Cut to the Heart - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

0:00 Peace be with you, friends. All during the Easter season, of course, we read from the Acts of the Apostles, one of the really great texts. I often tell people just starting out with the Bible, maybe read through the Acts of the Apostles first. You know, it's adventurous, it's fascinating, and also, it's about us because we're all meant to be apostles sent by the Lord Jesus. So the stories we read there are meant to be about the church. Anyway, during Easter, we really get into the Acts of the Apostles. And I love our first reading for this fourth Sunday of Easter because it's part of Peter's oration on Pentecost morning. Keep in mind, Peter, who was so frightened that at the moment of truth, he denied he even knew the Lord Jesus, that timid, frightened man. Now, filled with the Holy Spirit, becomes this bold preacher. He stands up in the temple area, which is a way of saying in that ancient time and place, something like Times Square.

1:00 He's standing up in the middle of the most crowded and prominent place in the city. And then he boldly proclaims, he raised his voice and proclaims, listen, let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified. Well, in a way, this is the mother of all sermons, that if my sermon today doesn't reflect this, I'm not really preaching the gospel. You know that story I love? It's from the time of the Reformation. I think it was in Scotland. There was a church where they said the sexton had the job of locking the preacher into the pulpit, and he wouldn't let him out until he had preached the gospel. Well, there's something here that unless you're saying some version of this in your homily, you're not really preaching. Now, look what Peter says. This Jesus, whom you crucified. Here's the first thing.

2:02 No hiding. There are no excuses possible. No one can say, I'm okay and you're okay. Deep down, we're all good. We don't really need a Savior. No, no, no, no. Authentic Christian preaching always boldly names the problem of sin. See, if we don't need a Savior, we're not going to appreciate Jesus. That's who he is. If we start soft-peddling our sin, then we will not understand him at all, and he will devolve into this kind of pop culture version of the teacher, the guru and so on. No, no. This Jesus whom you crucified, the author of life came, Peter says another place, the author of life came and you killed him. If Jesus came back now, think of Dostoevsky here in the Grand Inquisitor scene. Jesus came back now, what will we do? We'd kill him. Trust me. Now, why? Because he's the embodiment of God's order, of God's mind, God's heart, God's way of being.

3:09 And we sinners are opposed to it. That's why Jesus draws us out as sinners. He shines a light so there's no place to hide. Well, see, good preaching will always have this quality. It doesn't make excuses. It doesn't pretend we're okay. I don't know what names sin. Okay, but there's, of course, more. If that's all there is, well, then we just stay in a state of depression. Let the whole house of Israel know for certain what? God has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified. Lord, that word packs a punch. Kyrios in the Greek of the New Testament. Had a double sense, of course, a kind of political sense, because I've told you before, Kaiser was Kyrios. Caesar was the Lord.

4:04 The emperor, the top guy, the one that we're listening to. No, no, this fisherman from Galilee, this is kind of nobody, but now standing up in Times Square, standing up in the great public place of the temple and saying, no, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, he's made him the Lord. Not Caiaphas, not Pilate, not Caesar Augustus, not Tiberius Caesar, not any of these people. Huh. Jesus, whom you crucified, crucified carpenter, is now the Lord.

4:44 He's the one you follow. He's the one you follow. You know, good Christian preaching will always have that quality of calling you to submit to the lordship of Jesus. But there's a double sense now. So, yes, the political idea. but kurios well that's the Greek translation for a Hebrew person of Adonai you wouldn't say the sacred name of God and we say Yahweh but you wouldn't pronounce that you'd call him Lord, Adonai huh God has made Lord this Jesus whom you crucified Peter is affirming also the divinity of Jesus he's not just oh a greater political leader than Caesar a greater cultural figure than Caesar no no he's as we say in the creed God from God light from light true God from true God listen now intensifying his primacy he's the one he's the one let me glance I'm going to focus on this first reading but let me glance at the gospel from John talks about Jesus now as the shepherd, right?

6:04 He walks ahead of them and the sheep follow him. Why? Because they recognize his voice and they will not follow a stranger. It's the same idea. Who's the kurios? Well, there are a lot of candidates for kurios, politically, culturally, every other way. There's one. There's one Lord. One Lord Jesus Christ greater than Caesar yes because he's Adonai he's also the incarnation of the God of Israel that's bold stuff everybody and that's at the heart of Christian preaching God's made both Lord and Christ so Christos in the Greek here we get Christ from that but Christos would translate Mashiach that's what Peter would have had in his mind Mashiach the anointed one who's the anointed one in the Old Testament was David remember when the prophet Samuel anoints David as king it says the spirit rushed upon David he's the anointed king who unites the tribes of Israel into a great nation and then begins the building of an empire David becomes thereby the greatest king in the Old Testament and following him since David failed.

