identifies Jesus as now “both Lord and Messiah,” that is the true kyrios (Lord), not the supposed lords that sit on the thrones of Rome and elsewhere, as well as the Messiah of Israel, the one long-awaited whose promise was to bring peace and justice to the earth as promised by God. Peter’s claims here are enormous, dangerous and grandly hopeful. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not, and if Jesus is Messiah then the time for peace and justice work can no longer be delayed.

Note carefully how Peter characterizes the immediate effects of the baptism in Jesus that he offers. Two things will occur, he promises. First, “your sins will be forgiven.” That is, those things in your life that have separated you from the love and grace of God will now be expunged and you will become a true follower of that God. Second, “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That is, God’s presence will be near you and in you, freeing you for joyful obedience to love yourself fully and your neighbor whleheartedly.

And that brings me to the connection between our move to LA and the ever- present reality of the Holy Spirit, as promised by Peter. I know that wherever I go, I am never alone; God is always near, loving me, and urging me to follow God’s will and way. I titled this blog “The Peripatetic Preacher,” mainly because I have been blessed over the years of my teaching ministry to travel to many places on God’s earth and to preach the gospel to many. I assumed that those travels would begin and end in Dallas, Texas until I could travel no more. But now I will travel to a place I thought I would never live in, the vast metropolis that swallows nearly all of Southern California. There is trepidation as we travel there as well as hope. Our whole immediate family will once again be together in one city, and as my wife expressed it some days ago, “You and I have offered our ministries to strangers for many years; it is now time to offer it to ourselves and our family.” I agree completely, but I would also add, under the influence of Peter’s promise, that our ministry will also expand to other strangers that currently we do not know. Yet, with the power of the Spirit, those strangers may become friends and partners with us in new ventures for God in a new place. So, I will continue to write and reflect on the gospel but now in a different locale. Yet, the same God will be there, loving and guiding as in my past. 1449259255 Holbert2

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