The Shadow of Peter - Sept. 1, 2013

The Shadow of Peter

Psalm 121, Acts 5:12-16

September 1, 2013

Grace Presbyterian Church

Rev. Dr. Richard Miller

           

Indirect Claim to Fame

            In one of the Andy Griffith episodes, the governor of North Carolina came to Mayberry, congratulated Barney, and shook his hand. When the governor left, Barney looked down at his hand and said, “I’m not going to wash this hand for a month.”[aired January 7, 1963] If you ever watch the opening segment of Jay Leno, you see about twenty-five people reaching out to touch Leno’s hand as he walks by.

            To touch or get close to the rich or famous does something to us mortal creatures. We are inwardly thrilled and spend the next week or so telling others about our great moment. Many years ago in Cincinnati I had lunch with Vincent Price. For the next few days I told everyone I knew about it. In 1956, when my dad kissed Elizabeth Taylor in the Stork Club in New York, I felt indirectly connected to the girl I fell in love with in National Velvet. In my family alone, I could include the time when my sister-in-law’s son, who is a veterinarian, once treated John Lennon’s cat. Or the fact that when my daughter was an Occupational Therapist she had Yogi Berra’s brother as a patient. Many of us have touched someone famous or are related to someone who did so. And for some reason, when such events take place we feel more important or a bit more special, just for a fleeting moment. If Billy Graham walked down the aisle right now, I’m sure that many of us would be thrilled to be able to shake his hand. To have our picture taken with someone famous results in us framing that picture and hanging it in a very prominent place in our house.

Aura of Influence  We basked in our moment of feeling important simply because we connected with people who were famous and who exercised influence over the lives of others. Influence: the capacity or power of persons or things to produce effects on others by intangible or indirect means.

Influence We claimed our moment of fame simply because we connected with people who exercised influence over the lives of others. If they speak, people listen. If they do something, people watch. They can change the course of history simply by who they are. It has been said that influence is the steady, persistent, irrepressible power of what one is. Such influence can be for good or for evil. It can glorify God or exalt a person.

In some ways, our influence on others is something like a shadow. That is to say, everyone casts a shadow of influence on everyone they meet. Some people have special shadows that affect us by their presence. If we’re upset, having them put their arm around our shoulder calms us down. When we are discouraged, their words encourage us to go on. Such people have a non-anxious presence that spills over into our hearts whenever we see or talk to them.

Shadow in the Bible References to shadows in the Bible are quite interesting. In Isaiah’s time, the intensity of the midday sun was thought to be the work of demonic powers. Thus one kept to the shadows to be safe. Isaiah speaks of the “shade of a great rock in a weary land.” [Isaiah 32:2]. Isaiah may have had the desert in mind when he wrote this. Perhaps he envisions a company of pilgrims walking in the glare of the Syrian sun with eyes smarting and lips burning and tongue and throat parched and dry. And then they see a mighty rock in the distance, and the pilgrims hurry to the rock so that they might get relief in its shade.

And our morning psalm states that “The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.” [Psalm 121:5-6] In such instances, God’s shade provides a place of rest and protection, and relief from the tumult and anxieties of life.

Shadow of Influence in the Bible  In the Bible, many people possessed a shadow of influence. Jesus was such a man. Luke tells of the time when Jesus was going to the house of Jairus whose daughter was very ill.

As he was walking, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. Immediately her bleeding stopped. Jesus knew at once that someone had touched him because he had felt power go out of him. [Luke 8:40-48] Another time Jesus and his disciples landed at Gennesaret. People sent word to the surrounding country that Jesus was there.

Matthew tells what happened next: “After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.“ [Matthew 14:35-36 NRSV]

Paul In the Book of the Acts, Luke tells us that because God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured. (Acts 19:11)

Simon Peter Our morning scripture tells a similar story involving Peter. Peter had performed many miraculous acts of healing. For instance, he had healed Aeneas who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. (Acts 9:32ff) And he brought Tabitha back to life. (ibid.) His reputation as a healer began to spread to such an extent that people believed that he could cure any disease. The apostles used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade, a 45 foot long covered walkway next to the Temple. The peoples’ belief in the ability of Peter to heal was so great that they would lay their sick in the street on beds or mats with the hope that a part of Peter’s shadow would fall on them as he passed by and thus cure them. [Acts 5:12ff] They felt his healing energy was so powerful that they didn’t need him to touch them or speak to them or even to look at them. His shadow was all that was needed to connect to his healing energy.

Everyone Casts a Shadow Although we’re not Peter, we also cast shadows of influence. Sometimes our influence is good and sometimes bad. But either way, no matter who we are, our shadow is inevitable.

I say this because every day of our lives someone is watching what we do and hearing what we say or what we don’t do or don’t say. And what they see and hear influences their lives for good or for ill.

Shadows of Friends  All of us have been healed or energized or calmed by someone else’s shadow. Sometimes we feel more content and at peace simple because a certain person is with us. If we’ve had a bad day, our spirits soar when a good friend calls us. Sometimes good friends stop by and we laugh together. Or maybe we cry together.

Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind‑power, and the other water‑power.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (1809‑1894)

Our very existence exerts an aura of influence those around us.

Francis of Assisi  One day Francis of Assisi said to one of the young men of the monastery, "Brother, let us go down to the town and preach." The novice, greatly delighted and proud of being asked to be Francis' companion, quickly accepted the invitation. They went down the principle streets of the town, the side streets and alleys, and then returned by another route to the monastery. The younger man, thinking that Francis had forgotten his purpose in going to the city, said, "You have forgotten, Father, that we went down to the town to preach." The older man replied, "My son, we have preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We have been seen by many; our behavior has been closely watched; it was thus that we preached our morning sermon. It is of no use, my son, to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere as we walk."

Rarely Conscious of our Shadow or the Effect it is Having Most of the time we aren’t even aware of how much our shadow influences others. For instance, in 1960, a fifteen year old girl was a member of my youth group in Waterloo, Iowa. I met her forty-five years later as a Director of Christian Education for a Presbyterian Church heading up a youth mission trip in Kansas City. She said, “It was your influence on my life that led me into full time church work.” I had no idea. In fact, I didn’t remember her at all.

Joe Senter  In the early 1970's, I had a dial-a-prayer ministry in Cincinnati. Each day I would read a scripture and offer a prayer. Over a year’s time, thousands of people would dial to listen to a scripture and my prayer. At the time, I had no idea that day after day a ten year old boy named Joe Senter was dialing the number and listening to God’s Word and my prayer.

On December 20, 2009, he wrote me a letter and said the following: “Pastor Miller, I don’t believe that my salvation would have happened to me if it weren’t for your recorded prayers and Scripture readings that I had listened to all those years ago. You have made a profound and lasting impression on me when I was ten or eleven years old, and I am writing to thank you for that, at age fifty-one.” I had no idea that a ten year old boy was listening to my Dial-A-Prayer.

Final Thoughts  As you go into the future, always face Jesus, the Light of the World, and your shadow will fall behind you as an abiding influence for good rather than evil. I leave you with this poem.

Poem  “My life shall touch a dozen lives before this day is done’

Leave countless marks for good or ill, ere sets the evening sun.

This is the wish I always wish, the prayer I always pray:

Lord, may my life help other lives it touches by the way.” [Source Unknown].

Amen.

Psalm 121 NRSV

I lift up my eyes to the hills—

   from where will my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

   who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;

   he who keeps you will not slumber.

He who keeps Israel

   will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

   the Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

   nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;

   he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep

   your going out and your coming in

   from this time on and for evermore.

Acts 5:12-16 NRSV

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.