SERMON
The Final Chapter:
An Unfinished Story
Acts,
Chapter 28
Pastor
Robyn Hogue September 20, 2015 Skyline
Presbyterian Church
As we conclude the Book of Acts,
Paul and companions arrive at Malta, near Sicily on the Coast of Italy. They
have made it through the storms. Last week I preached on the storms of life,
the storms through which we pass. Paul and companions made it safely to the
other side. We will make it to the other side.
Luke is telling the story. “We arrived safely,” he says, “and the
natives treated us with unusual kindness.”(Acts 28:2) It was cold, it began to
rain, they built a fire, people stood around it. Paul could not stand by and
receive this kindness without helping so he gathered wood for the fire. A snake
appeared from the wood and bit Paul’s hand.
The snake fastened on Paul’s hand
and the crowd quickly arrived at a conclusion: this man was a murderer. In
other words, he made it safely here through the storm, but now he was getting
what he deserved, he was going to die. This perspective was deeply rooted in an
ancient way of interpreting life. At its core, it goes like this: if you are
blessed, if you are thriving, you must have done something right, you must be a
good person, God must be smiling on you. And if you are you are not thriving, it
must be because you have done something wrong, you have been a bad person, God
must be hammering you.
It’s karma. It is simplistic, and
yet this ancient theology dies a slow death. And this is despite our sense that
it does not match with human experience. At times we know that bad things
happen to good people. At other times, good things happen to bad people. And so
Paul must have deserved his fate, which surely will be death! And yet…and
yet…he survives; he shakes it off! They watch him, to see if all of this is
real, and then, Luke tells us “They change their minds and say he is a god!”
(Acts 28:6) So Paul goes from being a murderer to a god within minutes!
Now it is not such a stretch to say
that this mirrors the bi-polar character of our society and how we view those
with authority, celebrity and visibility. We put someone on a pedestal, and
then we tear them down. We think someone is a god, but then they are the
personification of evil. They imagine Paul to be a god, but Paul is not a god,
he is a servant of God.
And Paul’s call to service comes
quickly. A man lays sick in bed. Luke tells us that he has a fever and
dysentery. The tradition has it that Luke was a physician. There are many
medical details scattered through the gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts that
bear this out, this being one of them. Paul visits the sick man and lays hands
on him and he is cured. Many others came, and they were also healed.
In the gospels, Jesus does three
things: He preaches, He teaches, and He heals. The fullness of the gospel
includes what we think, how we feel and what we are doing; it is about the
head, the heart and the hands. Jesus did these three things: preaching,
teaching and healing and He commanded the disciples to do three things:
preaching, teaching and healing. In the first book, the gospel of Luke, we
observe Jesus going about this mission but in the second book, we see His
disciples doing these very things. Here we find Paul preaching, teaching and
healing.
At first, we observe, and then, as
the story unfolds, we find that we are participating. In the Message, Eugene Peterson introduces the
Book of Acts in this way:
“Because the story of Jesus is so
impressive…there is a danger that we will be impressed, but only impressed. AS
the spectacular dimensions of this story slowly (or suddenly) dawn upon us, we
could easily become enthusiastic spectators, and then let it go at that…and in
our better moments inspired to imitate Him.
It is Luke’s task to prevent that,
to prevent us from becoming mere spectators to Jesus, fans of the Message. Of
the original quartet of writers on Jesus, Luke alone continues to tell the
story as the apostles and disciples live it into the next generation. The
remarkable thing is that it continues to be essentially the same story…The
story of Jesus doesn’t end with Jesus. It continues in the lives of those who
believe in Him. The supernatural does not stop with Jesus. Luke makes it clear
that these Christians he wrote about were no more spectators of Jesus than
Jesus was a spectator of God—they are in on the action of God, God acting in
them, God living in them. Which also means of course, in us.”
Among the themes found in the Book
of Acts is this: We are no longer spectators—we are participants in God’s
mission.
This past summer the PGA tour
brought the US Open Golf tournament to our community. Specifically, they
brought it to my neighborhood. There, to Chambers Bay Golf Course, were made
many, many physical accommodations for the anticipated number of fans.
Temporary buildings were erected, gardens and restaurants and bleachers were
present where prior there had been none. Access to the county parks closed,
traffic re-routed, sale-merchandise prepared and marketed. By all measures the
event was a success. But still, the numbers of people attending the US Open were
very small when compared to the vast numbers of people who would rather play
than watch.
Being a spectator has its
enjoyments, but it is nothing like being in the game. In the Book of Acts it is
as if God is saying, “You’ve been standing in the crowd or sitting in the
bleachers, I want you to get out on the field, this is where the work of the
kingdom is happening.”
As the Book of Acts concludes Paul
has made it to Rome, the western world’s largest city. This is where the Spirit
had been leading him. He is under house arrest, the political and religious
authorities not knowing quite what to do with this faith. He meets with the
Jewish leaders, and explains this history of what God has been doing in the
world, tracing all of this through the law and the prophets in to the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus. Some accept the faith; some do not. We have
seen this response before.
Paul stayed in Rome for two more
years under house arrest, speaking to whoever would come to visit with him. He
talked about the kingdom of God and the life of Jesus with boldness and without
hindrance.
The Book of Acts is a first century
book with a 21st century relevance: the encounter of the gospel with
ethnic diversity (What if this became part of our conversations about immigration?)
and the encounter of a Jewish-Christian heritage with other faiths (What if
this became a part of our conversations with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists,
Humanists, and Baha’i?)
The Book of Acts reminds us that we
can have confidence in the gospel, and we do not need to fear those who are
different from us. The Spirit moves, the
word gets out, the gospel is unhindered, and nothing can stop it. (Acts
28:31)
Today we’ve gathered for a multitude
of reasons. Many people worked together on behalf of the people of Syria over
the past weeks. The immigrants are poor not because God has cursed them, but
their poverty is an occasion for our generosity.
We give thanks for the ministry of
retired pastors Phil Schiller and Harold Larsen and especially their influence across
sixty years of service. We pray for our pastoral intern, Carol McLaughlin as
well as for daughters and sons of this congregation who are preparing for the
pastoral vocation—specifically for Michael Anderson as he begins his seminary
studies in St. Louis and Johanna Wuco as she continues toward licensure within
the Assemblies of God as she serves among university students at Western
Washington University.
We lift up the importance of
intentional faith development, Sunday School classes for all ages and disciple
groups, and preschool and all gatherings of at least two or three where the
word is studies and most importantly how the word takes us from one place to
another: from being a spectator to being
a participant in God’s mission.
The Book of Acts ends abruptly—the
gospel is preached without hindrance. And yet Acts leaves an important question
unanswered: What happens to Paul? How did he die? Luke is a very sophisticated
writer, and the biblical scholars agree that the ending is not accidental, but
for a purpose: Acts is not a biography of Paul, it is about something else. The Spirit moves, the word gets out, the
gospel is unhindered, and nothing can stop it. It is, we might say, “to be continued.”
The story of Jesus does not end with
Jesus. It continues in the lives of those who believe in Him.