Acts – Salvaged Faith

With Complete Confidence

Posted on August 29, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 27:1, 9-12, 15, 18, 20-22, 39, 42-43; 28:11a, 16, 30-31

About a month ago, I pulled together some of our church leaders for an evening of conversation and planning about where we are as a church and where we are going.

We started with this image from Rooted Good which simply asks – in the stormy seas of this moment, where do you find yourself?

Are you tossed about by conflicting opinions and information?

Are you riding the waves, or crushed by them?

In the midst of the constant change what is helping the most?

We took some time in small groups to share the stories of what kinds of stormy seas we are sailing through in our own personal lives… the loss of loved ones, of relationships, the concern for aging parents, the health of people we care about… not to mention the pandemic, economic uncertainty, and the swirling chaos of misinformation.

So many of these things are circumstances beyond our control… stormy seas we have no power to tame.

I’ve been sailing through some stormy seas personally, myself.

Over the last six months, my spouse and I have been working to get help for some mental and physical health concerns.

It has been a long process, with a lot of appointments and hard conversations and work.

I wish I could say that everything is okay or that we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we aren’t there yet.

We are still riding on the choppy waves.

And the truth is, I know that a lot of you are, too.

It is hard and exhausting.

In that Wednesday night conversation with church leaders, we shared our stories of stormy waters but we didn’t just groan and complain.

We turned to scripture and read aloud these words from the Apostle Paul:

… We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

Goodness… We have found ourselves in that place, haven’t we?

Battered by troubles… not sure what to do… thrown down?

As Paul wrote these words, you can see the faith that keeps him going.

You sense the deep trust he has that even if everything is not okay, it will ultimately work out according to God’s will.

The hope of God’s promises… in restoration, in forgiveness, in truth, in the resurrection, help him to keep going on.

And when I read those words, I find just a little bit of the strength I need to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Paul wrote these words to the church in Corinth three or four years before this shipwreck and journey from today’s reading.

In part, he is talking about the cross that he must bear… which last week we named as the consequences we face when we choose to follow Jesus.

As he continues in his letter:

…What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best! (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

At the end of the Book of Acts, Paul continues to bear that cross, being taken to Rome to stand trial for charges that still aren’t completely solid but boil down to his hope in the resurrection.

He has chosen to follow Jesus… and as Jesus shines through his words and actions, he finds himself facing the same kinds of opposition as his Master.

That itself is enough to bear… but he understood why he was experiencing those difficulties and sees every trial as an opportunity to let Jesus shine through him.

But then there were the other circumstances beyond his control… stormy seas, literally, that could not be tamed.

As our scripture for today opens, Paul is being put on a ship headed for Rome, but as a well-traveled missionary, he knew that it wasn’t safe to travel.

They were late enough into the season that the seas would be too rough for passage.

Much of the early months of the journey were spent traveling along the coastline of the Mediterranean but eventually they must make for open sea.

Paul has enough struggles to deal with – no sense in tempting fate or adding to his difficulty!

So he urges them to winter-over on the island of Crete.

But his guard and the captain of the ship wouldn’t listen to his warnings and chose to set out anyways.

You know, I can’t help but look at this map and think about the countless numbers of refugees fleeing from Syria and Libya who have tried to head north across the Mediterranean to safety.

We saw images of overcrowded and desperate families and even with modern boats many did not survive those rough waters.

Imagine being at sea during the midst of a storm in the most dangerous part of the year with only a wooden boat and sails to protect you.

But Paul knew and trusted that even though danger and trials and storms and chaos surrounded him, God was stronger.

God would rescue them.

God’s promises stand forever.

And so with complete confidence in what God could do, Paul helped the crew to make it through the storm.

It is a miracle Paul and the crew survived.

They found themselves shipwrecked on the island of Malta dependent on the kindness of complete strangers.

But that’s what God does.

Through the difficulties and trials, God shines through.

The Book of Acts seems like it has been building towards a grand climax where Paul eventually stands before Caesar and his story will wrap up with a nice bow.

But that isn’t what we get.

Instead of a trial, we find Paul continuing under house arrest in Rome.

He preaches to the Jewish leaders there, challenging them to open their eyes and ears and hearts to what God is doing.

His door is wide open and without fear, Paul keeps teaching about Jesus.

And then the story ends.

In some ways, it feels like a let down.

We have followed Paul every step of the way of his journey and we want to know what happens next.

But the Book of Acts isn’t a story about Paul.

It is the story of Jesus.

It is the story of how the word and life and message of Jesus travels from Jerusalem… to Samaria… to the ends of the world.

Paul did his part and through ups and downs and good times and bad, he continued to let the Holy Spirit work through him to share that good news.

Now, it’s our turn.

You see, that message continues to spread throughout this world.

Faithful folks carried the good news to right here in Des Moines, Iowa.

We’ve had our share of stormy seas and trials.

We’ve had ups and downs.

We have faced opposition and economic struggles and personal hardship.

But through it all, God has been with us.

And if we turn our hearts and our lives towards Jesus, we experience rescue.

We experience healing.

If we hold on, with confidence, to the hope of the resurrection, we experience abundant life.

It does not mean that the journey will be easy.

It certainly wasn’t for Paul.

And I know that it isn’t for you.

And it hasn’t been for me.

But when we cling to those promises, then as Paul wrote:

And we can keep going, with complete confidence, because Jesus is with us.

Let’s keep telling his story.

A City of Idols

Posted on August 8, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 17:16-32

When I lived in Nashville for seminary, my house just around the corner from Centennial Park.

In 1897, to celebrate one hundred years of statehood, Nashville hosted a World’s Fair – type exposition. Many incredible buildings were constructed on the park grounds… including a full scale replica of the Parthenon from Athens.

It was kind of surreal to live just a few blocks from one of the most iconic temples ever constructed… only this one was fully intact unlike the actual temple in Athens which has seen the wear of time.

When I would run at the park, with this looming structure as the centerpiece, I felt like I was transported to another time and place.

I wondered what it would have been like for the ancient Greeks who walked those streets of Athens and worshipped there…. or at the temple of Nike, or Zeus, or Hephaestos, or any of the other ancient Greek gods whose shrines were found throughout the city?

What would it have been like for Paul as he strolled those streets?

One of the first words we find in our scripture reading for today was that Paul was deeply distressed by this city flooded with idols.

Everywhere he turned there was a new place to worship a new god.

A shrine for silversmiths and for harvest, for healing and for the moon and the hunt…

And an idol was a representation of those gods used for worship.

