Ends of the Earth

"Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

Acts 1:6 is the only place where it is recorded in scripture that Jesus' disciples asked this question but I have to imagine it was one that was on their minds frequently. They had seen Jesus' miraculous power and they hailed him as Messiah and savior. They're expectation was that Jesus was the one who would usher in God's reign in Israel and over all the nations. I imagine that when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the time of Passover and all the people are shouting "Hosanna!" and Jesus begins to make his way to the temple the disciples must have been thinking "Is this it? Is Jesus finally going to begin the rebellion?" Instead, Jesus is crucified just days later and we hear the disappointment in the disciples who walk the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus as they say "We had hoped that he was the one who would redeem Israel."

Now the disciples encounter with the resurrected Jesus has restored their hope; namely, that hope that God's kingdom would be established. Not only is Jesus alive again but here, in the opening of Acts, he begins to speak about the promise of the Holy Spirit. If the prophecy of Joel is any indication, it is likely that the gift of the Spirit is something that the disciples would have associated with the establishment of God's reign. So its natural with Jesus now resurrected and promising that the gift of the Spirit is near that this same question would be on their minds once again: has the time finally come for the kingdom to be restored to Israel?.

Its not only those first disciples who seem to be preoccupied with that question. There are plenty of disciples today who seem to spend enormous amounts of time and energy on the same question - whole segments of Christianity with the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other trying to discern whether the end is near. To them and to us, Jesus very plainly says "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." It doesn't get much plainer that that.

Jesus also goes on to say "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Jesus is not merely turning their attention away from speculating about chronology. He is also turning their attention to  mission. The focus of the disciples is not to be on the end of the world but the ends of the earth.

Immediately after commissioning the disciples on this mission, Jesus does an unexpected thing - at least I imagine it must have been a surprise to his disciples - he leaves! The disciples are just getting geared up to follow Jesus wherever he leads, even to the ends of the earth, and then he is out of sight. As their leader, teacher, and friend ascends into heaven two men appear and essentially say "Why are you staring into the sky. He'll be back." And the implication seems to be "But in the meantime you have more important things to do than stand around watch for his return. There is an urgent mission at hand."

It strikes me as remarkable that Jesus leaves in order to get this mission underway. Shouldn't Jesus be the one leading the mission? Shouldn't he be our general, our CEO, making sure we get it right? Isn't this an abdication of leadership on Jesus' part? Jesus has given us this remarkable mission, one to the ends of the earth, and he expects us to carry out with his Holy Spirit empowering us to do so. To me, that speaks volumes as to how much responsibility God has put in our hands. Jesus has entrusted this kingdom mission to us with all our fragility and failures and he expects us to be able to carry it out so long as we wait upon his Spirit to empower us for it.

Common Conversion

The story of Lydia's conversion in Acts 16:9-15 actually includes a number of parallels to the story of Cornelius' conversion which I preached about last week. Just as Peter's journey toward Cornelius began with a vision, Paul makes his way to Philippi, where he meets Lydia, because of a vision. Like Cornelius, it seems likely that Lydia is a gentile but one whom Luke describes as being a worshiper of God much as he described Cornelius as being God-fearing and devout. Like Cornelius, Lydia is the head of a household that is converted along with her. Lydia also offers hospitality to Paul and his traveling companions after her baptism, just as Cornelius did for Peter. But for all that commonality, there is one glaring difference: Lydia's story is really plain and uninteresting!

Luke's telling of Lydia's story is just downright commonplace. Think of the dramatic gift of the Spirit to Cornelius' household. Consider the controversy that followed when Peter returned to Jerusalem. There is none of that in Lydia's story. And it is not for lack of opportunity for such controversy. Could Luke not have made a bigger deal out of the fact that Paul's first convert in this city was a woman who was the head of her own household (and perhaps even the head of her own business)? Such a woman would have been an anomaly in the ancient world to say the least. Surely there should have been some controversial discussion about whether or not the Spirit could really work in this way just as there had been with Cornelius' conversion. But Lydia isn't even the most discussed woman in this chapter! Immediately following on the heels of Lydia's story is the story of a slave girl who has an evil spirit that causes her to proclaim to anyone who will listen that Paul and his companions are servants of the Most High God. Paul casts out that spirit which leads to them being thrown in prison. The dramatic story of their release from prison by an earthquake follows, as does the conversion of their jailer and his whole household. By comparison, Lydia's story seems plain and ordinary.

