Laurie and I recently purchased a bird feeder. It was advertised as “squirrel-proof”. It wasn’t…
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| The Kingdom of God is like a bird feeder overflowing with seed... |
The feeder was supposed to close under the squirrel’s weight
thus allowing only birds to feed. Well,
the squirrels wouldn’t be deterred. They
figured a way past the barriers to get to the tasty food within. In fact, the little varmints were so
tenacious they even broke the plastic rendering the barriers pretty much
useless. Sigh. Back to the drawing board…
Mark’s Gospel records a scene where some people bought their
sick friend to see Jesus. When they got
to the house where he was, they found a “barrier” between them and Jesus—a
crowd of onlookers prevented them from reaching him. But like the squirrels at our feeder, these men
weren’t deterred. They stopped at
nothing to get to Jesus, literally digging through the roof and lowering their
stricken friend into the house so he could be close to Jesus—Mark 2:1-4.
The Message of Jesus
is even more tenacious than a squirrel at a bird feeder; it will do its best to
break down every human barrier we try to impose to bring all people closer to God.
That’s sort of what
happens as the Church was born and begins to spread, which we celebrate each
year on Pentecost Sunday. This is
the story that Luke tells in the Book of
Acts; it’s volume two of Luke’s
saga, the first being his Gospel account of the life of Jesus. Christianity begins as a sect of the Jewish
faith and Luke tells the tale of its rapid expansion throughout Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
Earth—Acts 1:8—knocking down
barriers every step of the way.
Luke begins Acts where the Gospel left off—see Luke 24:45-53. The last “scene” of Volume 1 is “replayed” to
open Volume 2—kind of like a TV cliffhanger.
The believers have gathered for the Ascension of Jesus. His last words
to his disciples is that they should return to Jerusalem and wait… He assures them they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes—Acts 1:1-11.
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| Come Holy Spirit, Come... (Acts 2:1-12) |
Ten days after Jesus ascends, if you will, the “bird feeder”
overflows with Spirit seed in
Jerusalem. Luke describes how the Holy
Spirit floods the space where the believers are gathered on the day of
Pentecost, a long-standing Jewish festival celebrating first fruits—Acts 2.
The Jewish believers “eat their fill” of the seed and then go forth from
that place to spread it. The Message of
Jesus is proclaimed throughout Jerusalem.
More and more people become followers of The Way. The rulers and authorities of the city are
threatened by the growth of “the Church” and begin to persecute the
believers.
Maybe we could view the persecution as “squirrels” and the
disciples as “birds” forced to leave the “feeder”. Luke tells us that,
following the stoning of Stephen—Acts
7:54-60—the believers began to face “severe persecution”—Acts 8:1. Many of the disciples flee Jerusalem, but as
they go, they carry Spirit seed with them and scatter it as they go throughout
Judea and Samaria.
According to Luke’s
story, Spirit seed radiate out
further and further from the mother Church in Jerusalem. The first seeds reach “Samaria” via Philip,
who began preaching and baptizing there.
Peter and John hear the news and come to investigate. The believers receive the Holy Spirit and we
have the so-called Samaritan Pentecost—Acts 8:14-17.
A while later, Saul, the same man who stood and watched approvingly
as Stephen was stoned—Acts 8:1, and who
had been the most zealous persecutor of the early Church, has a transformative
experience on the “Road to Damascus”—Acts
9:1-19—after which he becomes Paul, Apostle
to the Gentiles. Immediately, says Luke, he begins spreading Spirit seed in
Damascus—Acts 9:20.
A believer named Barnabas takes Paul under his wing and
brings him to Jerusalem to meet Peter and the other Apostles. In order to vouch for Paul, Barnabas must cross
“barriers”. He steps out in faith and
trusts this man who not long ago wanted to kill him—and all his friends. This must have been an awkward meeting, the
former persecutor standing before the leaders of the fledgling Church. (Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for Paul
and Peter’s first meeting.)
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| Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48) |
In Acts 10, the
Spirit prompts a Roman Centurion from Caesarea named Cornelius—i.e., a Gentile
believer—to send men find Peter in Joppa. Almost simultaneously Peter
experiences an intense vision, after which the men arrive at where he is
staying. Peter invites the men to lodge
with him, which would violate “boundaries” for a proper Jew—Acts 10:23. Later, when Peter goes to Caesarea to visit
Cornelius, he presumably stays at Cornelius’ home—Acts 10:33. As Peter is speaking to Cornelius and his friends about
his vision Luke says that the Holy Spirit fell upon them—Acts 10:44-48. This Gentile Pentecost experience has a
profound impact on Peter. He begins to realize that “God shows no partiality”
and that “even the Gentiles” are included in God’s Kingdom. I also have to wonder if God used this
experience to help convince Peter of the legitimacy of Paul’s calling to be
Apostle to the Gentiles. (Peter seems to
struggle with consistency in living this out, which brought him in to conflict
with Paul—Galatians 2:11-14.)
At my church, we are currently doing a sermon series on the life of Paul based on Adam Hamilton's book: The Call. The story of this "long distance" Apostle to the Gentiles is fascinating to study—and to look for connections between Paul's story and our stories. Paul
would go on three (possibly four) missionary journeys visiting numerous cities
throughout the Roman Empire spreading Spirit seed everywhere he went. Communities of Christ followers were established at most of the places he travelled. Paul returned to some of these places several times in the course of a few years. Eventually, Paul made it to Rome, where a
community of Christ followers began. (He may have travelled even further to the east toward Spain, though there is some debate about that.) Either way, it is believed that both Peter and Paul reached the end of their earthly sojourns
in Rome, but not before the Gospel reached “the ends of the Earth”, by which
Luke probably meant the city of Rome.
The symbolism of the Kingdom of
God gaining a foothold in the capital city of Caesar’s Empire would not
have been missed by his first century audience.
Of course Rome, or even Spain, really wasn’t “the ends of the Earth” was
it? No, it was really just the beginning
of the journey for the Way of Jesus. In
a sense, Pentecost has never stopped happening. What Jesus began, and Peter, Paul, and the other Apostles continued, has carried on for over 2000 years. Every time the gospel was proclaimed in a new place, seed kept spreading
propelled by the wind of the Spirit, until eventually the seed literally
circled the globe.
Whether we grew up in Church, or came to faith just yesterday, or even
don’t know if we believe yet, every one of us are here today because someone
spread Spirit seed to us. Our
calling as followers of Jesus is to, in a sense, write the "next chapter" of Acts, spreading Spirit seed wherever we go.
