clinging to the sacred

In Today’s Episode from the Acts of the Apostles, we read …

As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,all the people hurried in amazement toward them in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”

This is the same man who was cured yesterday at the Beautiful Gate. Our drama moves today to Solomon’s Portico. I love how this story even sets the stage for us!

Peter moves into a dramatic speech, the essence of which is … “Stop gawking at us! WE didn’t do this!! We have been transformed through the saving power of Christ. This man has been transformed through Christ. And so to can you be if you just believe!.”

The word that stuck with me as I read this passage today was “the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter & John.” This whole Jesus died on a cross to save our sins and then rose from the dead 3 days later is pretty hard to get your hands around sometimes. But the real life manifestation of that love, this saving power in your own life, that’s something you can definitely get your hands around, perhaps even cling to.

We’ve all had our own versions of this in our lives. Someone has been the mediator of the sacred, the conduit through which our loving God has transformed our lives, and we sense the spark of the divine in them. We may even cling to them, the human mediators of God’s love. But deep down we know, that we have been transformed through Christ and in Christ. And so we give thanks.

And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.