Posts filed under ‘Word for Today’
Word for Today” – Acts 24 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
Antonius Felix was the Roman procurator of Judea from AD 52-58. According to the first century Jewish historian Josephus, he secured his position as procurator through his brother Pallus, who was secretary for the Roman Emperor Claudius. Josephus also notes that Felix, as a ruler, was a ruthless tyrant. He arrested the Zealot leader, Eleazar, and transferred him to Rome to hold him there while he crucified his followers. He also was rumored to have been behind the assassination of Israel’s high priest at that time, a man named Jonathan. He was so wicked that even Rome’s own historians described him poorly. The Roman senator Tacitus, for instance, writes, “Antonius Felix indulged in every kind of cruelty and immorality, wielding a king’s authority with all the instincts of a slave” (Histories, Book 5). By all accounts, Felix was a miserable failure as a ruler.
That’s what makes the opening of today’s reading from Acts 24 so surprising. Paul is made to stand trial before the wicked and inept Felix. Paul’s prosecutor, serving on behalf of his Jewish accusers, a man named Tertullus, opens his case against Paul thusly: “We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude” (verses 2-3). Huh? Peace? Foresight? Reforms? This praise is lavished upon a man who eventually had to resign his post because he conspired to kill many of his region’s inhabitants! That hardly sounds like a peaceful, thoughtful, reformational rule to me.
Perhaps a clue as to why this prosecuting lawyer Tertullus would say such flattering, even if completely untrue, things to Felix comes in the Greek word used for “lawyer” in verse 1. It is the word rhetor, from whence we get our English word “rhetorician.” Apparently, Tertullus was a man who knew how to give a good speech. He knew how to butter someone up. He knew how to curry favor. And this is exactly what he’s doing with Felix. He flatters Felix, not because he truly believes that he’s a good ruler, but in order to win his approval so that Felix will approve Paul’s condemnation. Thus, Tertullus tells Felix what he wants to hear. He tells him that he’s good.
Like Tertullus with Felix, we, more often than not, desire the same kind of affirmation and flattery, even if it’s untrue. We like to be told what we want to hear. We like to be told that we are good. That’s why company executives have “yes men” and superstars have “groupies.” Adoration is a potent drug.
In his book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, which is sure to become a watershed work with time, Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, describes what he has coined as the “moralistic therapeutic deism” of today’s teenagers. At the heart of this theological system, or, more accurately, this theological hodgepodge, is the belief that “the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.” In other words, today’s teens want to be told what they want to hear. They want to be told that they are good.
For our teens, and for many people for that matter, God becomes a mere means to an end – a divinity who will tell them what they want to hear – who will tell them that they’re doing a good, or at least adequate, job. As Smith writes, “God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, [and] professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves.” The problem with this is that it’s not true and, I might add, is a pathetically hollow vision of God. Perhaps that is why people who believe in this god believe in him only nominally and conveniently.
In the final analysis, we are both worse and better than the tepid term “good” would connote. We are, of course, worse than “good” because we are sinners, deserving of death and eternal condemnation. But then again, we are also much better than “good” because we are God’s redeemed children, declared righteous for Christ’s sake, which means that, in God’s sight, we’re not just “good,” we are perfect, for we wear Christ’s robe of righteousness. But this is not, nor has it ever been, a particularly popular message. It is not what people want to hear. And the Scripture writers knew full well that this is not what people want to hear. As Paul writes: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). Itching ears will settle for the siren of moralistic therapeutic deism long before they will trust the true and certain message of Scripture concerning our sin and Christ’s righteousness.
A great thing about Scripture is that even if it doesn’t tell us what we want to hear, it always tells us what we need to hear. Unlike Tertullus, it never uses empty rhetoric to massage our pride and inflate our egos. Scripture always tells us the truth – the truth about ourselves and the truth about God. I hope you’re listening.
“Word for Today” – Acts 23 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
“Anyone can get in to Mexico, but it’s much tougher to get back out,” said my buddy the first time he took me on a trip across the border. I immediately thought to myself, “Great! What have I gotten myself in to?” But he was right. Getting into Mexico was a snap. All we had to do was pay a nominal crossing fee, pick up a couple of visas for our travels, and we were in. No fuss. No muss. Getting out, however, was a different story. For starters, the line of vehicles in to Mexico was a five minute line. The line of vehicles out of Mexico was an hour. When we finally arrived at the border crossing, our vehicle was instantaneously flanked by border crossing agents and their drug-sniffing dogs. A man wearing sunglasses peered into our truck. “US citizens?” he asked in a serious tone. “Yes, sir,” we responded in unison. After examining our driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and running a check on our vehicle’s license plates, we finally made it through. But we were both shaking a bit. After all, getting out of Mexico can be an intimidating experience. For there is always this fear, latently looming in the back of your mind, that you won’t be able to get out of Mexico. Thankfully, our appropriately documented US citizenship got us out when we wanted to get out.
