Posts filed under ‘Word for Today’
“Word for Today” – Acts 14 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
One afternoon, a long time ago, I was planning to host a night of food and football with some friends. After thinking about what dish I could prepare for what was to be a television watching, small talk making, male-bonding event, I finally settled on the perfect cuisine for any and every gathering of carnivorous males: pizza. I would make a pizza – with lots of pepperoni, beef, Italian sausage, and ham, of course. After carefully preparing and baking my cholesterol laden, artery clogging masterpiece, I proudly pulled it from the oven. But then, it happened. As I removed my pizza, my finger slipped off the potholder right into the middle of a bubbling, skin-searing mound of cheese. “Ouch!” I yelped, as I began to lose my grip on the pizza. And before I knew it, my culinary tour de force was lying toppings-down on the kitchen floor.
Immediately, my mind began to race: “What do I do? I don’t have time to make another pizza. But I can’t serve my buddies a pizza I just dropped on the floor. Wait! The five second rule! But it’s already been ten seconds. Okay, the ten second rule! It’ll be fine. After all, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”
“What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” Maybe you’ve said these words before too. You made a mistake that no one knows about. You received credit for something that really wasn’t due you. Sure, you could say something, but what people don’t know won’t hurt them. Right?
Our reading for today from Acts 14 relays what is one of the most peculiar encounters that Paul and Barnabas have in all their travels. It takes place in Lystra after Paul has healed crippled man in front of a large crowd:
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. (verses 11-13)
This crowd’s bazaar actions, it seems, stem from an ancient legend, told by the Roman poet Ovid that, once upon a time, the gods Zeus and Hermes visited the Phrygian hill country, disguised as mortals, looking for a place to stay. After asking at a thousand homes, and being rejected by all of them, they came to the shack of an elderly husband and wife, Pilemon and Baucis, meagerly cobbled out of straw and reeds. This tender couple welcomed the gods. In gratitude, Zeus and Hermes transformed their shack into a temple with a golden roof and marble columns. Lystra’s current residents, seeing Paul’s miraculous healing, seem to think that, once again, “the gods have come down in human form,” and seem determined not to miss their chance to be hospitable to them.
It is at this point that Paul and Barnabas have a decision to make. Do they tell these misguided superstitionists that they’re not really divine or do they just keep quiet and receive their frenzied adoration and adulation? After all, what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Right?
Paul and Barnabas opt for honesty over accolades:
Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. (verse 15)
Shortly thereafter, Luke tells us: “Some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city” (verse 19). From acclaim to attempted execution, all in four verses – that’s what Paul gets for telling the truth.
Do you ever withhold the truth and simply receive what comes your way, even when you know it is not rightfully yours? When the grocery store cashier inadvertently forgets to charge you for an item, do you point out the oversight? When the ticket office at the brand new Cowboys Stadium accidently gives you much better seats to the game than you paid for, do you mention it to the attendant? Or, do you simply excuse yourself from any culpability by whispering under your breath, “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”
One of the great calls to Christianity is its call to honesty. In the gospels, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth” some seventy eight times. Clearly, Christianity is obsessed with the truth and with telling the truth. For, in the final analysis, Christianity teaches that what people don’t know can hurt them. As Paul later says to those in Athens, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). What you don’t know can not only hurt you, it can damn you. Thus, we are called to tell the truth, especially the truth about God. So share the truth – about yourself, about others, and about God – today and every day.
“Word for Today” – Acts 13 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
“Therefore, encourage each other and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). So says the apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica. The fourth century church father, Gregory of Nyssa, paints a beautiful picture of what Paul’s admonition to “encourage each other” might look like:
At horse races, the spectators intent on victory shout to their favorites in the contest, even though the horses are eager to run. From the stands, they participate in the race with their eye, thinking to incite the charioteer to keener effort, at the same time urging the horses on while leaning forward and flailing the air with their outstretched hands instead of with a whip. They do this not because their actions themselves contribute anything to the victory; but in this way, by their good will, they eagerly show in voice and deed their concern for the contestants. I seem to be doing the same thing myself, most valued friend and brother. While you are competing admirably in the divine race along the course of virtue, lightfootedly leaping and straining constantly for the prize of the heavenly calling, I exhort, urge and encourage you vigorously. (Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, Prologue)
This is one of my favorite illustrations of what it means to “encourage each other.” While each of us are treading on life’s track, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are in the stands, cheering us, supporting us, and calling us to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:2).
