The Unstoppable Word in a World of Voices

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to the Christ Church Toronto Podcast, a recording of the Sunday Sermons of Christ Church Toronto.

Christ Church Toronto is located in Toronto's East End and seeks to practice the ancient Christian faith today. We would love for you to join us in the future. Until then, here is today's scripture reading.

SPEAKER_2 (0:24)

Today's scripture reading comes from Acts chapter 12 verses 124

About that time, parent of the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church, Phil James, the brother of John of the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

This was during the days of the Undead and the Wren, and when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering the Lord four squads of soldiers to guard him, and tending after the Passover to bring well to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two shoulders, bound with two chains, and centuries before, adored regarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and the light shone in the south. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly, and the chains fell out of his hands. And the angel said to him, Rest yourself, and put on your sandals, and he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your clothes around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angels beyond, but that he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second bar, they came to the iron gate meeting of the city. It opened for them to their only court, and they went out and went along one street. And immediately the angel left them. When Peter came to himself and said, Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel in rescue between the end of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in. They reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

SPEAKER_1 (2:29)

They said to her, you are out of your mind.

SPEAKER_2 (2:33)

But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Tell these things to James and to the brothers. And he departed and went to another place.

Now when the day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Zion, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastis, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food.

On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, the voice of God and not of a man. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied. This is a word of the Lord for our church, and it's given for our faith.

Kyle Hackmann (4:00)

Well, in 1974, the pulter of the prize went to the book by Ernest Becker called The Nile of Death. I've talked about this book a lot. He was an anthropologist, and I feel like this is one of those books that people who become pastors spend a lot of time reflecting on. In his book, The Nile of Death, because everyone is no Christian, he's not writing a sermon in the slightest, but he put his finger on something that he knew about himself, that he was vulnerable and spoke about himself, and he knew that other people were experiencing something similar, but were too fearful to say out loud. And that is that in all of our human existence, we all have this desire, this craving to be a hero, to know that we matter, to know that our life isn't ephemeral, it's not a flash in the pan, to know that we are in some sense as important. And as he unpacked his thesis, even then, maybe we're the center of the universe, maybe things are made for us. To prove his thesis, he starts with something that I think, a case study that will make some sense, this maybe gives an amen to this church. And he talks about raising children.