Scripture:  Galatians 6:1-10

The story goes that a fiery preacher once chose for a sermon topic, “forgive your enemies.”  He read the scripture, he preached passionately, and he tugged at heart strings.  At the end, the preacher asked, “How many of you are willing to forgive your enemies today.”  Now several people were genuinely convicted and ready to forgive.  A little over half the hands went up.  For this preacher, that was not good enough.  So, he launched into another story and gave an even more impassioned plea.   Twenty minutes later he asked again, “How many of you are willing to forgive your enemies today?”   This time about 3/4ths of the congregation raised their hands.   For the preacher though, this still was not good enough.  So, he continued on for another twenty minutes.   By this time people were more concerned about eating lunch than they were about forgiving their enemies, so when the preacher asked a third time nearly all of the hands went up.  All but one belonging to a little old lady.   The preacher asked the woman directly, “Are you not willing to forgive your enemies?”   With a thin voice, the woman replied, “I don’t have any.”  

Surprised by the response, the preacher asked, “and how old are you?”  

She replied, “ninety-three.”

The preacher then instructed, “Then please, come down front and tell us all how someone can live to ninety-three and not have any enemies.”

Very slowly, the woman made her way to the front of the sanctuary, she turned around and said, “Well it’s simple really.   I outlived them all.”

This story, along with this morning’s scripture, reveals a simple truth.   Living our lives while following Jesus, seeking to live in a faith community with one another, can sometimes get messy.   Every clergy colleague I know has a painful story of when they learned that church people are not always nice people.  There will be times when someone, through their selfish actions or careless words, hurts us.  There will be times when these people are people who should have known better because they are our sibling in Christ.   On the flip side, there will be times through our own poor choices or impulsive actions do harm to someone else.   Because none of us are perfect, even with our best-efforts things can get messy.  When that happens, I suppose one strategy is to just outlive everyone else, but in this morning’s scripture Paul gives us another option.  When things get messy our best way forward is to not become weary in doing good.  

This morning’s scripture was written to several churches in the Roman Province of Galatia.  These churches were all in some turmoil and conflict, which is why Paul wrote this epistle in the first place.   Throughout Galatians, Paul assured these congregations that they were all saved by faith in Christ Jesus.  He encouraged them to view themselves as the family of God and have that connection be what binds them in unity.  Despite that, this morning’s scripture reading is an acknowledgement that things can get messy. 

 Last week we read the scripture that came right before this morning’s reading.  So last week we read how Paul encouraged the Galatians to righteousness, to holy living, by following the leading of the Spirit.  In doing so, Paul listed the acts of the flesh, or the sinful nature, and these actions were opposed to the fruit of the Spirit.  In this morning’s scripture, Paul seeks to answer the potential question, “What happens when a believer does one of the things on the sinful nature list?”  The answer that Paul gives to this question is not exactly straightforward, and on the surface is somewhat contradictory. 

The apparent contradiction is found in verses 2 and 5.   Verse 2 states, “Carry each other’s burden and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ”, but then in verse 5 Paul wrote, “Each one should carry their own load.”  While it can seem something of a contradiction, this is one of those instances where it is not an “either/or” but rather a both.   Verse five is a reminder of personal responsibility but verse 2 is a call to communal accountability.   The reminder of personal responsibility is a reminder that our ability to stay in step with the leading of the Holy Spirit or not, falls solely on us.   We have responsibility for our own actions.  If someone is unkind to us, that does not give us permission to respond in the same way.  Treating others the way they treat us is not a virtue.  While we are responsible for our own actions, when we veer off course, we do not have to rely solely on ourselves to right the ship.   This is why Paul wrote to the Galatians that they are too “carry each other’s burdens.”  They were to hold each other accountable and help each other in following the Spirit’s leading.  

Accountability though is a loaded word and concept.  People tend to like the idea of holding others accountable for their actions, but most people do not like being held accountable.   For this reason, accountability is often weaponized.  Some have used it as a club to beat others for stepping out of line.  That is not accountability.  That is just being a bully.   However, even when used correctly accountability can be a hard balance to find.  As Paul wrote about in this morning’s scripture: “if someone is caught n a sin, you who live by the sprit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”   The struggle is to treat a person gently but not be so gentle that we end up excusing or even justifying the behavior that was sinful or harmful in the first place.  

 In our Methodist history, we have an example of how to best walk this balance.  When the Methodist movement first started in England, the methodists were organized into societies, and each society comprised of various classes and bands.  These classes and bands would meet weekly with one another, and when they did, they would ask each other the question, “How is it with your soul.”   Now ideally, the answer was “It is well with my soul”.  However, if they could not say that, then they would confess their sins to one another, they would pray for each other, they would encourage one another.   If someone said, “it is well”, but another person knew it was not.  If they knew the person had acted in a way that did harm or had chosen not to do good, then they would challenge their answer.  They would call it the behavior and hold each other accountable.   This was not to wield power over another or to put someone in their place, but rather it was a way to carry one another’s load. 

The reason why this worked is because the members of the class and bands trusted one another.  They all sought on their own to hold themselves to a standard of personal holiness where they followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, and they knew that when they fell short their friends would gently but firmly help them make it right and get back on track.  I realize this level of transparency and vulnerability is not easy for most of us.  I also realize that the level of trust needed to get to that point does not come overnight.   It is something that must be worked towards.  To best follow Christ we are to carry each other’s burdens, but we can only do that when we make the intentional choice to begin trusting at least one of our siblings in Christ to share our load.  While we get to that point, this morning’s scripture gives us an additional option of what to do when things get messy. 

In verse 9, Paul wrote, “Let us not become weary in doing good.”  When things get messy, when someone causes us harm, then we can respond by doing good.  We do not allow the cruelness or unkindness of someone else to harden our hearts.  When someone else chooses harm, we choose good.   While we cannot control the actions of someone else, we can choose and we are responsible for our actions.   Choosing to do good and make the world a better place, one small action at a time always keeps in step with the sprit and follows the way of Christ. 

There is a story that illustrates what choosing to do good in the face of harm looks like.   The story goes, that Ethel had passed away.   She was a dear old saint of the church.  She had done it all taught Sunday school, led VBS, directed the choir, visited the shut-ins, and anything else in the church that needed doing.   She had also served as a mentor for a young man answered the call to ministry from his local church.  It seemed so appropriate to have this young man conducting the funeral.  But, for reasons untold, when the time came for the funeral to begin the young preacher was nowhere to be found, nor had word been sent to explain his tardiness.  The crowd grew somewhat restless as the moments became minutes and threatened to become an hour.
 
As the restlessness grew, a middle-aged man in the congregation stood and addressed the crowd.  “It seems the preacher is late.  Until he arrives, I feel as if I should share a special memory of Ethel.  My greatest memory is the time that she brought me a cake, and it wasn’t even my birthday.  I still do not know the reason that she chose to bring me the cake.  But I will remember her for this.”
 
As he sat down, everyone turned their attention to a lady that rose to speak.   This woman had a reputation as the church gossip.  Whenever she spoke people tended to hold their collective breath, because they were never quite sure what she would say.  “Funny that you should remember a cake, because I too received a cake from Ethel.  In fact, I received several over the last few years.”
 
Amazingly, yet another man stood, claiming that he too had received a cake.   However, the cake he was given a sour cream pound cake.  This caused a murmur to rise around the room.  Ethel’s sour cream pound cake was legendary.    Whenever the church had a pitch-in the attendance that Sunday would be among the highest for the year as people came to jockey in line just to get a piece of sour cream pound cake.   The man concluded, “Ethel and I did not often see eye to eye, but she certainly did right by me.”
 
A few more people rose to give testimony to the cakes that this woman had baked and delivered over the years of her life.  Some had gotten one.  Others had received several.  A couple of more people even stated, with some level of pride, that they had been fortunate enough to receive a sour cream pound cake. 
 
Seated on the front row, out of the attention of the crowd, was Martha.   Since childhood Martha and Ethel had been best friends.  As people spoke of the cakes they had received, Martha sat strangely quiet.  You see, Martha had never once received a cake from Ethel. As the testimonies continued, Martha began to feel hurt in ways she could not explain.
 
About this time the door opened and in rushed a winded preacher.  The frustration of delay showed clearly on his face.  Going to the pulpit, he addressed the congregation, apologizing for his delay.  The first speaker rose again and said, “It’s OK pastor.  We have been passing times by sharing our memories of Ethel.”
 
The young preacher spoke again: “Since you have shared your memories, permit me to share mine.  When I first answered the call to the ministry I spent many hours talking with Ethel about a wide variety of matters.  Once, we were discussing the way people, even good church people, cut and hurt one another with words and action.  I asked her how she handled it when evil or meanness was spoken of her or directed towards her.  The answer she gave has stuck in my mind to this day: ‘When people have spoken evil of me, I try not to respond in kind, but in kindness.  When I learned who had spoken so cruelly, I would go to my kitchen and bake them a cake.  I would deliver it to them and never mention their unkind words.  Sometimes I had to bake several cakes.  And if they were especially cruel, I would go and prepare my specialty, a sour cream pound cake.  I learned that repaying this evil with kindness made the evil so much more bearable for me, and I hoped that every bite of the cake would tell them that I love them, despite their actions.”
 
A stunned crowd left the funeral home that day, with one exception, a quiet lady who rose from the front row and left with a smile on her face remembering the cakes she never received from her dear friend.
 
 As Christians we are a bunch of imperfect people, seeking to follow a perfect savior.  This means that there will be times that we fall short, that we miss the mark, and that we do not follow Jesus as closely as we might like.   May we be willing to be open with our most trusted siblings in Christ, so that we can ask each other “How is it with your soul” and we can answer honestly.  More importantly though, may we not grow weary of doing good.  When someone does us wrong, may we not respond in kind by may we respond in kindness. May we not seek to just outlive those who have wronged us, but may we do good- even if that means using cake.   As we have opportunity to do so, may we do good to all people. 

Scripture: Galatians 5:13-25

Even though the heat can be a little rough at times, one of the benefits of summer is just how plentiful fresh produce can be.   While I am in awe of the logistical apparatus that allows fruit to be available year-round, fruit that comes a pop-up stand, the back of a pickup truck, or that you pick yourself tends to be leagues better.   While most people love good, fresh fruit.  The Japanese take this to the next level.  Japan is home to some of the rarest fruit in the world.  One example of this is the Egg of the Sun mango.  While this type of mango is not that rare globally, in Japan it is only grown in one area, using low-tech, organic techniques.  As a result these mangos typically cost around $50 each, but perfect mangos can sell for the thousands of dollars.  The same goes for Ruby Roman grapes, which are a stand of grapes that are only grown on a single island in Japan.  These are rare because the growers have exacting standards.  Only grapes that reach a certain size, weight, and sugar content will make it to market.  In 2020, only 25,000 bunches were available.  The average cost for a bunch of Ruby Roman grapes is between $50-90.  However, some bunches can be graded platinum quality.  Bunches of this quality are not available every year, and in 2020 one such bunch sold at auction for $12,000 which works out to about $400 per grape.   The rarest and most expensive fruit in the world also comes from Japan and that is the Yubari King melon, a hybrid variety grown in only a handful of greenhouses in Japan.   This melon is known for its sweetness, and each melon cost $200-300.  Top quality melons can sell for more, with the record being set in 2019 where two melons sold for around $45,000.  

