On the Way to Wonder

Acts 6:8-8:8 shares the story of Stephen, one of the first church elders, and gives personal flavor to the beginning growth of the church.  We are still in Jerusalem and people are flocking to this new dynamic for it has not differentiated as a separate entity yet but miracles are happening. Stephen, “full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.”  We have become very skeptical of faith healers for many have been proven to be charlatans but in that day, miracles by the disciples drew crowds.  Crowds draw jealousy from established groups like the Jews and Stephen is arrested. 

         Interestingly, Mark gives us a report on the sermon Stephen gave when asked by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, to account for his actions.  Stephen’s sermon is quite different than Jesus’ sermon on the mount that uses many little stories and similes. Stephen does not defend himself or try to explain.  Stephen gives an oral review of Jewish history.  We get a little insight into the early people thinking as they begin to piece together their narrative of how history is unfolding.  Abraham was called out of the familiar and not given a new country but a covenant.  He is telling our epic story and explaining how or epic hero works.  First God calls and then he promises but the step forward is up to us to take in faith.  Again God calls Moses and the people of Israel out of Egypt.  He promises to raise up a prophet like Moses and to lead them to the Promised Land.  The tabernacle is created and eventually the Temple by King David and King Solomon.  God is calling and fulfilling promises but the people are slow to believe promises of a coming Messiah.

         The Jewish leaders are incensed by the sermon and stone Stephen to death.  Overseeing this stoning is a man named Saul, who will appear in our story later as Paul, after he has to confront himself and his role in the story and then find peace with God.

         The sermon is factual but the emotional response is extreme anger and defensiveness. One of the words we use to describe anger like this is “scapegoating.”  I have a hard day at the office and come home and kick the dog or grump at the wife about the food or yell at the children.  Perhaps your coping strategy is speeding, alcohol or drugs.  If we’re honest, we know what it is like to get faced with something we don’t want to admit, struggle to blame someone else, and finally admit our mistake – if we’re honest.  It is hard to admit when we are wrong.

         Secondly, change is hard.  New ideas challenge old traditions and habits.   We like comfortable.  I believe we say, “There is no place like home.”   “A man’s house is his castle.”  “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”  This new religious movement is challenging the status quo and very strong Jewish traditions.

         So… is there someplace in your life where you are struggling with anger?  Perhaps the true struggle is between God and self and the need to submit to his authority.  Likewise are you experiencing challenges to some of your traditions that are causing friction?  Perhaps God is drawing you forward into a new phase of life.  God was faithful and there with Stephen through his ordeal and God will be walking by your side also.  The Holy Spirit wants to use you to build His kingdom.  Blessings.

Acts 3 and 4 share an encounter Peter and John had after the resurrection.  Going to the temple to pray they meet a crippled beggar and heal him.  The power that Jesus demonstrated seems to be flowing from the disciples now.  The two men are jailed and questioned the next day, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”  The men share and are told to be silent and not preach further in the name of Jesus.  But they cannot be quiet and the little group of believers continues to grow.

         None of us like hard times and challenging days.  None of us likes our daily routine interrupted by someone begging or needing help.  The ability to cope under difficult circumstances often draws the question – what is the source of our strength?  How do we find the power to do that which does not seem humanly possible – to forgive the unforgiveable, to love the unlovely, to go the extra mile when exhausted.  The disciples’ lives are a living testimony to the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding and giving power.

         So what does our life demonstrate today – frazzled nerves, too many late night shows, despair about the future? Each one of us faces challenges that shows our inner resources of faith.

         The second theme I see running through these two chapters is the power of community as the community of early believers hung together and prayed for each other and lived out a generosity with each other that impressed those around.  The fear of having enough insurance, enough savings, enough reserve does not seem to be a matter that bothered this early band of people.  These people who did the unexpected and who faced the future with faith changed their world, with out TV or money or sponsors.  Perhaps we need to ponder our lives and look for “the proof in our pudding.”  Let us pray for the strength to stand secure in our beliefs, trusting that the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us to bless others.  Perhaps there is someone in your community that would appreciate a thank you for being there for you.  And certainly a prayer of thanks to God is good.

Acts 2 continues with the events of our epic story, the Bible.  The epic hero, God, defeats the epic villain, Satan, at the cross and the resurrection testifies that there is more to follow in our story.  Acts tells the next iteration of the epic, the formation of what we see today, the church.  Our hero God seems to be revealing himself in news ways in the “pour out of his spirit,” what we call the Holy Spirit, on the disciples and on all who choose to follow Jesus.  So gradually the original disciples begin to grasp a larger, more present understanding of God, as they begin to understand that our epic story is not just about the Jews offering sacrifices but a story about God’s love for all people.

