Daily Liturgy and Scripture

It's quite a leap to go from looking like gods to being stoned. Of course, Paul probably preferred the stoning, as he would never have wanted to claim godhood. What was the thing that made the difference? A group of religious people who turned the crowd against him. That attitude is the polar opposite of Paul's, and we should take a note that using religion as a way to punish our enemies i...

Getting the word out about Jesus and what his coming meant in God's plan was quite a task. The people of God, building on centuries of tradition, had a new reality: Jesus fulfilled the promises God made to them, and now there was a new Kingdom to live in, one that included others. Paul's background in Judaism made him especially adept in spreading this message, and this is the work he set...

It's interesting that Paul, whose conversion experience included being struck blind, now inflicts blindness on someone else. Perhaps he thought that it might produce the same result? Whatever the case, it seems that the blindness was equated with spiritual things in Paul's mind, and he uses it as a tool to stop the perversion of the ways of the Lord.

Why did God allow some of the apostles to be executed and other to be miraculously saved? That's an answer only God can give, and that's a plan that none of us could improve upon. The church is growing, sometimes by those who are willing to die for its cause, and sometimes through the actions of those who remain. Both play a critical role.

The Church is finding its identity by spreading, but remaining connected by the Spirit. This was a new thing, because the working of the Spirit defined the life of this new body. It must have been a wild time, and somewhat uncertain. Building something new is never without challenges, even when that new thing has the hand of God upon it.

God is making the Church in the way that only God could have done it. Adding new kinds of people who were previously outside the chosen, bringing them together with the children of Abraham, making a harmony of different pieces that would endure. It isn't the way any of the apostles would have done it, but it was the way that was needed.

Peter follows through on the directive he had been given, and how strange that must have felt. The laws he had followed all his life were no longer the policy of the Kingdom of Jesus, because the purpose those laws served found fulfillment in the person of Jesus.

God is opening his Church to more than the Jews, but Peter and the other Church leaders aren't being pushed aside. This movement includes men, and Peter is at the top of the list. This is how God builds the Church, sometimes with the people we don't think belong.

The spreading of the Kingdom with Jesus brought is about bringing wholeness, and this is what Peter brings in this passage. This wasn't parlor tricks, but raising the dead (and of course, not every dead person was raised) served the purpose of more than just seeing friends again, it also grew the Kingdom.

It's odd who God picks to be his workers sometimes. Paul was the chief adversary of the movement of Christianity, and yet he became one of its most important advocates. The potential he had and the conversion he underwent could have only been realized by the work of God.

Today we remember those who have come before us to pass along the faith that we have today, and we remember that God has made us partners in his plan. Like the long list of believers in Hebrews (and the Ethiopian in Acts), we stand in a long line of witnesses who keep building the Kingdom that is both now and not yet.

Kind of a cool pairing of Old and New Testament Scriptures. In Chronicles, we see one half of the Kingdom carrying off their kinsmen to Samaria, being rebuked by a prophet, and turning around. In the New Testament, we see the gospel which came from that conquered kingdom being brought to Samaria and repentance (turning around?) becoming the result. While a lot of the northern kingdom had been scat...

A sermon that ends with the public execution of the preacher is a little wild. The religious leaders who had arranged the killing of Jesus did not want his message or his followers continuing. As difficult as this situation was, it actually helped grow the church: as the followers of Jesus dispersed, they took the message to the other parts of the world.

The deacon Stephen, preaching to try and win over the Jews who (tragically) are heading to kill him, pulls out a portion of Jewish history that seems to point to the futility of violence as a tool of serving the Lord. Of course, it was violence that ended Jesus's ministry with a cross, and it would soon end Stephen's as well. Maybe he was onto something important.

Today is the Feast of the apostles Simon (the Zealot) and Jude, two men about whom we know almost nothing. The quote attributed to Jude asking why Jesus was showing himself to the apostles and not the whole world is short, but fitting: Jesus made the first church of these apostles, and that includes the almost-nobodies who were walking with Jesus but didn't make it into much of the story.

Gamaliel (who may have been the same Gamaliel that taught a young Paul the apostle) has a pretty good acid test for Christianity: see if it lasts after the death of its leader. The argument is effective. His words, telling that those who oppose Peter and the apostles are opposing God, speak true. If we are following the same path, we have the same connection to our God and protector.

Why did Ananias and Sapphira have to... die? That seems like a pretty radical punishment for stiffing the tithe. Only God knows the answer to that question fully, but the Church is at a critical time. The body of Christ on earth is being established, and its foundation needed to be strong. It wasn't that God needed the money, but perhaps it was that the Church didn't need pretend disciples...

Standing up to the powers is always a risk, but Peter and John knew the real power. What they had seen and knew was was carried them on, telling about that experience to those around them. Even though they were "unschooled," they were still standing at an important place in history, bringing together the early days of the Church.

Peter isn’t pulling any punches with his Jewish audience, he definitely wants them to understand the implications of the death of Jesus. But of course, the death of Jesus is more than just an unfair ruling against an innocent man. He lets them off the hook with ignorance, but the decision is now theirs as to what to do next.

With James, we remember a family member of Jesus who is not recorded as having accepted the divinity of Christ until after the ascencion. Even the slow of heart such as him are still part of the Kingdom, and James is remembered fondly by the Church.

The Holy Spirit shows up at Pentecost and enables languages to spread the Gospel across many nations, including many who were able to hear it on the spot. This is a reversal of the Tower of Babel, where God confused the language of men to separate them. Now God brings the nations back together, under the banner of the new Kingdom of Jesus, to restore the world back to himself.

It must have been a wild time to be an Apostle. Judas gone, Jesus ascended, and now the ragtag band of misfits is choosing someone to take Judas's place. There was certainly a larger group of people who had followed Jesus, but many of them had abandoned him. It's good to see that Matthias and Justus stuck around, but perhaps there might have been a few more extras beside.

The transition between Jesus walking the earth and the Spirit coming to the Church is huge. Jesus had come to show us what God looked like, now it was time for the church to put that into action. As Jesus disappears, it's more than him going to be with the Father. It's the enfolding of the church in the life of the Trinity.

The selfishness of Diotrephes stands out in this passage, and what a legacy. Written in the Bible as someone who put themself before others. Sincerity of love is the antidote, and perhaps we will be remembered better.

Remembering authors like Luke and reading what they wrote, it's kind of fun to think of the way things must have been for the young church in the first century. While it must have been exciting to be part of the Church as it was getting started, it was also a time for wild variations on the original story. Authors like Luke, who was an associate of Paul, set about giving fellow believers a rel...