00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:15 Rev. Trudy Welcome to Perspectives, a podcast where the clergy women of the First United Methodist Church of San Diego share their musings on scripture, theology, and what it has to do with us. Welcome to this episode of Perspectives. I'm Reverend Trudy Robinson, and I'm here with Reverend Brittany Hanlin, and we are talking again about what the early church is said to have experienced in the days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:00:31:17 - 00:00:58:14 Rev. Trudy We're looking at it through the book called The Acts of the Apostles, and we're hoping to get some ideas on just how the resurrection, excuse me, the resurrection impacted those who were there, and perhaps, therefore, how the resurrection could impact us as well. That's our inspiration today. Our Scripture is in the third chapter of Acts. 00:00:58:16 - 00:01:21:18 Rev. Brittany It is, and it goes as follows: Peter and John were going up to the temple at 3:00 in the afternoon. The established prayer time. Meanwhile, a man crippled since birth was being carried in every day. People would place him at the temple gate known as the Beautiful Gate so that they so that he could ask for money from those entering the temple. 00:01:21:20 - 00:01:45:14 Rev. Brittany When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he began to ask them for a gift. Peter and John stared at him. Peter said, "look at us." So the man gazed at them, expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, "I don't have any money to give, but I will give you what I do have in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene. 00:01:45:16 - 00:02:11:09 Rev. Brittany Rise up and walk." Then he grasped the man's right hand and raised him up at once. His feet and ankles became strong. Jumping up, he began to walk around. He entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. All the people who saw him walking and praising God, they began to recognize him as the same one who used to sit at the temple's beautiful gate, asking for money. 00:02:11:11 - 00:02:20:00 Rev. Brittany They were filled with amazement and surprise at what had happened to him. What? 00:02:20:02 - 00:02:43:00 Rev. Trudy This is like one of the many, many other miracle stories in the scriptures, but this one has an element that I absolutely love. Peter sees the man who was placed at the gate before the temple, and Peter said to the man, look at us. I love that, look at us. That seems to be the beginning, really, of the healing that happens. 00:02:43:01 - 00:03:07:02 Rev. Trudy Here is a man that very little is said about him in the Scripture. Other than he was disabled since birth, he has no name, no money. Obviously, he has been brought into this space to give him access to the people who might give him money to survive. And Peter says, "look at us." We can assume that the man wasn't looking at him, right? 00:03:07:03 - 00:03:31:01 Rev. Trudy Right. And I think of the many people who I see standing in the middle of the street at a red light, walking slowly down the aisle in kind of in front of every car, holding a sign that says, "Help if you can. God bless you." Right? Or something similar to that. And I think about how many times I have been unwilling to make eye contact with that someone. 00:03:31:03 - 00:04:09:20 Rev. Trudy Because I don't have extra cash and I can't offer him anything or whatever, and it's just much more comfortable for me to ignore them than to actually see them, even if I have nothing to give them but a smile. How many times do I pass by a black man who is walking on the same sidewalk in as I am going in the opposite direction, but who's walking with his head down and unwilling to make eye and talk eye contact with me because of the dynamics of the race that would have him be someone for me to be afraid of, and it is much more comfortable for him to keep his head down. 00:04:09:23 - 00:04:43:16 Rev. Trudy Right. Either way, the inability to make eye contact seems to reduce the humanity of the one who has not seen. Right. And this man's healing begins with being seen. I love that. Now, I have to confess in this miracle story and in others, in other places throughout the Bible, there's a strand of theology that says the righteous is always rewarded and the wicked are always punished. 00:04:43:18 - 00:05:10:02 Rev. Trudy Right. It's those who are ill, disabled, outcast, or even downtrodden are suffering because of something they did. Think about the book of Job. Nearly the entire book is Job's friends asking him what did he do to deserve all that he is going through. Because surely he must have done something. And Job insists throughout the whole book he has done nothing wrong. 