In our reading for today from Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas are deployed from Antioch on a joint missionary jaunt. Upon arriving Pisidian Antioch, they receive this request from the rulers of the local synagogue: “Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak” (verse 15).
This is not an especially strange request of Paul and Barnabas, especially since Barnabas’ very name means “Son of Encouragement” (cf. Acts 4:36). Thus, it is only natural that the “Son of Encouragement” would deliver a message of encouragement. Interestingly, the Greek word for “encouragement” is paraklesis, a cognate of a word used by Jesus in John 14:26 when he promises his disciples, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” The word for “Counselor” is parakletos. Apparently, God is in the business of encouraging his people and has even sent his Holy Spirit to do so.
So how do Paul and Barnabas encourage those at the synagogue that day? With the gospel, of course! Paul tells those gathered, “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses” (verses 38-39). The message of unmerited, undeserved, unearned salvation is Paul and Barnabas’ encouragement to the congregation.
Though some two thousand years have passed since Paul and Barnabas preached their encouraging sermon, we, as Christ’s followers, are called to share this same message of encouragement time and time again with each other.
I once had a lady come into my office who questioned my preaching. “Why is it,” she asked, “That you always talk about Jesus in every sermon? I already know what he did for me. I don’t need to hear about every Sunday.” The reason I share Jesus in every sermon and in every Bible study is simple: I can think of no other more encouraging message. I can think of no other message which comforts us in our sins, soothes us in our souls, and keeps us unto salvation. And that’s a message I want to share. Indeed, that’s a message I can’t help but to share. I’ll share it from the pulpit. I’ll teach it from the lectern. I’ll shout it from the stands at a horse race. Occasionally, as those who have watched me preach and teach already know, I’ll even “flail the air with my outstretched arms,” just like Gregory of Nyssa. For I want to continue to encourage and be encouraged with Christ’s cross. I hope you do too.
“Word for Today” – Acts 12 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
He was a politician of virtually unmatched savvy. Indeed, he used his savvy to eventually become the ruler of all Palestine. But his road to the top was a rocky one. When he was only three years old, he saw his grandfather, Herod the Great, kill his father, Aristobulus. As a young man, he went into severe debt. In those days, creditors were authorized to either kill you or put you in prison if you didn’t pay up, and so he was thrown into prison for about seven months as punishment for his debt. But right around the time he was released from prison, an old friend of his named Caligula became emperor of Rome. And he leveraged this friendship to become ruler of a little tract of land in northern Palestine called Traconitis. He later added Galilee and Perea to his real estate portfolio, and then finally Judea and Samaria. In a few short years, he had gone from languishing in a dungeon to being the king of Palestine. His name was Herod Agrippa.
After becoming ruler of Palestine, Herod Agrippa spent much of his reign further consolidating and securing his power. He built a theatre, an amphitheatre, baths and porticoes, and finally finished an aqueduct begun by his grandfather. Yes, Herod was an impressive ruler.
As such an impressive – and successful, I might add – ruler, Herod regularly received adamant adulation from his subjects. Our reading for today from Acts 12 tells of one such instance:
On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. (verses 21-23)
All of Herod’s political savvy, it seems, could not compensate for his theological blasphemy. Interestingly, the Bible not only records this event, the first century Jewish historian Josephus also mentions it:
Herod put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him; and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, that he was a god…Upon this the king did neither rebuke them, nor reject their impious flattery…A severe pain also arose in his belly, and began in a most violent manner…And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life. (Josephus, Antiquities, 19.343-352)
Whether it be Josephus’ account or the Scriptural one, the implication is clear: Herod’s failure to give glory to God resulted in judgment from God. Herod died. And all of his theatres and amphitheatre, baths and porticoes, aqueducts and real estate holdings got passed on to someone else.
At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, it is our tradition to append the Chronicler’s cry to God: “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen” (1 Chronicles 29:11). It is this cry that Herod failed to heed. For instead of declaring that the kingdom, power, and glory were God’s, he acted as if the kingdom, power, and glory were his. After all, his rags to riches story surely deserved the praise of his subjects, right? Not from God’s perspective. For it is God who “sets up kings and deposes them” (Daniel 2:21). Herod’s power was the result of God’s grace, not of his political savvy.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism commences famously with these words: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Do we glorify God in all we do? Or do we, like Herod, say not “thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory,” but “mine is the kingdom and the power and the glory”? Today, as you go about your daily business, ask, “How can this task, this work, this deal, or this appointment glorify God?” For long after the kingdoms of this world crumble, God’s glory will remain.