 I like fruit, but I am not sure any melon is worth the price of a used car.  There are some cultural reasons why Japan produces such expensive fruit, but a lot of it comes down to rarity.  The techniques used to get exact fruit coloring, size, or sweetness are exacting, labor intensive, or time consuming.  Since these growers still produce their luxury fruit, people are willing to pay top dollar for rare fruit.   While it cannot be grown from a tree or in a greenhouse, this morning’s scripture is also about some rare fruit.  I think we can all agree that qualities like kindness, gentleness, and peace are a lot harder to find today that we would like.  The analogy of fruit to describe a quality is a good one that connects deeply.   However, these qualities do not require going to a single island in Japan to grow, they can take root and grow in the heart of any believer.   

Last week’s scripture was also from Galatians, so to recap some of the context of what is going behind this morning’s scripture.  Paul wrote the letter of Galatians with the intention of his letter circulating to several churches in the area.  This is because there was an issue where some Jewish Christians had come to the area and begun teaching the churches that in order to properly follow Jesus they had to also follow Jewish customs and rites as laid out in the Torah.  They had claimed that following the law was essential for salvation, but Paul strongly refuted that believing that we are saved by faith through Jesus Christ. 

 In addition to refuting this viewpoint, Paul was also trying to get these Galatian churches back on track.   Reading between the lines of this morning’s scripture, we get the idea that there was some conflict within these churches.  This would have happened as some people went along with following the Jewish law while others did not.   We get a sense that conflict was a problem because in verse 15 Paul wrote, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”   Also, in the list of the acts of the flesh Paul includes several words related to conflict such as hatred, discord, dissensions, and factions.  In this morning’s scripture Paul lays out an idea that continues his instance that followers of Jesus do not need to follow the Jewish law as well as providing a way forward together without infighting and discord.  In this morning’s scripture Paul puts forth what righteousness looks like for Christians.  

 Righteousness is right living with God.   We are righteous when we live our lives in a way that pleases God.   Under the law of the Old Testament this was done by following the law.  The way the Israelites were righteous were by keeping the commandments laid out in the Torah.   Paul puts forth for Christians righteousness is achieved by following the Holy Spirit.   He states this in verse 15 where he wrote, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.    Paul defines the desires of the flesh with a list that includes many of the things that the Old Testament law warns against such as idolatry and occult practices.  Yet it also includes more personal behavior like jealousy and selfishness, as well as the behavior that leads to division among people.  The ideal here is that followers of Jesus do not avoid these practices because they are strict requirements, but they do not do them because they are seeking to follow the leading of the Spirit.  For Christians righteousness is not based in legalism, it is based in relationship with God.
 
Paul goes further though.  If we seek to follow Spirit’s leading then not only do we avoid the things we should not do, but we grow in the qualities we want to have.  Paul uses the analogy of fruit here to describe these desirable qualities.  Many of these qualities are the same attributes we see used to describe God throughout the bible:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The fruit of the spirit should be present in the life of all who follow Christ, they should be clear and evident proof of a life touched by grace. 

This is because the fruits of the spirit are the outward manifestation of a changed heart.   We are filled with joy, we are more kind, we are gentler, and we possess greater self-control because the love of Christ has transformed our inner most self and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit has enabled that transformation to burst forth to the surface.   The ideal for which we should hope for is that the fruit of the spirit are defining characteristics in our lives.  That we are known by our fruit.   It should be that people know we are Christians, not because we told them, not because of the radio station we listen to, or the bumper sticker on our car.   They should know we are Christians by our love.  They should know we are Christians by our joy.   They should know we are Christians by our peace, by our patience, by our kindness and goodness.  They should know we are Christians by our faithfulness, gentleness, and by our self-control.  

And yet, we often fall short.  We, or perhaps more fairly I- because I cannot speak for you, there are times I struggle with being patient.  There are times I listen to the intrusive thoughts and choose fits of rage of gentleness.   There are times I am not my best self.   If that happens to be true for you as well, then instead of being the liberating call to Christian freedom and righteousness that this scripture was meant to be it can instead feel like a condemnation. Many of us tend to be our own worst critics, and when we read the list of this morning’s scripture instead of celebrating the small and big ways those attributes have been present in our lives, we instead only focus on the multitude of ways we have fallen short.   It is for this reason that I think that the analogy of fruit works to describe these characteristics works well and is reassuring.  

It does not matter what is being grown whether it be corn, strawberries, or rare Japanese melons.  The person that does the planting cannot make the fruit grow by their own power.  In the same way, we can not force the fruit of the Spirit to grow.  There is no guaranteed seven step process to be a more loving or joyful person.   The fruit of the Spirit is ultimately the workings of the Holy Spirit within the life of a believer.   While a planter cannot make fruit grow, then can certainly cultivate the best conditions for fruit.  They can ensure the soil is good, there is plentiful light, and all the water that is necessary.   The planter can care for and tend to the plant throughout the entire process to help create the best possible conditions to get the most perfect fruit.   It is the constant attention to creating the best conditions that creates the perfect fruit in Japan that sells for mind-boggling prices.  In the same way we can provide the best conditions in our lives for spiritual fruit to manifest.  We can take actions and make choices that give the Holy Spirit room to work so that the fruit of the Spirit can grow and be evident in our lives.  Cultivating our lives so that the Holy Spirit has room to work and our so that our relationship with God and our faith can deepen is how we as Christian live righteously. 

Looking back to the early Methodist movement they had a framework to help cultivate their lives to be fertile soil for the fruit of the Spirit to grow.  When the first Methodist societies gathered together they would seek to hold themselves to the three general rules.  These general rules are a set of best practices that can be a guide to making the kind of choices that help us consistently stay in step with the Spirit.    The first rule is do no harm.  Doing no harm is about what we choose not to do.  We do no harm when we make the choice not to take actions that cause pain or hardship for someone else, actions that can have a negative impact on ourselves, or actions that can reflect poorly on our witness of Christ.   Doing no harm is based in thoughtfully loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Doing no harm is the result of actively thinking about others and modifying our own behavior so that our actions do not cause hurt or hardship.  

 Doing no harm is loving others by refraining from certain actions, and the second general rule is how we love others through our actions.  The second general rule is do good.  Specifically, about this John Wesley wrote: “by doing good, by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible, to all.”  When we seek to do all the good we can, by all the means we can, to all the people we can, for as long as we can then we giving the Holy Spirit lots of room to group Spiritual fruit in our lives. 

The final general rule is what Wesley calls “attending upon all the ordinances of God.”  Sometimes in modern summaries of the general rules, this one gets paraphrased as “stay in love with God.”   This third general rule are about the spiritual habits we have to keep us connected to our savior and heavenly Father.   Often these daily or weekly habits are some of the elements of discipleship we struggle with the most, but they are some of the most vital.   If plants are not given the water they need, then they are not going to grow much fruit.  In the same way, if we do not regularly seek God or seek to grow in our faith, then we do not give the Holy Spirit a lot to work with. 

 The churches in Galatia were in some turmoil, and in this morning’s scripture Paul sought to recenter them on the command to love your neighbor as yourself.  He pointed out that this was best done by seeking to follow the Spirit’s leading.  In doing so we do not engage in practices contrary to what is best for us, but the Holy Spirit manifest in our lives in qualities that reflect some of the very attributes of God.  So may we seek to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.   May we seek to cultivate our lives so that the Spirit has room to do the work of transforming our hearts to be more Christ like.   May we seek to do no harm, to do good, and to stay in love with God.  In doing so may we become known by our fruit.   May we be a church who is known as a church of joy.  A church of peace.  A church of kindness.  A church of gentleness, and a church of faithfulness.   The fruit of the Spirit is indeed in rare supply these days, so may be the source where all of those who desperately need it can readily find it.     
 
  

Scripture:  Galatians 3:23-29

In Harper Lee’s famous book To Kill a Mockingbird the character Atticus Finch says, “You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family.”  Almost instantly, this idea became adopted as an “old saying” like a modern-day proverb.  The idea that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family may have been accepted as wisdom when the book was published in 1960, but today it is an idea that would be heavily disputed.  Across media, the found family trope has become incredibly popular.  Unless you just stay away from reading books, watching TV shows, or viewing movies then you have probably encountered this.  The found family trope is the belief that one can in fact choose one’s family, and often the main character does just that throughout the course of the story.  One of the strongest examples of this trope is the Fast and Furious franchise, which has included eleven different movies over the course of 21 years.  The whole concept of found family is perhaps best summed up in a line from one of the movies where the actor Vin Diesel’s character Dom says “I don’t have friends.  I have family.”  

The trope of found family is ubiquitous in entertainment media today, but that is likely because it reflects realities of culture today.   For instance, for the past decade “friendsgiving” has risen in popularity compared to the more traditional thanksgiving.  Friendsgiving is all about celebrating and being thankful for the people you choose.  A 2023 survey found that 40% of adults under 40 planned on being part of a friendsgiving celebration.  It would seem that large portions of our culture disagree with Harper Lee and believe you can choose your family.  Of course, the idea is nothing new, and it is in fact biblical.  This morning’s scripture is a prime example.   Multiple times it the New Testament we find ideas put forth like the one in this morning’s scripture.  Being a disciple of Jesus is being part of God’s found family.  The phrase “church family” is commonplace today, but when Paul wrote this morning’s scripture it would have been revolutionary.  In this morning’s scripture we find that not only do we find our family in Christ, but we should find our very identity.  

Many of the letters that Paul wrote were to specific churches in specific cities such as Corinth, Rome, or Ephesus.   Galatians, where this morning’s scripture comes from, is a bit different in that it was written to a region.  Galatia was a Roman province which Paul traveled in and established churches in this area.  This letter was written with the intent of traveling around to multiple churches in the area, and it was written for a specific purpose.  Apparently, some individuals had come to this area with a radically different viewpoint than Paul’s.  These individuals were Jewish Christians who believed that the Old Testament Jewish law applied to all followers of Jesus, and that one could not be a Christian unless they followed specific Jewish rites as prescribe in the law.   Paul strongly argues against this viewpoint, and one of his central arguments is found in this morning’s scripture. 

 The Jewish Christians who were attempting to get the Galatians to follow Jewish customs argued that it was through following the law that one was in right relationship with God, but Paul believed a relationship with God was found through faith.   This is stated in verse 26: “So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”  Paul is not just using flowery language.  He is not making an emotional appeal, but rather he is making an legal argument.   We stopped reading at verse 29 this morning, but Paul’s thought continues and in 4:4-5 he wrote, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

Under the Old Testament law, the relationship between God was built upon the law.  The condition of being God’s people is that the Israelites followed the law.  They were God’s people by virtue of having the law.  The Judaizers were telling the Galatians that Jesus did not change this, to be God’s people they still had to follow customs and rites outlined in the Torah.   Yet, Paul was consistently insistent that because of Jesus Christ the equation has been changed.  Through faith in Christ the relationship is not as God’s people, the relationship is now as God’s children.   The relationship is not dependent on following the law, the relationship is dependent on Christ alone.  Moreover, this is because through Christ God has adopted us.   Following the law to be God’s people, is dependent upon our actions, but being adopted by God as a child God, is dependent upon God’s actions.  It is brought about by God’s choice.   We are children of God, because God chooses us, God wants us, God loves us, and God has proven this love through the death and resurrection of his only begotten son Jesus Christ.     
   