In fact, one would be hard pressed to think of a less interesting story in the entirety of the Acts of the Apostles. In a book filled with miracles, dramatic conversions, exorcisms, riots, imprisonments, conflict, and shipwrecks, Lydia's story actually stands out for all of its plainness. Its unexceptional quality is the exception. Yet Luke still finds her story important enough to include in his account of the early church.

We love stories of dramatic conversion; the addict, the criminal, the hopelessly lost now found. And with good reason. They are exciting and it is encouraging to see how drastically God can change someone's life. We love these stories at least in part because they are the exception to what it otherwise often very predictable human behavior. But I think Luke's conservative and restrained telling of Lydia's story reminds us that just because the story of an encounter with Jesus isn't dramatic doesn't mean it isn't a story worth telling.

Lydia's story is a simple one. The Spirit opened her heart to the word Paul was sharing, she responded by being baptized, and then demonstrated faithfulness in that response by offering hospitality. This is the story of so many Christians. In many ways, it is my own story. There is even an argument to be made that it is the story on which the church at Philippi, possibly Paul's most faithful congregation (if his letter to them is any indication), is built. Given that Lydia was Paul's first convert in Philippi and that she was able to offer hospitality to him and his companions, there is a decent chance that she hosted the church at Philippi in her home. There is a decent chance that her leadership in that church was the very reason why Luke included her in Acts. In that case, her very simple story would be one of faithfulness begetting faithfulness. Such is the story into which we are called to live as the Church.

Scandalous Spirit

What Peter is suggesting in Acts 11.... actually, what he has already done and is now suggesting the rest of the Church should accept is nothing short of scandalous. We see as much in v. 2 when Peter arrives in Jerusalem and some of the believers there begin to criticize him saying "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them."

Why is this a point of criticism? God had called Israel to be holy and much of that holiness had to do with being separate and recognizably distinct from other nations. Israel did that by keeping God's law but in the first century three points in particular had become important identity markers for the people of Israel: circumcision, Sabbath observance, and food laws. These served to separate Jew from Gentile, the holy from the common. Food laws, in particular, had a very divisive social impact since they not only prohibited one from eating unclean foods but also from eating with those who ate unclean foods.

So when Peter not only goes to the house of an uncircumcised man but also stays with him for several days (Acts 10:48), it is not a minor infraction. Peter has done something that most faithful first century Jews would see as violating the very essence of what it means to be a faithful Jew. Peter has undercut Israel's covenant with God. Thus the very serious accusation against Peter in v.2.

Peter responds to this accusation by speaking of the Spirit's leading. He tells them how he was in the city of Joppa praying when he fell into a trance. In that trance he saw a vision in which a sheet was lowered from heaven with all kinds of animals that were considered unclean by Jewish law and a voice from heaven said "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." Peter responded as any faithful Jew would saying "Certainly not, Lord. I have never eaten anything unclean." But the voice responded from heaven, "What God has called clean, do not call common."

At the same time, some men showed up from Cornelius' house looking for Peter. Cornelius was a Roman centurion. Luke describes him as a devout man who feared God and gave to the poor but he was a gentile, nonetheless. Peter went with the men who had come for him to Cornelius' house. Upon arriving at Cornelius' house and hearing how Cornelius had been directed by an angel to send for him, Peter realized that this was the fulfilling of the vision he had seen. Since Cornelius and his household were gentiles, Peter would have considered Cornelius and his household to be unclean just like the animals he had seen in his vision. However, he now recognized that God was declaring them clean so Peter began to preach the gospel to them. Before Peter could even finish his sermon, the Holy Spirit filled these gentiles just as the Spirit had filled Jesus' Jewish disciples at Pentecost. Peter sums up the story by saying "If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"