Something carved in stone or molded out of metal.

A physical representation that people would hold or go to or in order to make a connection with whatever god it was they wanted to connect with.

And I got to thinking about our lives today.

As we walk the streets of our cities and towns and neighborhoods… what do our buildings and our signs and the way we live tell us about what we worship.

I’d actually like your help with this.

Think for just a few seconds… what are some of the things that you see other people worshipping today?

What do we obsess about, and give all of our time to?

What kinds of things do we build statues around?

What names and figures do we hold in reverence?

If you are joining us online, feel free to type your answers in the comments…

If you are right here in the room, shout them out and I’ll write them up here.

What are the idols that people worship today?

[space for writing]

Paul was a Roman citizen.

He had lived his whole life with this subtle background of the Greek gods in his life.

Even though he had always been a faithful Jew who worshipped one God, he would have known and interacted with many who were polytheistic… who worshipped many gods.

It would have been fairly normal and routine.

And yet, walking through these streets of Athens, he was greatly distressed.

He saw all of the ways people were spending their time and energy and wealth on that which was not God… his God… the one true God.

And it made him feel sick.

As you look at this list that we have created… how do you feel about it?

How do you feel about the idols that are worshipped in our midst?

Shout out in one word… or type in the comments online… just one word that describes how you feel…

[pause for answers]

I must admit… that much of this feels normal to me.

I feel like we are swimming, much like the people of Athens, in a culture of tribalism and difference and each person has their own truth… their own god… their own way to engage the world.

It is normal… and yet disorienting.

But I also have to admit that when I look at this list… and the things we haven’t yet put on there… that this is so normal… so much a part of who we are and how we live… that the truth is, we all have some kind of idol we worship in our lives.

We all have something that we get obsessed about… we all have things that we worship besides God.

I want to invite you each to take a minute to reflect in your own heart about what some of the idols are in your own life.

[pause for a minute]

Now, here is the thing about what Paul does when he encounters these idols.

When he encounters the stoics and the epicurians and those who are gathered at Mars Hill…

He doesn’t ask them to give up their idols.

He doesn’t tell them they are wrong.

In fact… he compliments how very religious they were!

Even though he is distressed by this worship, he doesn’t shame them or put them down.

No… he transforms the way they understand them.

He introduces his God… the one true God… and shows how our God doesn’t have just one specialty, or look out for only one type of person.

Paul describes our God as the one who truly accomplishes that which they are seeking in those idols of stone. Goodness… truth… life…

Our God is the one who gives life and breath.

Our God is the one who created every nation.

Our God doesn’t live in temples and isn’t served by humans.

In God we live, move, and have our being.

In essence, he is saying… what you are trying to seek through those idols of stone and clay and silver… turn to God and you will find it.

Maybe sports is your thing. It is the thrill of teamwork and watching individual gifts and talents shine.

But we can find that in God as well as the individual members of the body of Christ each play their part and the whole succeeds.

Maybe nature is what you place above all else. The rhythm and flow, the cycles of life and death.

All of those birds and flowers point to the One who made them.

Maybe you idolize work and wealth… But for what end? Is your aim to provide, to find stability, to yourself be highly valued and respected by others?

What greater value and respect can we gain than to be called beloved by God.

Paul, you see, challenges us not to lay aside our idols, but to transform them.

To look beyond them… deeper… and to ask what we are really seeking.

We can’t find answers in stone and clay and metal… but we can find our life and our hopes in the one true God.

So you don’t have to give up sports or working or whatever else it is that you idolize in order to follow Jesus.

But you might have to transform it.

You might have to hold it more loosely and recognize that in and of itself, it will not give you what you ultimately seek.

But there does come a day and a time when something that we worship simply will never lead us to God.

When we are fixated on something that will never satisfy… or bring life… or healing…

There are some idols present in our world that will only harm and destroy and that can never point to God.

It’s what we also name as sin.

That which separates us from God.

And if you have something like that in your life… it’s okay to let it go.

It’s okay to name it and to release it and to say no to the power it has over your life.

Friends, we might be swimming in a land of idols.

We might be surrounded by things that point to anything but God.

But that doesn’t mean that they have to rule our lives.

For there is only one God in which we live… and move… and have our being.

There is only on God that truly brings life.

No Additional Burdens

Posted on August 1, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 15:1-2, 4-6, 12-13, 19-21

This week at VBS, we learned a lot of awesome stories about how Jesus power is with us.

And every single night we had a totally true, awesome story from the Book of Acts.

We talked about how Jesus helps us do hard things with the story of Ananias who went to help Saul.

We talked about how Jesus’ power gives us hope with the story of Paul’s shipwreck.

We talked about Jesus power helps us be bold with the story of Peter and John healing a man.

And we learned about how Jesus’ power helps us live forever as we let our light shine and share God’s story like so many disciples did.

Last but not least, we remembered that Jesus’ power helps us be good friends and learned about how that community in Jerusalem were connected.

But as we have talked about over these last couple of months, it isn’t easy for a church to get along.

There is going to be conflict as we have different ideas about how to lead and what to do and who is welcomed.

So today we have another totally true story from the book of Acts…. About the first official church council meeting.

In the history books and in the headings of our bibles, we know this as the Council of Jerusalem. It was the first time the leaders gathered to make an important decision about what the rules of the church should be.

As the Holy Spirit moved through this early church argument, we can learn about how we, too, in the 21st century can learn to get past our disagreements.

First – when you see a problem… address it!

The issue here is whether or not Gentiles had to be circumcised before they could be part of the church.

Another way to put it – did you have to fully convert to the Jewish faith before you could accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.

We’ve heard about the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas and how Gentiles were accepting Jesus right and left.

All along, they taught that Jesus was the way and the truth and the life. No prerequisites. No admission exams. Christ and Christ alone was the source of salvation.

But then group of folks comes along teaching something different.

Paul and Barnabas could have ignored them and kept doing what they were doing… But that only delays the debate until a time when people are more entrenched in one position or another.

They could have bullied the newcomers and ran them out of town… after all, that is what often happened to them.

Instead, they addressed the conflict directly.

They confronted the teachers in debate. They spoke their piece. They defended their position.

Of course, the other side made their arguments as well. A healthy conflict allows room for disagreement and conversation. It allows for people to stand in one place or another. They talked and argued… but there were no winners or losers.

And they all realized that this wasn’t something that could be settled once and for all in Antioch.

Which leads me to the second point… some arguments and debates are bigger than us as individuals.