In our reading for today from Acts 23, Paul encounters a couple of situations from which he needs to get out. In the first, Paul is standing before the Sanhedrin, the religious ruling body of that day, accused of soiling the purity of the Jewish temple in his dealings with unclean Gentiles (cf. Acts 21:29, 22:21). In a masterful rhetorical move, Paul, “knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, ‘My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead” (verse 6). With this statement, Paul pits the Pharisees and the Sadducees against each other, for the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead while the Sadducees did not. The Jewish historian Josephus explains:
The Pharisees…believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again…But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the bodies. (Josephus, Antiquities, 2.14-16)
Thus, “a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees…and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. ‘We find nothing wrong with this man, they said” (verses 7, 9). Of course they didn’t. Paul was one of them. Thus, Paul’s status as a Pharisee gets him out of what would have been a certain condemnation.
The next morning, however, Paul encounters yet another situation from which he needs to get out. Apparently, an angry mob of Jews, infuriated at Paul’s ability to escape their former lynching attempts (cf. Acts 21:30-34, 22:22-24), hatch a plot to ambush him (cf. verse 20-21). Mercifully, some Roman soldiers, learning of the plot, smuggle Paul out of Jerusalem before the mob can execute their nefarious plan. Why is he treated so kindly by these Roman soldiers? Because “he is a Roman citizen” (verse 27). The Roman orator Cicero said this about the benefits of a Roman citizenship: “To bind a Roman is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to slay him is almost an act of murder” (Against Verres 2.5.66). It is no surprise, therefore, that Paul’s status as a Roman citizen prompts a contingent of Roman soldiers to get him out of what would have surely been his untimely demise.
As helpful as my status as a US citizen might have been to get me out of Mexico, or as helpful as Paul’s status as a Pharisee or a Roman citizen might have been to get him out of his precarious positions, there is a status – a citizenship, in fact – that is more precious than any of these. Paul writes of this status, this citizenship: “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). Paul says that we, as believers in Christ, have a citizenship in heaven. And this citizenship gets us out of the transcendental terrors of sin, death, and the devil and gets us in to the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day. And this status – our status as citizens of heaven – is more precious than any earthly status and citizenship. Give thanks to God for your status and citizenship in Christ today.
“Word for Today” – Acts 22 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
I am a news junkie. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News – I watch them all. In my truck, I can often be found listening to WOAI, San Antonio’s news-talk radio station. My wife Melody, however, does not share in my affinity for the talking heads of television and radio news. For instance, we’ll be riding in my truck, and I’ll be hanging on every word doled out by some radio commentator. After several minutes of begrudgingly enduring what are usually nothing more than pearls of polemics, Melody’s patience will run out. “This is so boring!” she will exclaim, and then proceed to change the radio to a music station. Melody can listen to the news up to a point. But when that said point arrives, she moves me on to listening to other things.
In our reading for today from Acts 22, Paul speaks to an enraged Jewish mob, eager to condemn him to prison for fraternizing too closely with Gentiles (cf. Acts 21:29-36). In response to this charge, Paul defends himself: “I am a Jews, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as many of your are today” (verse 3). Paul continues by recounting how he encountered Jesus of Nazareth as he was riding a road to Damascus, and how Christ commissioned him: “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (verse 21).
“The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, ‘Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live” (verse 22)! The crowd, it seems, was fine with Paul’s speech until he spoke of God’s gospel being carried to the Gentiles. For portraying their God as the God of the Gentiles was more than they could stomach. They demand Paul’s life in repayment for his grossly offensive statement.
I appreciate the ESV translation of the beginning of verse 22 as it comports more closely to the Greek text: “Up to this word they listened to Paul.” Up to this word concerning God’s will for the Gentiles, they were willing to give Paul a hearing. But then Paul went a word too far. And they could not receive it. They could not believe it. They could only go up to a certain word.
