Acts 10:1-23 “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” What a difficult truth for us to accept! Adam and Eve were the first ones who had difficulty with this. God had made the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil holy, so He set it apart from the other trees, saying, “You can eat of the fruit of every other tree, but not this one.” But Adam and Eve called that tree common, choosing to violate God’s... Read more
Acts 9:32-43 I want you to know that I died today. I thought someone should know. You might not have noticed, but it’s not really your fault. You see: I’m a zombie. I’m one of the millions who are seen every day, walking around as if they’re living, but who in reality are dead. Some of us are truly dead, for we don’t know the way to Life. Some of us aren’t even aware that we’re zombies because we’ve gotten... Read more
Acts 9:20-31 In Acts 9, Jesus Christ has raised up another man to minister in His Name: Paul. We have a tendency to make heroes out of individuals and to treat them as individuals apart from the community that gives them life. Since the age of print and the consequent desire to display oneself as the one who created a particular object of art or literature, we’ve had an impulse towards individualism. It’s the Romantic idea that I, by myself,... Read more
Acts 9:1-19 It’s funny sometimes how it’s possible for people to have entirely different impressions of the same person. This morning we celebrate the life of St. Paul, especially to celebrate his dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ. St. Paul has been called many things by many people. Some say that he was a homophobe – one who hates and fears homosexuals; others today say that he himself was a homosexual. Some modern scholars say that he was a misogynist –... Read more
Acts 8:26-40 “’Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert. So he arose and went.” “’Go near and overtake this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’” Do you see what I see? There’s a pattern here, a pattern that reaches back to the beginning of man and right out through your computer monitor... Read more
Acts 8:5-25 Was the stoning of St. Stephen a good or a bad thing? Let me re-phrase that: was the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ a good or a bad thing? The two events are one and the same, united as they are by the Holy Spirit and the unity that Christ promised between Himself and His Body. But to answer the question, we might go back even further, to the Old Testament. Do you remember the story of Joseph and... Read more
Acts 7:54-8:4 The Church, as the Body of Christ, is to continue to say and do the things Jesus Christ came to earth to say and do. St. Stephen was a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, an example for all Christians, for he followed his Master in all things. I can’t think of anyone better who incarnates the idea that we are to follow our Master and in so doing establish His kingdom. Just as the Holy Spirit entered into... Read more
Acts 7:35-53 In Acts 7:35-53, St. Stephen hones in on his closing arguments. While he begins by acting as a defense attorney, by the end of his sermon he is acting as a prosecutor. It is this shocking reversal that must have caught his audience by surprise and provoked a response. I’m sure Stephen was hoping for a response of repentance, but what he got was exactly what he had just finished warning them about: a rejection of God and... Read more
Acts 7:17-34 Moses had a mid-life crisis. Actually, he had two of them, 40 years apart. I like the symmetry of Moses’ life, and even though I doubt I’ll live to 120, there are some hidden lessons in Moses’ life. In Moses’ first mid-life crisis, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. Although Moses was a grown man by now, he acted in an impetuous and even childish way, blindly retaliating for a... Read more
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Friday of 1st Sunday after Trinity – Acts 10:24-33
Acts 10:24-33 I can tell today’s lesson in one word: “obedience.” Thank you very much. Now we can all go back to our jobs in peace, having accomplished the world’s shortest Bible devotional. Eh? What’s that? Oh, there’s something more that should be said about this? In the grand scheme of things, Acts 10 is about God breaking down the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles, something so important and profound that St. Paul calls it the “great mystery.” ... Read more