Sometimes you reach a stalemate in a fight. And you need someone else to come in and help.

Paul and Barnabas are sent from Antioch to Jerusalem to get an official ruling on the issue.

In the world of business, this might mean calling in a mediator.

When you are fighting with your brother, this might be when your mom steps in.

In a church, this is the point when you call the district superintendent.

Someone who can help us think bigger and solve our problems.

And… sometimes we need to move the conversation up the chain of command because the impact of our decisions involve more than simply us.

The church in Antioch realized this debate was going to repeat time and time again across the world.

It was not just a conflict they needed to solve, this was a question for the whole Body of Christ.

And how the Body of Christ decided to live, one way or the other, would define the church.

They could either be a church who welcomed Gentiles as they were or a church who demanded circumcision, but they couldn’t be both.

So they sent their questions to Jerusalem and the apostles.

That is not to say that all arguments require calling in the head honcho. If a church can’t agree about what color of carpet to install, you don’t need to call the Bishop.

But there are some disagreements that are more fundamental – questions about our identity and our witness in the world – about who we are as a people… and sometimes we discover they are bigger than just one congregation.

In these cases, we have the opportunity to participate and share our experience and voices, but also, we are asked to listen to the experience and voices of others who are impacted by what we do.

This, is a lesson the partisan politicking in our world today desperately needs to remember.

The third thing that we can learn from this passage is how to engage.

As Acts 15 describes this debate, it plays out much like a courtroom scene. Parties stand and argue their case. People listen and wait their turn. The gathering is respectful and honest.

Oh, how I wish this were true in our local, state, national… or even denominational politics.

One of the more powerful realities of this testimony of scripture is that names are not tossed back and forth. No party made out to be the bad guy. There is no negative campaigning or slander.

Each group simply speaks the truth about who they are, what they have experienced, and what they believe.

Those who believed that all must be circumcised stood and made their case from the perspective of tradition and then others began to speak as well.

Peter talked about the conversion of Cornelius and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Barnabas and Paul shared about their ministry with the gentiles and the signs and wonders they saw.

And in each case, the people were allowed to tell their whole story without questions or cross-examination.

The others listened completely… not with the intent of finding flaws in their argument or how to beat them… but openly.

When one party was done speaking, the body was silent until the next voice was ready to speak.

There is this air of respect and love… it was holy space.

The final lesson comes in the answer to this debate – we should respect and honor each another and God.

When there was no more to say, James stood up to speak.

Having listened to what each party valued, James went back to scripture. He noted the precedent for ministry among Gentiles and the continued value of the teachings of Moses.

And then he made a declaration that was affirmed by everybody.

They didn’t have to vote with winners and losers. They all just agreed.

Gentiles would be welcomed, as they were… no additional burden would be placed upon them.

In many ways, James helped to build a bridge between these opposing groups. He helped them to find their common ground of respect. Each position would be respected and affirmed in its own way… by declaring what was essential and what wasn’t and requiring that all parties treat one another with respect.

John Wesley was often fond of saying: In essentials, unity; in unessentials, liberty; in all things – charity (that is to say, love).

God had moved among the Gentiles and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit showed that a practice like circumcision must not be an essential component of what it meant to be saved in Christ Jesus.

However, this didn’t mean that anything goes. N.T. Wright describes this compromise as “the double principle of no needful circumcision on the one hand and no needless offense on the other.” The Gentile Christians were to honor the scriptures by refusing pagan worship, refraining from sexual immorality, and respecting the dietary laws of their Jewish kin.

The early church would continue to argue about the essentials of who we should be as the people of God and what would be required of us.

New questions would arise as the church continued to expand into new places and new cultures.

But this Council of Jerusalem set a new standard for how we should have these conversations… with grace and love and respect.

Their actions were not focused on creating winners and losers, but on discerning what God was doing.

They returned to scripture and allowed it to speak anew into the present moment.

The questions were important… but even more so was how they chose to answer them.

We have a lot of things we disagree about today.

And the peacemaker in me always hopes that we can find a solution that can bring us all together… a compromise that would unify us, like this moment in Acts 15.

But then I read just a few more verses… and Barnabas and Paul have a disagreement.

They decide that for the sake of the mission they need to part ways.

What is the most important thing that we discover in this chapter is that how we talk to each other… how we listen… and how we show respect to God… and how we protect the most vulnerable is what is really important.

Sometimes that means we can work together.

And sometimes that means we need some time apart.

I don’t know where the church or country or world will be in a few years.

I pray constantly for the healing of our relationships.

And I keep remembering the lessons of the Jerusalem Council.

We need to directly face our conflicts and bring in folks to help us when necessary.

We need to share our stories fully… and listen with hearts wide open…

But above all… rather than our own agenda, we should seek answers that help us to best love and honor and respect one another and our God.

Self-Definition

Posted on July 25, 2021Leave a comment

Acts 13: 1-5, 13-16, 43-52

About two months before the pandemic began, I was on renewal leave.

Honestly, that time was such a gift.

I was able to refill my cup and energize my spirit and I don’t know how I would have made it through the last 18 months if I had been as worn out as I was at the end of 2019.

That time was spent sleeping, traveling with friends, baking bread, and focusing on my spouse… with a little bit of reading thrown in.

In fact, almost every day, I read through a chapter of Cloud and Townsend’s book, “Boundaries” as I tried to re-center my ministry and establish some healthier patterns.

I got to thinking about that book again as I thought about the ministry of Paul and Barnabas.

You see, this section of Acts focuses on some of the differentiation between the Jewish and early Christian communities.

As we talked about last time, this was no longer simply a subset of the Jewish faith.

This new movement in Antioch was a multi-national, diverse, community of Jews and Gentiles.

“Christians” they called themselves.

In order to take on their own identity, you have to set some boundaries.

You have to talk about what you are and what you aren’t.

And that is going to cause some conflict.

In their book, Drs. Cloud and Townsend describe how infants and children develop boundaries and I think it is fascinating to compare how these stages might also describe how this early church community began to think of themselves.

We think of ourselves, after all, as part of the same family tree.

So from the infancy of the Christian movement to the time it established itself as its own unique identity, there are some very interesting dynamics at play that have shaped our scriptures.

Let’s look at them…

An infant’s first task is to bond with their parents and there is “no sense of self apart from Mother.”

Or another way that Cloud and Townsend put it, “Mommy and me are the same.” (p.67)

An infant simply can’t understand their existence without the presence of their parent and often you will notice distress if that person is gone.

