Acts 11 & 12

Read Acts 11 & 12 and meet in your Good Soil Group by Sun, May 20.

Remember: Formation, not information. Luke and Acts invite us to live differently than the world around us. Focus on the seeds of trust, hope, and compassion God is planting.

As you read, here are a few things to notice, in addition to everything you notice naturally.

Reading Introduction

Ripped from the headlines! Just a few weeks ago, legal activist and Chinese dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is blind, miraculously escaped from house arrest. It recalls Peter’s miraculous escape from Herod’s prison.

Even more, Peter’s prison escape recalls Jesus’ escape from death. It was Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the anniversary of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Just as God raised Jesus, an angel of the Lord guided Peter to freedom, to Mary’s house and a servant named Rhoda. When Rhoda announced the good news, she was dismissed just like the women who came with news from Jesus’ empty tomb. As Jesus death and resurrection was a Passover-liberation for all people, so also Peter’s miraculous escape. The church was liberated from Herod and his persecution.

Like Jesus’ resurrection, Peter’s escape from prison marks a momentus change. Chapters 11 and 12 are transitional: there’s an end and a new beginning. As with all endings, loose ends are tied up in these chapters, for example, God’s judgment against Herod and more importantly the church’s affirmation of Peter’s ministry to Gentiles. The new beginning is the new ministry partnership of Saul (who will soon take the name, Paul) and Barnabas. In fact, those resolutions foreshadow the directions their ministry will take. The torch is being passed from Peter and his ministry mainly among Jews around Jerusalem to Paul and his ministry mainly among Gentiles in Turkey, Greece, and ultimately, Rome.

And as these chapters reflect a momentus change in the church, Acts could not be more emphatic: the initiative was not human but divine. God’s fingerprints are all over. Remember those clue-words: vision, trance, voice, angel, and especially, Holy Spirit. They signal that God is doing something, not people. Those clue-words occur 17 times in these two chapters. The message: this change in mission and leadership and understanding of scripture came from God.

There’s another important clue, that occurred as the Church in Jerusalem was deciding how to understand Leviticus 11 in light of Peter’s experience of God with Cornelius. In verse 11:16, Peter said, “I remembered the word of the Lord…” In other words, Peter remained more loyal to what Jesus said and did than to the prohibitions in Leviticus 11. In response, the church held its breath for a moment before erupting in praise, “Even to the Gentiles, God has given the repentance that leads to life!”

The mission was shifting, the leadership was changing, even the black-and-white of scripture was being reinterpreted, but the church followed Jesus still.

Acts 9 & 10

Read Acts 9 & 10 and meet in your Good Soil Group by Sun, May 13.

Remember: Formation, not information. Luke and Acts invite us to live differently than the world around us. Focus on the seeds of trust, hope, and compassion God is planting.

As you read, here are a few things to notice, in addition to everything you notice naturally.

Reading Introduction

What do we do when our experience doing God’s work and listening to the Holy Spirit contradict what is written in scripture? Well, reread Acts 10, 11 and 15, because in those chapters that’s the question Peter and the early church had to deal with.

It was in black and white in Leviticus 11: the list of the four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds that God’s people were forbidden by God to eat. Among the foods forbidden in Leviticus 11 are pork, lobster, and frog legs. Okay, I could do without eating frogs, but bacon?

Peter and the rest of the disciples knew their scriptures! They took seriously this list of forbidden foods, so they didn’t eat them. Even though most of the people around them—for example, Cornelius the centurion—did eat those foods, and regularly, still they did not. And what was more, people who ate unclean things became unclean themselves. So Peter and the rest of the disciples stayed away from pork-eaters. This was simply how a person of faith honored God, by keeping their distance from people like Cornelius and his family.

