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The following message is preached by Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. His sermon is entitled, "Hey Buddy, How 'Bout a Lift?" Let us give Reverend attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the third chapter.

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I begin at the verse numbered one. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple.

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Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him with John and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have.

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In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping

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and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

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And may the same Spirit who inspired these words incline our hearts to their understanding. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I like gates.

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To me they speak of openness, of entrance into new ideas, of adventure, of question, and of thrill. That's the reason on the Sundays of Lent this year, I would like to think with you about some of the great gates of the New Testament.

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If God will bless our efforts, our preaching and thinking together, then we might find some entrances, some opportunities, some openings to advance and adventure in our faith, which are beyond those we have known before. Indeed, we might find at these gates things that change our lives.

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We begin this morning by going to the Gate Beautiful. It is about three o'clock in the afternoon. Peter and John are going there to the temple for prayer. Now we have no evidence concerning this gate.

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That is, we do not know where it was located in the temple, and we do not know why it was called the Gate Beautiful. There is no archaeological or historical proof that demonstrates anything to us about this gate, but it must have been a principal gate in order to have had a special name, and it

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must have been a very lovely gate in order to have been called the Gate Beautiful. In any case, Peter and John are approaching this gate, and they meet life that limps, a lame man. Later in the chapter, we learn that he has been lame from birth, and he is over 40 years

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of age. He is being brought to his regular spot there at the gate. Evidently, he would always present himself at that place to seek financial aid from those who were either going to worship or coming from worship.

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And we would all agree, would we not, that this is a good place in which to seek the help of others. Surely as someone is coming into the presence of God or coming out of the presence of God in worship, one ought to be especially moved toward acts of loving charity toward others.

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We see that same thing here on Sunday mornings. You're a rare member of this congregation if you have not been accosted either as you entered or left this church by those who sought some financial help from you. Things today are as they were yesterday.

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I remember that one of my earliest impressions on beginning ministry here in the city of Pittsburgh was how many crippled people one sees on our streets. You only have to walk a block from this church in any direction on a busy business day and you will encounter someone who is lame, someone on crutches or a cane or in a wheelchair,

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some sleeves or pant legs pinned up where healthy limbs used to be, bent spines, the evidence of malnutrition and rickets, lifted shoes, braces. You see them everywhere. And if you amplify this crippled situation to include not only bodies that are hurting

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but spirits and souls that are hurting as well, then the number of crippled people is multiplied to legion. For as we walk, we pass those who are abused and those who are addicted, those who are bereaved and lonely, those who are jobless, those who are either amoral or immoral, those

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who are defeated and depressed. This is a beautiful city, this city of the three rivers, this emerald city, this place that is described as one of the most livable in all of America. But my friends, like any other city, as you walk the streets of this place, if you have

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any sensitivity of spirit, you know you are in the presence of those who are suffering cripples. One is reminded of the word about Jesus and seeing the multitudes, he had compassion on them.

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When I go to seminaries to lecture on preaching, I often tell a little story. It's about a Presbyterian minister who went out to play golf one day with the minister of a church that is not known for the intellectual emphasis and approach to faith which is basic to our Presbyterian order.

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And the Presbyterian announced he would only be able to play nine holes because he had to get back to his office and begin working on his sermon for the next Sunday. And the other minister responded, "Now listen, that's the trouble with you Presbyterians. You're always studying.

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You're always preparing. What you ought to be doing is relying more upon the Holy Spirit. Now just spend the day here on the course and pray during this week and the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say when the time comes for you to say it."

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Well the Presbyterian clergyman decided he'd try it. So he played 36 holes, had a great day. Tuesday morning he showed up at his office, spent a specially long time in devotion, seeking God's will.

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The secretary came in after a while and she wanted to know what the music was to be on Sunday. The choir leader wanted to know what the sermon was about so he could pick something appropriate. And the minister said, "Well just tell him to put down a song because I don't know what

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I'm talking about yet." Wednesday morning again he gave himself to the discipline of prayer and sought God's will on what he was to say. And a little bit in that day he had passed by and the secretary came in and said, "I

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need to change the sign on the bulletin board out front. What should I put there?" He said, "Just put 'Sermon' and then my name." The next day he did the same thing and again he had no results.

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Secretary came in and she said, "I'm mimeographing the bulletin now. What should I do?" He said, "Well I don't know what I'm going to be preaching on so just put down 'Sermon' and then 'By the Pastor.'"

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Now he was getting anxious. So he stayed in the church all Friday night and all of Saturday and Saturday night in prayer and in fasting seeking from God some message to give to his people and nothing came.