“Word for Today” – Acts 11 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
Almost a decade ago, county star Clay Walker released a single titled “The Chain of Love.” The song tells the heartwarming story of a woman stranded on the side of a road with a flat tire when a gentleman named Joe stops to fix her tire, only to refuse her payment when she offers to compensate him for her services. Instead, he tells her:
You don’t owe me a thing, I’ve been there too.
Someone once helped me out,
Just the way I’m helping you.
If you really want to pay me back, here’s what you do:
Don’t let the chain of love end with you.
The song continues with this woman, in her newly repaired vehicle, stopping at a nearby café to grab some food when she meets a pregnant waitress. With Joe’s words still ringing in her mind, she leaves a $100 bill on the table and slips out the door. At the end of the song, we find out that the waitress is Joe’s wife. The “chain of love” has become a full “circle of love,” all in the short scope of a four-minute song.
We like songs like Clay Walker’s “The Chain of Love” because of the tender sentiment it expresses toward helping others and because it promotes the belief – or at the very least, strong hope – that such charity on our parts will eventually be rewarded. The “chain of love,” we believe, is a “circle of love.” And it will always and eventually circle back to us.
The idea of a “chain of love” is nothing new. Indeed, a hallmark of the early Christian church is that they “sold their possessions and goods, and gave to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:45). And it is this “chain of love” that plays itself out in concrete history in our reading for today.
In Acts 11, Luke records the birth of the Christian church at Antioch. But at the same time the church at Antioch is going gangbusters under the direction of Barnabas and Saul (cf. verse 26), the more seasoned Christian church at Jerusalem has hit some hard times following Stephen’s martyrdom (cf. Acts 8:1). Luke records the Jerusalem church’s woes thusly:
During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. (verses 27-30)
A chain of love flows from Antioch to Jerusalem when this poor church needs it the most. Regrettably, this chain of love has to continue its flow to Jerusalem years after the initial financial support of Acts 11. Paul writes some fourteen years later to the church at Rome: “For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem” (Romans 15:26).
As far as we know, the “chain of love” toward Jerusalem never became a “circle of love” back toward those churches which offered their financial support. The church at Jerusalem took, but never gave back. History’s reckoning of the “chain of love,” it seems, is not nearly so fair and reciprocal as Clay Walker’s idealized vision of it.
Jesus says, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid” (Luke 14:12). The chain of love, Jesus teaches, does not always become a circle. Sometimes, it is simply a one-way succession of selflessness.
Whether or not the chain of love circles back to us, our call is clear: to share and to be God’s love to others. We are a link in God’s chain of love. Who can you help today without expectation of receiving anything in return? Who can you serve without any chains attached to your chain of love? Jesus finally promises, whether or not you ever repaid by another human for your love toward them, “you will be blessed” (Luke 12:14). And that’s reason enough to love anyone, even as Jesus has already loved us.
“Word for Today” – Acts 10 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
I just couldn’t stand it any longer. My wife Melody was out of town this past weekend and our apartment was sorely in need of a good cleaning. So I decided to make the most of a lonely Saturday afternoon. I pulled out the big yellow cleaning gloves and the Formula 409, drug the vacuum out of the closet, and scrubbed the apartment.
For as long as I can remember, I have been a neatnik. In college, while many of my buddies lived in what could only be described as disturbing squalor, I was relentless in my drive to keep things clean. We had a community vacuum in our dorm hallway, but it should have just been stored in my room. After all, I was the only one who ever used it. And although I have since relaxed my cleanliness standards quite a bit, to this day, I still have to take a few moments before I leave the house and when I first get home just to “straighten things up.”
If there were ever some biblical neatniks, they would have to be the Jews of the first century. After centuries of being a bit sloppy in their piety, many of the Jews of this day decided to “clean up their acts,” as it were, and get serious about their religion. And so they read and followed God’s commands – carefully. Religious orders, moral codes, punishment for sins – nothing was overlooked – especially when it came to an ancient Levitical distinction between those things which were clean and those things which were unclean.