God does not want our worship; God does not need our sacrifices.  What God wants is us.   God wants to be your Father.  God, the creator of the universe, the source of all that is good, the being that defines eternity and exceeds infinity, wants you to be their child. The beauty of this foundational truth cannot be overstated.  The simple elegance of it should not be overlooked or taken for granted.  In fact, this truth should be a foundational one for us.  It should go as far as informing who we understand ourselves to be.  Paul put forth the same idea when he wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” 
The primary idea here is that our identity is found first and foremost found through Christ.   This means that when we stare at ourselves in the mirror, the person we see, the person we fundamentally understand ourselves to be above all else is a child of God.   This is a point of commonality and connection we share with all others who claim Jesus as savior.  Following or not following Jewish customs was causing division among the churches in Galatia, and Paul impressed upon them that they should look to their identity in Christ above those as Jews or Gentiles.   We are all God’s children and this core, common identity should be stronger than any difference that we might have.  Unfortunately, as followers of Jesus there are a couple of ways we have struggled to get this right.    

One of the ways we misstep is that we confuse what unity means.   What unites us all is that we are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.   Consistently we end up confusing this with meaning, Christians must be uniform in certain beliefs and practices.   This is what gave birth to Christian fundamentalism at the beginning of the 20th century.  Fundamentalism, which still lingers to this day, attempted to define what were the fundamentals of Christianity.  The flip side to this was considering anyone who did not agree with these doctrines fully as not a real Christian.    This confusion is also why every four years when there is a presidential election, a whole bunch of people will shout about how you can not be a true Christian if you vote for a specific candidate.  Unity does not mean uniformity.  What unites us is Christ.   I think John Wesley, the found of the Methodist movement said it best.  Wesley lived in a time when the religious motivated wars and conflict in Europe were only a few generations removed from his time.  Wesley also had some fundamental theological disagreements with his friend and fellow preacher George Whitfield, yet Wesely believed that the saving grace of Jesus was greater than all of these religious differences of opinions.  In his sermon, Catholic Spirit, Wesley preached, “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”

We are part of God’s family, because God wants us to be.   The family of God is big and the family of God is diverse.   The kind of Christian unity that Paul writes about, is not found by ignoring our differences.   It is not found by trying to all conform to one ideal.  It is found by seeing, claiming, and celebrating the vast diversity that is already found in the kingdom of God.  Because I promise you, you are going to spend eternity with people who do not look like you, who do not think like you, who do not believe like you, and who do not quite fit your mold of what you think a Christian should be.   God’s family is diverse and varied already.  Becoming a Christian does not erase that diversity.  Paul’s original audience in Galatia did not stop being Jew or gentile, male or female when they became Christians.  The differences and uniqueness remained.     The secret to Christian unity is to accept and celebrate that diversity.   God has adopted us into God’s family, and that is true of every single other person who professes Jesus as savior.  The secret to Christian unity is that we recognize this and we also choose one another as siblings in Christ.  The church is our found family. 

This means that when we cannot think alike, we choose to love alike.  It means when we encounter someone who does not quite fit the mold we are used to, we  do not seek to change them, but we seek to make space for them by loving them sincerely without question with a love that is deep from the heart.  When someone does not quite what we expect we do not exclude them instead we draw the circle wider still.  We expand our table to make room.  I like the analogy that John Pavalovitz uses in his book A Bigger Table.  He wrote about when there were large family gatherings the solution to fitting everyone was to go the garage and get the leaf which was added to literally make the table bigger.  Pavalovitz wrote, “We made room we didn’t have before.  This was a regular incarnation of the love of God right in the center of our home. . .This is the heart of the gospel: the ever-expanding hospitality of God.  Jesus, after all, was a carpenter.  Building bigger tables was right in his wheelhouse.”

 For me this is the best image of what it means to be in the family of God.  A big table, gathered together in love, breaking bread, telling stories, and enjoying being with one another.  It is a table full of different people, different colors, different opinions, and different lifestyles.   Yet the one thing that unites everyone is that they have a place at the table, this is the place where they belong, this is their family.   And what makes the table in the kingdom of God so special and so beautiful, is that there is always space to pull up one more chair. 

 In the province of Galatia there was division because some people sought to impose uniformity.   Paul wrote this morning’s scripture to offer a different vision of unity, a vision of unity that is based in our relationship with God through Christ Jesus.  We are adopted by God, which means we are siblings with all other Christians.   We are not here, because of who we are, we are here because of whose we are.  So may we find our identity in Christ.  May we claim adoption by God and our place in God’s family.   May that be what unites us above all else.   May we claim all of believers as our siblings in Christ as we celebrate the diversity of God’s family.   And may we draw the circle wide, because there is always room for one more.  

Scripture:  Acts 2:1-21

There are a lot of sports fans.   In fact, it is estimated that close to half the world’s population consider themselves fans of what we call soccer and the rest of the world calls football.  It seems that one of the universals to the human experience that crosses cultural and economic lines is a love for sports.  There is something wired into being human that drives us to compete and to cheer on others in competition.    Many of you no doubt consider yourselves a sports fan.  Perhaps, you are a long-suffering Cubs fan hoping that this might once again be their year, or maybe you are just counting the days until the boilermakers get back onto the football field, or perhaps you are all set to root on the Pacers to win game 2 tonight.  Whatever it is for you, many of us have a sport or team that we are a fan of.   But there are sports fans, and then there are superfans.  Perhaps you know someone like this, but if not you might have seen them on TV at some point. 

The super fans miss as few of the games as they can for their chosen team in their chosen sport.  They will be there in stands, decked head to toe in their team’s colors and they might even paint their face to match.   They will be among the loudest in the stands.  Super fans are not fair-weather fans.  In the worst seasons, they still show up with just as much enthusiasm as the winning seasons.   The homes of these fans might look like a museum dedicated to their team, and their knowledge of their team is encyclopedic, containing the most obscure details from decades ago.  For most people being a sports fan is part of their lives, but for superfans it is their life.  Their team is what they have built their lives around.  They are primarily known by their team affiliation above all else.  Being a fan of their team is who they are. 

This morning’s scripture is when the Jesus’ original disciples make the final step in being superfans for Christ.  From this point on sharing the good news of Jesus Christ was their whole life, it became the singular passion they built their lives around, it is what they became known for above all else, and ultimately it is what they would die for.  Sports super fans are fired up for their team, they are loud about it, and they don’t care who knows it.  In the same way, it was in this morning’s scripture that the disciples got literally fired up for Jesus as the Holy Spirit descended.  They were loud about the good news, they wanted everyone to know it, and their passion for the gospel changed the world.  The Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost, but it never left.  Today the Spirit can still empower, it can still get the followers of Jesus fired up, and if we allow it the Spirit can enable us to transform the world still. 

This morning’s scripture really is a great story.   As they were instructed, the disciples are waiting.  Jesus promised the Holy Spirit and they were waiting for what was going to come next.  It came in a way that was unmistakable and as dramatically as possible.  I think it is easy for us to overlook some of the drama of this scripture.  Verse 2 states the disciples were in a house when the Spirit suddenly descended upon them.  Jerusalem was full of Jews from all over the known world for the festival, but it is not like they were just milling around outside the house.  No, the blowing of wind, the coming of tongue of fire, the speaking in all of the different languages created a scene, it drew a curious crowd to see what the commotion was about.   I imagine that what they found is more than what they bargained for, because they found miracles at work.   They heard the various disciples proclaiming the good news in a variety of languages.  This means everyone there heard the language they understood as well as several they did not.  When I imagine this scene, I also see the tones the disciples are talking in as excitable and enthusiastic.  It was incredible, which is why some people tried to rationalize away what they were seeing as the result of too much day drinking. 

However, speaking in tongues was not the only empowerment of the Holy Spirit they observed.  Peter stood up to address the crowd and delivered a sermon, connecting to the words of the prophet Joel.  Now, up to this point there had been zero indication that Peter had any skill at rhetoric or public speaking.  In fact, in the gospels it is the opposite.  In the gospels he excels at sticking his foot in his mouth.  Yet, Acts 2:41 claims that after Peter finished talking 3,000 people accepted the message that day.  Just like the other disciples miraculously spoke in languages they did not know, Peter’s words changed the hearts of thousands because of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.   While some of this empowerment, like speaking in tongues, was supernatural in nature, part of the way that the Holy Spirit empowered was more commonplace but still extraordinary.   It is a way that all of us can and perhaps should experience the Spirit’s empowerment today. 

In the gospel of John, during the last supper, Jesus promises his disciples that after he is gone, the Holy Spirit will come.  In John Chapter 14, verse 25 we find Jesus saying these words: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will sed in my name, will teach you all thing and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”  So yes, the disciples spoke in languages they did not know, but what the spoke was the good new of Jesus Christ.  Yes, Peter was empowered by the Holy Spirit so that his words changed hearts, but what he said was the truth that had already changed his own heart.   Part of the way that the Holy Spirit empowered on that Pentecost, is that it fired the disciples up.  It reminded them of everything Jesus had said, it pumped them up, and they could not be silent.  

The Holy Spirit still works this way in our lives.  The Holy Spirit is the still small voice that reminds us of who Jesus is, and who we are because of who Jesus is.  It is the Holy Spirit that there is to remind us of the good news that changed our lives.  In our hardest times, in our darkest times, when we are at our most tired, or even our most apathetic, when we are exhausted, numb, and can’t feel a thing it is the Holy Spirit that reminds us that we are loved and that God has proven this love through Jesus Christ.   When we feel alone, like we don’t quite have a place, that we don’t belong- it is the holy Spirit that reminds us that because of Jesus Christ sacrifice on our behalf, we belong to the family of God, our names are in the book of life, and there is a place for us.   When we feel lost it is the Holy Spirit that reminds us that because of the amazing grace of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, we are found.   The Holy Spirit reminds us that we have a reason for hope that can not be crushed, we have a reason for joy that can not be extinguished, because Jesus has conquered sin and death, the grave has lost its sting, and because of Christ there will be dwell in God’s heavenly kingdom- a world without end- forever, and ever, and ever.  

 If we have ears to hear and take the time to listen, then the Holy Spirit will remind us of what Jesus taught, it will remind us of the gospel, and it will remind us the good news. Friends, that should get us fired up.   Sports fans, especially sports super fans, are known for how enthusiastic they are for their team. Why do we tend not to have the same level of excitement and enthusiasm about living out our faith and worshipping our savior as we do with sports teams?    Sports fans get swept up in the joy of cheering for and hoping their team wins.   As followers of Christ, we should be swept up in the infinitely exciting, never-ending love of God.   Given all of that, our worship services should be as enthusiastic as the pre-game tailgate parties.  Why aren’t they?

