Pastor Steve Richards

Would the church drift from its primary target? Would the controversy of Acts 15 (or whatever today’s controversy may be) bring it down? We have the traditionalists on one side and the progressives on the other. This issue before them is this – will Gentiles need a surgery in order to be Christian?

A few months ago, I used this analogy from Star Wars. The hero, Luke Skywalker, was leading a small band of heroic pilots into the world-destroying Death Star. If they could shoot a bomb into a narrow shaft that led to the core of the Death Star, they could destroy it. Bad guys were shooting at them. Good guys were catching on fire and exploding. It was terrifying. It was hard to concentrate on the pinpoint precision shot they were trying to make at such speed, in so much confusion. However, the voice that could be heard through the scene said, “Stay on target…stay on target.”

Over time, the church gets focused on the people who are here – what we want, the practices and behaviors that makes us who we are. But we’ve got to be sure we don’t lose sight of this being a movement focused on bringing the message of Jesus risen from the dead to those not here. That’s why we need the prayer for boldness.

Acts 15:11 – We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved…

Stay on target. Stay on target.

The book of Leviticus is when reading through the Bible becomes a challenge. So much of what we read seems foreign to our experience and lacking in any relevance. But it is important to remember that what we are reading was not at all abstract. This was vital to being in a relationship with God.  This system of sacrifices may appear legalistic but was not intended to be so. In fact, Jesus was critical of those who abused this system and made it legalistic. The offerings were to be made to God flowing freely from grateful hearts. How to do this was not left to human design but by divinely given instruction. For an offering to mean something it must cost something.

When I read these chapters, I am tempted to picture one huge barbecue at the Temple or imagine how much time I would need to spend at the Temple to account for everything intentionally and unintentionally done to break some law or command. But then, I am missing the message. I think of Psalm 8:1 – LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! I am so grateful for all that God has done and is doing. How can I say thanks? How can I respond to all that God has done? How can I remain close to God today and always? How can my attitude toward God influence my interactions with everyone else? Leviticus shows a way.

There will be another way. As we will read (in June) in the letter to the Ephesians: Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Jesus will be the atoning sacrifice once and for all. Not that his sacrifice will put an end to offerings. On the contrary, today I want to offer God my best. I want to bring an offering that costs me something, that has value.  LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Do you remember the prayer for boldness from Acts 4: Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And in Acts 12-13, that is precisely what we are seeing: the boldness of Paul and Barnabas, the signs and wonders of Peter’s escape from prison, the conversion of Elymas, the responsiveness of the Gentiles. All of this is couched with urgency. There is resistance. There is danger. There are followers whose lives are at risk – sometimes death, sometimes the risk is too much, as when John Mark returns home to Jerusalem.

We know the crunch of time and the need and desire to fit more into each day. We experience the rush that is necessary to meet a deadline. But this is urgency. Imagine a storm is building, the sirens are blaring and we heed the urgency and seek safety because we want to live. The Christian message is on the move. Paul’s message to the people of Pisidian Antioch is not the kind of message to be mulled over and pondered over time. Something new is happening in your midst and unless you join in you will miss out! God is doing a new thing which God had long planned and promised. Embrace it and live!

Sometimes when we read scripture, it feels like we are looking through a photo album of what happened a long time ago. But the scripture carries the same urgency today as 2000 years ago. This is what God is doing. It is God’s grace and mercy for you. Embrace it. Live in it. Live from it.

And pass it on.

We’ve heard the expression: A picture is worth a thousand words. This photo, taken a few weeks ago in Kenya, felt worthy of  Psalm 19. Many times I have stood outdoors, looked to the heavens, and felt the glory of God. And as I stand in the presence of God’s glory, may these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 18:14)

“If I told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times!” I remember hearing my mother say those words. The emphasis on certain words made clear that I had not been listening the countless other times that she had communicated something she wanted me to retain. She was generally accurate that I had not been listen, and her emphasis got my attention.

I don’t know that there is any frustration behind the purpose in today’s reading from Exodus, but we’ve read this previously. These next few chapters are almost verbatum what we read a few days ago. Repetition is one of the ways of emphasizing the importance of a message. “I told you once so let me tell you again” the importance of the Tabernacle and having a place to meet with God. God has set apart the people of Israel for a special relationship – established a covenant with them and through the Tabernacle will be with them.

So when we come to Acts 10, suddenly we are given an entirely new understanding. Jesus has become the place and the means by which God will meet with his people. The taboos of food and family had been set up by God in the first place to keep Israel for himself, separate from the rest of the world. But now, in Jesus and by the Spirit, God has carried out that plan. The time has come when Gentiles as well as Jews are welcomed into God’s family on exactly the same terms.

Suddenly, God has no favorites – or maybe it is better to say – whoever you are, you are God’s favorite. In Jesus, the barrier has been removed. Now, everyone – yes, even you – is welcomed by God. Surely no one can stand in the way… (Acts 10:47)

As I read, is there one thing that stands out or takes hold of me? The one thing may be quite different for you, and if I read the same readings tomorrow that one thing might even be different for me.

