Category: Lectionary Ramblings

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August 28th 2014: Acts 4:32-5:11

Read Acts 4:32-5:11 here

“Al the believers were one in heart and mind”.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been in a Church, or a community, like that! Sometimes we look wistfully at the stories of the early Church in Acts and imagine that they had something special which made them more likely to love one another, love God, be sacrificial, serve one another and so on. Aside from proximity to the events of the life of Jesus, I can’t see anything else. These men and women were still more than capable of making a mess of things, as we see towards the end of today’s reading. At the same time, they were still able to live “with one mind”. Wouldn’t it be great if we made a concerted effort in our Churches to work out what God was asking us to do, and committed to pursuing that, entirely together? It’s not as unrealistic as it might sound. They managed it in Acts 4.

As for each of us as individuals, we have a role to play in deciding to journey through life with people with whom we can be of one mind, as we love God, our neighbours and ourselves. Even as we sometimes disagree, we can set our mind on things of God, those around us, and things of eternity and contend that we will not let petty squabbles, selfishness and our own desire for recognition get in the way of the life to which we are called, and the love which it is our privilege to share.

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August 27th 2014: Acts 4:13-31

Read Acts 4;13-31 here

What must it be like to pray, to finish, and then have the ground shake? What must it be like to have so much integrity in the expression of your faith that those who accuse you don’t know what to do with you? They know they disagree with you, they think you might be quite dangerous even, but they are at a loss, unable to completely deny the truth of what you are saying?Wouldn’t it be great to have a faith like that, a life like that? Wouldn;’t it be astonishingly exciting to be the kind of person who is so open to the Spirit of God that you can quiet a fevered room with the loving wisdom and authority of the prophetic voice God has given you? I think it would certainly be intriguing!

Before he had such experiences and such a voice, Peter didn’t think much of himself, as we’ve discussed previously. He was an “average” bloke, something of a failure. He was someone God called, called in much the same way as many people are today. He was someone who was willing to trust and obey, to the best of his ability, even when it meant reaching the limits of his ability and getting things, seemingly, disastrously wrong.

Are we willing to put ourselves in a similar position to Peter where rather than relying on ourselves, or constantly berating ourselves over failure and weakness, we instead make ourselves available? God loves us all the same way He loved Peter. He wants a relationship with us all the same way He did with Peter, pursuing him constantly throughout his life, and He longs for us to be willing and available so that we might live in such a way as the ground might shake when we pray.

Continue reading “August 27th 2014: Acts 4:13-31”

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August 26th 2014: Acts 4:1-12

Read Acts 4:1-12 here

Perhaps unsurprisingly, healing and proclaiming so forthrightly in the name of Jesus lands Peter and John in trouble. Luke would have us believe it is because the Jewish rulers were deeply troubled. No wonder1 This was a time of huge upheaval and social unrest. Whether it be true or not, any claim such as this that could incite people to riot was to be quashed as quickly as possible, for the good of all concerned. It is easy for us to look down on the Jewish leaders as misguided or worse, with the benefit of hindsight, but it is hard not to have some sympathy with them here. Jesus had proved pretty awkward, and now His followers were proving equally troublesome, just when it was thought they should have been crushed and would disperse quietly, as usually happened when false “Messiahs” were dealt with.

But this time it is different. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit (a key detail) claims that Jesus’s is the only name under heaven by which people can be saved, bold, certainly. We’ll have to return tomorrow to see what the upshot of it is, but there’s no denying the bravery and intensity of Peter’s defiance. He now appears to have an unshakeable belief in the “right” of what he says about the power and story of Jesus Christ, only a few short days after denying Him, and being certain that he, Peter, would be rejected permanently by his Lord. What had happened to bring about this tremendous change? Jesus’s acceptance of him over breakfast certainly helped, but I would wager that as well as this, seeing 5000 men flock to the cause of Christ as he preached in His name might have bolstered Peter’s confidence a bit too! We know that he wasn’t an eloquent speaker, but he did make himself available to God for use as God saw fit. Are we willing to do the same today?