 Sports fans, especially super fans, make the big game their highest priority.  It is the highlight of the week, that everything else is built around.  Why do we tend not to have the same level of excitement and enthusiasm about living out our faith and worshipping our savior as we do with sports teams?    I remember back in the mid 2000’s when the Colts were at the height of popularity and success.  If the colts played a 1PM game, then it was a given that 11AM church services were going to be lightly attended.  In the same way during those years, if the Colts played at 4PM, then I knew youth group would only have a handful of non-football watching students.  Skipping church for the big game was just expected.   Why do we not skip the big game for church?    Why is the idea of even doing that laughable? 

The Holy Spirit works in our lives to remind us about the good news of Jesus, and just like sports fans are enthusiastic about their teams, we should be enthusiastic about the gospel.   In this morning’s scripture the disciples get the Holy Spirit and they are full of enthusiasm, they go wild sharing about Jesus and create a huge scene.  Because of the Holy Spirit the disciples were known for the enthusiasm for Jesus, and long that that was true for Methodists as well.  Years ago, someone pointed out to me a fascinating aspect in American Sign Language.   In ASL, this is the sign for Methodist.  The fascinating piece is that there is another word in sign language that uses the same sign.    The sign for enthusiasm is the same thing.   When the etymology of sign language was developing throughout the 19th and early 20th century, there was a clear connection between being a Methodist and being enthusiastic.  For all the reasons already stated, we should be enthusiastic about our faith. We should listen to the Holy Spirit and be fired up!

The disciples fired up on Pentecost, and by the end of the day there were 3,000 more believers.   The early church experienced explosive growth and a large part of this is because being filled with the Holy Spirit the disciples were enthusiastic about sharing Jesus.  There is a quote that often gets misattributed to John Wesley.  He did not say it, but it very much emerged out of the Methodist tradition that states, “set yourself on fire with enthusiasm and people will come from miles to watch you burn.”  Like the original disciples, we should not be shy about the passion and enthusiasm we have for Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus is good news, and this world is desperate for good news.   Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, this good news changed hearts and minds, and it can still do the exact same thing today.  Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit the original disciples shared their passion and enthusiasm so that they were disciples who make disciples.  We can rely on the Holy Spirit to do the same thing today. 

Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.  We celebrate that the promises Jesus made were fulfilled when the Spirit descended like tongues of fire, but we also celebrate that the Holy Spirit never left.  We celebrate that just like it did for the original disciples, the Holy Spirit can work in our lives to remind us about Jesus, to remind us the good news.  We celebrate that the Holy Spirit can rekindle our passion for following Christ.   Once for the people called Methodists it was our enthusiasm for loving Jesus that defined who we are, and by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit may that be so again.  May we listen to the Spirit, and may we get fired up.
 
 

Scripture:  Acts 16:16-34

Murphy’s law, named after rocket engineer Edward Murphy Jr, states “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Now technically, this is not a scientific law it is a somewhat pessimistic adage.  But If you have lived enough life, chances are you have a day that went so badly that it felt like an experiment to prove just how true Murphy’s law is.   From time to time we all have bad days, and when I have a bad day I remind myself that it could be worse.  I think that tends to be true for most of us, but that probably was not true for Tsutomu Yamaguchi.  He worked as a marine engineer for Mitsubishi in Japan during World War II.  In the summer of 1945, he had spent several months away from home on an extended business trip to work on the design for an oil tanker.   He had finished his work and was set to go home on August 6th, 1945.  Unfortunately, for Yamaguchi the city he was leaving was Hiroshima.  He was two miles from ground zero of the atomic blast, and he managed to take cover in a ditch which likely saved his life.   Despite surviving, he did suffer severe burns.   He had to walk through the destroyed city, and against all odds found a train station still operating.  Even better for Yamaguchi, one of the destinations this train was heading towards was home.  Tsutomu Yamaguchi stepped off the train in his hometown of Nagasaki.   He was at a hospital being treated for his injuries when the second atomic bomb dropped.   Fortunately, he survived that one too making him the only person to live through two atomic blasts.   Fortunately for me, I have never had a day that bad. 

It can be helpful for me to remind myself it could be worse, but it is also helpful to remind myself having a bad day is not a competition.   Just because someone might have it worse, it does not negate how we feel.  We are all allowed to have bad days.  There are a lot of reasons why we can feel down and why we can have bad days.  Life can be hard.  It can be full of setbacks, mishaps, and darkness.  Sometimes all of this culminates in creating a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.   This morning’s scripture comes from one of Paul’s bad days.  It was a day where things seemed to keep going from bad to worse.  How Paul and Silas reacted to having a terrible day can give us guidance for when it has not been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.

This morning’s scripture takes place during Paul’s second missionary journey.  He is in the city of Philippi, and it would be hard to come up with a worse day than Paul had.  The whole thing got off to a rocky start.   For days, this girl with a spirit possessing her, had been an annoyance for Paul and his companions.  It seemed that Paul was willing to leave well enough alone.  Yes, this girl was troubled by a spirit, and she was suffering the injustice of slavery, but it seemed Paul was going to let those issues be while he focused on other matters.  However, the girl’s constant shouting at them troubled Paul to the point that he did something about it and cast the spirit out. 

 This is a point I think we can all relate to Paul.  Because while we may never had a possessed girl following us around shouting at us nonstop, we have all been in situations where we let little annoyances get to us.  We have all been in  situations where all of the little things add up, and something that should have not been that big of a deal pushes us over the edge.  We end up exploding at something silly or we shut down, ugly crying over something that should have been nothing.  Like Paul, we have all been there.  Unfortunately, for Paul the fallout of his actions led to his day getting worse. 

Casting out the Sprit was a good and right thing, especially for the afflicted girl.  For Paul it seems no good deed goes unpunished, because others did not see this way.  This morning’s scripture explains how a whole crowd got whipped up against Paul.  One thing led to another and spiraled out of control until they were arrested and as the scripture states, “the magistrate ordered them to be stripped and beaten.”   There is a lot of pain implied in that sentence.    Roman flogging used a small whip that consisted of multiple lashes attached to one crop, and these lashes often had small pieces of metal, glass, or shell imbedded in them.  These extra bits made the whips, exceptionally effective at tearing the skin.   This was a punishment that the Roman empire did not inflict upon their citizens but saved it for non-citizens.  There was no standard to how this punishment was administered, so we do not know how badly Paul and Silas were beaten in this scripture.  The intention of flogging was not to kill, but Roman writers referred to flogging as “the half death.”   It was not uncommon for people to survive the punishment but die in the aftermath from a combination of physical shock, blood loss, or infection.   While the scripture does not dwell on the gruesome details, Paul received much more than a slap on the wrist, and he certainly bore the scars from that day for the rest of his life. 

After all of that, Paul and Silas are then thrown into prison and while they are there an earthquake hits.  Of course, from there things do turn around for Paul and Silas.  However, it is fair to say that being beaten, ending up in prison and then being released via earthquake is probably not how Paul and Silas saw their day going.  It was, by any objective measure, a bad day.   While hopefully very few of us have days that bad, we have all had days that we ended up wishing we never got out of bed for.  We have days where nothing seems to go right.   We may never have experienced being flogged like Paul did, but we all have days that hurt.  A lot.  We all have days that have left scars, even if the scars are not physical.   Like Paul we have all had bad days, which is why we can learn from how Paul responded.  Specifically, there are two things we can learn about what to do when we have a bad day.  

 We find Paul’s response to having such a terrible day in verse 25: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.”  Despite all that Paul had been through he was still praising God.  And why shouldn’t he?   If God is worth praising when things are going well then God is worth praising when we have a bad day.  We should praise God in the storm, because God does not change.  What makes God worthy of our praise is always the same.  This is not to say that we have to make sure we always stay on the sunny side of life.  Praising God amid bad days, is not forced positivity for the sake of positivity.   We can still feel what we feel.  We can still have bad days and feel sad, angry, or hurt.   Yet, It is always appropriate to praise God, even if we do so through the tears, even if we do so with clenched fist, and even if all we can manage is a whisper.

When we have a bad day, or when we are in the middle of a string of bad days, we can follow Paul’s lead here and we can praise God.  We should do this because it is always good and right to praise God.  Doing so, will not magically make our day better but it will remind us that this bad day is not everything.  Praising God will remind us that there is only rainbow after a storm, and that dawn only follows the darkest part of night.  

Paul praise God, but he does not stop there.   The other thing that Paul does during a bad day, in addition to praising God, was being open to be used by God to be a blessing to others.  Paul and Silas were not the only ones who had a bad day in this morning’s scripture.  The unnamed jail keeper also ended up having a bad day.  Verse 23 states that after Paul and Silas were thrown into prison the jailer was “commanded to guard them carefully.”   After the earthquake caused the doors of the jail to open and the chains to fall off the prisoners, this man was going to literally fall on his own sword because he thought death was his best possible outcome from this.   Yet, Paul somehow managed to get all of the prisoners to stay put.  This jailer had been moments from death, and in response to learning that his worst fears had not happened, we can read verse 29 of this morning’s scripture: “The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked “Sirs what must I do to be saved?” 

 Despite being harassed, arrested, beaten, and thrown into prison Paul was still open to the spirit’s leading and because of that the jailer and his whole family were saved.   We can learn from Paul’s openness here.  When things are not going our way, and we have a bad day, we tend to get very insular and focus with tunnel vision on ourselves.  Yet, we can still be used by God even when we are not at 100%.  Even when we are down or frustrated, or things just are not going our way God can still use us to be a blessing to others.   Even if we ourselves are not having the best of days, we can still be a blessing to someone else who might be going through their own bad day. 
 
I know this is the case, because on one especially bad day I once had there was a stranger who was an amazing blessing to us.  This bad day was right at twenty two years ago.   Abigal and I had been married for less than a week.  For a honeymoon we spent a few days in the Smokey Mountains outside of Gatlinburg.  The trouble started as we began to head home.   I did not know a lot about cars, and I still do not know a lot about cars, but I knew the noise the car was making was really, really not right. I knew engines were not supposed to rev that high while going that slow.   This was in the era before smart phones so it was not like we could just look up where the closest mechanic was.  In Maryville, TN we happened to spot a mechanic’s garage and we pulled in.  We showed up in the middle of the day with a busted car at a busy mechanics shop, and after explaining our situation they immediately looked at the car.   The transmission was shot and for the car to make the journey back to Indiana it would have to be replaced.   Even though we were not on the schedule for the day this shop made us a priority.  They called local junkyards, found a transmission, and sent someone to get it.   From the time they left to get the part to the time they were done was just over three hours.   They truly made our car the priority to get done.   They replaced our car’s entire transmission for $700.  At the time that seemed like so much money, but in hindsight I now know they charged us for the part at cost.   We were only twenty-two, we had only graduated college two weeks prior, we were over 300 miles from home, and the only directions we had were on a printed piece of paper from MapQuest, and we were in a car that had something deeply wrong with it.  It was a bad day, but some incredibly kind mechanics took pity on some newlywed kids. 