In Leviticus 11, God gives Moses a checklist of sorts to help him distinguish between animals that are clean and acceptable as food for the Israelites and those that are unclean and therefore prohibited. By the first century, these dietary restrictions had stood for some fourteen centuries and had become a centerpiece of Jewish piety. Any Jew who was even remotely serious about his faith had to follow the dietary restrictions of Levitical law. So you can imagine how surprised a devout and dutiful Jew named Peter must have been when, in our reading for today from Acts 10, he receives a vision from God:
About noon…Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (verses 9-15)
After some 1,400 years, God doesn’t just ask Peter to “loosen up” a little bit when it comes to his neatnik diet, he asks Peter to totally disregard it. A ham sandwich slathered in processed cheese product? Sure! Peter can go for it.
In the final analysis, Acts 10 isn’t so much about clean and unclean food as it is about clean and unclean people. For Jews considered not only certain foods, but also certain peoples “unclean” because they did not follow the ceremonial, religious, and even moral laws of God. Thus, Peter’s vision concerning so-called unclean foods is simply preparation for experiences that Peter will soon have with unclean people. Indeed, almost immediately after Peter’s vision, the apostle hears a knock at his door. It is an envoy asking Peter to come and visit the house of a Roman centurion – a man who would have been unclean according to Jewish religious law.
Upon arriving at the centurion’s house, Peter says, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean” (verse 28). Peter has learned his lesson. His vision from God was not so much about food as it was about people. For God has not just made all foods clean, he also desires to make all people clean through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.
One of the ways that my compulsive cleanliness rears its head is when we host company for a meal. I can’t stand dirty dishes left in the sink. Thus, as soon as we’re finished eating, I usually dash into the kitchen and begin washing dishes while my wife is left entertaining our guests. It’s at these times that Melody has to remind me, “Zach, the dishes can wait. You don’t have to clean them right now. Your obsession with cleanliness is keeping you from our guests.”
Your obsession with cleanliness is keeping you from our guests. What’s true with me in the kitchen is sadly true with so many of our relationships in general. How often do we shy away from those who have messy hang-ups or disturbing dependencies or abhorrent addictions? How often does our desire for clean-cut, easy clarity steer us away from those with unclean lives?
Jesus never avoided a messy person. He always addressed them and ministered to them with deep compassion and love. And so should we. For as there were in Peter’s day, there are also unclean people in our day – people whose lives have been wrecked by unrepentant sin. But as messy as their lives might be, they can be made clean – they can be made clean by Jesus. I hope that today, you’ll get messy enough with someone to share with them the cleanliness that comes through Christ’s cross. For Christ’s cross is a neatnik we all need.
“Word for Today” – Acts 9 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
I began to notice it during Vacation Bible School. A couple of summers ago, the church where I worked was holding its annual VBS. A couple of days into the event, I began to notice that the contact in my left eye was very uncomfortable and even seemed to be clouding my vision. So, I swapped my old contacts for a new pair. But it didn’t change a thing. My left eye was still red and watering and my vision was still cloudy.
I finally decided that it was time to visit the optometrist. The prognosis was not good. “Your left eye is infected,” he informed me. You’re going to need to get rid of your contacts, wear glasses for a couple of months, and make a visit to the ophthalmologist to get some prescription eye drops. And so began a long road to recovery in my left eye. According to my optometrist, I had been harboring this infection for some time. I had just gotten so used to my blurry eyesight, however, I had barely even noticed.
One of the accusations that Jesus levels against the religious leaders of his day is that they are “blind guides” (Matthew 23:16,24). The religious leaders would have been deeply offended at such a statement, for they prided themselves on their ability to see and discern spiritual truth. As Paul writes concerning the pious Jews of his day: “You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth” (Romans 2:19-20). These Jews, of course, are not nearly so lucid as they perceive themselves to be. Paul continues, “You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law” (Romans 2:21-23)? The religious elite, it seems, had a spiritual eye infection of sorts. But they had gotten so used to their blurry – and even blinded – eyesight, they had barely even noticed.
Our reading for today from Acts 9 recounts one of the most important stories in all Christian history – the conversion of Saul to Christianity. One commentator duly notes about this event:
The most important event in human history apart from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus. If Saul had remained a Jewish rabbi, we would be missing thirteen of twenty-seven books of the New Testament and Christianity’s early major expansion to the Gentiles. (William J. Larkin, IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Acts)
The story is well known. Saul is “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (verse 1). Indeed, he stood guard at the stoning of Christianity’s first martyr, Stephen (cf. Acts 8:1). And now he’s journeying to Damascus to continue his crusade against Christianity. But as he’s on his way, “a light from heaven flashes around him” (verse 3) and the living Lord speaks to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me” (verse 4)? Following his encounter with Christ, Luke makes this important note about Paul’s eyesight: “Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing” (verse 8). It seems as though Jesus had given Saul a physical manifestation of his sad spiritual state. For Saul was one of the blind guides that Jesus had so acerbically condemned during his earthly ministry.
