This week a Pew research study came out saying that Christianity is declining in America –
there was a big drop in the percentage of Americans who call themselves
Christians.
That was followed by a
flurry of interpretive pieces- it’s not
declining, there are less closet atheists now, or it is just a shedding of the
dead weight of all the churches and denominations that used to be Christian
that have left true Christianity. Or
it’s because churches are not doing enough to reach millennials; or because
churches are too engaged politically, or not engaged enough politically, or
because people are more independent, and less comfortable with labels and
membership. And there are dire
predictions of what it means in the future, as Christianity loses ground to
other religion and to the “nones”, with some even saying things like “the
decline of Christianity in America could lead to a collapse like the Roman Empire.”
Against this backdrop comes the
story of Paul and Barnabus’ almost comedic encounter with the people of Lystra.
Our passage today reminds me a bit of
any number of movies I’ve seen where someone arrives washed up on a supposed
deserted island only to be lauded as a god by the locals – like the Ewoks
welcoming Princess Leia and worshiping C3PO as a golden deity, or Tom Hanks in
Joe vs the Volcano, or Garfield in that movie where he goes to Hawaii – (and I
know there are many more but for some reason those are the three that come to
mind). After healing a man who had
never been able to walk, Paul and Barnabas are assumed to be gods come down to
earth. But because of a language barrier, it takes these two a little while to
figure out what is happening, and when they finally do it is almost impossible
to correct the misconception. And it
gets even more dramatic and funnier when you glimpse the events leading up to
and following this encounter.
We are now something like 18
years after Jesus sent the disciples into all the world. I want to let that sink in for a minute,
because in reading these things in the bible, highlights without the spaces in
between, they seem closer together than that, and in following something like
the narrative lectionary, where we take huge leaps through books, it can feel
even faster.
But this is like an entire
childhood later; let’s just say that if their “go and make disciples” was born
around Pentecost, it could vote by now.
18 years ago right now cds were cutting edge, everyone used paper maps
in their cars to get places, and 97% of phones were still plugged into walls. 18
years is a long time, and a lot happened in that time, not all of it worth
reporting.
When we look at the whole
thing from where we are – a couple thousand years and a few thousand miles away,
it looks like the gospel spread to all the world so thoroughly and effectively
that there is no actual global center to Christianity –it truly is in every
place. It might be easy to assume that
it went along like a fabulously executed strategic plan, the disciples got
their marching orders and obeyed, Paul had his Damascus road conversion, and
then went on to convert the world. From
this far away, it’s pretty clean, systematic, even.
But on the ground, up close
and in the moment, it looks a lot messier than that. Like, for example, the
fact that Paul and the others are getting beat up repeatedly, even occasionally stoned and left for dead,
and it often appears that almost nothing goes as planned.
Our story of the incident in
Lystra is sandwiched right between episodes of beatings, misunderstandings and
scuffles, and throughout this portion of Acts we keep seeing a dogged group of religious
Jews racing between paragraphs and ducking under page turns to catch up to Paul
and Barnabus in each of the places they go, deliberately undoing what they’re
doing. Convinced that Paul and Barnabus
are corrupting the true faith, these ardent believers keep arriving in towns
right after them calling them dangerous and getting the townspeople to violently
drive them off. So if you imagine that
is par for the course for them, then the reception they receive in Lystra must be positively
exhilarating.
At first they must be
thrilled! Elated! This guy is healed and everyone is responding! This is how it feels when things go well! Look how excited they are! They get how great the gospel is! They’re
getting it! Look how many are getting it!
Through the cheering and the
garlands they rejoice, laughing along with the euphoric people right up until it
starts to dawn on them that something is not right… that, wait a minute, what’s
happening… are they getting ready to slaughter
that animal to us?? Oh no, wait, do they, do they think we are gods… ??
And it turns on a dime. Now
they’re devastated – how could it have gone so
wrong?
This is pretty much the opposite
of what they are trying to communicate!
This is not what God wants at all! In fact, God wants the people to turn
away from these practices, and recognize the God who has been revealing Godself
to them all along, caring for them and feeding and nurturing them and filling
their hearts with joy! Paul and Barnabus are merely fellow recipients of this
grace, bearers of good news of the true God who did indeed become human. But despite
all their screaming and clothes-ripping and desperate explaining, they still scarcely
restrain the crowds from sacrificing an animal to them in worship.
And the verses immediately following this incident show that once the crowds calm down, that group of naysayers hot on their heels catches up to them and convinces the people of Lystra that Paul and Barnabus are shysters, and they once again get driven from the city, (this time Paul is stoned and left for dead). So they’re back on familiar turf, anyway.
But there is an even stronger
thread that runs through it all, and that is this: They continue rejoicing.
They keep coming back among other disciples of the way and giving thanks to
God, rejoicing together, praying together, seeking God’s direction, celebrating
and then jauntily setting out on another journey, joyful and filled with a
sense of purpose.
Why? Well, they weren’t in it for the fame –
obviously. They were horrified by the
response of the people in Lystra.
And
they weren’t in it for a scorecard. They
seemed to lose people as fast as they gained them; let’s just say their methods
begged for a corporate strategy assessment, anyway.
But they kept going, forward, and looping
back, revisiting communities, supporting those who had joined the Way, building
them up with encouragement, receiving their encouragement and care, and moving
on to new territory, undaunted by the many troubles and complications.
There is a resilient and
enduring dependence on God, a reliance on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a
TRUST that God really is leading and doing something out there in the world
calling them to come see, come and share, and it keeps them going.
In the face of disappointment, fear, hunger,
rejection, danger, this is what gives them strength. This is what defines reality for them, not those things.