Until three strange coincidences that weren’t coincidences…

1. Peter fell asleep while praying and had the strangest dream. A vision of a sheet filled with all animals—including forbidden ones—and the voice saying, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat!” Naturally, Peter rejected this voice as evil. After all, scripture said!
2. But at the very moment Peter was steeling himself against temptation, it got stranger. Pork-eaters knocking on the door, asking for Peter! When did that happen?
3. And if the vision and voice and knock on the door wasn’t enough, the Holy Spirit itself urging Peter, “I sent those guys. Go with them already!”

So Peter went. Were the words of Leviticus 11 nagging him as he did? Or do you think he really, truly got the message immediately?

Well, it wasn’t long after meeting Cornelius and all his cousins, Peter said: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” Bingo! The light went off for Peter, and he went on to deliver maybe his shortest sermon. The Holy Spirit must’ve interrupted him or something, because the next thing Peter said was, “Geez, let’s baptize them already!” Peter said it in no uncertain terms, says Acts 10:38—”So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.”

It was a double-move: including Cornelius in God’s family and Peter letting himself be part of Cornelius’ family. And it was maybe the boldest move yet. It utterly contradicted Leviticus 11. But for Peter, it was 100% consistent with Jesus.

What about Jesus was Peter remembering? Jesus forgiving the criminal on the cross (Luke 24:39-43)? The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)? Or maybe when Jesus called Peter himself (Luke 5:1-11)?

But what about Leviticus 11? Did Peter therefore throw out scripture entirely and cling to experience alone? Not at all. Instead, in light of the vision, the knock on his door, the urging and unmistakable presence of the Holy Spirit, and the truth of Jesus himself, Peter grabbed hold of scripture! The last line of his short sermon to Cornelius’ family was: “All the prophets testify about Jesus that everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

In other words, Peter came to a new conclusion about the scriptures themselves: some scripture is more important than others. For example, the prophets trump Leviticus 11. And more, Peter seemed see in a new way the purpose of scripture: to testify about Jesus. Scripture points to Jesus. Not all scripture is created equal.

What Peter learned and did in Acts 10 will be the subject of much debate in Acts 11 and 15. In these chapters, the Holy Spirit keeps working. In conversation about the experience of Peter, the Spirit confirms its lessons for the whole church, and the whole church comes to affirm that there is ample room in Christ’s church for pork-eaters. Just in time for the Spirit to launch Paul’s mission to the Gentiles…

So what do we do when our experience doing God’s work and listening to the Holy Spirit contradict what is written in scripture? Do what Peter did in Acts 10.

And what do we do when somebody else’s experience doing God’s work and listening to the Holy Spirit contradict what is written in scripture? Stay tuned for Acts 11 and 15 and the community’s discernment together.

Acts 7 & 8

Read Acts 7 & 8 and meet in your Good Soil Group by Sun, May 6.

Remember: Formation, not information. Luke and Acts invite us to live differently than the world around us. Focus on the seeds of trust, hope, and compassion God is planting.

As you read, here are a few things to notice, in addition to everything you notice naturally.

Reading Introduction

The story of Stephen has a special place in my heart, because the first congregation I served as pastor was St. Stephen Lutheran Church in South Plainfield, New Jersey.

In chapters 5 and 6, we read about internal tensions and external threats in the early church. Chapters 7 and 8 are about the ways God supports the church through them.

God does not eliminate those tensions and threats. Instead, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, God gives people grace and power to stand up in difficult circumstances and share the good news of Jesus. In chapter 7, Stephen is full of the Spirit. In 8, it’s Philip.

Notice neither Peter and John (nor any of the other “original” disciples) are out in front in these chapters. Instead, it’s two of the newbies chosen in chapter 6. What’s interesting is those seven all have Greek names, while the 12 all have Hebrew names. (Twelve in Hebrew is a number of fullness and completeness, and so is seven in Greek.)

In other words, the church is growing. It’s no longer a homogenous group. We’ll see tensions between Hebrew (or Jewish) and Greek (or Gentile) Christians throughout the rest of Acts. But even so, the church is not a clique of best friends or an association of people of only one race, class, gender, or political viewpoint. Anyone who tries to limit the breadth and diversity of the church will find themselves no match for the Holy Spirit. Just watch those Greeks go!