I wonder how often we do the same thing with God’s Word even today. We will listen to his Word up to this word or that word, but sometimes, God seems to go a word too far. And, like my wife, we move to change the channel. We move to turn the radio dial – not out of boredom at talking heads, but out of fury at the proclamations of the Almighty. Like when God gives us guidance concerning our sexual ethics. Or when he prompts us to be generous with our money toward his work in the world. Or when he encourages us to be selfless even when we feel like selfishly taking time for ourselves. Sure, we have our excuses – our minimizations, rationalizations, and justifications. But in reality, we simply don’t care to listen to God’s Word – at least not all of it. We, with the Jewish mob, are willing to listen and obey only up to this word.
In the twilight of the exodus, Moses reminds the Israelites: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Did you catch the adjective? It’s not just some of the words, or even most of the words that are our life, it’s every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. We are to listen, ponder, and take seriously and responsibly every word of God.
So, is there an area in your life in which you are only listening to God up to this word or that word? If so, will you take him at his every word? Remember the promise of Moses: God’s Word is not here to oppress, suppress, repress us. It is here to give us life. In other words, these are words that we not only live by, these are words that we live on. For these words are the very words of eternal life. I hope you listen to them. I hope you believe them.
“Word for Today” – Acts 21 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
Have you ever needed to “get away”? The last two weeks have been busy ones for me. There were projects to complete, administrative tasks to juggle, and people to talk to. In the middle of it all, I found myself ready for a reprieve. Thus, on Saturday morning, I decided to “get away.” And so, with a good book in hand, I drove to a nearby IHOP to feast on an omelet, drink some coffee, and spend a few moments in serenity. It was just what my soul needed. I returned to my tasks refreshed and renewed.
“Getting away” can be a marvelous thing. However, what is marvelous when voluntary can turn dreadful when forced. In other words, there is a huge difference between “getting away” and being told to “get away.” The former is an act of refuge; the latter is an act of rejection.
In our reading for today from Acts 21, Paul “gets away.” Unfortunately, rather than being a voluntary “get away,” it is a forced one. Following a purification rite at Jerusalem’s temple, some Jews from the province of Asia begin hurling accusations at Paul: “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place” (verse 28).
The charge of bringing Greeks into the temple’s holy place was a serious one. There was an inscription on Jerusalem’s temple which read: “No Gentile may enter beyond the dividing wall into the court around the Holy Place; whoever is caught will be to blame for his subsequent death.” Thus, if Paul had indeed brought these Gentile Greeks into the temple, his crime, according to this inscription, merited nothing less than the death penalty. But Luke is quick to offer this interpretive gloss concerning Paul’s supposed crime: “They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area” (verse 29). In other words, the charges against Paul were trumped up and false.
As false as the charges of these Jews may have been, they are enough to stir the crowd into a frenzy:
The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!” (verses 30-31, 33, 36)
“Away with him!” Such are the biting words of rejection leveled at Paul.
As it is with the leader, so it is with his followers. For Jesus had experienced an almost identical biting rejection to that of Paul’s. Jesus is on trial before Pontius Pilate, appearing in front of an angry mob. In an attempt to appease the crowd and spare Jesus’ life, Pilate announces, “I will punish him and release him” (Luke 23:16). But the crowd is having none of it. “Away with this man!” they shout vehemently. “Crucify him! Crucify him” (Luke 23:18, 21). Jesus is ordered away. Jesus is rejected.
Even in the face of such vitriolic rejection, Jesus, in his infinite compassion, does not reject even those who reject him. In fact, he invites them, as he did one time with his disciples, to “come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31). Jesus wants us to “get away.” But Jesus’ getaway is a gracious invitation of refuge rather than a damning order of rejection.
How often do you take Jesus up on his invitation and get away with him? Do you spend quiet time with him in prayer? Do you reflect deeply on his Word? Do you ponder his blessings in your life? This day and this week, take time to get away with Jesus. It’s time you won’t regret.
“Word for Today” – Acts 20 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
When the DVD medium was in its prime, it seemed as though every movie, every series, and every documentary had its own special director’s cut, director’s commentary, “making of” commentary, and deleted scenes chapter all packaged tidily in a DVD boxed set full of “bonus features,” which, of course, also happened to be a limited-time-collector-edition boxed set that would one day become a valuable collectors’ item. I have yet to see any of those DVD boxed sets reach their stated aim. I’ll keep waiting.