 Yet, it was not just good luck on our part.  Years later, after smart phones and google became a thing, I used the Internet to track down that mechanic’s shop.  On their website it stated that they are a proud Christian owned business.  We avoided what could have been a terrible, horrible, no good, really bad day because followers of Jesus showed Christlike mercy and kindness on us.  If we have eyes to see how and where the Spirit is leading us, then we too can be a blessing to someone else.  We can be someone else’s answer to prayer.  Even if we are amid our own stuff, God can use us to be the remedy for someone else’s bad day.  
 
Paul had a bad day, but he praised God anyway.  He had a bad day, but he was open to the Spirit’s leading.  May we seek to learn from this.  If you hre having a bad day or a bad week, or even a bad month.  Then I’m sorry you are going through this.  Remember, it is a bad day not a bad life.   It will get better, and I can promise you that throughout it all God will be there every step of the way.   So may we praise God from who all blessing flow.   May we seek to be a blessing for someone else so that they may be filled with joy.  
 
               

Scripture:  Acts 16:9-15

 This Spring my family and I watched the latest season of the Amazing Race.  If you are not familiar with this long-standing reality show, teams race around the world competing various challenges inspired by the culture of the countries they are in.  As the season goes on, teams are eliminated, and teams compete to be the first team to reach the finish line of the final leg.  Often teams use taxis or public transportation to get around cities in other countries, but at a couple of points teams had to drive themselves.  The show does not allow them to have cell phones, but it did provide a map for directions.  It was interesting to me, because the teams that were comprised of people in their 20’s struggled with this and got lost frequently.   This is because they did not really know how to read or navigate with a map. 

 Then again, why would they?  I think people who have smart phones take for granted just how wonderful map apps like google maps or Ways are.   They really do make driving to new places incredibly easy.   At this point it has really revolutionized how we travel.  These apps provide accurate turn by turn directions.   There is no need to know how to read a map.  These apps have also greatly reduced the dreaded possibility of having to stop and ask for directions. Stopping and asking for directions was always a terrible proposition, because while the person you asked might know how to get to where you wanted to get to, their directions may not always have been the most helpful.  The directions could be things like, “Go down the road a little ways and then turn left close to where the Chevron station used to be, but if you get to the field with the big tree in it, then you done gone too far.”

Thanks to smart phones, giving “country directions” is becoming something of a lost art.  Honestly, that may not be a bad thing.   As charming as that way of giving directions might be, it also was never terribly helpful.   “Turning where the old gas station used to be” or taking the second road past the church, by the big sycamore tree in the cornfield” does not provide a lot of clarity for someone who has no real reference point for that community.    Without knowing the relevant reference points, those kinds of directions can be hard to follow and we can easily get confused and not have a good sense of where we are or what are surroundings are.
 
We can run into this same problem when reading the Bible.   This morning’s scripture is a prime example of this, because this is the kind of scripture that most people skim over because the names can look so hard to pronounce to us.  We get quickly lost because we have no idea what or where a place like Bithynia is.  While we do recognize the word Asia in this morning’s scripture.  What the Roman world called Asia is probably not what most of us think when we think of Asia today.  With no context, it can be hard for us to get a sense of the scripture’s context and what is going on.  Paul clearly could not get where he wanted to go, but he ended up where god wanted him.    I think the lesson of this morning’s scripture is that when we deviate from our planned directions we can end up exactly where we belong.          

Having a sense of the location names thrown around this scripture can help us get out bearings a bit.  Most of the names such as Phyrygia and Galatia are names of Roman provinces.  A Roman province is an administrative area, and Phyrgia and Galatia is the region where Paul begins this morning’s scripture.  This is the interior region of modern-day turkey.  While there were cities scattered about, it was a more rural area.  From here, Paul wanted to travel to Asia, which was another Roman province.

However, calling Asia another Roman province is under selling it a bit.  Outside of Rome, Asia was kind of the premiere Roman province.  The Roman province of Asia is along the coast of modern-day Turkey.  It consisted of multiple prosperous cities that were fiercely competitive with one another for power, influence, and prestige.  Due to this it was an incredibly prosperous and wealthy area.  It was so well known that “Asia” became the default word to refer to the land East of Europe.
 
It made sense that Paul wanted to go to this area.  This morning’s scripture comes from Paul’s second missionary journey, it was his goal to share the good news of Jesus Christ and spread the gospel. So of course, he would want to visit the influential cities in the most prosperous of provinces.   If his message could make inroads in some of the important cities along the coast, then it would more readily spread throughout the whole empire.  It made sense for Paul to go to Asia, but he did not, and we really do not know the details of why. 

 The scripture states, he had been kept by the Holy Spirit from entering Asia.  So Paul goes for the next best thing, which is the province of Bithynia.  Bithynia bordered the Southern part of the Black Sea.  While not as influential as he province of Asia, it still had several prosperous costal cities.  However, Paul could not get there either.  The scripture states “the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” We do not get any details about what that means.  Did the Holy Spirit literally speak aloud to them and say that you are not allowed to go?   Did circumstances such as a flooded road, a sick animal, or other circumstances come together in such a way that it made it clear they were not supposed to go that way?  Or was it like a cartoon and Paul walked headfirst into some sort of invisible force field that prevented him from going further?  We do not know the exact circumstances, but what is clear is in some way the Holy Spirit made it abundantly clear to Paul that he was not supposed to go to the province of Asia or Bithynia. 

So then not really sure where to go next, Paul has a dream of a man in Macedonia.  If Asia was the prosperous and wealthy province where things were happening, then Macedonia was the “has been” province.  More than a century before Paul’s time, Macedonia was an important province.  It was the battleground for multiple wars as factions wanted control over it.  However, as the Roman empire began to expand the importance of Macedonia diminished.   While it probably would not be fair to call it a backwater of the Roman Empire, it probably was the Roman equivalent of “fly over country.”  It was a place to pass through in the Roman Empire, not a destination.

By the time of Paul, it was a province that was past its prime.  Its golden days were long behind it.   It was not high profile, and it is not a place where a big splash could be made.  Despite that, it is where Paul went.  He went there because it was where God wanted him, and it was exactly where he belonged.  The scripture makes this point, because as soon as he arrives in Phillipi, he meets Lydia.  Their conversation leads to the baptism of her whole family, and that is the beginning of a church that Paul would keep contact with, because we have one of his letters to that church recorded in the book of Philippians.

 As we consider the story of this morning’s scripture I think there are two big takeaways for us today.  The first is that “the best” is not always the best for us.   During Paul’s missionary journey the province of Asia was the best, it was the place where things were happening.   Again, from a strategic point of view it would have been the best place to do ministry, but it was not where God wanted Paul to go.  I think we can learn from this.   If you ever look at books on church leadership or most adult Sunday school curriculum, you will notice that much of the authors have something in common.  They are all the pastors of large churches.   It is a great rarity to find a church leadership book written by someone who has mostly served in churches with less than 100 in attendance.  This is because we assume bigger is better, and those who are big are doing it the best.   Therefore, if we are not the biggest, we are doing something wrong.  
Too often we let the nebulous church goal of “get bigger” be a weight that pulls us down because it is a goal we never seem able to fully accomplish. Pursing the idea of “get bigger” can cause us to fail focus on the specific needs and people God is putting right in front of us.  Likewise, It can be easy for us to look backwards instead of forwards, and long for the church’s glory days when all we had to do was open our doors and watch the people come in.  This is a trap though, because how things used to be are not how things are now. Trying to reclaim how things used to be would be like Paul trying to Asia even though the Spirit said “no” instead of going where the Spirit is leading now.   

The measure of a successful church is not just butts in the pews and dollars in the plate.  The measure of a successful church is are disciples being made and is the world being transformed?   Are we sharing the love, grace, and forgiveness, with the people around us, who need Jesus?    That is the true measure of vitality.  Paul went where God called him, and it was where God wanted him to be.  Lives were changed and a difference was made.  If we are faithful as individuals to following Jesus and seeking to love God with all of being and our neighbors as ourselves, then as a church we will also be faithful to where God is calling us.  If we are faithful to God, then we will grow.  However, growth may not look like what we have in mind.   Instead of worrying about let numbers, let’s focus on following where God is leading us and we let God worry about how full the pews get. 

This points to the second take away for us, which is that Paul went where God sent him without hesitation.  Specifically, the scripture states, “we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia.”  There was no hesitation, there was no “this is not a good time” or “maybe we should have a meeting first.”   There was none of that, instead they left at once.   God called Paul and his traveling companions to a place they were not expecting, and their reaction was the right one:  go at once.   When it comes to how we make disciples and how we transform the world, we can learn from this.  When God calls us to do something, we do not drag out feet or make excuses, we just go.  

Of course, we can be led to wonder just where God is telling us to go, but I do think we get a few clues.  First, we know where God is telling us to go because we are already here.  This church building is not going to grow legs and move somewhere else.  As long as there is a congregation here then God is calling us to the Rensselaer.  This church has stood the test of time.   After more than 190 years we are still here, which means this is where we are supposed to be, and it means God still has a job for us to do.   

This morning’s scripture also gives us some guidance.  The Holy Spirit leads Paul to Macedonia.  If we seek to be faithful in following Jesus, then the Spirit will lead us.  There were a lot of places Paul could have ended up in Macedonia, but God led him to Phillipi.  In the same way, there are a lot of people we can reach and there are a lot of differences we can make in our community.  We can trust the Spirit will lead us, and in following the Spirit we will find  God tends to be a God full of surprises.  This means that where we are to go, is probably not “the way we have always done it” and it is probably not the most obvious thing.  Where God is leading, it may be destination unknown, but if we are faithful in following then we can count on the Spirit to get us exactly where we need to be. 

May we all be faithful in following where God is leading us.  May we be willing to follow the Spirit’s leading without hesitation . May we follow the Spirit’s leading, and may our measure of success not just be bigger is better, but may we measure spiritual depth and lives transformed.   Wherever God is leading us, may we be willing to say here I am Lord, I will go Lord.   
 

Scripture:  Acts 13:42-52

  Jacob Albright was born to German immigrants in what was the British colony of Pennsylvania   Albright fought for the Pennsylvania militia in the revolution, and after suffering the tragedy of losing multiple children to dysentery he suffered a crisis of faith.  He had been baptized into the Lutheran church, but he did not find much comfort for his grief there.   He eventually found his faith in the holiness movement, specifically in a small Methodist class that met in someone’s home.  This rural Methodist community recognized Albright as an exhorter, today what we would call a lay preacher.  Albright felt called by God to preach the gospel to German speaking immigrants, and he felt an affinity to both the Methodist emphasis on holiness and its organizational structure.  Albright sought permission to fulfill his calling and formally preach and organize German communities into Methodist societies that spoke German.   However, Bishop Francis Asbury and others in Methodist leadership opposed this idea.  They insisted that if Jacob Albright was to continue as a Methodist lay preacher, then he could only preach in English. 

This happened because in 18th century American, especially in Pennsylvania, there was a strong anti-German sentiment.  We can find proof of this, somewhat surprisingly, in the writings of Benajmin Franklin.  Franklin wrote, “Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of us Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs.”