Blessedly, Saul’s blindness was only temporary. Three days later, after he was filled with the Holy Spirit, “something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized” (verse 18). Saul has gone from a blinded spiritual reprobate to a seeing regenerated child of God!
Most everyone has sung the words of the old John Newton hymn: “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” This was most certainly the case – spiritually and physically – in Saul’s life. But it is true in our lives too. For, as God’s children, we can see! Although this sinful world and our depraved natures prevent us from seeing perfectly (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12), we can nevertheless see all we need to see for our salvation – for we can see the cross.
“Word for Today” – Acts 8 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
“It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.” Such is the premise of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.” Mike travels the country looking for the most disgusting, most repelling, most stomach-churning jobs around. And he does not disappoint. Fish gutter, sewer inspector, owl vomit collector, alligator farmer – These jobs don’t even sound real! But they are. And Rowe loves to show his viewers the ins and outs of jobs most people didn’t even know existed.
Although I’m not sure it qualifies as a dirty job in the sense that it gets you literally, physically dirty, it still turns my stomach and repels my senses. I’m talking about the dirty, yet biblical, job of “eunuch.” In the Ancient Near East, eunuchs were commonly high ranking political assistants who, because they were incapable of having children, would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty of their own and were thus entrusted with a large amount of power by a nation’s sovereign. What could gain a person desirable political status, however, would not gain them a desirable spiritual status. For Scripture commands, “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 23:1). Thus, in Israel at least, eunuchs were excluded from the temple of God and were considered religiously abhorrent.
In our reading for today from Acts 8, we meet a man with the dirty job of a eunuch. As was common, he was a high-ranking political official, being an assistant “in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of Ethiopia” (verse 26). But his high rank came with a cost – a cost of exclusion from the temple in Jerusalem. But this eunuch’s life was about to change. For an angel of the Lord has directed a Christian named Philip to meet with this Ethiopian eunuch who, in a moment of divine providence, just happens to be reading a passage from the prophet Isaiah:
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living. (Isaiah 53:7-8)
Upon meeting Philip, this eunuch wants to know, “’Who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him about the good news of Jesus Christ” (verses 34-35). And although the eunuch may still have been prevented from entering the Jewish temple, he is not prevented from receiving a Christian baptism: “Both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him” (verse 38). This eunuch is no longer excluded from God, for he has received a relationship with God through baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.
Only a few chapters after the one the Ethiopian eunuch was reading that day when he met with Philip, the prophet Isaiah declares:
For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” (Isaiah 56:4-5)
God’s intention, it seems, was to include eunuchs as a part of his people all along. Indeed, they receive a name even better than those who were allowed in the temple under Deuteronomical law.
Although no one reading this blog probably has the dirty job of a eunuch, we all have dirty jobs that we must face in our lives. Standing up for integrity in a corrupt workplace. Parenting a rebellious child. Staying with an unfaithful spouse. Shepherding a family through a terrible tragedy. All of these are dirty jobs. And it is when we are called to work these dirty jobs that we sometimes wonder, “Is God there with me as I work these dirty jobs? Can I approach him and ask him for the power, wisdom, and direction that I need? Does God even care about I’m going through?” The answer the Ethiopian eunuch would give would be a resounding, “Yes!” Whether we work a dirty job or are dirtied by sin, we can be assured that we have “an everlasting name that will not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:5). For we have the everlasting name of God placed upon us in our baptisms. And this name is a name which guides us even unto salvation.
“Word for Today” – Acts 7 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
They arrive in my email inbox almost daily. Because of my solid character and good reputation, a rich financier from somewhere in Africa would like to deposit millions of dollars in my personal bank account of which I, of course, will remain the chief executor. All I have to do is share my personal account information with this person so that she can make the transaction. What a deal! And what a scam! As most people already know, these emails are sent out by the millions by spammers, just hoping that people will send them their account information. For with such sensitive information, these scammers can withdraw, not deposit, money from their victims’ accounts. Sure, the email sounds good, but, as the old saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” And indeed, these emails are too good to be true.
