RBWords

  

     Peter and John have just healed a crippled man in Jerusalem!  The "leaders, elders, and scribes" are amazed because Peter and John were known to be among the ordinary villagers from Galilee who had followed Jesus.  In the eyes of these leadership folks, the disciples were country bumpkins!  Where did they get the power to heal?  This was all the more disturbing because the healing had been done in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, who had been recently crucified as a result of their plotting!  When Peter and John are called in to account for their behavior and warned not to repeat it, they respond in the words that are quoted above.  These words basically underlie the preaching of the faith in every place where the government opposes it.  To whom do we owe our ultimate allegiance?

 

     In a country and culture like our own, where religious faith has become so privatized, public religious profession can lead to confrontation with civil authorities.  Where does the "public good" trump religious faith?  Peter and John say that they cannot be quiet about what they have seen and heard.  Is our own faith like that?  This is a subject that can make us uneasy because we may all too quickly dismiss public demonstration as the work of "religious fanatics." Are we among the "leaders, elders, and scribes?"  Or are we in the position of having seen and heard things that we must speak about in regard to Jesus Christ the Nazorean?  AMEN