 It was this cultural bias that influenced the Methodist leadership to tell Albright not to preach in German.  Albright faced a church, bring the gospel to German speaking immigrants or stay Methodist.  Albright chose to preach the gospel, but as he did so he continued to use a very Methodist organizational structure.  After Albright’s death the German faith communities he helped create came together into a new denomination called the Evangelical Association.  The Evangelical Association had its roots in the holiness movement and German communities.  They were not the only ones and by the 1940’s these traditions had merged together in one called the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

As xenophobic fears often are, it turns out that Franklin’s fears of Germanization never came to pass.  Even though the Evangelical United Brethren church had its roots in German communities, it was thoroughly American and English speaking by the middle of the 20th century. The culture differences that led Jacob Albright out of the Methodist Church at the turn of the 19th century had been erased.  So, in 1968 the church that Jacob Albright had inadvertently founded, the Evangelical United Brethen merged with the Methodist Episcopal church to create the United Methodist Church. 

 The way that Jacob Albright was treated and how that treatment was influenced by cultural bias, is a dark spot in our Methodist history.   It is a dark spot that seems to loudly echo this morning’s scripture.  The Jewish leaders in this morning’s scripture let a bias against Paul’s message to the gentiles lead them to opposing the gospel.  Anti-German sentiment of the time led the Methodist leader of 1800 to oppose preaching the good news in German.  The message of the church, the good news of Jesus Christ, it is not just meant for insiders.  It is not just meant for people who fit a certain mold.  It is a message for everyone.  This morning’s scripture should cause us to ask ourselves are we letting something hinder who we share the message with? 

This morning’s scripture comes from Paul’s first missionary journey.  He is in the city of Pisidian Antioch.  This is in what is modern day Turkey, it was a city built up around a crossroads and as such was a trade hub.  We picked up the story right after Paul had delivered his sermon, making the case for Jesus, in the synagogue.  We see in this morning’s scripture what becomes a pattern for Paul’s missionary journeys.  Paul arrives in a city and initially shares the gospel in the synagogue.  While there may be Jewish people who believe the good news, the message inevitably moves beyond to the Gentiles and then there is Jewish opposition to Paul’s message.  While the details are different in each city, this is the common pattern that emerges.  

What is interesting in this instance is that initially Paul did not have any opposition.  Verse 42 states that the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.”  However, buzz about Paul and his message spread throughout the city so that by the next sabbath there was a large crowd, including a lot of gentiles or non-Jews.  This is where the trouble starts.   What was initially a positive reception goes south, when Paul and Barnabas begin sharing the good news with the gentiles.  This morning’s scripture mentions they were jealous.  They were not jealous that Paul got larger crowds than them, they were jealous because Paul’s message was not exclusive and just for them.    Some of the Jewish leaders did not like that Paul’s message was being shared with the gentiles, they did not like that the salvation he preached was not just for them, and they were not comfortable with the idea that the grace of Jesus Christ is for everyone.

Much like the 18th century Methodist leaders, the Jewish leaders of Pisidian Antioch let their own cultural biases get in the way.  While cultural biases certainly still exist today and have the potential trip us up, I doubt any church would purposely exclude anyone on a cultural basis.  We may not insist on excluding certain languages or be jealous that the good new of Jesus applies to a certain people group, but the unfortunate reality is that people still find themselves excluded from Christianity.  There are still insiders and outsiders.  

There is an old story that illustrates this.  The story goes there was a young boy who came from not the best family, and he was from the wrong side of the tracks.  He may have heard a preacher on the TV, or it could have been something else, but something got into him and he wanted to know more about Jesus.  So, one Sunday morning he left and walked across the train tracks and up the hill to the biggest church in town.   This was the kind of church that the phrase “country club church” was created for.   This was the kind of church that the right people went to so they could be seen.  This was the kind of church that took great pride in their stained-glass windows, Mahogany pulpit and silver candle sticks.   The boy walked into the church and sat down near the back.  In a few minutes the head usher came and tapped him on the shoulder and said he needed to move because he was in Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so’s seat.   Once the service started this unchurched boy was lost.  He did not know when to stand, when to sit, and what a hymnal was.  He tried to ask those around him for help but again found the head usher tapping him on the shoulder and telling him not to be a nuisance to others.    The service went on, and the boy got more and more confused and impatient.   Finally, in the middle of the sermon the boy raised his hand and said, “excuse me, can you tell me more about Jesus?”   There was silence, and the head usher stormed over to the boy, practically picked him up, and carried him out of the sanctuary.    The head usher said, “I do not think this is the right place for you” and pointed to the door.  The boy left the church, sat down on the curb and began crying.   A man stopped and asked him “what’s wrong.”  The boy looked up and instantly knew this man was Jesus.   The boy said through sniffles, “They kicked me out of there.”   Jesus smiled and said, “That’s OK, they kicked me out of there years ago.”

The church in the story is obviously a caricature.  Very few churches are stuffy and hostile.  Every church I have ever been in believes with all their heart that they are friendly and welcoming, but many churches do end up communicating to people, “I don’t think this is the right place for you.”  The way this most regularly happens today is by intentionally and unintentionally insisting that church is for the insiders.  It is for the people who are already there.  That is what made the church in the story so hostile to the boy.  There was an assumption that everyone just knew how things were done, and when that poor boy did not conform to that assumption it was not the right place for him. 

 This is an issue that we constantly must be cautious about.  Often one of the reasons why we keep coming to a church is because we are comfortable there.  We tend to like it when something comfortable becomes more comfortable and we tend to bristle when something that we find comfortable gets changed in the even the slightest.  It can be incredibly easy for churches to cater more and more to the insiders at the expense of anyone on the outside. We must be cautious of elevating our comfort, our own way of doing things, above the mission of making disciples and sharing the good news. 

Nashville based Pastor and church consultant wrote about this in one of his books.  He relayed a time that he was hired to consult with a church that was struggling with an aging congregation and shrinking attendance.  As he talked with the leadership he found them to be very resistant to the idea of change, so he eventually asked them , “What are you not willing to change, even if you were 100 percent certain that the change would cause more people to be reached for Christ?”

These church leaders discussed this and they actually created a small list of things they simply felt were out of bounds and that they could not ever imagine changing.  Stevens recorded his response when he wrote, “ I told them ‘the only acceptable answer to that question is nothing.  There can’t be anything you’re not willing to change if it means more people would be reached. . .Otherwise, you’ve forgotten your purpose as a church.” 

We can let our own personal biases and our desire to make things comfortable for ourselves lead us to be resistant to change.  In doing so we end up excluding people.  This is not how it should be.  Churches should not be placed dedicated to keeping the insiders in and the outsiders out.  In fact, it should be the exact opposite.  We should strive to get those inside out and those outside in.  We should strive to get outside our walls, to reach out into our community, and invite people in.  This certainly requires us to be willing to welcome and accept people who may have different backgrounds or perspectives.  It will likely require us to be open to change, and it may even require us to get a little comfortable with not always being comfortable.

Paul always started with the insiders in the synagogue, but it was for everyone.  He was not afraid to reach out to people who were different than he was.  He was not afraid to share the good news of Jesus with people who did not quite fit the mold of who normally attended the synagogue.   Because of that as verse 49 states, “The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.”   In the same way, if we want the world of the Lord to spread throughout the whole region, then we must be willing to take the message of Jesus, the good news of salvation, the freedom of the forgiveness of sins, and the life changing reality of grace from the inside out.

 So may we be willing to share the good news, even if that means someone new ends up sitting in our pew.  May we be willing to share the good news, even if that means we have to be more intentional in reaching outside our walls and engaging the community.  May we be willing to share the good news, even if it means we need to be willing to make changes.  Like the story of Jacob Albright this morning’s scripture is a cautionary tale.  May we not let anything get in the way of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and may we be willing to share Jesus Christ with the world. 
            

Scripture:  Acts 9:36-43
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Ida Florence Litherland lived down where the Ohio River flows between Indiana and Kentucky.  In her younger days, the early part of the 20th century, this is still when river towns dotted the river’s coast and their primary connection to the rest of the world was the river.  Ida was best known for her short stature and her devout faith.  She was less than five feet tall, and she walked miles every week in all kinds of weather to attend church.   These two facts are probably what made her actions on one particular night so surprising.  While he eventually turned it around and committed to the straight and narrow, early on her husband drank a lot and gambled a lot.  This was a source of friction in their relationship.   One night Ida had hit her breaking point, and she had had enough of her husband being gone all hours of the night drinking and gambling.  So, she grabbed a shotgun, went down to whatever backroom a group of men were gathered in and she cleared the place out.  She shut down all the drinking and gambling on that particular evening.  It must have been quite the sight to see this little woman, wielding a firearm almost half her size, convincing a group of men that the best course of action was to call it a night.  I know this story because Ida Florence Litherland is my great grandmother. 

It is also the only story I really know about my great grandmother.  We all leave a legacy, the influence and stories that live on beyond our earthly lives.  In more subtle ways, the legacy of Ida Florence Litherland continues.  Her deep faith conviction and apparent strong will have most certainly rippled down through generations, but the only story that has been passed down more than a century so that her great, great grandchildren have heard it is the one with the shotgun.  Apparently, we do not always get to control what people remember us by.  

The incident with the shotgun was a little out of character for Ida, but it is the action that created a story that stood the test of time.  This morning’s scripture shows that our actions go a long way to influencing how we are remembered and what kind of legacy we live.  People may not remember what we said, but the will remember what we did.   Tabitha, or Dorcus if you prefer the Greek, left a legacy of so many good deeds and positive actions, that the people she touched were not ready to let her go.   She made a real difference.  If we want to be a difference maker, if we as individuals and as a church, want to be known and remembered as someone who transformed this world into a better place, then Tabitha shows us how to do it.

From a literary standpoint, the focus of this morning’s scripture is supposed to be on Peter.  It comes from the beginning of a section that focuses on Peter’s exploits.  The intention is to show that Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, can do the same miraculous things that Jesus did.  Just before this morning’s scripture reading, Peter tells a paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk just like Jesus did.  In this morning’s scripture, Peter tells Tabitha to get up, much like how Jesus told Lazarus to come out.  Within the greater framework of the book of Acts, that is the main point that is to be taken away.  The apostles are doing the same miraculous work of Jesus as the continue to spread the good news.  However, within the context of the story being told in this morning’s scripture, Tabitha stands out.  She does not show back up again in the scripture; we do not hear anymore about her.  However, just in this small story we get a lot of detail.  She is more than just a background character, a prop to be healed before Peter moves on.  The author of Acts intentionally slows down and gives us a lot of extra details about Tabatha.  Even though she is not the primary focus of this scripture, the author intentionally seems to lift her up as a person to emulate.  