Like so many of Jesus' actions, its hard for us to grasp just how radical this movement of the Spirit is in this story. After 2000 years of predominantly gentile Christianity, it is all too easy for us to forget that Jesus was Jewish, his message was Jewish, and all of his first disciples were Jewish. This was a Jewish movement for the Jewish people. Perhaps those first disciples envisioned that a few God-fearing gentiles like Cornelius might join in but in order to do so they would have to become Jewish. That is, they would have to be circumcised, observe the Sabbath, and avoid unclean foods. God had called Israel to these holy practices and there was absolutely no reason to think that God would expect anything different.

At least not until God's own Spirit did something different. When Peter preached to Cornelius and his household, God didn't wait to give the gift of the Holy Spirit until those present were circumcised. The Spirit filled them even as they continued to be gentiles. The Spirit of God acted in a completely new and completely unexpected way. And Peter says, "Who was I to stand in the way?" And those who had accused Peter "...fell silent. And they glorified God, saying 'Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.'" These first followers of Jesus knew that what had happened was strange and unexpected. It went against some of their most central convictions about what they believed it meant to be God's people. Yet they couldn't deny that God's own Spirit had acted and they knew that was more important than any law or expectation they had. They allowed the Holy Spirit, not their own expectations of what was holy and unholy, to rule the Church.

Doesn't a story like this make you wonder what the Spirit wants to do among the Church today? We have so many notions about what church is, how it should work and what it should look like. Do you ever think that maybe the Holy Spirit wants to do something completely new? Maybe even something that cuts to the very heart of our convictions about what it means to be Christians? Something that would shock us? We Nazarenes, especially, have a lot of ideas about what it means to be holy and unholy. Could God being saying to us "What God has made clean, do not call unclean"?

I suspect there are a number of households like Cornelius' in our community. Ones that don't conform to our notions of holiness but where there are God fearing people among whom the Spirit of God is already working and they only need someone who will see and acknowledge that work in them. The question for us is whether we will be blinded by what we expect God to do or whether we will see what God is, in fact, doing.

Pondering the Power of Pentecost

God has poured out his Holy Spirit.  

I have been pondering the significane of that statement for about the last hour and a half and I am finding it difficult to write.  This is not because there is nothing to say but because there is too much to say.  It is difficult to overstate the significance of the story of Pentecost that Luke narrates in Acts 2:1-21.

Pentecost is a reversal of the Tower of Babel.  Genesis 11 tells the story of some of the earliest human beings trying build a tower that would reach to heaven, apparently a monument to humanity's own greatness.  God prevents this idolatry by causing all the people to speak in different languages so that they could not communicate with one another.  In contrast, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit enables the apostles to speak so that those present can all understand them in their own language.  God's action at Babel divides so as to prevent idolatry.  God's action at Pentecost unites those who hear to the glory of God.

Pentecost is the beginning of the harvest.  Before it was a Christian festival, Pentecost was a Jewish festival also known as the Feast of Weeks.  This feast was celebrated seven weeks from the time "you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain" (Deut 16).  Luke's mentioning of this festival at the beginning of Acts 2 may be a pragmatic explanation as to why there were Jews from so many other parts of the world present in Jerusalem on that day since they would have gathered for the feast.  However, it is also likely that their presence in the story is an indication that through the pouring out of the Spirit, the great harvest has began.  

Pentecost is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel.  Peter, empowered by the freshly outpoured Spirit, stands up and begins a speech by quoting Joel 2:28-32 and saying that what the crowd is observing is what Joel spoke about.  This appears an odd statement at first since part of what Peter quotes is to say that there will be "blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The Sun will be darkened and the moon turned into blood", none of which happens before or during Peter's speech.  However, when we look at Joel's words in their context, we realize that these words are a metaphorical way of saying that one day God will pour out his Spirit on all people and when he does it will be a world changing event.  It will be such a cataclysmic event that it will be like the sun being darkened or the moon being turned to blood in its world altering significance.  