Because of the massive amount of misinformation and disinformation floating around the internet, the website snopes.com has become wildly popular in recent years. Snopes is devoted to tracking down spam emails, false claims, and dangerous schemes, examining their claims, and then asking a very simple question: “Is it true?” Does what an email or website claims to offer line up with what it actually delivers?
“Is it true?” This is the question asked of a Christian named Stephen in today’s reading from Acts 7. As Acts 6 concludes, Stephen stands accused by the Jewish religious leaders of his day of “speaking against the temple and against the law” (Acts 6:13). Now, as Acts 7 opens, the high priest has only one question for Stephen: “Are these charges true” (verse 1)? “Are these charges just a scam suitable for Snopes,” the high priest wants to know, “or do you really pose a threat to our temple and our faith system?” Is it true?
Stephen’s answer to this simple question constitutes one of the most eloquent summaries of biblical theology and history in all Scripture. Rather than answering the high priest’s question concerning whether or not the charges against him specifically are true, Stephen launches into a soliloquy concerning truth in general. Indeed, he offers a cogent and beautiful defense of the truth of Scripture – from its reckoning of Abraham to Isaac to Joseph to Moses to Joshua to David to Solomon. “God’s Word is true!” Stephen declares. He then speaks to the charges against him using the truth of Scripture:
The Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?” (verses 48-50)
Quoting Scripture, Stephen says that the Jewish temple is no longer needed. Why? Because “the Most High does not live in houses made by men.” The Most High needs no temple in which to dwell because he dwells in Jesus. Jesus is the temple of God! This is the truth that Stephen declares to his accusers.
“At this they covered their ears…” (verse 57). Stephen proclaims the truth and the religious leaders refuse to listen to it. What a terrible tragedy.
Do you listen to Jesus? Or, like the religious leaders, are there Scriptural teachings at which you cover your ears? Are you listening when God speaks on how you manage your money or how you train your children or how you honor your spouse or how you guard your sexuality? Or, do you turn a deaf ear and remain recalcitrant in sin? Stephen would call us to listen to the truth – to uncover our ears. As the prophet Jeremiah says, “Hear the word of the LORD; open your ears to the words of his mouth” (Jeremiah 9:20). Keep an ear open to God’s Word today. For God will certainly speak to you!
“Word for Today” – Acts 6 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
“Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 17:8). Such is a prayer of David and a promise of God. We, as the crown of God’s creation and the redeemed of God’s Son, are the apple of God’s eye. Not to give the same weight to a secular proverb as to a Scriptural promise, but an old saying here intersects with this Scriptural axiom: “The apple does not fall far from the tree.”
The origin of this saying is uncertain, although some ascribe it to the famed fourth century BC physician, and the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates. Whatever its origins, this proverb is an apt affirmation that certain traits and habits have a proclivity to be passed on from one generation to the next. To put it another way, “Like father, like son.”
As Jesus’ redeemed, we are called his “children” (cf. 1 John 3:1). And, as Jesus’ children, the proverb, “the apple does not far fall from the tree,” would seem to apply. Indeed, as Jesus himself says, “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20). What happens to Jesus, even that which is harsh and harrying, will also happen to us as his children. For the apple does not fall far from the tree.
In our reading for today, we see one such an example of the life of one of Jesus’ children echoing the life of Christ himself. Acts 6 recounts the life – and, sadly, the death – of the first Christian martyr Stephen. The parallels between Jesus’ life and Stephen’s are legion. Consider these:
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Stephen angers sinful religious leaders who, try as they might, “can not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke” (verse 10). Jesus also angers sinful religious leaders who, try as they might, “can not say a word in reply” to Jesus (Matthew 22:46).
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Stephen is persecuted by these same religious leaders who “stir up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law” (verse 12). Jesus is also persecuted by these religious leaders who “stir up the crowd” (Mark 15:11).
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Stephen is tried on trumped up charges, brought by “false witnesses, who testified, ‘This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law’” (verse 13). Jesus too is tried on trumped up charges, also brought by “false witnesses…who declared, ‘This fellow said: I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days’” (Matthew 26:59-60).
The apple does not fall far from the tree. Jesus was persecuted and finally killed. And so Stephen too was persecuted and finally martyred.
As it was with Jesus, so it was with Stephen. And as it was with Stephen, so it is with us. Although we may not be martyred for our faith, we are sure to endure hardship and persecution. In fact, I received an email from a dear congregational member just this past week, seeking some assistance because an atheist friend of his was viciously attacking his faith. Such trials are sure to come. For the apple does not fall far from the tree.