As Jesus and the disciples engaged in their ministry, they understood themselves to simply be a part of the Jewish faith. There was no difference and so much of what we find in the gospels describes how this new movement and the Jewish faith are one and the same.

You can’t read through the gospel of Matthew, in particular, without stumbling all over quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures.

Luke’s gospel, however, has a slightly different spin on it.

As the author of Acts, he writes from the perspective of having witnessed the expansion of the good news to a community beyond Israel. So everything he writes comes through that lens.

But he, too, records the preaching of folks like Peter, Stephen, Philip, and Paul and each and every single one of them start their messages with the understanding that they are part of the people of Israel and remind folks of God’s promises to Moses, Abraham, David, and the prophets.

There is no sense of the Christian faith apart from the Jewish faith in these first stages.

Hopefully, an infant will discover that “Mommy and me are not the same,” and claim their own identity. This separation and individuation is a healthy and natural part of development into a unique self.

So as we think about how the Christian faith became its own separate identity, I find it fascinating to think about the three critical phases that Cloud and Townsend discuss in how children create boundaries with their parents.

They note that how the parent and child responds to these phases either creates healthy or unhealthy boundaries and we can see that in the responses of each throughout the book of Acts.

The first of these phases is called hatching.

“During this period,” they write, “babies begin moving out of their passive union with Mother into an active interest in the outside world. They become aware that there’s a big, exciting world out there -and they want a piece of the action!” (p. 69)

So many of the moments that we have touched on in the Book of Acts describe this kind of wide-eyed excitement.

The disciples begin their ministry in Jerusalem, worshipping at the temple every day, but you also see them growing and deepening in the kinds of things they discover about themselves.

New people flock to this movement every day as it tries out new things… like how they fellowship and care for the needy among them.

They start to discover some ways that they are not the same as the Jewish religious establishment and the messages of folks like Peter and John before the council evidence this.

They point to how they embraced the named of Jesus Christ, but those leaders rejected him.

But just as this period of development is incredibly difficult for a parent, who may not be ready to let their little one go off on their own, there is an attempt from the religious leaders of the Jewish community to rein in the leaders of this new movement.

Not only were there warnings, but a wave of persecution beginning with the death of Stephen that were all designed to bring this new movement back into the fold… back into what we would call an enmeshed relationship where there is no difference in belief or identity allowed.

The second phase of this separation, Cloud and Townsend call practicing.

They note, “the difference between hatching and practicing is radical. While the hatching baby is overwhelmed by this new world and still leans a great deal on Mother, the practicing child is trying to leave her behind!” (p. 70).

And you see this as a child takes their first steps and learns to walk… and then run… often away from said parent towards something new. “They want to try everything, including walking down steep stairs, putting forks into electric sockets, and chasing cats’ tails.”

In many ways, this phase is defined by exploring the limits and in a healthy relationship, an infant is able to dive in head first, because the parent is there to provide safety and encouragement when needed.

What I find fascinating in the development of the Christian faith, however, is that this particular phase initially comes not through the excitement of discovery, but as the church is scattered to the four winds because of persecution.

The movement goes to places like Samaria and Damascus and Antioch, initially because they ran out of fear.

And yet, the power of God through the Holy Spirit is what provides the encouragement to explore and expand and discover new things about themselves.

Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch.

The apostles discover that one of their greatest enemies could become one of their greatest allies.

Peter learns that God shows no partiality.

Barnabas encounters a new multi-national diverse community.

But what happens in the midst of this exploration when you bump back into the parent?

Cloud and Townsend writes that in this phase, “children learn that aggressiveness and taking initiative are good.”

And we see the healthy development of these attitudes in the church as Barnabas and Saul… who starts going by his Roman name, Paul… are sent out as missionaries by the church in Antioch.

Their first missionary journey leads them to many different cities and communities and they always head first to the Jewish synagogue to talk directly to their fellow Israelites.

But as we saw in our scripture today, they have their eyes also on the Gentiles in the community.

In some cases, that initiative and message is welcomed and the people embrace what they have to say. But not everyone does.

In city after city, there are Jewish leaders who are upset and jealous of what Paul and Barnabas accomplish.

And these missionaries, in turn, push back with their own harsh words.

Chapters 12, 13, and 14 are filled with a growing tension and violence even spills out onto the streets in some of these places.

The third phase of this healthy separation is called rapprochement.

Cloud and Townsend describe this phase as “a return to connection with Mother, but this time it’s different. This time the child brings a more separate self into the relationship. There are two people now, with differing thoughts and feelings.” (p. 72)

While it might sound like this is a much more harmonious way of relating to each other, this phase of development in children is also known as the “terrible twos.”

A toddler might express anger as they realize they and other people are having different experiences.

Words like “me” and “mine” are incredibly common in their vocabulary because they are claiming their own self.

And, they learn how to say, “no.” They discover the power to make their own choices.

Our journey through the Book of Acts will only begin to touch on this particular phase of separation between the Jewish and Christian communities.

But I think it is important to have these ideas in the back of our minds as we look at how the church develops and its relationship with the Jewish community.

The reality is, we did not always do so in a healthy way.

There were seasons of anger and persecution that went both ways.

There were hard feelings that you can still see on the pages of scripture as these first Christian communities tried to claim what was theirs – by pushing away and blaming their Jewish siblings.

Sometimes when we read the words of Paul or the gospels, we can feel that animosity.

When I think about it as simply being a part of this process of separation and forming their unique identity, we start to understand where that anger or distance or blaming comes from.

Where we go wrong is when we read these passages at face value and continue to be hostile towards one another.

For centuries… millenia even… we carried that spirit with us and it grew into a deep seated anti-Semitism and even supercessionism that took millions of lives.

Just as sometimes these phases of development in infants create long lasting trauma and injury, the development of a unique Christian identity was fraught with problems.

But there can be healing.

We can establish new patterns and boundaries.

Just as the goal of a healthy separation or creation of a unique sense of self in a child is to form the ability for a parent and child to be in relationship as individuals… we can celebrate the many ways we have been able to have a much healthier relationship with our Jewish siblings.

We are not entirely the same.

But we are also not entirely different.

We come from the same family.

And we are blessed if we can find ways to repent and repair and rebuild our relationships.

The Church in Antioch

Posted on July 18, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 11: 19-30

In our lesson for today, Luke notes that this new community in Antioch represents the very first time that people were called, “Christians.”

Before this, we’ve had a lot of different descriptions of these folks.

Jews. Disciples. Followers of the Way. Those who were part of “This Life.”

It was hard to describe this community.

