Today we’re wrapping up our spring series on the book of Acts, having focused on the important role of the Holy Spirit in guiding and shaping the early Church.
I don’t know about you, but each story we looked at left me amazed.
Each week we heard how The Spirit took the believers in directions they hadn’t yet imagined, continuously expanding the reach of God’s grace beyond every human-created boundary.
And we wondered if the Spirit was still doing that in our day, calling us to step out beyond our strategic plans, calling us to live more by trust and following than by control and narrowing.
These stories from the book of Acts provide evidence that Jesus was right when he said the Spirit, like the wind, blows wherever She wills, not constrained by our definitions of who’s in and who’s out. (see John 3 – visit with Nicodemus)
Through this study of Acts, we saw the Spirit searching the highways and byways for any whose hearts were open, regardless of their skin color, country of origin, or sexual identity.
We saw Jesus’ disciple Philip get swept up in the Spirit and dropped off beside the chariot of an Ethiopian Eunuch travelling home after being in Jerusalem.
This foreigner from north Africa was reading about a particular Bible description of a servant who stayed loyal while suffering many wrongs.
The man was reading from a scroll containing the words of Isaiah chapter 53, wondering if God might care for him like God cared for the servant in the text.
And it happened, just as Jesus said it would, that where two or three are gathered in his name, he would be present.
Through the Spirit the Ethiopian feels God’s personal embrace signaling belonging. They stop the chariot and Philip baptizes him, miraculously finding a source of water in the dry desert outback of Gaza. Friends, God’s enthusiasm for reunion can’t be contained! 😊 //.
In addition to those wanting to belong, we also saw in the book of Acts that the Spirit pays visits to those who resist God – confronting those who act out against others in an effort to avoid the real issue of their own hurts within.
Specifically, we met a troublemaker named Saul in chapter nine. You’ll remember that a sudden bright light knocks him off his ride, bringing his body crashing to the ground.
A voice from heaven questions why he’s hurting others, avoiding the cry of his own soul’s pain. How many times has that happened to us?
The Spirit of Christ challenges Saul to look in the mirror and see the deep sadness in his own eyes. For three days Saul sits in the dark of his soul’s emptiness, confronted with his inability to fill his life with status and meaning.
During that time, he refuses to eat. Instead, he prays.
Maybe his prayers began like Job’s, taking an argumentative tone, having it out with the Lord as various painful memories tied to his broken state surface, stirred by the Spirit rummaging through his past.
Then, maybe at some point, Saul was calmed by the kindness of being listened to.
And maybe in that space created by the Spirit, he began to see the real issue – namely, his inability to heal and overcome his profound unhappiness and hurt.
Some of us have been here – emptied out and humbled by some difficult experience. These are the moments in our lives where a choice needs to be made – a choice to stay stuck in self-pity and/or bitterness, or a choice to take a leap of faith and give everything over to God.
As Saul loosens his grip, the Spirit of our Lord Jesus taps a believer named Ananias on the shoulder, telling him to go over to Saul and convey not only forgiveness and restoration of sight, but a welcome into the family of God.
Saul embraces it. He wants to live. He wants his life to matter. Most of us do too.
God gives Saul a new identity and with it a mission, a calling to help others come home to their Creator’s love and acceptance.
Saul is transformed by this experience of dying to his past, and dying to how he tried to control everything and everybody. He makes the decision to let it go.
Dying to anything is hard. You and I know that. It’s why we resist it so strongly.
I imagine it “killed” Saul to see through Christ’s eyes how he had been part of taking the life of Stephen – a servant of Jesus who was just trying to help widows access daily bread resources. You can read that story in Acts 6 through 7.
For Saul, and for us, the Spirit not only convicts, but it also showed us how deep and wide the grace of God is – the same grace that forgave those who had participated in the death of Christ, being it with hammer and nail, or simply cheering it on.
In a sense, we all have that to confess. We’ve all chosen ourselves at the expense of others. We’ve all used others to keep our fears at bay.
Forgiven, and reborn, Saul spends the next three years “offline,” finding himself – learning the new language of grace and walking the new walk of trust.
We have to give him credit for taking the time to learn about his true God-created self, deepening his understanding of what it is we all really want.
Imagine shedding life-draining schedules built around getting ahead, and embracing a schedule dedicated to healing, filling, and gratitude – finding true joy and peace in right relationships.
Isn’t it true that we all want to be seen, known, and have a role in a life that contributes meaningfully to the wellbeing of others, and that also blesses the Creation God gave us to tend? Why not claim it and let go of everything else? //
After those three years, Saul steps back into public view.
He now goes by the name of Paul, which apparently means “small.”
That name seems to fit his calling. Though he struggles with working nonstop, wanting to make up for his sins, pushing himself to the edge, ultimately his goal is not to draw attention to himself, but to highlight the towering example of God’s faithfulness.