The failure of these boxed sets to reach their coveted “collector” status notwithstanding, the bonus features on many of these collections are at least mildly interesting. It’s fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at how some of my favorite movies were made. I perhaps most enjoy the “deleted scenes” feature because it allows me to judge for myself the value of a particular scene. Sometimes, I watch a deleted scene and ask, “Why did they delete that? That would’ve added a lot to the story line!” Other times, I watch a deleted scene and wonder, “Was that really worth the film it’s recorded on? Couldn’t that film have been used for nobler purposes, like archiving Home Shopping Network coverage?”
In our reading for today from Acts 20, Paul gives his farewell speech to the elders at the Christian church of Ephesus. Interestingly, he “sails past Ephesus” (verses 16), asking the Ephesian elders to instead meet him at the coastal town of Miletus (verse 17) so that he is not detained by the grieving members of the Ephesian congregation who would have surely offered protracted and tearful goodbyes in the face of his departure. During his address to these elders, he reminds them, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (verse 35). Paul quotes Jesus’ words as they are recorded Matthew’s gospel to extol the value of service. Or are those Jesus’ words as they are recorded in Mark’s gospel? Wait, I think they’re from Luke. Then again, those words may be from John.
Actually, Jesus’ famed words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” are recorded in none of the four gospels. Paul, well aware that there are many “deleted scenes” from Jesus’ life as it is recorded in the gospels, gives us a “bonus feature,” or perhaps more accurately, a “bonus teaching,” from Jesus on service which has served us well for millennia.
At the end of his gospel, John honestly confesses, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). John confesses that, although his biography of Jesus’ life is certainly towering, inspiring, and infinitely useful, it is not comprehensive. Jesus has done more. Jesus has taught more. And Paul, graciously, gives the Ephesian elders – and, by extension, us – a glimpse into one of the things that Jesus has taught which, nevertheless, was not recorded in the gospels.
Lest we be afraid that we are missing some vital piece of information about Jesus’ word and work, Paul boldly proclaims earlier in his address to the Ephesian elders, “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (verse 27). In saying this, Paul does not mean that he has recounted for them every thing that Jesus ever said or did; rather, he means that everything necessary for life and salvation has been sufficiently and graciously revealed to us in the pages of Holy Writ. The writers of Scripture have given us all the “bonus features” and “deleted scenes” we need.
In certain modern day critical and cynical circles, it has become fashionable to seek out “bonus features” and “deleted scenes” of Jesus’ life by scouring extra-canonical sources. Although these sources can shed some helpful interpretive light on Scripture, they should not be mustered in an attempt to overthrow and call into question the inspired teaching and record of Scripture. For Scripture alone has given us the whole will of God. Scripture alone has “given us everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). Scripture alone is sufficient for us to “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing have life in his name” (John 20:31). So today, give thanks that you need no biblical boxed set full of special features to know and love God. For he has already given you everything you need, even his Son, in the simple pages of his Word.
“Word for Today” – Acts 19 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
I have long been a fan of silver. When Melody and I were planning our wedding, she asked me if there was a particular ring that I would like. There was a James Avery ring, engraved with Song of Songs 2:16 in Hebrew, which was a favorite of mine. “Get me that ring!” I anxiously told my bride to be. After doing some research, she asked me, “The ring you want comes in white gold and silver. Which one would you like?” “Silver,” I responded. “Yes, but white gold is nicer, don’t you think?” came her reply. “I actually like silver better. And besides,” I continued in my best serious tone, “it’s cheaper.” And I’m glad it is. Because I have already lost my wedding ring once and have had to get it replaced. And silver proved to be a definite money saver in that regard.
In our reading for today from Acts 19, silver’s value is twice typified. In the first instance, an evil spirit batters and bruises some hack exorcists who are hocking their spurious demonic deportations in Ephesus. Those who see these beatings are “seized with fear [so that] the name of the Lord Jesus [becomes] held in high honor” (verse 17). In response to this fear, and with the apostle Paul present and with his seemingly incipient blessing, “A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas” (verse 19). A drachma was a silver coin worth about a day’s wages. Thus, fifty thousand pieces of silver were lost that day, roughly equivalent to six million dollars of today’s currency. That’s a lot of silver to be burned in the form of books!