And largely that is because this movement started among and as an extension of the Jewish faith.

Jesus himself was considered a Jewish rabbi, who recruited disciples to follow his teaching… like many other Jewish rabbis of the time.

And yet, there was more to Jesus than this.

He wasn’t simply pointing to God’s Kingdom.

He didn’t just have a particular teaching about what it meant to be Jewish.

He was ushering in a whole new kind of relationship between God and the world that brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.

While Jesus walked among those first disciples and the crowds, he described the kind of life we were now called to embody.

Think about the Sermon on the Mount…

In ‘The Message’ translation, as the sermon continues after the Beatitudes, Eugene Peterson writes:

“Let me tell you why you are here…”

The whole sermon is full of instructions for the people of God.

It reminds us of the attitudes we are supposed to carry with us into the world and how we can serve God and God’s Kingdom.

We are supposed to fulfill God’s laws – God’s plans and guide for how we love and live with one another.

And as we do, we become salt and light.

Our very lives, our witness, helps others to experience God.

Think a bit about what it means to be salt and light.

We aren’t called to be salty in a way that is angry and bitter and ill-tempered.

Salt takes what is already there and brings out the flavors. It helps us taste what is hidden.

When you sprinkle salt on watermelon or tomatoes, the flavors are more bright and sweet.

When you add salt to soup, it becomes rich and deep.

Salt is used for curing and preserving and healing.

That is our job!

We bring out the “God-flavors of this earth” (MSG) by pointing to the good news and movement of God and lifting up stories of life and hope.

In the same way, the light of God within us helps others to see God.

Our faith is not meant to be secret or private… but to shine far and wide so that others might have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as well.

So the testimony and witness of the Book of Acts tells us about how those first Jewish disciples lived in the way Jesus called them to live.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God within them, they were salt and light… not just for themselves, or for their neighbors, but for the entire world.

We see it in that first community in Jerusalem that gathered to break breads and pray and learn at the feet of the apostles.

We see it in how they cared for the vulnerable within the community.

We see it in how people were healed, and faith deepened, and understanding of the Kingdom of God expanded and grew.

Even when persecution and threats could have driven them underground, hiding away the light of God in their hearts, they shone.

And suddenly, this small group of Jewish disciples who believed that Jesus was the Messiah became an international movement of Jews and Gentiles.

Which brings us to Antioch.

If we remember, the experience of Pentecost was itself had a global impact because Jewish faithful from across the world had returned to the city for the festival.

But, after the death of Stephen, some of those disciples fled and returned home… some all the way to the northern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

They began to be salt and light back home, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with their fellow Jews.

And because Antioch was a huge, cosmopolitan city – a crossroads of the world at this time – some of those folks from Phoenicia and Cyprus and even people as far away as the north African city of Cyrene found themselves together.

As the Holy Spirit led them, they pointed to what God was doing in the world and just like Peter had experienced in Caesarea, Gentiles began to join the movement as well.

That’s the thing about salt and light.

It can’t be hidden away.

It can’t be contained to just one thing.

If you salt your potatoes on the plate, some is bound to land on the chicken and broccoli, too.

If you set a light in one corner of a room, eventually the whole space will be illuminated.

Jesus was telling those first disciples that if they followed his way, the whole world would notice.

So why are we surprised when they do?

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem heard about these happenings and decided to send Barnabas up to check on things.

You know, I have to be honest, before this summer and taking the time to really look closely at the book of Acts, I really didn’t know who Barnabas was… but he is such an instrumental part of this early Jesus movement!

Barnabas is the guy in chapter 4 who sells his land and gives the proceeds to the poor.

Barnabas is also the guy who vouches for Saul when he comes back to Jerusalem after his transformation.

And he’s the guy who gets sent to this community in Antioch.

This is an incredibly strategic decision on the part of the apostles.

Scripture tells us that Barnabas was actually from Cyprus, this island in the northern Mediterranean Sea.

Although he was Jewish, a Levite in fact, he had a cross-cultural identity, growing up outside of Israel in a region that had been ruled by various empires and was a major player in regional trade.

So Barnabas would have largely understood the customs and traditions of this Roman trade city.

And when he arrives, what he finds is a mixed Jewish and Gentile community that is full of salt and light and the power of God.

Barnabas himself is a non-Hebrew Jew.

He has heard about Peter’s experience with the Roman soldier, Cornelius.

So when he arrives and sees the Holy Spirit moving among this diverse group of folks, he is filled with joy and starts to figure out how he can encourage them to grow even more fully into their relationship with God.

His gets himself situated and preaches a few sermons, but then realizes that this needs to be a team effort and he goes to Tarsus to search for Saul.

Yep, that Saul.

The one that Barnabas had vouched for in Jerusalem.

The one who had stirred up some conflict among the other Greek-speaking Jews and got sent back home.

Home for Saul was on the northern Mediterranean.

You see, he, too, had this kind of dual-identity.

Firmly Jewish, and yet also a Roman citizen, fluent in the Greek culture and world.

Together, these two became a dynamic team that helped to shape the church into more than just a Jewish sect.

The Spirit of God truly had moved beyond Jerusalem… beyond Samaria… and from Antioch would move to the ends of the earth.

As such, this group of folks needed a new name.

They were more than a Jewish community.

The Holy Spirit fell upon all who would believe in Jesus Christ so that they might be salt and light for the world.

As Paul would later write to the church in Galatia, “You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28)

And if we are all one in Christ, made God’s children through faith in Christ, what better name for this group than Christian.

These Christians in Antioch understood why they were there.

To know God and to know Jesus.

To be salt and light for the world.

And to reach out in love to their neighbors.

In fact, when they heard about a potential disaster, a famine, headed towards the people of Judea, they took up a collection and sent it to Jerusalem to help.

We are here today, because of that diverse and vibrant community in Antioch.

Because of the way they didn’t let labels get in the way of who was welcome.

Because they let their light shine beyond their city to bring healing and hope to the world.

From Jerusalem… to Samaria… to Antioch… to right here in Des Moines, we are called to do the same.

To let our light shine so that others might know God.

To bring out and support the work God is already doing healing and bringing hope to the people of this community.

To love our neighbors.

Whether that is providing milk and juice for the families at Hawthorne Hill…

Or signing up to tutor at schools this fall…

Or volunteering with Vacation Bible School…

Or the ways, big and small, you make a difference in the lives of others through your daily work…

Be light.

Be salt.

Be evidence of God’s grace to a world that is desperate for hope.