Even more, the mission and well-being of the church does not rest on the twelve alone. This may come as a relief to All Saints current elected leaders. In chapter 6, the twelve share the church’s power and purpose, and the very ones they shared it with become the church’s new champions. Elected leaders, ask yourself, “How am I sharing the power and purpose of the church with others?”

Just like Peter and John said in 3:12, it’s not about Stephen and Philip. It’s about God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. In Acts, words like “Spirit,” “angel,” “saw a vision,” or “heard a voice”—these words are like neon signs, flashing, “It’s about God! God is doing it!” The book’s title is, “The Acts of the Apostles,” but to be more accurate, we probably should call it, “The Acts of God’s Holy Spirit.”

Even now, it’s not about us. It’s about God. As for the early church, so also for All Saints. The Holy Spirit will embolden us to take risks for the sake of Jesus’ gospel. So I wonder, what stories will be written in the book, “The Acts of All Saints”?

Acts 5 & 6

Read Acts 5 & 6 and meet in your Good Soil Group by Sun, Apr 29.

Remember: Formation, not information. Luke and Acts invite us to live differently than the world around us. Focus on the seeds of trust, hope, and compassion God is planting.

As you read, here are a few things to notice, in addition to everything you notice naturally.

Reading Introduction

If we react defensively to the story of Ananias and Sapphira, maybe it’s because we’re defensive about money in general. This might be a good time with your Good Soil group to examine your beliefs about money and giving to God. And more than your beliefs, but also examine how anxiety, fear, or emotional reactions to the issue block us from staying true to those beliefs.

Here are a few questions we ought not let distract us from that money conversation.

Why did God kill those people? Nowhere does it say, “Then God killed Ananias,” or “God killed Sapphira because of what she did.” Instead, they both simply fell down and died. Maybe this seems like splitting hairs to you, but there is room for another way of understanding what happened. Their deaths are certainly heavy with God’s judgment. Their deaths show the self-destructive results of their self-protecting behavior. I think it’s less that God killed them, and more that they pulled their straw out of the water glass of God and God’s church. Should we be surprised when people who do this die of thirst?

Weren’t they (or aren’t I) free to do whatever they (I) want with their (my) money? Peter’s emphasis is less on how Ananias and Sapphira used their money and more on the lie to God that their use of money involved. Acts 4:32 says something radical: that the church’s singleness of heart and mind for Jesus is bound up in the end of ownership and the beginning of a community life of absolute and total sharing. Can you see a difference between how you spend your money and how you talk about your money?

So what was that lie to God? Was it: “God, we can take care of ourselves”? Or “God, we need this more than anyone else does”? Or “God, you and your church cannot be trusted”? Or “God, we don’t have anything more to share”? In 5:8, Sapphira literally uses that last one, but these and others seem possible, given the context of Acts. What lies to God are hidden in the way each of us uses and talks about our money?

Does this mean we have to give up everything, like Mother Teresa or somebody? If God is calling you specifically to a life like Mother Teresa’s, don’t let me or anyone stand in your way. At the same time, I can speak generally to what God expects of us, using the following formula: Spending 80% + Saving 10% + Giving 10% = 100% God’s.

In other words, some of the money we have, God intends for us—for our living and joyful thriving. Some of the money we have, God intends for our future—saving (or first eliminating debt) is an expression of hope, investing not only in what is (or was) but also in what will be. And some of the money we have, God intends for the poor and for the ministry of the gospel. 10-10-80…the truth is, living life toward this financial balance heals more than our relationship with money. God wants us to be in control of our money, not our money in control of us. God wants our hearts, and God knows the fastest way to our heart is through our wallet.

Acts 3 & 4

Read Acts 3 & 4 and meet in your Good Soil Group by Sun, Apr 22.