Pentecost signifies a new age in which Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promises.  It should be obvious from the three Old Testament references above (Babel, Feast of Weeks, and Joel) that Pentecost is not something that can be understood apart from the story of Israel.  Pentecost is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promises to his people.  That is why Peter quotes the prophet Joel.  It is a way of saying "This is what we've been waiting for!"  The irony, of course, is that the promises were fulfilled in an unexpected way; through a crucified and resurrected Messiah who has now ascended into heaven rather than staying to rule over his kingdom.  We do ourselves a tremendous disservice when we limit salvation to "Jesus died for my sins."  Salvation is the fulfillment of Israel's hopes through Jesus and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon Jews first and then Gentiles alike.  

God's Holy Spirit abiding among us, making us to be the presence of Jesus in his absence, destroying the barriers that divide us, leading us to uncommon people in uncommon places, overturning the process of death itself, and causing us to point away from ourselves and toward Jesus, is the agent of God's promised renewal in our world.  

May God's Spirit renew us this Pentecost.

The Beginning in the End

Luke says in the very first verse of the Acts of the Apostles that in his former account (presumably the Gospel of Luke) he wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.  If you had never read the book of Acts before, this opening verse might lead you to believe that you were going to hear quite a bit more about all that Jesus continued to do and to teach in this second volume of Luke's work.  However, it is only nine verses later that Jesus ascends into heaven leaving the disciples behind on earth.  Jesus is often spoken of but rarely seen in the rest of this rather lengthy New Testament book.  One might easily wonder then how it is that Luke's former book was only about the beginning of Jesus' ministry if by the opening of this second book he has already exited the stage.  Does that not mean that Jesus' ministry is done?

The fact that Jesus' ministry is not yet finished even though he has ascended into heaven seems to be one of the primary theological points of the ascension and the book of Acts as a whole.  In other words, although the person of Jesus himself is mostly absent from the story of Acts, what Luke does go on to narrate is the actions and teachings of the early church empowered by the same Spirit which empowered Jesus.  That is to say that the Acts of the Apostles is indeed a continuation of the story about what Jesus did and taught; it is the narration of Jesus' work in the world through his Spirit-filled Church.  The Spirit empowered Church is the presence of Jesus in the world after his ascension into heaven.  

What a tremendoues and sobering responsibility we have been given.  After beginning his kingdom ministry here on earth, Jesus has left it up to us to carry it on.  That is why we must not be a Church that is constantly gazing heavenward..  Its not hard to imagine how abandoned and vulnerable the disciples must have felt as they watched their Lord and savior disappear from their presence.  But immediately, two heavenly messengers arrive to redirect the disciples gaze and to assure them that Jesus will return (Acts 1:11).  In the meantime, the Church's mission is not simply to gaze into heaven wondering when we will be joined with our savior once again.  The Church's mission is to wait on the Holy Spirit so that we might be empowered to continue the ministry of Jesus in our world.  

Destroying the Slashes

"Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?" It might be difficult for us to imagine how much of a change in Peter's worldview this single statement represents. A devout Jew, like Peter, was committed to maintaining certain standards of purity and that meant not eating certain foods and not eating with unclean Gentiles. Peter has spent his whole life believing that one of the most fundamental distinctions in life was the line drawn between Jew and Gentile. Peter's words here represent the culmination of a story that erases that distinction.

This particular story in the books of Acts begins with the start of chapter 10. "Cornelius, a centurion... a devout man and who feared God with all this household and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually" sees a vision in which he is instructed to dispatch some men to find Peter.

As Cornelius' servants are on their way to find Peter, Luke tells us that Peter is experiencing a vision himself. In this vision, a large sheet is lowered from heaven and in it are all kinds of animals that were considered unclean in Jewish law. A voice commands Peter to "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!" But like a good Jew, Peter refuses, noting that he has never eaten anything impure or unclean. The voice responds "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." This happens two more times until the sheet returns to heaven. While Peter is still reflecting on what this vision might mean, Cornelius' servants arrive and explain why they have come. They stay with Peter for the night and all set out to Cornelius' the next day.