Expanding Our Vision

Posted on July 11, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 10: 1-5, 9-15, 19-20, 24, 27-28, 34-36, 44-48

Eighty five years ago, I probably would not have been welcomed in this pulpit.

As a woman, ordination was out of the question.

A combination of tradition and a patriarchal society and a way of reading the scriptures precluded the church from welcoming women as preachers and pastors.

It still does in some places and traditions.

But here I stand… ordained, my calling from the Holy Spirit confirmed by the church.

As a young(ish) woman, I have always lived in a church that ordained women. I have always been a part of a church that valued the contributions women made in ministry, in leadership, and in the world. It has been a given.

But I also know what it took to get here.

Late this spring, folks from Immanuel joined with other churches in our circuit to read together through a series of essays called, “I’m Black. I’m Christian. I’m Methodist.”

While their experiences were contemporary, these pastors wove into their narrative the history and legacy of exclusion and discrimination of our church. While some Black Methodists chose to leave, for those that remained within this denomination, separation and exclusion and discrimination continued to be our legacy.

Our church divided over slavery, rather than taking a stand for the full humanity of our siblings.

When we finally re-united, it was as a segregated church, with black churches and clergy all set apart in the Central Jurisdiction until 1968.

The impact of that structural racism continues to be felt today.

What surprised us the most as we read through that book of essays, however, were parallels between these stories of exclusion and discrimination and our current debate within the church about the lives and leadership of our LGBTQ+ siblings.

I am here today because how we understood God’s call in the life of women changed.

In the same way, we have claimed a more expansive vision of what it means to be the church from other cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

The church is more diverse and beautiful and powerful today because we have recognized how the Holy Spirit is moving through one another.

I wonder where God is going to change our minds next…

This isn’t a new question…

It is a question as old as the church.

As we journey through the book of Acts, we see God’s Kingdom widening.

From Jerusalem, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

The faithful Jewish disciples begin to welcome and share the good news with those on the margins of the community…

And those who are converts in more far flung places…

And now we have a story about God speaking into the life of a Gentile and how God moves Peter to share the good news.

As the leader of the apostles, Peter had been visiting all of the house-churches where the followers of the Way were gathering in the wider area, especially on the coastal plains of Sharon.

He had just been to Lydda and then spent some time in Joppa.

And it was there, moved by the Spirit, that Peter had raised a faithful servant named Tabitha from the dead.

He was able to do amazing things, working and teaching in that community.

He was faithfully serving God and thought he knew exactly what that meant.

He presumed that he understood the rules of faith.

But just like Saul in the chapter before, Peter was about to have his world turned upside down yet again.

He was about to catch a glimpse of the scope and the breadth and the depth of God’s love for all people.

Our story today starts in the home of a gentile. A captain of the Roman army, named Cornelius, receives a vision from God and sends for Peter.

Let’s talk a little bit about this guy and what it means…

A Gentile is anyone who is not Jewish, someone who was not a part of the family of Israel, either through birth or conversion.

An outsider… as far as the faith was concerned.

There were gentiles, like Cornelius, who were described as “God-fearers” or “God-worshippers” which meant that they would have practiced elements of the Jewish faith and worshipped the God of the Israelites, but they were limited in their participation.

The temple had many different courts, and the requirements to move further and further into the temple, towards the holy of holies, left many out. The big open area you see in the photo is called the Court of the Gentiles. That was the only part of the temple Gentiles could enter, divided from even the steps leading up to the building by a wall.

These folks would not have kept the same ritual laws and for that reason, it was forbidden for Gentiles to enter these holy places or for Jews to enter the homes of Gentiles… lest they encounter something that would have made them unclean.

But many faithful god-fearing folks like Cornelius continued to show up. They continued worshipping God from those outer courts. In spite of the barriers, they wanted a relationship with God.

And God wanted a relationship with them.

So God prepares Peter’s heart for a more expansive vision of who was included in the Kingdom of God.

Before he is summoned to Caesarea and the home of Cornelius, Peter is given a vision of the clean and unclean joining together and he is asked in the vision to eat something that is unclean.

He doesn’t want to embrace it.

Everything in his very being tells him that it is wrong.

The holy was being profaned by the ordinary.

And then the voice in his vision speaks: “Never consider unclean what God has made pure.”

There is a knock at the door and the Holy Spirit whispers to him… go.

Peter is summoned to the home of Cornelius, and although he was not allowed by Jewish custom to enter, he did.

He entered the home of a gentile and broke bread with the unclean.

And when Cornelius asked about why God had brought him there, Peter shares the good news of Jesus Christ.

As he preaches to the entire gathered household, the Holy Spirit descends upon them and they receive the gift of faith.

The profane, the ordinary, the unclean… these people who were outside of all that Peter knew to be holy… the spirit and presence of God filled their lives.

He and his companions could see it… feel it…

And Peter exclaims: “These people have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Surely no one can stop them from being baptized with water, can they?”

None of the disciples could deny their gifts.

Water was brought and Cornelius and his whole family were baptized on the spot…

They were part of the family of God…

At various points throughout the history of the church, faithful folk stood up and exclaimed: These people have received the Holy Spirit… just like we did – How can we stop them from being baptized?

How can we deny them a place at the table?

How can we continue to reject their leadership when God has so clearly spoken in their lives?

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism was against women preaching in principle… until he witnessed the Holy Spirit working through the lives of women like Sarah Crosby, Grace Murry, and Hannah Ball. He relented and licensed them for preaching in the circuits across England.

Likewise, Wesley was a staunch opponent of slavery the very first Discipline of the church prohibited members from owning slaves.

In fact, that Methodist egalitarian spirit is what drew large numbers of Black people to the movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

As Rev. Erin Beasley writes: “Under Methodist, all Christians became brothers and sisters despite their background… “ and no matter their gender, ethnicity, or class.

And yet, even as God pushes us to expand our vision of who is included, that long-memory of what we had believed is hard to shake off.

It is not easy to let go of control.

Or upend our expectations.

Or give way for others to lead in new ways.

Sometimes the witness of the Holy Spirit is sometimes rejected by those who are trying to follow God’s will.

Even after John Wesley licensed women to preach, it was not until 1956 that women were granted full clergy rights in the church.

The anti-slavery position of the early Methodists quickly became more lenient as they sought to establish more congregations in the South. Black ministers like Richard Allen were not allowed to be ordained as elders… requiring them to be supervised by white clergy… eventually leading these folks to leave the church.

It is hard to let go of our traditions, our rules, our power.

We hang on to what we know and understand.