         The analogy that demonstrates to me how this story is evolving is the analogy of marriage or even child bearing.  We watch all the movies that usually are happy-ever-after versions of marriage and we say “I do” but it is not until we live into marriage that we begin to understand what relationship means and what our role is.  I tried to imitate the movies and advice books until I realized I needed to be myself.  Through the ups and downs of everyday life with disappointments, arguments, and blessings we gradually built a marriage.  Likewise, with children who come to us so helpless but gradually grow with their own unique personalities, we too enter faith pretty naïve but through the trials of life, begin to get a handle on how faith works and what relationship with God means.

         Acts 2 shares that thousands turned to faith but then had to figure out how to organize themselves.  The early church met together frequently, ate together, held goods in common (Acts 2:42-47).  Lives were changed.  Peter who was impulsive and out-spoken develops into an early leader in the church.  We too are growing and developing spiritually.  Be patient, God is not finished with me yet!  And the church, the gathering of our parts is imperfect and growing.  Together we are more than we are individually!

         Today we still live in the tension between our individual responsibility ie our personal faith, and our corporate responsibility to the church we are a part of.  We might use the saying, “No man is an island,” to explain our need for “church”, the community of believers and not the building structure, and our own personal faith journey.  As you reflect and pray today, think of people who have blessed you on your faith journey and who have helped you to grow. Are you an island or are you contributing to a bigger whole?  Also ponder how you might be challenged to grow now and need the help of the Holy Spirit.  Each of us is important to the whole and each of us is a special creation.  Amazing!

When I was growing up, I was told that one of the most popular songs in the USAmerica was “The Old Rugged Cross.”  It is difficult for me to think of the Passion week, and all the events surrounding it without thinking of this song.  George Bennard born in 1873 in Ohio became a Christian under the influence of the Salvation Army,  During a campaign in 1912 he was ridiculed and in response started writing this song.  By the end of the campaign it was finished, sung as a duet with his friend and finally published in 1915.  The famous evangelist Billy Sunday used this song regularly in his campaigns, touching the hearts of many.  So much happens during Holy Week, ending with the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Cross, the Resurrection and then the Ascension – all events that define Christianity and our understanding of the epic story of people.  May you enjoy this rendition that shares of the salvation we are offered.  Blessings.

1.  On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross

The emblem of suff’ring and shame

And I love that old Cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain

Chorus

So I’ll cherish the old rugged Cross

Till my trophies at last I lay down

I will cling to the old rugged Cross

And exchange it some day for a crown

2.  Oh, that old rugged Cross so despised by the world

Has a wondrous attraction for me

For the dear Lamb of God, left His Glory above

To bear it to dark Calvary

Chorus

3.  In the old rugged Cross, stain’d with blood so divine

A wondrous beauty I see

For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died

To pardon and sanctify me

Chorus

4.  To the old rugged Cross, I will ever be true

Its shame and reproach gladly bear

Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away

Where His glory forever I’ll share

Chorushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JS9P8d2iOc

Acts 1:1-11 starts the book of Acts that is actually part 2 of Luke.  Acts is written by Luke and continues our epic story.  Wait, did I hear you ask if the epic hero has defeated the epic villain by the death on the cross, then what is part 2 about?  Exactly.  After all is said and done, the disciples still do not quite get the big picture.  We have the advantage of 2,000 years of living into this story as it unfolds but at that moment it would appear the followers of Jesus were just that, followers of Jesus.  They were having to make a major course adjustment.  They are still thinking that Jesus will defeat the Romans and restore Israel to its former glory under King David and King Solomon.  They ask, “Is this the time?”

         One of my favorite scenes at the end of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is when the Jews are being forced to leave Anatefka, their home.  One man turns to the rabbi and asks, “Rabbi would this not be a good time for the Messiah to come?”  The Rabbi replies, “I guess we will have to wait for him elsewhere.”  Our story is continuing to unfold is ways that were not anticipated by the participants in the story.  I suspect it is like the Lamaz classes before my first child.  They tried to teach me.  They assured me it was not “pain” but “labor.”  I listened and did the exercises but when I went to the hospital, then I understood.  Jesus has explained but the future must be lived into.

         Life takes many unexpected turns – hurricanes flood New York, fire is approaching South Lake Tahoe, children choose spouses we would not have chosen for them, a spouse has a stroke and suddenly we live into a future we did not anticipate.  It is not for us to know the future, “to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority” but one thing Jesus promised us:  “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you be my witnesses.”  When we need the power to cope with life, at that time Jesus as the Holy Spirit will be walking with us enabling us.  I do not need the power before but at the time.  And our challenges will be meaningful, not random, so that we can witness to the reality of God’s presence in the world.  Jesus was not abandoning his creation by ascending but assuming his Trinitarian identity to be able to be with us, though unseen.  We are not alone for the Holy Spirit is with us and gives us power.

