everyone of us is counting dice that we didn't roll

& the loser is the last to ask for help

The holy scripture from the book of Acts!

Well, it doesn’t take too much to connect to this Bible story, either. Does it?

Here’s a man whose ailment keeps him from entering the temple.

Sound familiar?

And yes, we’re trying to be preventative, but the situation isn’t all that different. Whether we have it or not, an ailment is keeping us all from entering the house of God these days.

We know what it’s like to be the man in today’s scripture…

But, we are a DIY people, a people who prefer to do it ourselves. We like to stand on our own two feet and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But all this novel coronavirus stuff is calling all that up short. 

In fact, as our bishop put it, “viruses don’t move. People move.” In other words, what’s proliferating this disease is our own two feet! 

Our compulsion to try and eke out our own existence, is the very thing that’s menacing it! 

This has always been the case, though. Only now it is more apparent. 

While this virus can hide its symptoms for weeks, it’s showing all the limitations of our efforts for all to see. Isn’t it?

And it’s not very pleasant experience. 

…The HERO in today’s scripture, though, is past all that.

And no, I’m not talking or Peter and John. No, I’m talking about the man whose name we don’t even know. This man who’s recognized, not for who he is, but rather for what he can’t do.

Which is pretty much anything…

This man isn’t putting his or anyone else’s existence in peril with his efforts anymore, because he’s not doing anything at all anymore! 

…Yes, I’m referring to the man we can all relate to, the man who used to sit daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate and ask for alms from those entering the temple.

This man’s livelihood consists of begging others to help him. 

Why, he can’t even get to the place where he sits and asks for support. No, he has to be carried there!

This man is a picture of helplessness. 

But, it’s him, and him alone, who winds up truly praising God at the end of today’s scripture!

And it all began on a day like any other…

Like every other day, some acquaintances carried this man to the Beautiful Gate. Presumably the entrance for wealthier members, where he would sit and ask for assistance…

As the people go in and out, some give a little, and some pass by altogether. Nothing too unusual about that. 

…But then, Peter and John walk past. And when they pass the man doesn’t appear to peg them for anything special. Like everyone else whose passed by, he asks them if they have anything to spare.

When he asks these two, though, he gets more than he bargained for…

After he asks them for alms, they stop, look him in the eye, and to tell him they don’t have any money to offer.

But, Peter says, what they do have, they offer 'in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.’ “Stand up and walk,” Peter says. Taking the man by the hand and raising him up.

And lo and behold, that’s exactly what the man does!

No sooner is he up and walking, than he’s leaping about! Next thing you know, he’s praising God!

BUT, the healing isn’t complete until Peter and John walk the man who used to sit at the gate of the temple, into the temple.

The real healing is the healing of what kept this man from entering the house of God.

And that’s what we can really relate to, isn’t it?

Even without all these COVID-19 protocols, there’s still plenty that keeps us from entering the house of God and worshipping. 

We all have more than enough hiding in our attic to hold us back from coming any closer to God than sitting at the gate, beautiful as it is, but going no closer. 

…Perhaps it’s some thing we did in the past. Some mistake we can’t seem to let go of. Or maybe it’s something that happened to us. Something that’s left us feeling worthless. Or it might be some perennial indiscretion that no matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to kick. 

More than likely, though, is a confusing combination of all three.

No matter what, though, it doesn’t matter who we are, we all have an ailment that keeps us from entering the temple and praising God. 

And even if we don’t literally sit at the gate, even if we do cross the threshold to enter the house of God; there’s still plenty that would keep us from truly worshipping. Isn’t there?

Baggage that makes us feel as if we don’t really belong, that we’re frauds in the house of God…

We all wrestle with this more than we care to admit. Those ailments that no one can see, but keep us from truly praising God nonetheless. Keep us at a distance from God.

…In a way, that’s what’s really hard about this self-imposed exile. Isn’t it? Not being able to fill every moment of our time, not be able to bounce from one place, one thing to the next; is forcing us to reckon those voices in our head we so often try and drown out with our continual hum of our busyness. The voices that say we don’t belong. The voices that say we’d better keep our distance from God.

We don’t need to have a physical ailment to keep us at the gates of the house of God, we all have a spiritual one…

The painful truth is, we’re not so much Peter and John boldly entering the temple, as we are the fellow sitting at the gate, watching everyone else go in. Wasting away from whatever ailment it is that keeps us from getting too close to God.

…You know what, Peter and John weren’t even that Peter and John most of the time!

The rest of the story, is the story of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth getting out of Peter’s hands! Pushing Peter to the place where he’s not so sure! Dragging him to the place where he needs to be raised up into this new thing God’s been doing all along!

…The truth is, not only do none of us get ourselves into the house of God, we don’t even keep ourselves there! 

We are constantly being raised up and walked into the house of God over and over again! This is what true praise looks like; not standing on our own two feet, but being raised by God!

This is how the life of faith works! You don’t graduate to a level of self-sustained, self-sufficient faith! Our lives are daily held up by God!

And in case you think I don’t mean you, listen up: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are healed. You are raised up in his name! You stand on his merits!

Whatever it is that you think would keep this words from you, tuck them away into the wounds of your risen Lord and Savior! That’s what they are there for! 

Have you ever noticed that we’re promised when we’re raised we’ll be fully healed, but when Jesus is raised he’s still bearing his wounds? That’s because these wounds are the place where all that would keep us from God are put away forever!

The one who’s raised bearing these woulds is named Jesus Christ of Nazareth! And he’s the healer of your every ill!

This promise is your’s! You’ve been baptized into it!

(And if you’re not baptized, let us know, that’s the easiest thing in the world to take care of!)

In your baptism, all your efforts to stand on your own two feet, have come to nothing! In your baptism, you died in Christ. And you are not going to get more dead some day. You are as dead as a doornail in Christ. Right now.

But, if you have died in him, much more surely will you also be raised in him! 

This is what holds you up. Right now. Not a week from some Thursday, but right now!

…If you’re anything like anyone else in the world right now, this virus has taken you down a peg or two. Bowled you over and left you reeling. 

And, if you’re anything like the rest of us, you’re also doing everything you can to pick yourself up and get yourself going.

And, I wish you luck, I really do. 

But all your efforts, like the rest of ours, are doomed to futility. (Rom. 8:20) This is how our Creator wants it.

Now, perhaps soon these quarantine measures will be lifted and you can fill your life with enough distractions to ignore this.

…But, maybe not. Hopefully not.

Maybe in this time when you can’t pass through the gates of the house of God, the Word of God would take up residence in you! Fill you with a promise stronger than all your efforts And more persistent, too!

That you are held in Jesus’ name! That you are raised, and raised again and again, in the name of the one you’ve been baptized into, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

If you’ve been knocked down, you’re right where you need to be to truly praise God today! If you don’t have it in you to pick yourself up again, you have all the power you need for Jesus to raise you up in his name!

And that is what creates true worship every time! Whether it happens in the temple, or not!