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And Sunday morning he'd already put on his robe and he was walking down a little 15-foot passageway which led to the chancel, just about to step out in front of the people to lead them in worship. And as he's walking down that hallway he hears a voice and it says, "My son," and he stops.

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This is what I've been waiting for. Here's the message. Here's the word. "Yes, Lord.

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Yes, Lord." And God said, "You're not prepared this week, are you?" Well the homiletic implications of that are obvious. But what I would suggest to you this morning is that I am constantly amazed at the individuals

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who go about seeking the call of the Holy Spirit to some area of service, looking for some ethereal invitation that will lead them to exactly what they're supposed to do in the Lord's service, looking for some special delivery from God, some unique word from the Holy Spirit which will be their particular assignment.

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And all the time they are swimming through a veritable sea of suffering. They're walking through pastures of problem and pain. All about them are sheep without a shepherd. And they're crying out to God for guidance as to what they are to do.

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And they cry out so loudly that they miss the sobbed whisper at their own right hand, "Hey, buddy, how about a lift?" Peter and John don't make that mistake. As soon as they hear this plea from this lame man, they focus their attention on him.

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The Greek word here is very specific. They gaze at him quite intently. He expects some offering from them, some alms. And Peter says, "Silver and gold have I none, but that which I have I give to you.

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In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." He reaches out and he takes that young man by the arm and he lifts him up and the man is healed. Life that limps has met life that lifts.

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Now there's some obvious implications in this. The first one is that the power that Peter and John had to heal was unique. The original disciples had a relationship with Jesus which can never be duplicated by anyone else.

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It was sui generis. And it has been pointed out again and again that the special powers that were given to the disciples were like the bells that were rung in history by God in order to draw people to the church.

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But even though this is the case, we must remind ourselves that the lifting power of the church has not gotten any less across the years. Even though the twelve do not move amongst us any longer, Jesus said that the church would do greater works than any that were done in the days of his earthly ministry and

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so it has been. The church has lifted more people physically and emotionally and spiritually and financially than was ever done in the early centuries. Jesus on one occasion fed five thousand people, on another occasion fed four thousand people.

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Today in 1990, the church of Jesus Christ is feeding five hundred thousand people every day. So the lifting power of the church is greater than ever. Another implication here is this.

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That it makes clear that money isn't the primary mark of discipleship. Peter says, "Silver and gold have I not, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." What he is saying, you see, is I can't give you cash, but I can give you Christ.

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And the greatest asset of the church has never been its material wealth, but has always been the Spirit of Christ moving in its people. Faith practiced is much more important in the life of the church than finances protected. Now I'm not speaking to belittle stewardship.

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I believe you can tell as much about a person's Christian life by looking at their checkbook as you can by looking at their prayer book. But any person who knows anything about the church at all knows this. People who are genuine disciples will be good donors to the life of the church.

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But those who are good donors to the life of the church are not always good disciples. And in the long run, the disciples are more important than the donations. Ministries like the Boys Club or the Girls Club or the Mothers Club or our Walk-In Ministry or Breach Menders or Bethlehem Haven or the Pittsburgh Recovery Project, they take money,

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small amounts of it, in the world's terms. But the key to the success of those ministries is in the people who carry them out, people who hear somebody say, "Hey, buddy, how about a lift?" And respond by saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."

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And notice this implication too. They not only preach this word, Peter and John, but they reach out and take the man and lift him up. They not only offer to him a word, but they also offer to him an acted-out ministry.

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They don't respond to his need by talk. They don't appoint a committee. They don't extend to him good wishes. They don't say, "Well, we'll pray for you," and then go on into the crowd.

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Not at all. Instead, they offer in addition to their pleading before God on his behalf, the practice of their faith. You remember what James says to us, "If a brother or a sister is ill-clad and in lack

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of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?" So faith without works is dead. It's not enough to make an announcement.

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You've got to reach out and lift them up. One of the members of our church who worked regularly in our walk-in ministry was struck with how many of our people who come in here for help are chemically dependent, and was also struck with the fact that they weren't getting any help, that there was no place

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in the downtown to which they could go where they could talk with people who had gone through what they had gone through and come out on the other side. And this man's heart was warmed within him, and he prayed about this, but he didn't just pray about it.

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He began to work on the project, and he traveled back and forth to talk to everyone who would talk to him about how these limping people could be lifted. And because of the efforts of Jim Mahalke, that Pittsburgh Recovery Project is now a reality.