Now, before you accuse Paul of inciting some sort of medieval-styled, mob-fueled, thoughtlessly-pedestrian book burning, it is important to remember that these scrolls were not mere relics of historic and academic curiosity. They were compilations of magic spells believed by the Ephesians to have real mystical powers. In other words, these scrolls were dangerous to those who read them because they actually believed what was contained in them, much like a Neo-Nazi reading Hitler’s deranged opus Mein Kampf would be dangerous even today. Indeed, Paul is anything but narrow and unacademic. Earlier in this chapter, we find Paul delivering a college-type lecture on Christianity at Tyrannus Hall (cf. verse 9). Paul was most certainly smart.
Our second encounter with silver comes with a silversmith named Demetrius. Apparently, Demetrius made his living casting and selling idols to the local superstitious population. When Paul, in his teaching, rails against such idolatry, Demetrius is disturbed:
Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger…that our trade will lose its good name. (verses 25-27)
And therein lies the rub. Demetrius has seen the equivalent of fifty thousand pieces of silver evaporate in a poof of smoke at a book burning. And now Demetrius’ silver business is crashing as fewer and fewer residents purchase his silver gods. Thus, Demetrius leads an angry mob that drags Paul and his traveling companions into the Ephesian theatre (cf. verse 29), estimated by historians to have a capacity of anywhere from twelve thousand to twenty-five thousand people. Imagine! Paul having to defend himself in front of an angry mob of twenty-five thousand people. And what has provoked this intimidating scene? Silver.
To those obsessed with silver and other precious metals, the apostle James has a dire warning: “Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days” (James 5:3). “Silver rots,” James says. Interestingly, the Greek word for “corrosion” here is ios, used not only to describe rot and rust on metal, but the poison of a snake. Those who horde and guard silver and other valuables at all costs poison their souls. That is why Jesus famously encourages:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)
The earthly treasure of silver may move twenty-five thousand people to riot at a theatre in Ephesus. But the treasure of God can move a soul to sing eternal praises in the theatre of heaven. Which treasure is more valuable to you?
“Word for Today” – Acts 18 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
Every Batman needs a Robin – a faithful, loyal, trustworthy sidekick to help you in a pinch. And everyone loves a Robin. We even have a pet name for him. “Boy Wonder,” we call him. Yes, every Batman needs a Robin. And everyone loves a Robin, that is, unless you are a Robin. Because then, your work as a sidekick can sometimes prove to be dreggy, belittling, and underappreciated. Batman gets all the adulation and accolades. You get the red tights. What kind of a life is that?
Most of the time, we can tell who is the leader and who is the sidekick simply by the order in which their names are listed: Batman and Robin, Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon, Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Dr. Evil and Mini Me. The one who gets top billing is the top dawg, the alpha male, and the big man on campus.
In our reading for today from Acts 18, Paul meets a husband and wife ministry team during his stay in Corinth: “There Paul met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome” (verse 2). Apparently, these two became very close friends of Paul, even risking their lives for him. They were also very well known among many churches, indicating that they travelled extensively. Furthermore, they hosted a church at their house, suggesting that they were quite wealthy and had the necessary spacious accommodations required for a worshipping community (cf. Romans 16:3-5). Aquila and Priscilla – missionaries extraordinaire in Corinth and beyond. Or is that Priscilla and Aquila? “Paul stayed at Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanies by Priscilla and Aquila” (verse 18). In verse 2, it’s Aquila and Priscilla. By verse 18, it becomes Priscilla and Aquila.
So which one is it? Aquila and Priscilla or Priscilla and Aquila? Who’s the king of the mountain, the leader of the pack, and at the top of the heap? Who’s Batman and who’s Robin? Neither! For life in the Kingdom does not work according to billings. As Jesus himself teaches: “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last” (Luke 13:30). It’s important to understand that Jesus does not just reverse the order on some divine marquis to spite those who were once on top, it’s that Jesus gets rid of the marquis altogether. First is last and last is first. In other words, these two terms become interchangeable and are indeed interchanged. Aquila and Priscilla becomes Priscilla and Aquila, not because one overtakes the other in some heavenly hierarchy, but because it no longer matters who is first and who is last. For both are servants of the Most High God. And that’s what matters.
Are you a leader or a sidekick? Is your name listed first or second? Today, give thanks to God that the position of your name in a lineup is not indicative of the value of your soul in God’s sight. And so, if you feel a little dreggy, belittled, and underappreciated, remember that, with a loving heart, your heavenly Father lists your name first on his lineup – and last, for that matter. For your position does not matter. What matters is that you are God’s precious child.
