{"id":836226,"date":"2021-03-08T16:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T21:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/?post_type=bible_study&p=236226"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:38:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:38:47","slug":"bible-study-easter-3-b-april-18-2021","status":"publish","type":"bible_study","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/bible_study\/bible-study-easter-3-b-april-18-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible Study: Easter 3 (B) \u2013 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RCL: Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Acts 3:12-19<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s passage from Acts is a tricky text that has contributed to Christianity\u2019s unfortunate anti-Jewish and antisemitic history of violence. From the crusades to the Holocaust to today\u2019s rise of neo-Nazism, misunderstandings of passages such as this one from Acts have led to horrific beliefs about Jewish people. In today\u2019s text, we encounter Peter and John entering the Temple to pray (notice they are two Jewish men going to pray in a sacred Jewish place) when they see a man at the gate unable to walk. After healing the man \u201cin the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth\u201d the man jumps up and walks, praising God. Today\u2019s passage picks up with Peter\u2019s response to the shocked worshipers who recognized the man from the gate. Peter uses it as an opportunity to preach the good news of Christ, but in doing so, he seems to blame the Israelites to whom he is speaking: \u201cYou rejected the Holy and Righteous One,\u201d \u201cYou killed the Author of life.\u201d It\u2019s easy to see why Christians through the centuries might have looked at their Jewish neighbors suspiciously, but it is no excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue here is not Judaism, but a certain kind of religiosity that exists in all religious traditions \u2013 a kind of religiosity that wraps itself up in piety and tradition and strangles the movement of God in the community. \u201cWhy do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we made him walk?\u201d Peter asks. Peter is speaking to some of the most pious, religious people of his day in one of the holiest places in the world, and yet the people still seem surprised when God shows up and does something miraculous, just as they were tuned out to the work God was doing in and through Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Jewish siblings are no more guilty of this kind of thinking than are we Christians. How often do we faithfully attend our churches each week, reciting our prayers from memory, and yet completely unaware of how God is moving? How often are we surprised when we see God working? Our tradition and piety should always point to where God is moving. We must be careful not to become so attached to them we miss out on what God is doing. So, keep praying in the temple! Keep going to church! But don\u2019t be surprised when the God you are worshipping shows up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n