00:05:10:04 - 00:05:20:02 Rev. Trudy So, this idea is still around in Jesus' day. In fact, it's still around in our day. So for Peter to have seen. 00:05:20:02 - 00:05:21:12 Rev. Brittany Him, right. 00:05:21:14 - 00:05:35:09 Rev. Trudy Or for Job's friends to have heard him, it would have at least given the man something more helpful than a blanket dismissal. 00:05:35:11 - 00:05:53:11 Rev. Brittany Right. The importance of looking at someone and acknowledging them, right, is to show them that you see them. And that's half the battle in my mind, right? Is the recognition that I see you. I see your pain. I see your experience, and I recognize the humanity and the God in you all at the same time. Yeah. 00:05:53:17 - 00:05:56:21 Rev. Trudy Absolutely. Absolutely. 00:05:56:23 - 00:05:59:20 Rev. Brittany What really stuck out to me? 00:05:59:22 - 00:06:00:19 Rev. Trudy Yeah. 00:06:00:21 - 00:06:21:16 Rev. Brittany You know Reverend Robinson was when Peter says to the man, you know, "I don't have any money to give you." Yeah. "But I will give you what I do have." Right? I do, too, because there's this idea that sometimes when people are asking things of us. Right. And we don't have that specific thing to give, like you said, we look away. 00:06:21:18 - 00:06:35:18 Rev. Brittany I had this experience yesterday randomly. I was hungry. Lunchtime, lots of meetings. And I just ran quickly to Taco Bell. Right. Anyway, that's another story, which again, I got it. 00:06:35:20 - 00:06:36:12 Rev. Trudy Okay. Okay. 00:06:36:13 - 00:06:39:21 Rev. Brittany You don't need to know. Okay, okay. I'll let you know. Anyways, I went to Taco Bell. 00:06:39:22 - 00:06:40:19 Rev. Trudy Okay. 00:06:40:21 - 00:06:56:20 Rev. Brittany And I got two chicken tacos. Cantina style, new, right? But there was no way that I was going to be able to eat both of them. And I got them because I thought, okay, I'll just, like, hold on and bring it back to the church. And I was looping the parking lot. There was a man who was sitting with a sign and he was asking for money. 00:06:57:01 - 00:07:12:00 Rev. Brittany I didn't have any cash, so I like went up to him and I said, I don't have any. I was Peter, I wasn't trying to be, but I apparently feel, you know, how the Spirit works. But I said, "I don't have any money, but I do have this taco. Do you want that?" And he said, "yeah." And so, I gave him the taco in the napkin. 00:07:12:00 - 00:07:29:09 Rev. Brittany And he was very appreciative of it. I say all that to say that sometimes when we are in situations where the need feels greater than what we have to give, we don't know what to do. And so, we don't do anything. But really, in this text, I think that Peter is calling us as followers of Christ to give what we do have. 00:07:29:09 - 00:07:51:05 Rev. Brittany Right. And that's recognition to someone else's pain, looking them in their eye and acknowledging their humanity and their divinity, and also giving what we do have freely. We might not have money, but we do have prayer, right? We might not have cash, but we might have a taco to give. And so, I think that that is what Jesus was teaching them with the crowd of the 5000, right? 00:07:51:10 - 00:08:14:22 Rev. Brittany They say to Jesus, "we don't have enough. We only have this and we only have this." And Jesus is like, "okay, give that. That's what you give. Give the loaves, give the fish, and we'll make do." And I think ultimately the miracle of this, in my mind, is that when we give what we have, God will make it more than enough. 00:08:15:00 - 00:08:17:03 Rev. Trudy I love that, that's beautiful. 00:08:17:05 - 00:08:47:13 Rev. Hannah Hey, it's Reverend Hannah I'm really enjoying this conversation. If you are to be sure to like, follow, subscribe, or whatever you need to do on your preferred platform to get the latest Perspectives episode. We'll be bringing a fresh take on scripture, theology, and life each week. While you're at it. Leave a review or drop us a line. We'd love to see your feedback. 00:08:47:15 - 00:08:54:06 Rev. Trudy Miracles are tricky, aren't they? Oh my gosh. You know, do you think they happen still? 00:08:54:07 - 00:08:57:12 Rev. Brittany Do I think they happen still now that the 00:08:57:14 - 00:08:59:04 Rev. Trudy You don't have to answer that. You know. 00:08:59:06 - 00:09:00:22 Rev. Brittany I. reveal it to me, let me known then. 00:09:00:23 - 00:09:26:17 Rev. Trudy There you go. Yeah, yeah. But it's a question and there's a lot of people who wonder, right? Yeah. We read these stories, about the miracles that Jesus performs. And we think, well, let me just try that. Let me just pray, and maybe that miracle will come. Right? And because we think that's what we're supposed to believe, you know, and it's hard to know what to do with the miracle stories otherwise. 