“Word for Today” – Acts 17 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
It was a Mensa Select prizewinner in 1999, although I’m not quite sure why since the game is not particularly challenging. It was also named the “Party Game of the Year” by Games magazine and has received the seal of approval of the National Parenting Center. The game is Apples to Apples.
Apples to Apples is the ultimate exercise in loose – and I mean very loose – associations. Each player draws seven red apple cards, each of which has a noun such as “Canada,” or “Spanish Inquisition,” or “National Park” on it. One player then draws a single green apple card, containing an adjective such as “patriotic,” or “repelling,” or “frightening” on it. Every player then chooses a red apple card to the give to the player holding the green apple card, trying to associate their nouns on the red apple cards with the adjective on the green apple card. And some of these associations can be quite hilarious, if not downright ridiculous. For example, a player once drew a green apple card with the adjective “greasy” on it. I couldn’t resist. I gave them my red apple card with “Tom Arnold” on it. I won that round.
In our reading for today from Acts 17, Paul encounters what is perhaps the most strident opposition so far to his preaching of the gospel. While in Thessalonica, some jealous Jews form a riotous mob to protest Paul’s preaching (cf. verse 5). Paul is thus forced to move to Berea, only to have these same shady characters follow him there (cf. verse 13), once again prompting him to move, this time to Athens. While in Athens, Paul again encounters resistance to his message: “A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say’” (verse 18)? The Greek word for “babbler” is spermologos, a word describing someone who pecks at and picks up ideas and then spits them out again without fully digesting and synthesizing their meaning, much like a bird picks up seed only to drop it again. These philosophers, then, are accusing Paul of having a rudimentary rhetoric, not suitable for or persuasive to the more enlightened and educated likes of them. Paul’s theological associations, these philosophers would say, are too loose. It’s like he’s playing a game of Apples to Apples with theological ideas, none of which fit together tightly enough to impress these elitists.
Theological arguments are of a unique sort. No matter how reasoned, intelligent, and cohesive they may be, there always will be some who will look on them with utter disdain. They will always demand just one more attestation of God’s existence, just one more existential loophole closed. Indeed, this is precisely the kind of demand that Jesus himself encounters while on the cross. Even after a multitude of miracles, signs, and wonders, many still refuse to believe in him. They say to him, “He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42). These passers-by promise to believe if only Jesus will just once more verify his identity with a miracle. But be assured, even if Jesus would have wrenched himself away from the cross, these people still wouldn’t have believed, as Matthew clues us into when he describes their request of Jesus as “mocking” (cf. Matthew 27:41). In other words, these people were not honestly seeking truth. Instead, they were sardonically scorning Jesus.
So it is with Paul at Athens. Make no mistake, Paul intelligently and forcefully argued for the truth of the gospel. Yet there were some, no matter how cogent Paul’s argument may have been, who simply refused to believe and instead chose to disdainfully mock Paul’s mental faculties. They called him “spermologos.” And yet Paul, undaunted and undeterred by their ad hominem attacks, pressed forward in his proclamation of the gospel. For Paul was willing to be derided as a babbler for Jesus.
How about you? Are you willing to be a babbler for Jesus? Some will call you “foolish.” Some will call you “inept.” Some will even call you “extreme.” But even as the Psalmist exclaims, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked” (Psalm 84:10), so also should we rather be a babbler for Jesus than wise in the eyes of the world. For though this world may rage against the Christian message, it cannot conquer it. For the Christian message is the very message of salvation. And that’s enough to make me a babbler for Jesus any day.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my babble for today. More babble to come tomorrow.
“Word for Today” – Acts 16 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
They are some of the most famous words ever spoken in English. Act three, scene one. Hamlet reflects:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d.
Although these words are dearly cherished by Shakespeare lovers everywhere, I have never cared for them that much. For Hamlet sings the praises not of his “to be,” but of his “not to be.” That is, he wishes for death so that his suffering and trouble may end, although later in his soliloquy, he somberly notes that not even death promises certain bliss:
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus, Hamlet remains ambiguous toward his very life – wavering between the options of “to be” and “not to be.”
Hamlet’s famous opening line – “To be, or not to be: that is the question” – has become a cliché way of expressing ambiguity toward two competing options. Almost every verb imaginable has been substituted in place of Hamlet’s “to be.” “To eat or not to eat: that is the question.” “To work or not to work: that is the question.” I’ve even come across, in tribute to our technological obsession, “To text or not to text while driving: that is the question.”