Somewhere along the way, Peter must have realized that the unclean animals in his vision were a metaphor for the Gentiles that Peter had regarded as unclean but God had now worked to cleanse. Upon arriving at Cornelius' house, Peter says "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean." This conversation is quickly followed by another speech from Peter in which he shares the gospel story of Jesus.

Astonishingly, Peter is still speaking when the Holy Spirit descends upon Cornelius and all of his family and friends who have gathered to listen to Peter. This is astonishing because these uncircumcised, unclean Gentiles have not done anything to make themselves clean. They have not gone through any of the necessary rituals to be included as a part of God's covenant people. In fact, they have not even responded to Peter's message about Jesus with any kind of faith pronouncement. God acts decisively before any human characters in the story even have a chance to do anything, pouring out his Holy Spirit on these Gentiles just as he had on Peter and the other apostles in Acts 2. Peter immediately recognizes this as an act of God and calls for Cornelius and his household to be baptized as a recognition of what God has already done.

What are some of the fundamental distinctions that we make in the way we see the world? Although the Jew/Gentile distinction of first century Judaism may seem odd to us, we still do a pretty good job of splitting our world into comfortable polar opposites; conservative/liberal, gay/straight, successful/irresponsible, even Christian/non-Christian and if we think that you are on the wrong side of the "slash" then we are likely to do our best not to associate with you. But this passage in Acts shows us that God is in the business of destroying the slashes that divide our world and he calls upon his Church to be a slash destroying people. And we don't destroy those slashes that divide us by making people jump through certain hoops to become more like us and to make them look more like what a Christian is "supposed" to look like. Instead, like Peter, we must recognize where God is already at work and allow our entire view of the world and God's work in it to be adjusted accordingly.

What Is Success?

What does it mean to be successful? It's an important question in any endeavor because how we answer that question will largely determine how we spend our time, energy, and resources. If we are truly committed to success, however we define it, then we will trim out any hindrances that keep us from it and do whatever is necessary to achieve it. The athlete eliminates distractions that might keep him or her from the championship game and trains tirelessly toward the same goal. The business does whatever is necessary to turn a profit. But what about the Church? What does it mean for us to be successful?

In Acts 8:4-8, we find a summary report of Philip's ministry in Samaria. Luke tells us that Philip has the attention of large crowds, that he performs miraculous signs, that unclean spirits are cast out, that the paralyzed and lame are healed, and that there was much rejoicing in the city. Surely, if this described the ministry of our church we would consider it a success.

But later in the same chapter (v.26-40), Luke tells us that Philip was led by an angel of the Lord to leave Samaria. In fact, he commands Philip to go out into the wilderness without any explanation as to the reason why he is to go there. Nevertheless, Philip is obedient and along the way he meets an Ethiopian eunuch. Luke indicates that this Ethiopian was an important man in his own right. He was an important official in the queen's court who was in charge of her treasury. However, with regard to salvation and God's people, he was an outsider. His status as a gentile and as a eunuch would have been barriers to his inclusion in the people of Israel. Furthermore, as an Ethiopian, he is not only a religious outsider but also an outsider in a social and even geographical sense in so far as many ancient writers regarded Ethiopa as being at the end of the known world of the time. In other words, this is about as uncommon of a meeting in as uncommon of a place as Luke could possibly narrate.

In spite of all that, Luke makes it very clear that the Holy Spirit has led Philip to someone who is already urgently seeking God. We are told that he is on his way back home after worshipping in Jerusalem; a daring and costly trip which demonstrates this man's devotion. Furthermore, when Philip comes up to his chariot, he finds the man already reading Isaiah the prophet and he is eager to have someone interpret the meaning of this scripture for him. Upon hearing Philip's explanation, the Ethiopian eunuch is immediately ready to be baptized into the gospel faith Philip proclaims. It is difficult to imagine a quicker or more effortless making of a disciple. This man was ready for someone to proclaim Jesus to him.

