Posts from 2022

Posts from 2022

Sunlight on the ocean aerial

When We Say Christmas

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly. Titus 2:11-12 The grace of God has appeared! It is no abstract idea we ponder once a year. The grace of God has undeniably, irreversibly inserted itself into human history! That’s what we mean when we say Christmas. (Who knew such a stunning Christmas Gospel proclamation could jump…
Tourist near yellow tent lighted from the inside

Tabernacled

When we talk about Christmas, we’re talking about the incarnation, about the fullness of God being found to be suddenly and mysteriously human. We Christians get to point at Jesus, someone poor, homeless, gentle, controversial, and despised, and say, “That’s who our God is.” Christmas and incarnation are the good news that God is not far away. God is near, intimately near. And actually, in order to talk about Christmas, we can turn to Matthew or Luke as we often…
The Parthenon in Athens

Grasping

In Acts 17, Luke characterizes Athens as a place where people “would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new,” a whole city that treats ideas like commodities, traded every day for the gratification that comes from hearing something new and interesting. This gratification is just one more idol alongside all the others Paul encounters in Athens. He’s here waiting for Silas and Timothy, and in the meantime will converse with people all over town. He quickly…

Not For Sale

In Acts 8 we meet two interesting characters. Philip the apostle and Simon the magician. Philip is preaching and healing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Simon is someone in touch with the spiritual realm to also do incredible things. Likely he’s doing many of the same things Philip is doing through the power of the Holy Spirit. But Luke shows us that there’s a great difference between the two. Simon’s magic results in his own personal glory. But…

Contemplation and Action

By Acts 6, the Jerusalem church so far has become known primarily for two things: proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus, and being a source of radical generosity. As we’ve already seen, people like Barnabas are selling everything they own, liquidating all their assets, and bringing it to the church, trusting that that money will end up exactly where God wants it. And until chapter 6, it’s kind of looked like this was being done perfectly.    But now, a new…

Secrets and Half-Truths

What a strange story we find in Acts 5. The church is sharing life together in the most radical and generous ways, when suddenly two people, Ananias and Sapphira, are dead, apparently struck down for their sin. Unfortunately, the story is a bit vague. Luke doesn’t actually tell us that God killed Ananias and Sapphira, or that Peter did, but only that they die when they hear Peter speak. The ancient readers of this story probably didn’t tie themselves into…

Unflinching

When Peter and John go up to the Jerusalem temple one afternoon, they meet a man who’s been unable to walk his whole life. Every day he would have someone carry him to the temple gate so that he could ask for whatever generosity some passerby might feel like offering. As Peter and John walk by, he asks them for the same alms he asks of everyone. “I have no silver or gold,” Peter tells him, “but what I have…

Before Any Sign or Seal

“We say, ‘Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.’ How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the…

In the Heavenly Places

There’s a phrase that pops up five times in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, but nowhere else in his other letters (or in the whole New Testament for that matter).  The phrase is, “in the heavenly places.” Of course Paul has something to say about heaven elsewhere in his letters, but this exact phrase belongs only to Ephesians. Why only Ephesians? We can’t really answer that, but we can at least see what Paul is doing with the phrase here…

Intentionally

What would be the perfect opening sermon for the first ever Church? Some kind of pep talk? Actually, when Peter stands up to address the first Christian community in history, he begins on a sobering note. First things first, we have to talk about… Judas. “He was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry,” Peter says. (Acts 1:17) The betrayer Judas was handpicked by Jesus himself. Even Jesus’ handpicked community was not immune for the trappings…

Baptized into Adventure

To begin the book of Acts (the sequel to the Gospel of Luke), Luke immediately lets us know that we’re picking up right where we left off. Acts couldn’t be a more organic overflow of where the Gospel of Luke leaves us. First, Acts opens with a lot of Spirit talk. “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:5) “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has…

Free

Freedom is a funny thing. For being a word we’re so accustomed to, it can be more difficult to define than we often think. It can also be more difficult to know it when we see it, or know it when we see the lack of it. Acts 16 gives us a full cast of characters, some free and some not, although which characters are which may not be clear at first. Among this cast of characters are first Paul…