In our reading for today from Acts 16, we once again find use for Hamlet’s famous query. Our text opens:
Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. (verses 1-3)
Now wait a minute! I thought in the previous chapter, the Christian church met in council at Jerusalem and concluded that “we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19). Therefore, circumcision of the uncircumcised was not to be required. Why does Paul here require Timothy to be circumcised? To paraphrase Hamlet: “To circumcise or not to circumcise: that is the question!”
Clearly, Timothy’s circumcision is not connected to his salvation. For the church has always believed that “it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved” (Acts 15:11), not by any effort of our own, including that of circumcision. No, Timothy is circumcised not for salvation, but out of consideration – consideration toward those Jews who had long included circumcision as a primary part of their piety. Because Timothy will be ministering among them, out of respect, he becomes like one of them so that they will be maximally open to his sharing of Christ’s gospel.
“To be or not to be: that is the question.” The Bible’s answer is consistently, “to be.” As Paul writes:
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. (1 Corinthians 9:20-22)
Paul is willing to become many things to many people to share the most important thing with all people: the grace of God through Christ.
How about you? Who can you be to share the gospel? Can you be a friend to someone in need? Can you be a listening ear to one who is hurting? Can you be a crier of repentance to someone who is sinning? Who can you be to share the gospel? My prayer for you today is that, moved by deep compassion toward others, you would be all you can be for the sake of the gospel. For Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” is not really a question for the Christian. We are called to be ambassadors of Christ’s gospel. No question about it.
“Word for Today” – Acts 15 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
“Choose your battles wisely.” What parent hasn’t had to remind themselves of this axiom when their teenager comes home with that crazy haircut? Or when the boss makes that unreasonable demand? Or when that relative demands that the rest of the family come to their house for Christmas? “Choose your battles wisely,” you’ll say to yourself in your best self-soothing tone. “It’s no big deal.”
Our text for today from Acts 15 opens thusly: “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’” (verse 1). Hmmm. That doesn’t sound quite right. Isn’t the message of the gospel, “Clearly no one is justified before God by the law [of Moses], because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (Galatians 2:11)? How is it, then, that these men are making a law from Moses necessary for salvation?
Listening to these men and their claims concerning the law of Moses were Paul and Barnabas, both champions of the doctrine of salvation through grace by faith in Christ, and apart from works of the law. The question is: “How will they respond to these men who are in error? Will they simply say to themselves, ‘I ought to choose my battles wisely. This is no big deal.’” Hardly. Luke continues: “This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them.” The Greek for the phrase “sharp dispute” is ouk oliges zetezeos, meaning literally, “no small dispute.” In other words, not only did Paul and Barnabas do battle with these men, they did big battle with these men. For what these men were teaching was a big deal. They were corrupting the very gospel of Jesus Christ.
What these men were teaching was such a big deal that the believers decided to travel to Jerusalem and hold the first ever church council to discuss the issue. Luke tells us that there was “much discussion” (verse 7). After all, this was a battle worth fighting – a topic worth discussing. Finally, Peter stands up and says:
Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. (verses 7-11)
Peter has clearly drawn his line in the sand and staked out his claim: The Gentiles need not be circumcised in order to be saved, for this would contradict the message of grace which is the very heartbeat of the gospel. The church council agreed. Paul and Barnabas fought a battle over the gospel and the gospel won.
The old proverb, “Choose your battles wisely” is all too readily interpreted by some to mean, “Choose as few battles as possible! Avoid conflict at all cost! Keep the peace, even it means compromising or hiding what you believe.” But this is a gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of this axiom. For at the same time we must choose our battles wisely, we must also always remember that some battles are worth fighting. And the battle for the gospel of Jesus is always worth fighting.
As in Acts 15, in our day, the gospel of Jesus is still trampled. It is trampled by those outside the church who deny and even denounce Christ. It is trampled by those inside the church who arrogantly claim that their salvation is in someway connected to their own righteousness rather than to the cross of Christ alone. But like Paul, Barnabas, and Peter, we can take a principled stand for the gospel. This is not easy, mind you. Sometimes there can be “much discussion” concerning the gospel, some of which can be difficult and lengthy. But the gospel is always worth it. For the gospel tells of a Savior who forgives sins and saves people. And people’s eternities are worth the fight. Your eternity was worth the fight. That’s why your Savior fought for you on the cross. Your call, now, is to fight so that others hear of him.
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