Remember: Formation, not information. Luke and Acts invite us to live differently than the world around us. Focus on the seeds of trust, hope, and compassion God is planting.

As you read, here are a few things to notice, in addition to everything you notice naturally.

Reading Introduction

I was blown away by these chapters. Honestly.

Peter and John and the rest of the believers were so deeply focused on God’s purpose. Even when Peter and John are interrupted by the man begging, they know exactly what to do. How often do we as a church know exactly what to do, even without distractions?

And then what they did floored me too!

“We can’t give you money, but instead, we give you what we’ve received: strength to walk and jump in the name of Jesus.” And then when they were challenged by the crowd, they said, “Why does this surprise you?”

Why does this surprise me? Am I so risk-averse that I do not claim the power that’s ours in Jesus name? (Does it surprise you that they did this? Why?)

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about “faith healing.” I’m not speaking TV-preacher code here.

Don’t we know how to heal and strengthen people in Jesus name? Haven’t we been doing that in our Good Soil groups for months now—with friendship and listening and prayer? Don’t we know how to feed people with bread and not with bread alone? Haven’t we been doing that for years and decades through the Food Pantry and worship, the Salvation Army Meal-site and, recently, these Good Soil groups? Don’t we also know how pray for what we cannot do alone?

Yes! We do know how to do these things, don’t we? So why am I surprised? Where is my boldness as your pastor in claiming God’s power for All Saints and our community? Where is my courage in naming boldly and clearly God’s purpose? Is our whole church similarly risk-averse? Do we not have anyone’s attention to share God’s Word (like Peter and John) because (unlike Peter and John) we make only small goals that we don’t need God to achieve?

Even as I was convicted, I was comforted. 4:8 to the end of the chapter…Peter and the rest have boldness and courage because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Whenever Acts says someone was “filled with the Holy Spirit,” they are about to do  something courageous and—even more—say something very bold.

In Acts, the believers are totally focused. For them, it’s about people and purpose and power through the Holy Spirit. Courage and boldness are the byproducts of these three. What happens to us when we know exactly what to do, come what may (3:1—4:22)? When we know who has our backs (4:23, 32-35)? When the Spirit fills us (4:8-31)? I don’t even need to tell you. You surely can feel it in you. Courage and boldness happens to us, that’s what.

I see this as a time for us to pray together, like the believers prayed in 4:23-31. Reread 4:29-30. What might happen if we all prayed that together? Maybe not all of us at the same time in the same room, but maybe in the same hope over these next months. What words would you use to pray a similar people-purpose-power prayer?

Acts 1 & 2

Read Acts 1 & 2 and meet in your Good Soil Group by Sun, Apr 15.

Remember: Formation, not information. Luke and Acts invite us to live differently than the world around us. Focus on the seeds of trust, hope, and compassion God is planting.

As you read, here are a few things to notice, in addition to everything you notice naturally.

Reading Introduction

Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to choose another witness to take Judas’ place. Instead, Peter used his own initiative and intelligence, guided by scripture and his sense of what was necessary.

Neither did Jesus tell the disciples how to choose another. Instead, they did what seemed right and appropriate to them. At Peter’s invitation, they wondered “Who can witness to Jesus’ resurrection?” Then they suggested two, prayed, and cast lots.

Casting lots is like drawing straws or flipping a coin. Even though it seems arbitrary and superstitious to us now, everyone there and then trusted that God would show God’s will through it. The way we do it today would surely seem strange to them.

Does God choose to use the processes we trust, whether casting lots or working in committees? What can we learn from them about choosing leaders and making group decisions?

Most of what we do and decide in life is not a response to a direct invitation from Jesus. As you exercise your own initiative and intelligence, what do you do to open yourself to God’s influence? To other’s influence?

As you read on in Acts, pay attention to the Holy Spirit and how it is active in leading the church. Where do you sense the Spirit is leading All Saints?