00:09:26:21 - 00:09:27:23 Rev. Brittany Right? 00:09:28:01 - 00:09:53:13 Rev. Trudy So the four gospels record 37 miracles of Jesus. And, you know, as I was doing a little bit of my research, I stumbled upon this website, called Learn Religion and according to their mission statement, they strive to provide help for readers to explore the practices of their own faith, to understand a neighbor's faith, and to familiarize us with the world's major religions. 00:09:53:18 - 00:10:21:20 Rev. Trudy So this is intended to kind of be a, this is generally what Christians believe. And so, with this noble goal, this website says this about the nature of Jesus's miracles: The New Testament refers to Jesus's miracles with words like power, sign, and wonder. Jesus overcame the laws of nature, proving he has power over life and death. 00:10:21:20 - 00:10:46:02 Rev. Trudy I find it interesting that there's nothing that says anything about the people he cures. It's all about Jesus. And I think that's probably part of the point. We have to understand and remember that the Gospels are advocating for Jesus as the Messiah, as the one, as the Christ, the Son of God. And with that lens, the miracle stories serve as proof. 00:10:46:04 - 00:11:20:02 Rev. Trudy So, the miracle stories are first and foremost something like closing arguments that a trial or and election speech on the campaign trail, you know, meant to help us believe that our lawyer is right, that our candidate is best, or our Jesus deserves to be called the Son of God. Now this miracle story happens in Acts of the Apostles, and it's all about the Holy Spirit moving among the disciples who are now called to be apostles, learners who now must be leaders. 00:11:20:04 - 00:11:45:11 Rev. Trudy And with this lens, perhaps the take away from this miracle story is that the disciples did it. They are the ones who will continue the work of Jesus in the world. And so, just as much as it's saying something in the gospels about Jesus in the healing stories, this is saying something about those who follow Jesus in the healing stories. 00:11:45:13 - 00:12:11:16 Rev. Trudy So, two things I have to say while I'm while I'm on a roll. Talking about the miracle stories right? The first thing that really bothers me – there's two things – about miracle stories is so many of them have an element of faith involved, right? Implying that if a miracle occurs, it's because the person had faith. And if it doesn't occur, that person did not have enough faith. 00:12:11:16 - 00:12:28:23 Rev. Trudy Right? Tell that to a congregation, and it only works for the family whose child survived. Yep. Not for the family whose child died. Yep. And they then will feel at fault because their faith was insufficient. That's not the God I know. 00:12:29:01 - 00:12:29:18 Rev. Brittany Me either. 00:12:29:18 - 00:12:32:19 Rev. Trudy Right? And that is not who God is. 00:12:32:20 - 00:12:35:00 Rev. Brittany Exactly. 00:12:35:02 - 00:13:03:06 Rev. Trudy I think the miracle stories, understanding all of that, tell us less about our faith and more about God's goodness, just as they say more about who Jesus is believed to be, then it says more about anyone who was actually healed, right? Just as they say more about what the disciples were asked to do and what they stepped up to do than it does about how they did it. 00:13:03:08 - 00:13:04:05 Rev. Trudy Right. 00:13:04:07 - 00:13:05:08 Rev. Brittany Yeah, I'm with you. 00:13:05:08 - 00:13:19:23 Rev. Trudy Here you go. You follow me. I'm good, girl. Okay. There's another thing that bothers me. Tell me. I know you're going to know this. I might. The second thing is that these stories condition us for ableism. 00:13:20:00 - 00:13:22:06 Rev. Brittany I'm glad you said it. Right. 00:13:22:08 - 00:13:47:22 Rev. Trudy Yes. I know you were going to say that. You know which, ableism, in its simplest forms is thinking that if someone is not normal, whatever that is, if someone is blind or crippled, as the Scripture uses that language, you are less than and you need to be fixed. 00:13:48:00 - 00:13:49:12 Rev. Trudy We know differently, don't we? 00:13:49:14 - 00:13:50:00 Rev. Brittany Very much. 00:13:50:05 - 00:14:16:16 Rev. Trudy We very much do. Helen Keller was the one who said "the chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them." That's good. It is. That's good, that's good. And I think the same kind of thing could be said about anyone who has ever been called less than. Yeah. It says more about the person who would call them that. 00:14:16:18 - 00:14:33:20 Rev. Trudy Right. So that really also casts shade on all of the miracle stories and requires that we think of something of a different way to look at them and to understand what they mean. 00:14:33:22 - 00:14:35:13 Rev. Brittany Oh, absolutely. 