There is an uproar in Jerusalem when the hear about what Peter had done.

The apostles summon him back to the city to account for his actions.

They start with criticism. They launch into accusations. They read off the rules.

I can imagine their frustration growing as they start to wrestle with the implications of what has just happened.

The leaders of the early church, like Peter just days and weeks before, believed that faith meant one thing, and God was trying to show them it meant something else.

It doesn’t stop the Holy Spirit from moving however.

Not only does God act by giving us these unique and undeniable experiences of grace and power and Holy Spirit-led transformation… like Peter experienced with Cornelius…

But God also expands the vision of the whole church by calling those who have had these life-altering experiences to tell their story.

The apostles were furious and demanded an explanation.

Peter gave them one.

He told them about his vision.

He told them about how God led him to the house of Cornelius.

He connected what he had experienced of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with what he witnessed first-hand in Caesarea.

In chapter 11, verse 16-17 he testifies: “I remembered the Lord’s words: ‘John will baptize with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then who am I? Could I stand in God’s way?”.

“I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another,” Peter says.

I give thanks that the apostles rejoiced in his witness.

They came to understand that God wants to be in relationship with all of us.

With the whole of creation.

With you and me.

And we keep learning that lesson…

We keep discovering and remembering and learning all over again just how far our vision needs to expand…

With black and white and brown.

With young and old, and gay and straight,

Folks who are married and single and divorced and widowed.

cis-gender, transgender, and non-binary folks,

with those struggling with mental health and those who love them.

With life-long Americans and with people who have just arrived in our country.

Are we there yet?

No.

Have we sometimes taken steps backwards?

Absolutely.

Like Peter, we are still learning that God shows no partiality to one group of people or another.

It has been a hard lesson… centuries and millenia in the making…

But God keeps pushing us… stretching us… calling us into a more expansive vision of what the church can and should be.

God is God.

And we can fight it.

We can resist it.

But God will keep pouring out the Holy Spirit on whomever God chooses.

What Happened in Damascus?

Posted on July 4, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 9:1-20

Our scripture today starts with lines drawn in the sand.

Us verses them.

The faithful, orthodox, Jewish leader vs. the rebellious believers of the Way.

Division.

Destruction.

And everyone so sure that they were on the side that was right.

You know, on this national holiday weekend, I can’t ignore how this kind of “us” vs “them” language echoes the kind of nationalism we find too often in the world.

We, the shining city on a hill have been blessed by God.

And in defense of our beloved nation, we’ll come after anyone who disagrees with us.

Anyone who is a threat to our way of life and our values.

That is what Saul was doing, after all.

He believed in his tradition, in the law, in who God had called him to be.

And he was willing to defend it all with his very life… taking other lives if he had to.

If you weren’t with him… you were against him.

But in the same way, that “us” vs “them” mentality was present in the followers of the Way of Christ.

When Ananias receives a calling from the Lord to go to Saul, his very first response is to name that man as doing evil… compared with the saints on his own side.

Good verses bad.

Right verses wrong.

Insiders verses outsiders.

Both have cause for why they believe what they believe.

Each can point to actions of the other that would justify their own positions.

There is that old adage that there are two sides to every story and today, I certainly don’t want to get caught up in excusing either side from their actions.

Nor do I want to say that there is not, in fact, a good… a standard… a godly measure of how we should be that we should all be held up against.

Maybe more of what I’d like to note is a simple observation from Stephen D. Jones, “not many of us are ‘breathing threats and murder’ against our opponents. However, we have all been on wrong paths… We have all been headstrong, stubborn, blinded to our own ambition, selfish to meet our own need…”[1]

And in part, I think this story of what happens in Damascus is a reminder that God is not interested in the lines that we have drawn.

God is not interested in the labels we throw at one another.

God doesn’t care about our nationality or pedigree or longevity with the faith.

God is not interested in our us verses them arguments.

In fact, God flips all of the scripts and expectations on their head to change everyone’s lives and instead orient us towards life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In our Acts study book, N.T. Wright calls Saul a “hardline, fanatical, ultra-nationalist, super-orthodox Pharisaic Jew.”

And yet… he’s the guy that Jesus calls to reach out to the non-Jewish, Gentile community.

Ananias is likely a newcomer to the way of Christ. Damascus was about 135 miles from Jerusalem and you can’t imagine that in this short of time that the good news about Jesus would have taken a very deep hold this far out yet.

And yet, this non-Israelite is the one who Jesus calls to go to Saul.

This non-apostle, non-deacon, ordinary, regular guy is the one who God uses to heal Saul and who baptizes him with the Holy Spirit.

In many ways, God is telling us that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what your story was…

You, too, just might be called into this inside-out, upside-down, community of Christ.

No one is safe from God breaking in and disrupting everything you thought you knew about your life.

And that… well… that’s a little terrifying.

As a pastor, I sometimes shy away from this story about Saul’s dramatic conversion because it really is just too incredible.

He is a guy who literally makes a 180 degree turn in his life.

He goes from persecuting Christians to preaching the cross of Christ.

His old life dies on the Road to Damascus and three days later, he is born again as an apostle of Jesus.

There are very few of us who can compare our stories with his and William Muehl writes that this can give us a bit of a “faith inferiority complex.”[2]

Or, maybe even more than that, we fear something coming along to cause such a dramatic change in our lives.

Over these last sixteen months, we experienced what it is like to have life come to a stand-still and have everything that we knew to be “normal” upended.

It isn’t something we seek out unless we are desperate or at the end of our ropes.

Maybe that’s why we identify a bit more with Ananias in this story.

You know, the ordinary fellow, going about his day, who gets called to walk down the street and pass along a message to his mortal enemy.

What… that doesn’t happen to you on a regular basis?

I just have to keep telling myself that the main character in this story is not Saul.

And it’s not Ananias.

It is Jesus Christ.

For many chapters now, the disciples and apostles have been talking about Jesus.

But he shows up and calls these two individuals to action.

This is a word about how our Savior continues to show up in the lives of unexpected people to challenge us and push us beyond everything we thought we knew and understood.

Beyond our boundaries and borders and beliefs.

And sometimes, that happens in a heartbeat – like it did on that road to Damascus.

But sometimes, it happens over a lifetime.

Sometimes, truth comes to us in a dream or a sign or a message…

But sometimes it comes through a friend who has the courage to tell it like it is.

All around us, God is moving…

God is pushing us beyond our artificial divisions…

God is opening up our eyes…

God is calling us out of our privilege and bias…

Jesus stands before us, waiting for us to stop breathing threats and running from enemies and to start working together for a Kingdom that is far wider and more expansive than we could ever imagine.

