See the Difference

"SEE THE DIFFERENCE"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

August 17, 2025

Acts 2:37-38 NRSV

When they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” –

Did you ever do any of those “Can You Spot 10 Differences” between two pictures challenges?  I used to love those as a kid.  I’ve put one up on PowerPoint in case you don’t know what I mean.  There’s another one on the cover of the bulletin. I consider the one on the bulletin kind of a public service.  If you get too bored during the sermon, feel free to make use of it!  The goal is seeing the differences, right?

We have been looking at different ways of “seeing” or understanding who Jesus is.  We’ve looked at the Gospels, one of Paul’s letters, and last week the Letter to the Hebrews.  You might think that would cover it.  The Bible study had two more.  The next one was “non-Canonical” writings and what they show us about Jesus.  If you haven’t already started in on the cover of the bulletin, hang with me a bit longer.  The challenge is can we see differences, and how shall we react?

You probably know there were a lot of other writings that talked about Jesus written about the same time as the ones that are in our Bible.  We call those “non-canonical.”  That’s with one “n.”  We aren’t talking about the cannons that shoot “cannon balls.”  The word “canon” means they are considered and were approved to be in our Bible.  I don’t have time to fully describe that process for approving them this morning.  A “short- ish” answer is that somewhere about 350 years after Jesus’ life, leaders of the church met in a council in Rome.  They began to identify the qualifications for being included. There were other councils and other decisions.  The criteria for what was in and what wasn’t varied some. 

The differences between what is in and what wasn’t included in the Bible were based on a number of considerations.  One of the most important arguments was about the nature of Jesus.  Was he fully God? Was he fully human?  Did he really suffer or merely appear to suffer?  Some writings that were not included portrayed Jesus as merely human and not in any way God.  Some portrayed Jesus as a god, but not human.  There were a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle differences in how the story of Jesus was told from the very beginning.  Some of those differences were considered unacceptable by the powers that ran the church.

I have chosen to read a passage that IS in our “canon” for this morning’s Scripture reading. It is from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.  But in this passage, if we listen closely, there is a theology that differs from what many Christians recite today about Jesus and his purpose. Matt Laney, a UCC Pastor [ dailydevotional@ucc.org, August 4, 2025 ] wrote about the Scripture I read out loud a few moments ago from the Book of Acts.

He said this is the first record of a “sermon” that Peter preached. Rev. Laney says, “Peter’s first sermon is just as notable for what he doesn’t say as for what he does.  He doesn’t present Jesus as a cosmic scapegoat. There’s no framing of Jesus’s death as a transaction to save us from eternal torment, no talk of divine wrath, no emphasis on being “washed in the blood.” 

“Instead, Peter talks about the crucified and resurrected Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. When the people ask Peter, ‘What should we do?’ Peter doesn’t say, ‘Believe in Jesus so you can go to heaven when you die.’ He says, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness and the Holy Spirit.” That’s the gospel according to Peter. Rev. Laney says, “Framing Jesus as a safeguard against divine wrath was added later by people who never met Jesus in the flesh.”  See the difference?

He goes on to say this: “The gospel according to Peter is less like a fire alarm and more like waking up after sleeping through your alarm and realizing your new life with God is already underway. It’s not sitting in a courtroom for your own trial; it’s being seated at the table after being told your reservation was canceled. It’s about forgiveness, restoration, new community. Joy, not fear.”  Rev. Laney concludes by saying, “It’s time to resurrect the gospel according to Peter.”

To repent is not a popular notion for many of us.  It has been used too often to only mean little more than changing what we eat, drink, who we have sex with and such. That’s a start, maybe.  To truly repent is to look at the world differently and see how our behavior affects others and change our behavior.  The goal is to use that Holy Spirit power to share God’s love.  To make it  the center of all things. Instead, we have let power, money, and prejudice create systems that cause suffering and injustice.

We elected governments that want to cut funding for MARC house, Healthy Start, and the Upper Keys Assistance program – all of which are right here on our property.  We elected governments that built the Everglades For-Profit Prison where innocent people are imprisoned along with those who MAY be guilty. We have jettisoned “innocent until proven guilty.” We cut funding for food for starving children here in Florida, in our own community, and in places all over the world.  By the way, Foreign Aid dollars – before the cuts - mounted to less than 1/10^th of 1 percent of the total national budget. What if we built a budget based on the love of God?

But before you accuse me of being too political, too partisan, let me assure you this is about repentance.  What is happening is “part of a pattern…. We see this everywhere we look. In Gaza, yes, but also in the growing camps at our own borders.” And it has been going on for centuries.  “It’s as if history itself is caught in a trance, [repeating] itself while we keep trying to ‘fix’ the symptoms.”

Even our compassion and good deeds often “just reinforce the same pattern we are trying to undo.”  Changing this takes “more than stopgap measures. The patterns [we are stuck in ] cannot be ended by willpower alone.”  What makes the difference?  We must turn from ways we cling to being ‘right’ instead of being in relationship.”  We must seek to transform ourselves.  “The question is not only, what can we do? It is also, who must we become so that” we stop endlessly repeating this pattern?  That requires repentance.  That means seeing the difference and then being different.

This is truly a “crisis of spirit. Jesus never promised us victory the way empire defines it. He promised us presence. He promised us love that breaks down every wall of separation. He promised us a way of being that is not built on fear or force, but on the radical recognition that every life is connected, every life is sacred.

We must see the difference.  But more than that we must act on it, live it.  We must turn to Holy Spirit power.  Holy Spirit power is love.  Instead of victory over others, see what a difference can come through relationships of “humility, and reverence.  Remember that love is not a scarce resource, but the only force that can” change reality. [ Rev. Cameron Trimble, “Beyond Winning,” Piloting Faith, camerontrimble@substack.com July 31, 2025 ].  Can we see the difference?  Will we choose to live differently?

If we really see it and let it multiply in our souls, this Holy Spirit love of God is like radiant diamonds, bursting inside us.  We see it in Jesus.  When this love multiplies, and it is so powerful it will multiply, it will change us. God will see it come, with us or without us.  Let us repent and claim the Holy Spirit power of the love of God ourselves for the sake of the world.  Then the world will see the difference.  AMEN.