00:14:35:15 - 00:14:36:01 Rev. Trudy Yeah. 00:14:36:04 - 00:15:06:06 Rev. Brittany My favorite biblical scholar, Amy-Jill Levine. Yeah. She wrote a book about the signs and wonders of Jesus' miracles. And in my research, thinking about this, she said, "miracles are to help us think outside the box. They're to invite us into wonder." Right? Oh, I love that. And one of the things that she said that really stuck out to me was that the miracle story does have meaning for us today, because maybe it's talking about the lack of access to health care that people have, right? 00:15:06:12 - 00:15:30:11 Rev. Brittany Maybe it's talking about the need for caregivers, right, in these communities. Right. And there was this, again, as you said, there's sometimes this understanding that if you receive a miracle, it's because you have faith. And if you don't receive a miracle, it's because your faith wasn't strengthened enough. But there's so many times where the people who receive the miracles in Jesus' story didn't receive the miracle because they had faith, right? 00:15:30:13 - 00:15:48:05 Rev. Brittany They received the miracle and their faith was strengthened, right? That's how they came into faith. And so reading it in that way helps me to think that it's not about who's in and who's out. It's about God's goodness and being with us in the midst of it all, is my understanding. 00:15:48:05 - 00:16:15:05 Rev. Trudy I like that a lot. And, you know, if we open it up to understanding that this story is really about what the disciples were called to do exactly less than how it was that they did that, then we can be disciples. We can be apostles sent out into the world to provide healing for the world by noticing who is without services, who is left out. 00:16:15:08 - 00:16:28:19 Rev. Trudy All of those things. And we can do so much with that sense of wonder about what if we did something like this? Yeah, right. If we shifted our perspective just a little bit. 00:16:28:21 - 00:16:50:18 Rev. Brittany And I think about this man who's been there right at this, you know, being lifted up and being taken care of in that regard. Right. So many people have assumed that he couldn't do or assume that he didn't or he wouldn't or, you know, but nobody looked at him and said, get up and walk. And sometimes I think that we condition people who are differently able to believe that they can't do that. 00:16:50:18 - 00:17:02:19 Rev. Brittany They aren't able. And so we just ignore them rather than actually being in relationship with them to understand what they can do and how they can teach us to grow and how they might praise God with us. So. 00:17:02:21 - 00:17:18:15 Rev. Trudy You know, one of the best experiences I've had in my ministry was the time that we were providing meals for people who were unhoused, and to sit down and have a conversation as well as, you know, steak and potatoes. We really did serve steak. And I. 00:17:18:15 - 00:17:20:03 Rev. Brittany Love that. 00:17:20:05 - 00:17:31:04 Rev. Trudy And fresh vegetables. But sitting down at the table to hear their stories and to just look them in the eye was so amazing. 00:17:31:06 - 00:17:31:22 Rev. Brittany Yeah. 00:17:31:22 - 00:17:39:15 Rev. Trudy And you have to really wonder who is blessing who in situations like that. Good stuff left to think about. 00:17:39:16 - 00:17:52:00 Rev. Brittany Always like to think about, always. And because we have lots to think about, we have some questions for you to ponder. First: How comfortable are you with making eye contact with others? 00:17:54:02 - 00:18:12:15 Rev. Brittany Secondly: What stops you from helping others or what moves you to help? And: What would miracle stories have us to believe about different abilities and people who are differently abled? What do you think? 00:18:13:19 - 00:18:34:14 Rev. Brittany We hope that you will join us for Tapestry on Sundays at 11 AM in person. And you can join us for conversation, which is our Convergence opportunity to converse, online on Tuesday nights at 6 PM or in person on Wednesday morning at 10:30 AM. We hope to see you there, right. 00:18:34:16 - 00:19:02:19 Rev. Trudy This is a production of First United Methodist Church of San Diego. To learn more about our events and ministries and to access additional learning resources, visit fumcsd.org.