May it be so.

[1] Jones. Stephen D. Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 2, p 403.

[2] William Muehl, Why Preach? Why Listen? (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 11.

The Sorcerer and the Eunuch

Posted on June 27, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 8: 4-6, 9-10, 12-13, 15-24; 26-27, 29-31, 34-39

Last week, the Jerusalem community of disciples was shaken when Stephen, one of the first deacons, was killed for his beliefs.

The church scattered and one of those deacons, Philip, found himself in Samaria, preaching Christ.

That moment of tragedy and the threat of persecution could not stop the good news from moving beyond Jerusalem… to Samaria… to the ends of the earth.

Before we get too far this morning… why Samaria?

Why is this place so important?

Well, first, we have to remember that Samaria isn’t a far flung place, but had been right in the center of Jesus’ ministry. In order to get from Jerusalem to Galilee you had to pass through… Samaria!

The Samaritans were distant cousins, “lost sheep of Israel” as J. Jervell describes them.

These neighbors were not Gentiles, not complete outsiders to the Jewish faith, but there were differences between more traditional Jews and their Samaritan kin that created animosity and division.

The reason the story of the Good Samaritan was so controversial was the very fact that the priest and Levite – faithful Jewish folks – didn’t stop… but the Samaritan, whom the crowds would have expected to do the wrong thing, did.

This is where Jesus promises that the ministry of the church will spread first.

From Jersualem… to Samaria… to the ends of the earth.

This journey of Acts starts with the Jewish faithful… but then it starts to take root in those who are on the fringes of God’s people.

Philip finds in Samaria an audience that is eager to hear more about Jesus and the good news.

But his ministry in this chapter is largely the story of how two folks on the fringe of faith receive the invitation.

The sorcerer and the eunuch.

One arrogant and brash, the other humble and full of questions.

For one, the power of the Holy Spirit is a commodity to be bought and sold, possessed and tamed.

For the other, that power is precious, mysterious, and a gift to be treated delicately.

Let’s dive in deeper.

In Samaria, “Simon the Great” was known throughout the area for his dazzling performances of sorcery.

But he finds that notoriety fading as a new player, the deacon Philip, comes on the scene.

Suddenly, it is someone else doing the healing…

Someone else drawing the crowds…

And Simon Magus, himself, is astonished by the power that this follower of Christ displays.

He is overcome by the good news of God and joins in the fellowship of believers.

But we get the sense that stepping out of the limelight was a really rough transition.

Simon misses drawing a crowd and being the center of attention.

Now, there is an interesting point here that I want to mention.

Philip, as a deacon, appears to have the authority to preach and to baptize folks, but it wasn’t until the apostles Peter and John show up that the gift of the Holy Spirit was received.

Philip had the gift of the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t have the ability to share it with others.

The apostles did. They began to lay hands on folks so that they, too, could be filled with the Spirit, and when Simon Magus sees this, he suddenly wants their job.

He perceives the Holy Spirit as a kind of magical ability that could be possessed and he wants to take it on the road to give some new audience a show.

So this former sorcerer runs up and throws down a bag of coins… “Give me that authority!” he demands.

Faith in Jesus Christ is a new part of Simon’s life and so he naturally starts from what he knows and where he is gifted. He knows how to draw a crowd and perform and thinks…“I could do that.”

What he has misunderstood, however, is that the Holy Spirit isn’t interested in being possessed. The apostle Peter calls him out and rebukes him for trying to buy God’s gifts.

We remember what happened not that long ago to the likes of Ananias and Sapphira and you almost have to hold your breath waiting for Simon Magus to drop dead.

But he is invited to pray, to repent, and our last impression of this sorcerer has him asking the apostles to intercede on his behalf.

Maybe there is hope for him, after all.

After this encounter, Philip is led by the Holy Spirit in a different direction, this time southwest of Jerusalem to another person on the fringes of the Jewish faith.

Whereas in Samaria, the Holy Spirit was a power that amazed, in this story, she seems to be moving subtly behind the scenes.

Our text tells us that this individual was coming from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for worship in the temple. We might assume that they were a God-fearer… a term used for those who followed the God of Israel, but like Samaritans, they found himself on the margins.

In this case, it wasn’t because of their own religious history, but because of their identity.

Luke tells us the passenger in the carriage was an Ethiopian eunuch – which might not mean a whole lot to us today – so I appreciate Gary DeLashmutt’s more modern description: this was a “sexually altered black man from a pagan country.” [1]

Despite their standing in the court of the queen of Ethiopia, their wealth, and all the power they did possess, this eunuch knew they could not buy a place in the family of God. They understood the barriers.

And yet, we can’t help but ignore that the eunuch is reading the words of the prophet Isaiah – who talked about Ethiopia’s inclusion in God’s blessings (18:1, 45:15) and who shared God’s promise that outcasts like eunuchs and foreigners who kept the Sabbath would be welcomed in God’s family (see chapter 56). They knew how important scripture was in their quest for a relationship with God… even though they were on the fringes of the Jewish faith.

The Holy Spirit brought these two together in this moment and Philip climbs in the carriage to lead a Bible Study. And in this dialogue with Philip, they discovered someone who, according to DeLashmutt, “understood that their standing with God was based not on ethnic identity, moral record, religious heritage, etc.—but through Jesus’ death alone…”

Philip is led by the Holy Spirit to tell this fellow sojourner the good news about Jesus and the eunuch is ready and eager to receive this word and join in the fellowship.

In spite of the lingering suspicion that the answer might be no, when the eunuch and Philip come to a small oasis of water by the side of the road, they ask a heartbreaking question: “What would prevent me from being baptized?”

It is not a demand, it is a humble question of faith from someone who has everything in the world… except for a place in the family of God.

Because they were castrated, this eunuch could never have completed the conversion to Judaism – which would have included circumcision and then baptism.

But if it is the death and resurrection and exaltation of Jesus that brings us salvation, and if this eunuch has taken this message to heart, why should anything stand in their way?

Philip is led by the Holy Spirit to baptize the eunuch and they go on their way rejoicing.

The story of the church began with a small crowd in Jerusalem, but already it is defying our expectations.

Those on the fringes are ready and eager to hear the good news and to join in the community of God’s people.

They might not all respond in the way that we want them to and there are sure to be challenges along the way… but the Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us… we don’t get to control who hears the message.

[1] https://teachings.xenos.org/es/teaching/1484