7:35 David was a sinner. David died. But there was the hope that there'd be a Mashiach after him, greater than David, the definitive David, who would gather the tribes of Israel and now become shepherd for the whole world. That's what Peter means. That's what he means. Here's something else. Listen, as this thing begins, Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice, and proclaimed.

8:05 The excitement of being a Christian, that's what you sense on Pentecost morning. You know, we can become so blandly acquiescent, like, yeah, I've been a Christian forever. Oh, yeah, Christianity, old Christianity. No, no, it's a permanent revolution. It's a permanent point of excitement. Why? Because Christianity represents the fulfillment of the great story of Israel, the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel. As Paul says, the yes to all the promises made to Israel. To catch that excitement about Jesus the Christos, the Mashiach, that's what it's all about. Okay, so there's the essential preaching. There it is. All sermons should have that basic form. But now listen. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart.

8:59 Love that. Love that. I'll tell you, the sign of bland preaching, the sign of ineffective preaching, is it cuts no one to the heart. Oh, it might, you know, tickle the ears. It might beguile the mind a little bit. It might make you smile. It might be a little bit entertaining. So what? That's bad preaching. But when you preach Christ and him crucified, Christ, Lord, and Mashiach, trust me, people will be cut to the heart. Think of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. We're not our hearts burning within us when he opened for us the scriptures. That's the way it works. if you preach and everyone yawns you preach and everybody says yeah yeah i heard that a hundred times you preach and oh yeah i heard that on tv then you're not preaching you're cutting no one to the heart it it has to be about jesus him crucified jesus risen from the dead jesus who alone is the Lord and Messiah. Okay. So, they're cut to the heart, and then there comes naturally a question, and here it is. What are we to do? So, the people respond, that's great. And again, it's a sign that you're preaching well if the people that listen to you say, well, all right, what do I do in response to this extraordinary message? Great. If you preach and no one's tempted to say, what do I do? You haven't cut them to the heart. All right, and what does Peter say to them? And how important this is, everybody? Listen, repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The whole church is in those lines. The whole of the church. Repent, right?

11:05 Metanoia in Greek. Go beyond the mind you have. It means turn around. It's the life you've been leading. That ain't it. If Jesus Christ is Lord, he's the voice you listen to. He's the keeper of the gate. You're the sheep. He's the shepherd. Well, then you think like him, talk like him, act like him, react as he would. Seeing the world through the lens of Jesus becomes your whole life. That's what repentance means. If you hear the gospel, you're cut to the heart, but then you say, well, go back to the old way I lived. And then you haven't done it. It hasn't worked for you. Repent. But then be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus. Why is baptism so important? Because it's an incorporation into the church. I'm speaking boldly out of the Catholic tradition. This is never just an individual thing. Our relationship to Jesus, we become members of his mystical body, which means we're connected to everybody else who's a member of the mystical body.

12:07 Baptism means we follow the Lord with others. We follow the Lord in community. And then what's going to happen? You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In a way, everybody, that's what the Acts of the Apostles is about. Jesus, having ascended to heaven to a place of lordship, now governs his church. How? By sending his Holy Spirit into the world to equip us for his work. So you hear the word about Jesus. You're cut to the heart. You say, I'm going to repent. I'm going to join the church. And what does that do? It opens me now to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As I preach these words here, I'm just entering into confirmation season. I'll be confirming, I don't know, thousands of kids in my diocese. What does confirmation do?

13:00 It stirs up in them the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude, fear of the Lord. What are those meant to do? They're meant to equip you now to be Christ in the world. There's the whole program. Look at it now. Acts the Apostles, second chapter, Peter speaking in the day of Pentecost. it doesn't get any better. It doesn't get any clearer. It's the same dynamics that obtain in the life of the church. Read this text, everybody, and let it cut you to the heart. Let it lead you to Christ as the Mashiach and the Lord of your life. And then open yourself to the gift of the Holy Spirit that will equip you now to become Christ to the world. It's all here. And God bless you.