By focusing on what is written about Tabitha we can get a sense of the kind of difference that she made.  Verse 36 tells us that she was always doing good and helping the poor.   While it is not explicitly stated, we get an idea of the kind of good work that she did.   Verse 39 tells us that all the widows were mourning her death, and they showed Peter the clothing that she had made.   In the first century, society, widows were some of the most destitute and impoverished people in society.   If their husband died, then the widow had to rely on their son, but if the widow did not have a son or the son did not fulfill his obligations, then the widow was in very dire straits.   Tabitha cared for and provided for the widows.  Part of her work was clearly making clothes for them.   Yet that must have only been part of it, because the bible does not state that she “did a lot of caring for the widows.”   It states she was “always doing good works and helping the poor.”   The work she did for others and the care she showed the poor was what defined by.  It is these actions that she was known for, and we get the impression that is what she was loved for. She was so loved that the people she made a difference for, fought to make sure death did not get her.

     It was Jewish burial practice in the first century to bury very quickly.  It was common to bury a body the same day that the person died.   Given that, it is amazing how fast they got Peter there.   Lydda was about 12 miles from Joppa.   Even at a marathon running pace, it would have taken nearly two hours to get there and another two hours to get back.    They really wanted Peter to be present, not so that he could attend the funeral but so that he could prevent it.    Tabitha made such an impact on her community that they did not settle for mourning her.   They were willing to go to any lengths to get her back.   When people gathered after her passing, they did not start sharing condolences, their first thought was how can we fix this.   The impact that Tabitha made was so great that they could not fathom being without her, at least not yet.    She was missed so greatly that God raised the dead.  

The bible records that Tabitha was a believer in Jesus, and it was this faith that motivated her to do good and help the poor.   Tabitha is an example that is worth following.  Tabitha was not an apostle.  There is no record of her doing amazing, supernatural miracles.  There is no record of her going on globe hopping missionary trips or preaching to auditoriums fully of people.   No, what the bible testifies about her faith is that she was always doing good and helping the poor.     Her faith motivated her to actions, which defined her and made a real and lasting impact on those around her.  The people that Tabitha made a difference for knew she was a a Christian by her love.  This morning’s scripture, challenges us by asking, can people same the same about us?

            Bishop Mike Coyner, who was the resident United Methodist Bishop in Indiana from 2004 to 2016, would ask a couple of different questions regularly to get to the same point.  He would ask, “If someone stopped at the closest gas station to your church, and asked for the directions to the church, would the attendant know where the church is?”  The idea behind the question is to ask if the local church is such a fixture in the community that most people in the community know about the church and where to find it.  

            The other questions that he would ask is, “If your church up and closed tomorrow, would the community notice?”  This is convicting question, really gets at the heart of this morning’s scripture.  Tabitha died, and her community noticed.  Her community took drastic actions to change it.   This is because Tabitha was known for her actions, she was known for how she made a difference, she was known by her love.  The church, Trinity UMC, it is not this building.  It is the people, it is us.   So, if we were to disappear tomorrow the reason why the community would miss the church, is because they miss us.  They will miss how we are doing good, how we are helping the poor, and how our actions are making God’s love known.  If we want to be the kind of church that our community would miss, if we want to be the kind of church that is so essential to the life of the community that even a random gas station employee knows where we are, then we have to follow the example of Tabitha and be a difference maker.   

Tabitha made a difference in her community by seeing a need and meeting the need.   She provided clothes for the poor widows.  The reason why Tabitha made such a huge difference is because her actions put her in direct contact with the people she was helping.  In his book Shift 2.0 ministry coach Phil Maynard, points out that churches in general tend to be really good at what he calls missional gestures.  These are doing things like donating to food pantries and doing school supply drives.  These are good actions that do make a difference, but they do not engage with the community around us.  Maynard puts forth that churches need to be more intentional to undertake what he calls ministries of engagement, where the congregation interacts directly with those who are receiving the services.  

This is what Tabitha did.  When she died, people were not going to miss her clothes, they were going to miss her.   The people she served knew she was a Christian by her love, because they knew that she loved them by name.  This is something that all of us can do.  Tabitha found a specific need that she had the skills and passion to meet. We live in a fallen world where there is no shortage of needs, so here is a challenge for you.   When you go home this afternoon make a list of the needs that you are most passionate about or that you feel the most able to meet.   Then, pick one: see that need and meet that need.  It is that simple.  Just do it.  Or better yet, bring it back to your church family so that we can join you and we can all work together at it.   

Identifying and meeting specific needs in our community, country, or world is a good way that we can follow the example of Tabitha.  It is a good way to be a difference maker and be known by our actions.  However, it is not the only way, and it is not even the simplest way.   There is no reason to overthink this.  The easiest way that we can let people know we are Christians by our love, the easiest way that our faith can make a real and lasting difference is just to be kind.  Nashville based pastor Todd Stevens does a great job at defining kindness.   He wrote, “when I take action to help someone deal with a struggle or hurt, I am meeting a need.   Kindness is different because it helps someone who may not be dealing with any sort of crisis.  Kindness is simply doing something that benefits someone else.”  

Kindness is showing the love of God to another person without an agenda.   A life that is defined by kindness is synonymous with a life defined by God’s love.   Even better, kindness, even small acts of kindness, has a lasting impact.  People who are hurting, people who are lonely, people who need to know there is somewhat out there who cares about them: Our beliefs do not matter much to them right now and our words will not make a lasting impact.  What will make a lasting difference our actions done in Christian love.   This  is how we change the world. 

For better or worse, what we are remembered for, what we are known for our the actions we take.  So may we be known in this community, by our loving actions.  May they know we are Christian by our love.   May this town know that Jesus loves them, because we love them.   May we see the needs and may we meet the needs.  Like Peter and the other apostles in Acts, we have been entrusted with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Like Tabitha, we can make this good news known through our actions.  So may we just do it.  May we take this love of God, and may we pass it on. 
            

               Several years ago, I was invited to the University of Indianapolis to speak at the Student Leadership Academy. This program was a partnership between the university and the Indiana Conference to help young people discover how they can best make a difference in the world.  It turned out that one of the students knew me.  When I was in seminary I served part time at Epworth UMC in Indianapolis as the youth minister, and she was a child in the church.  When I went on to a full-time appointment after graduation, she was seven.  When I came to speak, she was fifteen and one of the teens attending.  When it was my turn to speak, I began by introducing myself.  As part of the introduction, I started to say, “Perhaps the thing I am best known for” and I did not get to finish the sentence, because this girl who I had not seen for half her life shouted out “Star Wars.” 

​Now that is not what I was going to say, but maybe she is right.  Star Wars is probably something have associated with me for most of life at this point.  It is a somewhat earned reputation.  I really do love all things Star Wars.  The reason why is actually very similar to one of the reasons why I love the Bible so much.  In both instances, I am captivated by the story.  With Star Wars I lose myself in a galaxy far, far away, and in the Bible, I find myself in an epic story of a God who loves us too much to give up on us.  I am entertained by stories of space wizards with laser swords and star fighters, but I am transformed by a story of a King who died for me, but the grave could not hold him.  For very different reasons I love the story of Star Wars and the story of the Bible, but every now and then those two stories intersect, and themes are the same.   This morning’s scripture is one of those places where the two stories I love so much intersect. 

The first part of the book of Acts goes to great lengths to establish Saul as the villain of the story.  The book of Acts starts off with the community of Jesus followers growing, but it also has growing tensions with the Jewish religious leaders.  These clashes keep getting more and more volatile until they finally spill into violence with the stoning of Stephen. Saul was complicit in the murder of the first martyr as Acts 7:58 records, “Meanwhile the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” 

From this point a general persecution breaks out among the church in Jerusalem, and Acts tells us that Saul was at the forefront of this, he sought to destroy the church, and had many people arrested.  Saul was not finished yet, because by time we get to this morning’s scripture it records “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.”  Saul is the bad guy in the story, he is the ultimate villain seeking to destroy the church once and for all.   Yet, this morning’s scripture throws a curveball.  Saul, the enemy of Christ, comes to follow Christ.   The villain is redeemed.  This morning’s scripture records the conversion of Saul, and the book of Acts begins to shift from focusing on Peter and the other disciples to focusing on Saul-now called Paul- and how God uses him to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. 

This morning’s scripture intersects strongly with Star Wars, because in Star Wars the bad guy, the ultimate villain, is Darth Vader.  He very much looks the part: clad all in black, with a red lightsaber, and menacing breathing.   Despite being the bad guy, at the end of Return of the Jedi, when all seems lost for the good guys, Darth Vader turns back to the light.  He is redeemed.   One of the major themes of Star Wars, one of the major storytelling morals it seeks to communicate is that no one is beyond redemption.  In Star Wars, if Darth Vader can turn back to the light, then it’s not too late for anyone.   That is the same point of this morning’s scripture.  If Saul can come to know Jesus, if God can use the person who persecuted the church to share the good news with the gentiles, then there is no one beyond forgiveness and God can use anyone.   This morning’s scripture is proof that when the Spirit moves, it can awaken even the most hardened of hearts.  When the Spirit awakens in the life of someone, then there is nothing that can separate them from the love of God.  

 This is good news!  This is good news for everyone, but it is especially good news for two specific groups of people.  The first are people who think they have somehow angered God past the point of no return.  While these people may not articulate it as such, they believe that because of their actions they have blown their chance with God.  Often feeling this way keeps people away from church.  Over the years there have been times when someone visits the church I am serving for some reason, and they will make a joke like “I am surprised the walls haven’t fallen down” or “don’t stand too close pastor, the lightning bolt might still be coming.”   I know they are trying to joke around and lighten the mood, but often those jokes come from a place of deep hurt.   There are too many people who believe that something they have done is unforgiveable.  They believe they have messed up, and God is done with them.  

This is simply not true.   There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.   If there is anyone that deserved to have God make an example of them, it is Saul.   Yet, not only does Saul receive forgiveness, but Jesus also seeks him out.  Jesus meets him where he is at and then arranges for Ananias to care for him.  If Saul, the persecutor of Christ, can be forgiven then there is nothing we can do that can not be forgiven. No one is beyond redemption.   This is the absolute beauty of grace, and the scandal of the cross.  No one, absolutely no one, is beyond forgiveness. There are no exceptions, Jesus died to redeem everyone and cancel out every sin  It does not matter how far one gets from God, it does not matter how many years have passed, it does not matter how big the gulf may seem.  Forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation with our creator is only one step away.  It only takes turning back to God. 

 The second group of people who most need the good news of this morning’s scripture are people who have been made to feel like that God never wanted them.   This one infuriates me.   It makes me angry because they have been misled by people claiming to follow Jesus.  There are too many people today who have been told by those inside the church that they have no place here.   That this is not for them.  Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, this is the very attitude that Saul had.  Saul believed the first Jesus followers were outside the love of God.  He believed that God’s love was not for them, that they were heretics who deserved death.    There is an uncomfortable number of people spread across churches today who have too much in common with pre-conversion Paul.  I know this because there are too many horror stories out there about how people have been hurt by the church.   There are too many people who have been told that they are incompatible with the gospel of Christ, and there are too many people who have been told that just existing as themselves is wrong. 