What if Philip had remained in Samaria? It would have been reasonable for him to see how successful his ministry was there and to never want to leave; especially not to wander off into the desert where he was sure to encounter fewer potential converts. But Philip wasn't caught up in the success of his ministry. He knew that true success as a disciple wasn't defined by how many people he converted or how many he healed. The success of the disciple and the Church is measured by our level of faithfulness and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, the Church today too often finds itself unwilling to leave Samaria. We find something that "works", by which we usually mean it will fill our pews for a time, and we stick with it until the next trend comes along, imagining that in doing so we have found success. But as the Church, we are called to make certain that we never put our success ahead of the One who gives it. We are called to see that the Spirit is leading us to meet uncommon people in uncommon places.

The Irony of Resurrection

Acts 4:5-12 is filled with irony.

Peter and John have been arrested because they have been "proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." The next day, they are brought before an intimidating group of powerful and important people. These religious authorities ask Peter and John what authority they have to be teaching the people in this way. Peter, although he is uneducated and untrained (v.13), speaks boldly to those in power saying that it is in the name of Jesus that they teach the resurrection and that a crippled man was healed. Peter even goes so far as to say that it is "by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead - by this name this man stands before you saved."

This is the fundamental irony of the passage that leads to all the rest. The one who was rejected, despised, and crucified by the religious authorities was raised from the dead by God himself. Those in power, the trained and educated theologians, the ones who were supposed to know the heart of God the best, put to death the only one by whom all people must be saved. In contrast to these ungodly ones who are supposed to be godly, God raises Jesus from the dead - and so the universe begins to be turned upside down. Once the process of death itself is overturned, it is hard to imagine what can't be. The crippled begin to walk. The powerless and uneducated speak boldly and prophetically to those in power. The crucified can be the savior of the world. We might even go so far as to believe that God could take us - broken and scarred sinners through we are - and begin to transform us into ambassadors of life breathing resurrection power in our world.

Pointing Away from Ourselves

The sermon text for this week (Acts 3:12-19) is a speech which follows on the heals of a miraculous healing. God has just worked through Peter and John to heal a man who had been lame from birth and sat at the Temple gate every day begging. As the man stands to his feet for the first time in his life, a crowd quickly begins to form, amazed at what has just taken place.

As I think about this man standing up and the crowd quickly closing in to see what had happened, I wonder what I would have done in that situation. If God worked through me to heal someone, how would I respond? To be honest, I'm not sure I would really be prepared for that. I think I would be just as astonished as the crowd that was forming and I probably wouldn't know what to say. My intentions and actions would probably wander back and forth between wanting to stay and enjoy the adulation of the crowd and wanting to slip away, trying to remain unnoticed until I could wrap my mind around what had just happened.

But Peter, the same Peter who couldn't confess his association with Jesus during his trial, doesn't hesitate here. As soon as he sees the crowd gathering, he immediately begins to turn the attention away from John and himself and toward God and his servant Jesus. Peter declares boldly that it was not because of any power or piety on his or John's part that this man was healed. It was because of God's action in Jesus' name that he was made whole. In fact, Peter (and Luke as the writer) goes to such great pains to make it clear that this is done through Jesus' name that the sentence structure of v. 16 becomes very awkward. The Greek sentence reads something like this; "And through the faith of his name, this man whom you see and know, being strengthened by his name and the faith on account of him has given to him this complete health before all of you." It is as if Peter is tripping over his own words in an attempt to make it abundantly clear that this is done through Jesus' name. Peter's entire speech in these verses points away from himself and toward the crucified and resurrected Jesus.

I often think of the Book of Acts as a series of stories or snapshots that give us insight into what it means to be the Church; a kind of narrative ecclesiology. In Peter's speech, Luke gives us another glimpse of what it means to be the Church: a community who is constantly pointing away from ourselves and toward the story of Jesus and thereby inviting others to become a part of that story as well.