GOSPEL, FIRST READING & PSALM TRANSCRIPT (Subscribe or Login for Full Transcript):
What about the first reading?
Well if you go back to Acts 8:5-8, we actually have a text here, once again, that’s a window onto the early Church.
We are, during the Easter season, looking at what Christianity looked like in the early days.
We are going back to the birth of the Church and in Acts 5:5-8 we get another window onto another sacrament.
In this case the power of the sacrament we are looking at is what will later go on to be called the Sacrament of Confirmation.
So I want to read the story.
You might think at first glance, “what does this have to do with Confirmation?”
I’ll make it clear in just a second.
This is a story of Philip, who was one of the deacons we saw in the Acts of the Apostles 6, he goes off into Samaria, which if you have been following the videos, you know from our study of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, was a place that was known for having the mixed descendants of both Israelites and Gentiles in the northern part of the Holy Land, who were very much at odds with the Jewish people.
The Jewish people saw them as cut off, like apostates.
They didn't have a healthy relationship.
But after the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, Philip, as a deacon, goes to the land of Samaria in order to evangelize, in order to bring the Gospel to them.
And this is what happens, Acts 8:5 and following says:
Philip went down to a city of Sama'ria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did.
For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
So there was much joy in that city.
Now if you skip down — in this case the lectionary actually skips several verses in which Philip not only preaches, but also baptizes various men and women amongst the Samaritans.
But if you skip down, the lectionary picks up in verse 14 and it says this:
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Sama'ria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
What is going on here?
Why are Peter and John sent down to Samaria to lay hands on people?
Why didn't Philip just do that is kind of the question behind the story.
So obviously what is happening here is Philip, the deacon, is evangelizing and he obviously has the power to preach and the power to baptize, but when it comes to this rite of laying hands on the people so that they can receive the Holy Spirit, that's evidently something that only Peter and John, who were two of the Apostles, could do.
So they come all the way down from Jerusalem — actually it is up because it is North, but you get the idea —to Samaria in order to lay hands on these recent converts and give them the Holy Spirit.
You might be confused, you might think “Well wait a second, don't you receive the Holy Spirit when you're baptized?
It says they had been baptized.”
And the answer is yes, of course you do receive the Holy Spirit in baptism, but obviously here Luke is describing some other gift of the Holy Spirit, some other special bestowal of the Holy Spirit that only Peter and John can do, and that they do not by immersing them in water, like with Baptism, but rather by laying hands on their head.
Well what is this a reference to?
If you look at the ancient Church Fathers, if you look at the tradition of the Church, this has always been seen as the origins of what we now call the Sacrament of Confirmation.
In the West we call it Confirmation; among Eastern Catholics and Eastern Christians, they call it Chrismation, because the laying on of hands is accompanied by an anointing as well, Chrism being the Greek word for oil.
So what's going on here?
This is an extremely important passage, because it is basically the first witness to the Sacrament of Confirmation in the early Church and it tells us a few things about this Sacrament. First, number one, that it's different than Baptism.
It is not the same thing as Baptism.
Philip baptizes people, he's a deacon, but only the Apostles lay hands to give this special gift of the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, not only is it a different rite, but it is carried out by different people.
Why is it that Philip couldn't do it?
Well if you look at the history of the Church, that's not a power that deacons have.
They don't have the power to confirm.
They have the power to preach, they have the power to baptize, but they don't have the power to confirm, because that special gift of the Holy Spirit that is tied to confirmation has to do with the preaching of the Gospel — in a sense to the bearing witness to Christ — and so it's fitting that the Apostles themselves would lay hands on the people to give them that special grace of the Holy Spirit that completes their baptism, and then sends them out as missionaries themselves, as the ones to go out and spread the good news in their lives through their witness and through their daily life and through their conversations and their witness to Christ.
I love this passage because one of the sacraments that was rejected by many of the Protestant reformers at the time of the Reformation was Confirmation.
It was claimed that Confirmation was un-biblical, and so so many Christian denominations don’t even have Confirmation anymore because they don't see the word confirmation anywhere in the Bible.
And it is true, if you look at the New Testament, will you find the word confirmation?
No, absolutely not.
But do you find the reality there?
Absolutely, yes, you see it right here in Acts 8.
So what is Confirmation?
It is a special grace of Holy Spirit that can only be given by the Apostles and their successors, and it's tied to the ritual of the laying on of hands.