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And the churches in the city and the ministerium and the county and the state are responding to the demonstrative need and to the practiced concern. Why? Not because he just talked about it, but because he did it.

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He heard someone say, "Hey, buddy, how about a lift?" And in the Spirit of Christ, he lent not only his wisdom and his heart, but also his hand. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk, and here's my hand. And the story continues, "And the lame man leaped up, and he stood, and he walked, and

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he leaped, praising God." As the chapter goes on, Peter and John go into the temple, and the man is hanging on to them, following them. And Peter is so thrilled by what has occurred and the evidence of the power of the Holy

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Spirit that he preaches a magnificent sermon. And it gets everyone concerned, so concerned that the police come in and they arrest Peter and John. And they take them off and they warn them, "You must preach that way no more."

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And immediately when they're released, they go out and preach with even greater boldness until the whole temple and town were turned upside down. You see, this story commences with life that limps, and it continues with life that lifts. But it concludes with life that leaps.

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Not only is the lame man made whole, but there is leaping up in the hearts of Peter and John the ringing words of their Savior, "Well done, thou good and faithful servants!" And empowered by that, they move ahead, hearts jumping within them. We're talking here about one of the most elementary principles of the Christian faith, that you

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cannot know the power of it if you do not live a practiced discipleship. I am not saying that when one goes and seeks to lift the limping, that one's own life is going to become easy and without difficulty or blemish. That was certainly not the case with Peter and John.

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They had many challenges in the remainder of their lives, but they were able to reach out and meet every one of those challenges with an abiding and an enduring faith. Why? Because their hearts were leaping with enthusiasm within them, and that came from the discipline

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of their devotion and their service. During the weeks when I've been sick, a lot of you have sent me get well cards, which I appreciate. I've read them all and prayed for you, even as you were praying for me.

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And there was quite a stack of them there on the table, and I was looking at them, and it reminded me of something I read in the papers last January. That is that half the Christmas cards that are sent in America every year have no writing in them.

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I mean by that there is no signature, no note. The name of the sender is just printed across the bottom of the card. Half of the cards like that. It led a congressman by the name of Dave from California to propose tongue-in-cheek some

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new legislation. Had five parts. First, all Christmas cards would be abolished, made illegal. Second, we would establish a national computerized Christmas greeting registry.

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Third, you would simply send to the registry the list of all of those people to whom you would like to send cards. Then if you, fourth, want to know who sent you cards, you would send five dollars to the registry, and you would get back from the registry a list which headed as follows,

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the following people wish you Christmas greetings, and there would be a computerized printout of all the people who had sent you cards. And fifth, and he thought this was the nicest part, the next November you could just take that computerized list and send it back to the registry, putting the names of all those

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people so that they'd get printed out on their list that next year. The sad thing is that some people try to practice their Christianity like that and can't understand why it has no power. But how can they claim the name and the power of one who said that the first commandment

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is to love God and the second commandment is to love others? How can they claim to be his when he's the one who said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me"? How can they call themselves the disciples of the Lord when it was the Lord who said,

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"He who would be first among you must be the servant of all"? Hence their claim to Jesus when Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." You know when you're shoddy and you spend a lot of time looking out the window, and I've done a lot of that in the last few weeks, and I especially like to look at the moon.

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I've been fascinated by the moon since I was a little boy. I'm not as fascinated with it now as I used to be. The fact that the astronauts have tramped all over it has taken away some of the romance of it for me.

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You know, astronomers tell us that the moon was once part of the earth, and in the cosmic act of creation, it broke away from the earth. The earth was diminished as the moon broke away from it. And what struck me one night as I stood in the window of the 11th floor of Mercy Hospital

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and looked out at the moon was this, that although the earth was diminished when the moon broke away, still it is the light which is reflected from the moon which illumines our nights. And that led me to this, that the times we answer with our heart and hand, those who

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say, "Hey, buddy, how about a lift?" Those times may diminish us. They may cost us. But in the end, they come back with a shimmering and splendid light which blesses and strengthens

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us in our times of darkness and shadow. In the black nights of our believing, the light reflected from those who have been blessed by our ministries still sets our hearts to leaping. No wonder they call it the gate beautiful.

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Let us pray. Oh, God, make us sensitive to the suffering, whatever their suffering, whoever they might be. Oh, God, give to us ministries of word and of work.

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Help us to preach Christ with our lips and to practice Christ with our lifting hands. Oh, God, may those who are touched by our service leap with joy. And may we, on seeing that, feel the light of it in our hearts so that we, too, might leap up with joy and with thanksgiving.

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We pray our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]