This is hard for Paul. He’s competitive. We see how he struggles in some of his letters to the churches, talking about certain “super” apostles getting the glory. We too know about feelings of envy and jealousy.
And Paul doesn’t like it when the Spirit blocks his way to a community he wants to visit. He also confesses that doesn’t like being slowed down by a thorn in his flesh God chose not to remove. Like us, he has to learn to wait on the Lord.
If you’ve followed Paul’s life, you know that The Spirit patiently teaches Paul and us that all our accomplishments aren’t what matter the most.
In fact, some of the most profound moments of God’s kingdom coming to earth happen in times of weakness – even failure.
The cross of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of that, proving that it’s not about us and our power, but rather God working in our worst moments, carrying us when we could no longer walk, raising us to life where we had died in our efforts to save.
Well,
after a few years of missionary trips and church planting endeavors, as well as high-level conferences in Jerusalem to discuss the ever-widening understanding of God’s grace poured out on humankind,
Paul gets arrested for being at the heart of a riot that occurred in the temple.
The arresting soldiers actually save Paul’s life, pulling him out of the hands of some who wanted to kill him for his inclusive views on the Gentiles.
In the days that follow, various trials take place. Paul is bounced around to different authorities. Finally, Paul uses his Roman Citizenship Card and appeals to have his case heard by Emperor Caesar in Rome.
This is how Paul ends up on board the ill-fated Egyptian ship heading to Rome.
He’s being escorted by a Captain in Rome’s Imperial Regiment. Luke is along, and so is another friend. In total, there are 276 people on board, plus various items of cargo, and a shipment of grain.
For some reason, the owner of the ship is eager to complete the trip before winter. Both the cargo and the people paying for a ride are worth a lot of money. Completing the trip means getting paid. Getting paid means staying in business.
Truth be told, we can assume that it’s not just the owner who pushes the captain to take risks with the weather.
The large number of people on board suggests that many might be urgently seeking to leave their setting for a better home elsewhere. They’re not interested in waiting till spring, even if it means sailing during hurricane season.
I wonder how many were refugees looking for a better life.
Perhaps it wasn’t all that different than today.
We certainly have heard of many crowded boats of people paying large amounts of money to get to Europe.
We’ve also heard of many who didn’t make it. The numbers are in the thousands each year of people who drown, their boats sinking.
Seems this was going to be the destiny for Paul and those on board the ship. The fact that they survived ought to make us sit up and look closely at what happened.
Honestly, I don’t know why some lives are saved and some are lost. But maybe the issue is bigger than trying to figure out the reason of who lives and who dies.
Maybe the BIGGER issue is what’s making people feel so desperate that they need to take such huge risks, flee, and at times to even resort to violence in order to survive.
Think about what’s going on in Haiti.
It’s too simple to say the violence and disorder is just a gang problem, or drug problem, or a lack of police problem.
It’s bigger – and maybe simpler? – than a corrupt ineffective government.
Situations like this remind me of when the disciples weren’t able to heal the boy who was having seizures. Debriefing about it later, Jesus told them that this case required a lot of prayer (Mark 9:29) – in other words, a lot of soul searching.
Sometimes the answer is right in front of our face, but we can’t see it.
Perhaps we don’t want to see it – because it might mean us letting go of something we don’t want to part with. //
As you heard, the ship Paul is on was caught in a storm that lasted for two weeks.
Can you imagine two weeks of running blind, at the mercy of the wind and waves?
Early on, everyone gave up hope of surviving.
Makes me wonder what their conversations were like at that point.
Had facing their death freed people to talk more honestly, naming their regrets?
Was it a gift, having several days to reflect together on the meaning of their lives?
Did those days of darkness give them a chance to pray deeply into a long ago buried desire for God? //
We don’t always get a gift of time when death is near.
I love that the Spirit is present in this vulnerable moment.
I imagine Paul’s conversion experience of living for three days in blindness, not knowing what would become of him, made him a gift to the people on board the ship.
He came through that experience of darkness, touched and healed by the truth of his longing for God, and God’s reaching out with healing. //
It’s extraordinary that all the souls on board take communion with Paul.
They take in the bread, demonstrating how much they want to be one with the God who Created them, the God of Life.
And key to their future is that everyone stay together – that no one use a lifeboat leaving the rest behind.
There’s definitely another sermon in that.
Friends, this story is about facing our powerlessness, letting go of the ways we try to stay in control – ways that always not only hurt ourselves but others too.
It’s a parable of learning to let go and trust God to be provide, and to then express our gratitude by living the rest of our lives with the Spirit, going where She leads us, to be witnesses to others of their being desired by God.
May the Lord bless each of you in your journey to live your lives trusting in God’s faithfulness. And may the Lord bless Mark, Janet, and Kandace as our shepherds, leading us to be people who find healing and purpose in letting go.
Come, Holy Spirit, and abide within. Inspire us for this wonderful purpose of being conduits of healing and hope in this day.
AMEN.