SECOND READING TRANSCRIPT (Subscribe or Login for Full Transcript):
If you recall, the First Letter of Peter is written to churches in Asia Minor, which appear to be churches consisting primarily of Jewish Christian believers who are suffering persecution, who are suffering opposition. And so a lot of the letter has to deal with the question of suffering and persecution. Some of the most profound reflections on suffering and persecution come from First Peter. But in the chapter for today, in the reading for today's lectionary, what we see is that another aspect of living in a time where the church and the faith are being opposed or persecuted has to do with readiness or being prepared to explain the faith to those who might oppose it or who might attack it, or to explain the church to those who would want to persecute it, as a method of evangelization. And so here First Peter says that his readers, which includes not just that first century group but us as well, should “always be prepared to make an
apologia”, in Greek a defense, “to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”
Now, the Greek word
apologia comes over into English as the word apology, which in our contemporary context tends to be used primarily to refer to giving an explanation for something that you've done wrong in the context of repentance and asking for forgiveness. So if I've hurt someone in my life, I will apologize to them, which normally means I'm going to say I'm sorry. That's not the primary connotation of
apologia in Greek. And
apologia, you can hear the root word logos in there, which can mean word or reason, is a reasoned defense or a reasoned explanation for some position or some belief or some practice that is otherwise controversial or being disputed. So here Peter is clearly giving an exhortation to be prepared to make an apologetical explanation, not an apology in the sense of asking for forgiveness, but rather a reasoned explanation “for the hope that is in you”, meaning for your hope as a Christian.
And so this is going to become the locus classicus, the classic place, the classic text in sacred scripture for the foundation of what would go on to be known as the art of apologetics, which has to do with giving reasoned explanations, using reason and argumentation to explain why Christians believe what we believe and why we do what we do. One of the most ancient examples of this is of course one of my favorite saints, St. Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century AD. He was one of what are known by scholars as the early apologists because he wrote two classic works, one called
The First Apology, which is not him asking for forgiveness for being a Christian, but it's an explanation of Christianity to Greek critics, to Gentile or pagan critics of Christianity. And then he wrote another book called the
Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, which is an explanation of Christianity to Jewish critics of Christianity. So he was very much invested, Justin Martyr was, in explaining and defending the Christian faith on all fronts.
So I actually like to recommend to my students, if you want to get a sense for what classic apologetics looks like, and if you want to start reading the Church Fathers, but you might find, say, the heavily philosophical writings of some, a figure like Augustine, a little daunting, don't start with Augustine's
On the Trinity, for example. I often encourage them to start with St. Justin Martyr's
First Apology or with his
Dialogue with Trypho. Because what Justin will do is give very biblical and rational explanations for the differences between Christianity and other religions and as well as the differences between Christianity and Judaism based on the Bible. And they're very clear and easy to read and kind of opens that window of the early church to you. So Justin, I've already gotten ahead of myself here to the Living Tradition, but Justin Martyr is basically a kind of living example of what 1 Peter 3 here is exhorting all Christians to be able to do in some capacity or another. Notice, this is not just to a particular group. This isn't just to priest or bishops, it’s to all Christians, to be ready, to always be ready and prepared to give a “defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”
However, notice the qualifier here. Peter says, but always “do it with gentleness and reverence.” So the Greek word here for gentleness can also be translated as humility. And the Greek word for reverence is
phobos, can mean fear as well. And it's the kind of thing that people would often be exhorted to have toward their superiors. You should fear the emperor or have respect for him is really what it means. So he makes a very important qualification. Sometimes when Christians are involved in explaining and defending their faith, they can become not just defensive, but also antagonistic or accusatory or harsh in responding to opposition and persecution. And Peter here is calling his readers to imitate Christ. And so you'll see, like for example, in the Passion narrative where Jesus quietly and silently receives the criticism of those who are attacking him, accusing him, and he will respond with few words, but he does it with gentleness and he does it with reverence. So that model here of a respectful apologia, a respectful explanation, a respectful defense of the Christian faith is something that every follower of Jesus should make a goal, especially if they're living in a time or a place or a culture which is opposed to the Church, which is opposed to the teachings of the faith, which in our contemporary world, most Christians live in parts of the world today where there is great opposition to the Church.
So this is a very timely exhortation from 1 Peter 3. It's very fitting that the Church gives it to us during this Easter season, I think, in part, because not everyone does this, especially in places where people may have grown up as Christians and they either aren't aware of the opposition to the Church or they've never personally experienced opposition, persecution, or just demands for an explanation for why you believe what you believe or do what you do. It's easy to grow lax in this and not always be prepared, or find oneself often unprepared to give any explanation for why you believe what you believe or do what you do. And that's detrimental not only to the person who may be asking for an explanation, it's also detrimental to the faith of the Christian, him or herself, because the kind of preparation that goes into being able to make an
apologia is going to presume that you not only know what you believe as a Christian or what to do, how to live as a follower of Jesus, you know why you believe what you believe and why you do what you do.
And so an inability to explain oneself to another on points of practice and belief can often be rooted in a lack of a reasonable understanding for faith and practice in the person themselves, which can weaken a person and will often lead in times of suffering or persecution of the Church to apostacy or to falling away from the faith. So Peter here is giving very wise pastoral advice to his readers about the kind of formation and continued preparation that they should engage in living as Christians in a world opposed to the Church.
Now the other element here that he says is in verse 16...
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