Assertive faith versus assertive heresy.

       As I am sitting here a bit under the weather today so I have some extra time to which I can devote to praise, thought and thankfulness. In the Scripture passage below how can I help but notice the  enthusiasm and assertiveness of Peter when answering the  religious leaders. Gone are the denials of the past. Peter is out and proud as a Christian, full of knowledge, zeal and the Spirit!

        I could not however not let my mind wander to the religious right zealots of today's American pseudo-religious political scene. Their righteousness and arrogance could be labelled as assertive and bold as Peter when he spoke to the temple elite. These modern zealots are so self assured that they are right and yet a quick review of Scripture shows them wrong, incomplete and jaundiced. The arbiter of all good things and faith, love, is far from their ministrations and show their beliefs to be hollow and empty. They are faux Christians. The are a living heresy of the Christian faith.

       It reminds me of the old saying, 'better that people should think you are stupid than to open your mouth and prove them correct'.  Once again as always, actions speak louder than words. If there is a take away message from the assertive authority of Peter it is that we can be wrong but we can change course. Peter  learned and changed. We can make errors of judgment and still remain loved in God's eyes. God still puts everything in our hands. We do not have to remain a living heresy of Christian faith if that is what our lives have come to.

        There is always an opportunity for redemption with God. Peter is just one example.  We pray for all of us in the same way.

         

Acts 4:1-12

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand.

 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.This Jesus is
“the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
   it has become the cornerstone.” 
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’