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August 25th 2014: Acts 3:11-26

Read Acts 3:11-26 here

As we’ve seen in the previous post, Peter and John have just undertaken a great healing work in the Colonnade, in the sight of many people. Now we see Peter’s opportunism at work, as he is able to give a powerful lecture in historical theology to explain the purpose and context of this miracle – it is complete healing brought about by faith in Jesus, and for HIs glory, much more so than simply for the good of the man himself. The onlookers, and the readers/hearers of the story from Luke Acts, are to be in no doubt, it is not Peter’s ministry of healing that has brought this about, it is God’s ministry of salvation and reconciliation, which will not be thwarted by anything, least of all, the inadvertent killing of the Messiah.

This, to me, is a comforting story. God is in control, He has the power and all the cards. I don’t have much power in ministry, and if I ever get too far ahead of myself, I just have to look at a story like this. Peter is quick to point to Jesus as the source of healing and salvation. It is important for us as people, for the integrity of our witness to the gospel, and for the growth of mature Christians and strong, unified Churches, that we take the same line when taking about the power and the glory of life and ministry.

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August 24th 2014: Acts 5:12-16

Read Acts 5:12-16 here

It is undeniable what the message of this passage is – there were many signs and wonders done by the apostles, and all who came to them were healed (cured). If you’re bored of me wriggling around the healing and cure issue, you’ll be glad to know I’m not going to do that here – everyone got healed. Personally I don’t see why that makes us think that everyone will be healed or cured today, but that’s another issue.

What interests me today is the idea that people felt like the shadow of Peter would heal them. It’s similar to the sense of the woman with the persistent bleed who was desperate to touch the hem of the garment of Jesus, and yet, if anything, the sense of faith and trust in Peter’s power is somehow given even greater weight here. I wonder why that is, and why the people misunderstood what Jesus had done. Perhaps the apostles didn’t really know what they were doing themselves. After all, it’s not long since their friend and master had died, risen again, and then disappeared in a cloud, and here they were, finding favour in the sight of all the people and inspiring fear and faith in equal measure. My guess, and it is a guess, is that they had no idea at all what they were doing but they simply tried to be obedient to what they felt God was asking them to do. Perhaps, too, they enjoyed the sense of power and authority that had suddenly come to them in this time of fear.

Sometimes we can be so keen to understand everything, to have a workable theology, a systematic theology if you will, that we have to make sense of everything before we do anything. The problem with that is though that the Christian faith makes no “sense” at all, and yet the evidence of Christian history is that the claims of Christ to be the saviour that the world has longed for and needed desperately, are true.

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August 23rd 2014: Acts 3:1-10

Read Acts 3:1-10 here

It is easy to see this story as a simple healing, or curing, miracle. Some of us might even view it as Peter grandly and generously offering the “lame beggar” exactly what he needed – to be able to walk – but I don’t think this is the main point of this story. Seeing cure as the goal of mission and ministry is to sell God short. It is profane. The healing or curing miracles of the New Testament, and in the life of the Church today, true curing miracles, or ones which lead a person in to a relationship with the living God. Jesus cured people to glorify God and lead people to Him. God offers healing to all of us, the healing of salvation. This is the healing we all need, whether we have a body or mind that works as we would wish or dream it to, or not. Leading people in to life-giving and life-transforming relationships with God is the work of the gospel, and I believe it is the work that Peter did on this occasion.

As I’ve said here before, don’t be tempted to limit God and what He wants to do in and through you in your life and ministry in His name.

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August 22nd 2014: Acts 2:37-47

Read Acts 2:37-47 here

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Here we have a crowd who have just been told that they have missed the Messiah that most of them had been hoping for all of their lives. In what is probably one of the greatest sermons of all time, Peter has convicted the crowd of their need for a saviour, and as many signs and wonders are done by the apostles, the crowd asks what they should do. In short, they are told “come to Christ”. Their current ways of life are not sufficient to attain salvation. Only coming to Christ can assure them of life now, and in the age to come.