Today, I am thinking about Ananias and the trust that he had to go to Saul. There was no greater threat than Saul. Ananias knew the real personal risk in getting close to Saul. Ananias put his life on the line in responding to God’s direction. And yet, Ananias became the instrument that God used to bring about the most dramatic conversion in scripture. The enemy of the gospel suddenly became its greatest voice.

When faced with a difficult decision, I remember hearing a pastor describe how in his life the decision that God wanted him to take was usually the one, when he thought about it, that made him sick. I have found the same to be true when I have faced difficult decisions. It is also what I see in Ananias. If the decision is easy, then trusting God is easy – in fact, trusting God may not even be necessary! But if the direction God is giving is to a place I really do not want to go, then trust must be absolute. God invites us to trust God.

Psalm 16:9 – Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure. When has God called you to a place where trusting God was essential, because you could not make it on your own? Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. Psalm 16:1 Thank God, for the witness of Ananias.

While in Kenya, I learned the Swahili proverb: haraka, haraka, haina, baraka – which means “hurry, hurry, has no blessing”. By the way I live my life, I am a picture of the opposite. In fact, most of the encouragement in our American culture is to do more and keep moving. But then I read in Exodus 31 that’s not what God does. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested. Do I have more to do than God?

The scripture tells us that the Sabbath will be a sign between me (God) and the Israelites forever. Rest. When in the course of my week is the Sabbath that I will observe? What I do (or do not do) is a sign between God and me. Not only that, but it is only in slowing down that we rest – the essential rest that makes time for God. As I said in last Sunday’s message: The more time you spend focused on the one you are talking to, the less you need to ask.

I wish today’s readings had ended here, but we were invited to also read Exodus 32 which contains some of the more troubling verses in the Bible (verses 25-29). A few years ago, I preached a series on difficult questions from the Bible. One sermon used these verses to address the Bible and the wrath of God. You can click on title at the top of this page if you would like to read that message. I hope you will find it helpful.

Look for the Blessings in your day!

As I was reading, I remembered this verse from 1 Peter 3:15 – Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

What is your story of what God has done? What has God done for you? In Acts, we read Stephen’s great sermon. He does not answer the charges made against him, but he gives an answer. Stephen is counted as the first martyr for the Christian faith. Martyr is someone who gives evidence – a witness. As Stephen connects the Old Testament story to what God has done in Jesus, he shows that this faith is not just a set of ideas, but the living truth worth more than his own life.

And I give thanks for Stephen and for all others through history who have been a witness with their words and their lives. I can only hope that when asked to give an answer, that I too will be a witness.

Have you ever been part of a movement that felt unstoppable? Maybe a political campaign or an effort to reform a business practice or maybe you were so in love with someone that it felt like being together was destiny? I’m not sure that what we read in scripture is exactly like any of these, but if you have ever been part of some movement that felt greater than yourself you have a taste of what the scripture describes.

In yesterday’s readings, we find the movement of God’s people has momentum. In Exodus, God makes it clear that no one will stand in the way of God’s chosen people inhabiting the Promised Land. God makes a covenant. God promises. And in Acts, there are dire consequences for anyone who would knowingly or unknowingly thwart the momentum. In Acts 5:39, If it is from God, you will not be able to stop… Have you ever felt like you were fighting against God’s purposes? There are times when what I want is not happening. At such times, it is good to consider whether I am unknowingly resisting God’s purposes.

And then today’s readings. In Exodus, we read detailed descriptions of the Tabernacle – God’s dwelling place. Even today, our places of worship are filled with symbolism. Such symbolism attempts to make the attributes of the invisible God visible and present. And in Acts, conflict arises, even in the early church! But the momentum of this movement will not be thwarted.

One of the things that happens in reading through the entire Bible is that we end up reading certain passages that we otherwise would never read. For example, the list of laws in Exodus that seem odd with punishments that appear brutal (what parent hasn’t wished there would be some consequence to a child’s swearing – but not death!). Sadly, the people who were now free needed laws to establish community. I say sadly, because the need for laws is an indication of our brokenness and propensity to put ourselves first. Before dismissing the laws listed in Exodus, it is helpful to look for principles behind the laws which can point to truths that still apply today (i.e. respecting parents and parents being worthy of respect).

Psalm 12 may give voice to our own frustration in a broken world when it seems no one is faithful anymore. Yet, God is faithful. And that’s what Peter and John give us in Acts 4, the courage to live boldly through the name of Jesus.

Last June, we distributed “Be Bold” wrist bands. Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. This prayer was answered time after time in the book of Acts. And two thousand years later, as I pray this same prayer, I’ve discovered that God remains faithful to answer my prayer for boldness. Give me the wisdom and the courage to Be Bold!