SERMON The Three-Legged Stool of the Church

Acts 13:13-52

Pastor Robyn Hogue August 2, 2015 Skyline Presbyterian Church

When I was twenty, I went about looking for a more vibrant church. One Sunday I attended a church where I was made very much aware of the world scene. The sermon, prayers, and announcements all emphasized their concern for countries and causes beyond their town and their sanctuary. The injustices of the world were prayed for and preached about. That congregation had an inclusive world-view. The second church I attended was just next door, and I worshiped there a week later. Worship ran for over two hours. They had guitar, tambourine and drum accompanying the music. I enjoyed their freedom and spontaneity. Nothing was preached about or prayed for beyond the experience of the worshipers in that sanctuary. Their concern was entirely focused on the near at hand and how God could meet their needs. On the third Sunday I attended a “biblical” church. I heard about nothing in song, preaching, or prayers that didn’t take place two thousand or more years ago. Theirs was the church of the historical faith.

If you were to ask me which of those churches I felt more comfortable in, I’d have to say… “None.” I don’t want to have to choose between a personal God who cares about every need or a global God calling us to action in the world, or a God who acted dramatically in history two thousand years ago. I want to be in a church where each is valued. I want to be in a three-legged church. Personal-Global-Historical-God.

As Christians we believe God is in history, that God is working in history and that God can use us as instruments in that history. History from the Christian perspective is dynamic and unpredictable. One way in which we differ from all the animals, all created things, is that we alone are unfinished creatures. Every other creature is complete. An eagle is an eagle, a rabbit is a rabbit, an elephant is an elephant, expected to be nothing more, nothing less. Only we humans are unfinished in terms of our personhood, offered multiple choices at each stage of development. Our corporate history is also incomplete, and we can choose what we will become.

The thirteenth chapter of Acts deals specifically with God’s interaction and intervention in history. We discover that God is a personal God. The first great missionary journey of the church began inconspicuously. Two people started off, traveled down to the seacoast, and booked passage to Cyprus. They began with no special fanfare, yet the course of history was changed because of that first missionary journey carrying the Good News from Antioch to Rome and the whole civilized world. The Holy Spirit spoke to the Christians as they were worshiping and directed them to “set aside Paul and Barnabas” and send them. They were chosen by God through the Holy Spirit.

I believe this is still a valid way to find leadership in the church. We are not elders or deacons or preachers or teachers through our own choosing alone, but because God has called us. God chooses us for specific tasks. Ordination or the laying on of hands does not confer power. It confirms and recognizes God’s own call. Simeon saw the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and he wanted to buy this powerful gift. He was rebuked. This kind of power is not for sale. Only God can give it.

We recognize then, that God is personal, and that God is also political, that is, working in through individuals to influence groups of people, cultures and systems. There are people at every level in life who are key people, those who are the hinges upon whom great doors may swing. As these missionaries moved out into Cyprus, God used them to get the attention of the proconsul, the governor of Cyprus. Suddenly a very key person became a friend of the faith. In terms of the Kingdom, that was an excellent political move. We see this same sense of the political in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. He was a highly placed person in the queen’s court. The first Gentile convert, Cornelius, was a strategically placed Roman officer. God’s strategy does not ignore the political, and we would do well to not discount it.

Not only is God in the personal and the political, but God is also in the process of history. When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul spoke in the synagogue and described God’s actions in history. I love all the action verbs he used. God chose, God led, God bore with, God destroyed, God gave, God raised up. Paul made clear that God’s hand is demonstrated in history. Our belief as Christians that God is the architect of this dynamic history separates us from other religions. For the most part, they believe that somewhere along the way the world and everything in it was created by some God, some force, and that we will someday return in form to that primal state. Christians believe that history is dynamic, changing, moving forward, and that it reflects the will and design of the God whom we worship.

Our fate is not locked up in the stars or the cards or some crystal ball with which someone can read our fortune and tell us what’s going to happen. In terms of global history or our own personal life, we believe that the future is known to God and unpredictable to us because we worship a dynamic, sovereign God. The future will be what we make it with God’s help. God has given us free will and we are not locked into anything.

We see in Acts 13 that Paul and Barnabas preached to the Gentiles and “all who were appointed for eternal life believed.” (v. 48) Not everyone is open to the message. You talk to two neighbors about the Good News of God in your life and one says, “I want to hear more.” The other says, “Ho hum.” We cannot explain why one is prepared to believe and one is not. The Bible indicates that there are those who are preordained to faith, but that is unknown to us only God knows, just as the future is known to God but unpredictable to us.

What then can we say?

1) God is personal. Pray for your own particular mission. You are as much set apart for mission as Paul and Barnabas. They were sent on a missionary journey. You were sent as a missionary from the moment of your baptism. Your missionary journey may be just across the street. You may go to the next town, the next state or across the world. Believe that God still calls us and can change history through you.

2) God is global. Pray for our leaders in both church and government. Pray for our present day “Sergius Pauluses” and “Corneliuses” and all the governors and presidents, prime ministers, queens and kings. Pray that they will be instruments of God.

3) God is historical. Look for God in the big and the small. God is at work in those situations we find in the headlines, but God is also there in the seemingly insignificant and unspectacular. God is working out God’s will.