Every time they return to a
community for prayer, fasting and discernment, every time they share their
experiences, their joys and struggles, they get grounded again in the real
reality, the big picture, the kingdom of God, this force of love that looks
really different than the way of fear. They meet at the table and break bread
and encounter again the risen Jesus through their shared stories of Jesus,
recounting his words and deeds, remembering resurrection appearances, through weeping
together, laughing together, praying together, and then, regrounded in the life
of God, they head out to each new adventure.
And each new adventure and all the judgments and obstacles they
encounter, rather than tearing them down, only served to increase their trust
that they are indeed joining in the cosmic shift already underway.
They trust that God who led
them there, would meet them there, and would take it from there. God is doing it. Not them, not their own
strength or skill or great cultural savvy or stunning presentation. And then that kind of trust is exactly what
they are inviting others into.
They really, to their very
core, believe and trust that this is God’s ministry – and they are just
participating. And they want to give
their whole lives to participating in this force of love because God is wooing
the whole world, and how could they miss out on this?
And so trusting the Holy
Spirit means that they go out in anticipation, that in each place, at any
moment, God is bringing them to see what God has been up to, that God is
leading them to meet people whose lives God has been stirring, who are ready to
hear just what it is Paul and Barnabas are coming to say.
Here in Lystra, it’s this
one man, this man who stops Paul in his tracks, and in whose eyes Paul, when
peering intently, sees something he recognizes: faith, a trust already in God’s power to heal,
so Paul goes where God is and meets him in that place of faith. And God heals the man. As one biblical scholar explains, “This is
the nature of faith in Acts: trust in a God who will keep God’s promises. So
also this is the nature of God in Acts: a God who meets us and heals us.” (Eric Barretto)
Is Christianity in America
is dying? I don’t know. But I do know
that any time we make it about ourselves, the institutions we build, the work
we do, the labels we accept or give to others, the us and them battle where we
recruit people for our side and tally our cosmic scorecard, the number of
people in our pews or money in our bank accounts or trends on a graph or great
skills or cultural savvy, any time we use the world’s rejection and stoning or
praise and glory to dictate to us what is true about what God is doing in the
world, we are being guided by the way of fear, not trusting in the big picture,
the real reality.
God doesn’t care about our thriving institutions, our crumbling traditions,
our labels, or our successes and failures.
All of the things we use to make us feel secure, to reassure ourselves
that we are on the right track, are simply distractions from the Kingdom of
God, which always comes in weak and
backwards and upside down and often very messy ways, and will never stop wooing
hearts and changing lives and pulling us into trust and hope.
It simply will not.
The real reality is that Jesus
is already out there in the world, doing what Jesus does, and inviting us to
come and see, come and share. That is
how the love of God works- it is an unstoppable force that is holding the
universe together and bringing new life relentlessly. And every one of us needs
to be converted again and again – it never ends, like we saw last week with
Peter. God keeps drawing us into deeper relationship and greater openness to
meet Jesus in the unexpected places and unlikely people, trusting that God
leads us there, will meet us there, and will take it from there.
This week, another reality
was unfolding alongside all the grandiose and distressed predictions of
Christian doom. It was this little thing
called a “Love flash mob” – a once a year, online tradition where a small group
of volunteers hold up a family or two in need and ask people to pitch in for
their need. The rule is that nobody can donate more than $25, because it’s an
act of trust in God’s love, and faith that if we all join in a little bit, big
things can happen.
This year they dreamed
bigger, and instead of one or two families, they lifted up 176 people beginning
with three: a large foster family that needs a van, a wounded vet’s family that
needs a washing machine and a car, and a little girl that needs legs, yes, legs,
because she was born without. And they
kicked off the love flash mob, and the donations and words of encouragement
from started pouring in. After two hours,
ordinary people all over the country, giving less than $25, raised $82,000 and
those three needs were met.
Then they held up a 9 year
old girl who, after a conversation with a homeless person two years ago, began
growing vegetables to share with the homeless people in her community, and as
she got to know them, began expanding ways she helped until now is part of a
movement to build small houses- so more strangers rose up and supported her. Then,
for a mama with a spinal injury who uses leg braces and crutches and struggles
getting her little kids in and out of the car to go places, who love going to
the park together, more strangers bought a yard playset for them.
And then for an incredibly
inspiring bus driver who has encouraged countless kids and families, and who is
dying of cancer, people who did not know her provided those families the means
to celebrate her and care for her in her final days, and the list goes on and
on.
And it seemed impossible and
ridiculous but in a little over 24 hours, over $268,000 was raised to do something
meaningful and personal for 176 different people, to show them that they are
seen and loved. The average donation
amount from over 15,000 different people was $17. And one volunteer’s young daughter,
watching all this unfold, commented, ““Mom, it’s so cool that we already know
that in the end Love wins, so we can always make sure we’re on the right team.”
Sisters and brothers, we
already know the end.
So which reality will lead
us? What way we will we live?
Because whatever the state
of the “church” is in America, the Body of Christ is alive and well, the Church
– those who live forgiven and free in the love of Jesus and share that love
with others - is steadily, messily doing its thing, and every day we get to join
in the cosmic shift already and always underway.
But it’s easy to get
distracted from that truth. So we keep
coming back among other disciples of the Way to get grounded again in the real
reality, to meet Jesus together by giving thanks to God, rejoicing together,
praying together, sharing our joys and struggles, seeking God’s direction,
celebrating and then jauntily setting out again on our journey in anticipation,
to see what God is up to out there and listen for how the Spirit is calling us
to respond.
And it is my fervent prayer
that in all of this we too, really, to our very core, trust that
this is God’s ministry – and we are just participating. And that we will want to give our whole lives
to participating in this force of love, because God is wooing the whole world,
and how could we miss out on this?
Amen.
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