As many hardships as we may have to endure as God’s “apples,” we can be assured of this: We will also enjoy God’s successes and blessings. After all, for all the persecution that Jesus had to endure, those who opposed him could not stop him. And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Those who oppose us won’t be able to stop us either. Indeed, in spite of Stephen’s martyrdom, Acts reminds us, “The Word of God spread” (verse 7). Try as it might, this world’s rage cannot stop the gospel’s spread. For the Gospel is spread by us. And no one – no power or principality, no angel or demon – can thwart us apples of God’s eye, for us apples never fall far from God’s tree. And God can never be stopped! And that means, neither can we. So today, march forth boldly with God’s gospel. For the more people who hear and believe the gospel, the more apples are added to God’s tree. And what a marvelous tree it is. I’m proud to be a part. I hope you are too.
“Word for Today” – Acts 5 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
In the second century BC, a Greek dictator named Antiochus IV Epiphanes came to power in the Seleucid Empire, one of the tracts of Alexander the Great’s empire that were doled out to various rulers after its collapse. To put it mildly, Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a ruthless tyrant. He claimed divine epithets for himself as no other ruler had. For example, he demanded that people called him theos epiphanes, or “god manifest.” But his eccentric habits and insane actions led many of his contemporaries to call him Epimanes, a play of the name Epiphanes, meaning “mad one.” And indeed he was.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes hated the Jews and did everything within his power to destroy them. A story passed down to us in the book of 2 Maccabees, a history volume recounting Epiphanes’ reign, tells of seven Jewish brothers who Epiphanes gleefully tortured by flogging them with whips and forcing them to eat pig flesh, an animal declared unclean by Levitical law (cf. Leviticus 11:7). When the brothers proclaimed their continuing fidelity to God in spite of their unjust tortures, Epiphanes became infuriated:
The king fell into a rage and gave order to have pans and caldrons heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. (2 Maccabees 7:3-5)
What a pleasant picture, huh? Following the first brother’s death, each of the remaining six brothers was martyred in the same way. When the king reached the sixth brother, he defiantly warned Epiphanes: “Do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God” (2 Maccabees 7:19).
Epiphanes tried to “fight against God.” So said the sixth brother. This phrase is only one word in Greek – theomachos. Theos means “God” and machomai means “to fight.” Epiphanes was a God-fighter. And he lost. He died suddenly of disease in 164 BC and the Jews reclaimed their theology.
In our reading for today from Acts 5, we meet some Jews who are once again being unjustly and heinously tortured. Except that these Jews are not being persecuted at the hands of some mad Greek dictator, they are being tortured at the hands of their fellow Jews for proclaiming the good news of God’s Messiah, Jesus. Like Antiochus, members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body, “were furious and wanted to put these ‘Jews for Jesus’ to death” (verse 33). And they would have carried through their plans would it not have been for a religious leader named Gamaliel.
Gamaliel was the most famous and most respected Jewish teacher of that day. Indeed, when Gamaliel died, one admirer wrote, “Since Rabbo Gamaliel the Elder died, there has been no more reverence for the law, and purity and piety died out at the same time” (Mishnah Sotah 9:15). Such was the respect that Gamaliel commanded. Thus, when Gamaliel spoke, everyone listened. And Gamaliel, in the presence of an angry Sanhedrin mob, speaks:
Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God. (verses 35-39)
“You will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Theomachos. Gamaliel was accusing his Jewish brothers of acting like Epiphanes. And his accusation was sufficiently stinging: “His speech persuaded them” (verse 40). And these Jews for Jesus lived on to share the gospel.
Fighting against God, as Gamaliel reminds us, is futile. Whether it is out of silly stubbornness, antipathetic anger, or dangerous depravity, you can never win a theomachos. Pharaoh didn’t win when he defied God’s command to free the Israelites from their slavery. Jonah didn’t win when he tried to shirk his preaching duties to Nineveh. And we won’t win if we try to depravedly disregard God’s dictates.
Interestingly, when Luke opens his book of Acts, he begins with this dedication: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all the things that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven” (Acts 1:1-2). Theophilus. A name which means not “God-fighter,” but “God-lover.” Theos means “God” and phileo means “to love.” Luke’s book is not for those who theomachus, but for those who theophilus, even as Christ commands: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). May we theophilus today…and every day. For God loves us.
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