               Again, this is all simply not true.  Anyone can come to know the all surpassing love of God, and when the Spirit awakens in someone we do not get to sit in judgement and tell them that they are wrong because they do not check all our boxes.  We did not have to meet a certain threshold of good actions before God would accept us.   If that is true for us, then that is true for anyone else.  We should not expect other people to have conform to a standard that we create to be accepted.  The good news that we believe, the good news that we are supposed to proclaim is that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  There are no asterisks or exceptions to that good news.  God sent Jesus because God’s love was for everyone.  There are no outsiders to God’s love. 

               The happy ending of the original Star Wars trilogy is that the good guys win, and Darth Vader is redeemed back the light.  The good news of this morning’s scripture is the same.  No one is beyond redemption, and God’s love is for everyone.   Paul himself wrote as much. Years after his conversion experience in this morning’s scripture, and after multiple missionary trips to share Jesus far and wide, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote about God’s love.  Paul was not writing about this in theory, he was writing from a place of experience.  He was writing from the perspective of a person’s who life completely changed when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus.  He was writing from the perspective of a person who had deeply wronged Jesus, but still experienced grace and forgiveness.  He was writing from the perspective a person to whom the Spirit had awakened the true nature of God’s love.   In Romans 8:38-39, Paul wrote these words, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Friends, may we take this scripture to heart.  If you are here today and you are honestly a little surprised the walls haven’t fallen in yet, then may you know you have nothing to worry about.  Whatever you have done, If you ask  then God will forgive you.   If you have ever been made to feel that God does not want you, then I am so sorry that someone misled you.  God’s love, the grace and new life offered through the death and resurrection is for everyone, and that includes you.  There are no outsides to God’s love, and there is grace enough for everyone. 

If you do consider yourself a follower of Jesus, if you do believe that you are redeemed by grace the may take the scripture to heart as well, and may we live in such a way that communicates to everyone that nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Ananias gives us a good example in this morning’s scripture.  He knew who Paul was, but he was obedient to Christ and accepted Paul anyway.  May we also be quick to accept others, no matter who they are.  Like Ananias was for Paul, may we be quick to accept, quick to offer grace, and quick to invite the Holy Spirit to awaken in their lives. 

One of the core messages of Star Wars is that no one is beyond redemption.  That same message is central to this morning’s scripture, and it is one of the primary truths that all of scripture communicates to us.  May we not be silent, but may we proclaim that good news.  Through how we treat others, through how we invite others, and through how we accept others may our lives testify that we believe there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.   May we believe that there are no outsiders to God’s love and mean it. In this morning’s scripture Paul turns away from the wrong he was doing and turns to Jesus, the son of God.  May we be willing to tell everyone that if they too repent and believe the gospel, then the Lord will be with you always.  
 

Scripture:  Acts 5:27-29

Sixty years ago in March of 1965, the Civil Rights movement turned bloody.  One of the major issues that the civil rights movement was seeking to address was voter suppression of black people.  In Alabama to protest this issue a march on the capitol of Montgomery was organized.  The planned protest march had the protestors crossing over the Edmund Pettus bridge.   Local police and state troopers were blocking the bridge’s exit, and when the peaceful protestors reached the law enforcement officers, the authorities responded with extreme violence.  March 7th, 1965 is remembered as bloody Sunday in the civil rights movement.   Seventeen of the protestors, mostly students, were hospitalized and at least fifty more were treated for lesser injuries.   It was unwarranted savagery motived by the ugliness of racism and it was captured by national media.  The sheer violence displayed by the attackers on the Edmund Pettus bridge shocked most of the country and that shock transformed into greater national support for the civil rights movement.  One of the protestors who helped organize the march, and suffered a fractured skull on the Edmund Pettus bridge, was John Lewis.   Lewis would continue to be a leader in the civil rights movement, and he continued to advocate for equality for all later in life as a congressman.  Lewis once famously said, ““Never be afraid to make some noise and get into good trouble, necessary trouble.”

I think for a lot of us though, the idea of good trouble sounds a lot better on paper than it does in practice because good trouble is still trouble.   For a lot of us getting into trouble is something we work actively against because we have had it ingrained into us that getting in trouble at all is bad.   We are taught from an early age that following the rules is a virtue and that good people do not get into trouble.   Chances are a lot of us have internalized those lessons and might even pride ourselves on being a “rules follower.”   However, when we look at the examples of faith that we are given in the bible we see examples of good trouble all over the place.   Jesus for instance got in a LOT of trouble, he got in trouble to the point of being handed a death sentence, and that trouble was all good.   In this morning’s scripture we see that trouble would follow Jesus’ disciples in the early days of the church.  Peter and John also give us an example to follow.  When it comes to obeying the rules or obeying Jesus, we should always choose Jesus even if that gets us in good trouble. 
This morning’s scripture, which is one of the lectionary readings for today, is one that picks up in the middle of the story.  Reading just this morning’s scripture is kind of like watching just the last fifteen minutes of a TV show, it is kind of possible to figure out what is going on but there is a lot missing.   So here is what you missed. Following the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the ascension of Jesus into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit- the group of Jesus followers quickly grew from around 150 to 5,000.  This explosive growth made the Jewish religious leaders incredibly nervous as we find in Acts 4:1-2: “The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.  They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.”

               These religious leaders had Peter and John arrested, but they could not agree on any way to charge them with wrongdoing, so they released them but commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.   Of course, Peter and John promptly choose not to comply with this order.  The continued to heal people and preach about Jesus and the resurrection.   In response, the religious leaders arrest them again.  This time an angel comes and springs them from jail, so that when the authorities come to get Peter and John so they can question them instead of finding them in jail they find them in the temple courts talking about Jesus.  The captain of the temple guard then brings Peter and John before the Sanhedrin in this morning’s scripture. 

               In this morning’s scripture, Peter makes it clear what their motivation was:  “We must obey God rather than human beings!”  Peter and John were witnesses to the resurrection, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and fully convinced that Jesus is God’s messiah.   They were faithfully following the commands of Jesus.  They healed, because Jesus gave them the example of caring for the least of these and having compassion on others.  They preached the good new of Jesus Christ, because Jesus had commissioned them to take gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  Their motivation was not to defy the religious leaders or garner a following for themselves, their motivation was to be faithful to God. 

               The religious leaders did not see it that way though.   While Peter and John are ultimately released after this morning’s scripture, the religious leaders first have them flogged.  The traditional Jewish punishment of 40 lashes minus one.  Supposedly this was on the grounds of not honoring the authority of the religious leaders by continuing to talk about Jesus despite being ordered not to.   Peter, John, and the rest of the apostles were faithful to following Jesus, they were faithful to listening to God, and it got them in trouble, but it was good trouble. 

               Now we can easily say that in hindsight.  Looking back now, especially from the perspective of faith, it is easy for us to say that Peter and John were clearly in the right and that the religious leaders were in the wrong.  However, I am not sure that it was all that clear to those living in Jerusalem during this time.  The religious leaders they were the leaders, they were the ones who knew the Law of Moses, they were the rule enforces, and the good Jewish people of the time sought to follow the rules.  Clearly many responded to the good news proclaimed by the apostles, but there were also those who took the side of the religious leaders.  There were also who probably tried to stake a claim in the middle.   These people in the middle would have likely appreciated the good work and healings the apostles were doing but wondered why they had to always make such a disruptive scene.  They probably asked questions like “can they just heal people without always mentioning Jesus? “

The religious leaders wanted the disciples to stay quiet for a lot of reasons.  For one it made them look bad and undermined their authority.  It also threatened to upset the status quo and potentially bring about interference from the Roman Empire.  Despite that, the disciples would not be quiet.  The good news of Jesus Christ, the life changing news of the resurrection, was too important to be quiet about.  It had the potential to make too much of a difference for them to keep it to themselves.  One of the takeaways we see in this scripture is anything that is truly important, any action that will make a positive change in the world, any step of faith that will transform the world into a more loving and kind place will always, always be met with opposition. This was true for the disciples, and it continues to be true.  The message of this scripture is clear.  Obedience to God, Sharing the good news through our words and actions, treating others with kindness in the name of Jesus is always worth doing. 

 Even in a place like the United States which has religious freedom, it is still possible that faithfully following Jesus can lead to trouble.  In response to growing issues of homelessness over the past several years, two things have happened.  Churches and Christian groups have risen to the occasion to provide food and shelter to those who have none.  This is out of love and a desire to be obedient to following Jesus.  The other thing that has happened is that cities have passed ordinances, and some states have passed laws that essentially make it a crime to be homeless.  Some places have taken a different approach and instead they have passed overly restrictive laws to prohibit people or organizations from providing help to the homeless in hopes that the homeless will just leave the community. 

This is what happened in Santa Ana California, where the city went after a Christian organization that grew out of ecumenical efforts between churches called Micah’s Way. Micah’s Way provides food to homeless individuals, and the city kept passing more restrictive ordinances to stop them.  This eventually led to a court case, where the justice department intervened in 2023, and the organization was able to continue feeding people because they were doing so out of religious conviction and protected by the first amendment.  A similar court case in Texas reached a similar decision in March of 2023.  Despite that, Christians seeking to serve the least of these can still find opposition. 
This is happening right now in Ohio.  Bryan Ohio does not have social services to provide for a homeless population, and whenever there is life threatening cold conditions a church opens its doors so that people do not freeze.  Unfortunately, this church has found itself repeatedly targeted by local officials, and the pastor has even faced criminal charges for providing a place for people to escape the cold.  On the grounds of religious liberty, this case is currently working its way through the courts.  

Just like the original disciples got in trouble for being obedient to God, disciples still get in trouble for being obedient to God.   There are no doubt some who might say that Christians should be more concerned with talking about Jesus, then feeding people or providing shelter.  South African Episcopal Bishop Desmund Tutu certainly heard that criticism regularly.  He put a lot of energy and effort in providing for those who were in need and advocating for social change.   When he was told he should just focus on the gospel he responded by saying, “ I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.”

This morning’s scripture is not meant to give us license to ignore the rules we do not like, but it does remind us that ultimately our highest priority is to follow Jesus.   This morning’s scripture is a reminder that following Jesus is not always easy.  It will sometimes require us to take risks and it will sometimes get us into good trouble.  This morning’s scripture urges us, despite the potential for trouble, to be obedient to God.   Being obedient God means that we share the good news of Jesus Christ, we share the good news of the resurrection.  Sometimes we share this good news with our words and proclaiming Jesus saves, but other times we share this good news with our actions- because the good news to a hungry person is bread.   

if we take seriously following Jesus, then we are going to get to a place where we have compassion and love for those around us.  Loving others means sharing the good news of salvation with them certainly, but it also means serving them.  It means ensuring their needs are met, that they are safe, and they are cared for.  If we take seriously following Jesus it will lead us to love the least of these.  It will lead us to advocating for the people who have no else sticking up for them, it will lead us to speaking out for those who feel they have no voice, and it will lead to us serving those who have been systematically under-served.   If we take seriously following Jesus then we will engage in acts of kindness in his name, and those acts have the absolute potential to transform this world into a more kind, loving, and just place. 
So may we proclaim the good news.  May we be obedient to God by following the example of Jesus of loving the least of these and having compassion for all.  May we do this, even if it gets us into some trouble- because it is good trouble.   Like Peter and John, may we fearlessly share the good news about how Jesus has won the victory.