         Floods, disease, displacement and grief are affecting so many today and we each have our own challenge facing us.  Often we think of the Passion Week, the iteration of our epic story we are looking at now, as the cross experience Jesus went through for our sins.  That is true but it is also true that the “passion” Jesus had was that the Kingdom of Heaven would be available to all.  That is worth witnessing about!  Blessings.

John 20 and 21 share John’s report on the resurrection of Jesus.  Mary Magdalene first sees the empty tomb that held Jesus’ body.  Jesus sends her to tell the others that he is “ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”  For many when we think of ascending, we think of going up an escalator or elevator i.e. a physical transportation up.  There is a second interpretation.  The prince ascends to the throne when his father dies i.e. Jesus was returning to his precreation identity that was all that we consider God to be — invisible and present everywhere, knowing, and powerful.  Either interpretation is an understanding of life that continues after physical death.  Mary believed and carried the message

         John and Peter run to the tomb and see but do not understand.  That evening they meet the risen Jesus when Jesus walks through locked doors and greets them.  Peace, don’t worry, don’t doubt. Disciple Thomas was absent but the next week, Jesus meets again with the disciples and Thomas.  Touch me!  Know that I am real.  Doubt evaporated.  “My Lord and my God.”

         Chapter 21 tells of another encounter that focuses on Peter and Peter’s unresolved guilt over his betrayal. “Do you love me?” asks Jesus.  “Feed my sheep.”

         It would seem that the resurrection is a watershed moment of truth that is accepted or rejected.  Many of us like Thomas have doubts while others must deal with guilt from their sins.  Jesus comes to both of them personally to help them grow into deeper relationship with him.  Many people would like to keep Jesus as a learned wise person comparable to other prophets, other religious gurus, other great men but the resurrection makes Jesus different for none of the other “greats” have come back to life and shown that not only are they wise, they are stronger than death.

         Jesus, God incarnate, ascended and we talk about God’s presence now as the Holy Spirit.  The Trinity is a mystery that is hard to understand or explain.  That’s right, we are people and not God.  Doubt and guilt can plague us but Jesus is willing to deal with that if we are.  Today as we think of how we understand Jesus, we must ask if we put Jesus in “wise guy” category or do we experience him as the “ascended one” who has paid the price of sin, ascended and will walk with us today, tomorrow and through death.  Our epic story is not finished.  Our epic hero has foiled our epic villain but more is to come. Blessings as you go through this day.  He is ascended and goes with you.

John 19 tells the events of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Pilate caves to the crowd and religious leaders and agrees to the crucifixion but puts up the sign, “King of the Jews.”  The crowds mock.  The soldiers throw dice for his clothes.  The disciples watch helplessly and probably in shock, though the women stand near the cross.  John records Jesus’ closing comment, “It is finished.”  In Greek it is translated, “paid in full.”

         What is finished?  We must go back to the beginning of our epic story.  People were created perfect, in perfect relationship with our epic hero, God, and living in harmony with the creation and its creator.  The one restriction was to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  It was never the creator’s intention that people would be morally responsible.  But that rule was broken.  Rather than live for eternity with guilt and in exile from God, death became the consequence of sin.  Death provided an avenue to end the separation from God caused by peoples’ sin.  The result of sin is death.  When we do things the wrong way, death results.  When we are selfish, someone gets hurt.  When we are jealous, someone gets hurt.  When we are hateful, someone gets hurt.  Death results.  We will all someday die for we have all sinned in some way.  I leave the discussions about children to theologians to argue and for God to decide.

         Jesus, God incarnate, walks through the experience of death and resurrects, appears alive three days later and shows us that God is stronger than death and that life eternal is possible.  Our epic hero, God, has provided a way to be reunited with his creation.  The consequence of sin, death, need no longer bind us.  The debt is paid and we now have the option of eternal life if we follow him.

         The point of todays’ devotions is to realize that at the beginning of the epic story, when the ground rules were set, the result of sin was death and that applies to all people.  It is not measured out by how much sin or how much repentance.  The murderer and the liar and the gossip all die.  The philanthropist, the doctor, the teacher, and the politician all die.  When Jesus, God incarnate, walked through the death experience, he was able to say, “It is paid full.”  As we follow him, we too can walk through physical death to eternal life.  We can choose to follow or do it our own way but he has paid our entrance fee into eternal life.

         Today, we face small death experiences.  Death of dreams, death of hopes, aging, disease, and troubles all remind us of our mortality.  Perhaps our best application of the crucifixion is to spend some time in prayer and reflection thinking about habits we do that destroy and thank God for forgiveness and that he took the punishment for our wrongs.  He wants us to be with him for eternity.