How many times have any of us wondered “what must I do to be saved”? Perhaps circumstances press in on us in ways which seem like they will never improve. Perhaps we are sick, or in danger, or afraid, or even ashamed. What must we do? Turn around, stop walking away from Jesus and walk towards Him. Ask Him, and those Christians we know and trust, how we can direct our lives towards Him. Ask Him for the strength, day by day, to renew our courage to do so, and walk towards Him. And then, we are told, and the evidence of history suggests, we will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit to seal and sustain us for this Earthly life.

Wherever you find yourself today, make the decision to turn to Christ. Let Him love you, cherish you and walk with you.

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August 21st 2014: Acts 2:22-36

Read Acts 2:22-36 here

Writing this in a fog of headache/tiredness/bug and all that goes with it (hence the delay). Sorry if it’s incoherent

———————-

Peter’s impassioned preaching here is designed to show the Israelites amongst his audience that, whatever they think, however much control they think they have had over their lives, God has seen the present circumstances from the beginning, just as He sees the end. The crucifixion of Jesus was not an end, it was not even a disaster, it was part of the plan of God to bring about His purposes. Whatever else might have been at play, God’s purposes would not be stifled, and David had foreseen how things would be.

So often we mistake the gift of free will and choice that God gives us for control of our own destiny. We can make choices each day (those of us who are free enough to by the grace of God) but we cannot affect our destiny. “The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it”. He is working His purpose out. His purpose is life, love, hope, freedom. His purpose is relationship with us. It always has been. He will not be denied.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you are in control. Rejoice in the fact that you are not.

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August 20th 2014: Acts 2:1-21

Read Acts 2:1-21 here

The story of Pentecost is so well-known to many Christians, it is difficult to come up with anything new to focus on within it. For me, today, Peter’s allusion to the words of the prophet Joel at the end of the reading really stand out:

“…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

That’s all there is to it. With the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we can be confident that Jesus’ words “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age” have come to fruition. The filling of the disciples, and 3000 new converts with the Holy Spirit on this day is the signing and sealing of our life in God and promised future hope. As this experience happened to them, so, today it continues to happen to those who call on the name of the Lord and are saved. Whatever you are going through today, however you feel, whatever the situation, call on the name of the Lord. You might not be saved from the situation or the circumstance, but you can be sure and confident that God will hear your cry and bring you to salvation. Being saved, here, means being brought to fulness of life, eternally, with God, in to the life and hope that we were made and always meant for. The Christian life is not meant to be easy or devoid of difficulties. In fact it can often be quite the opposite, but if we take the step of faith and trust and call on the name of the Lord, we will find that our greatest fears no longer have any power and instead our deepest longings will be realised.

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August 19th 2014: Acts 1:15-26

Read Acts 1:15-26 here

When people fail and fall, as Judas has done, requiring the choosing of a new member of the 12 here, we can be left in quite a quandary. Obviously, in the case of Judas, his fall had been heavy and significant. At the same time, as Peter explains here, Judas’s betrayal actually fulfils part of what has been prophesied in regard to the death and resurrection of the Messiah.

This is one point where we can find ourselves in difficulties of understanding around failing and falling in our Christian lives. I’m not a huge fan of the doctrine of predestination (either single or double predestination) but it is undeniable that whereas our perspective is only ours, God has a view of our lives and circumstances which is far wider, far more knowledgeable, and far more in control of things than ours ever will be. That isn’t to say that failing and falling is something we should try to do because it doesn’t matter, far from it. But when we do, it is not beyond the reach or love of God to bring about redemption and reconciliation.

Second, and following from this, the Church is bigger than any one of us. It is not about any of us individually. It is about a community of people,  holy nation, called to live lives surrendered to God, with a direction of travel towards Him, and lived in such a way as to draw others in to relationship with Him. One day soon, though, none of us will still be here. All the worry, anxiety, energy, power-brokering and so on that we will have done to try and push our own claims or theological points of view will cease, as we entrust the care and growth of the Church to the next generation. It is not for us to conserve our view of Church as we see it, or as we wish it was. It is for us to rejoice as God reveals ever more of Himself to His children with each passing generation.