Gospel North Gospel South

My wife and I are increasingly dependent upon morning devotional reading, or at least a morning ritual which we know is good for us - and interestingly also for our children. Although they live their lives elsewhere, it seems to us that they like to know "this is what mom and dad do." Also, we continue to appreciate our reading material (Rejoice!, MennoMedia.org) which continues to be both inspiration and guidance coming from none other than the good old Bible and thematically organized on theme of Revised Common Lectionary which guides worship services in most mainline denominations of the Christian Church. I am a Mennonite, neither catholic nor protestant, low-church and including a huge range of theological vantages from ultra-liberal to ultra-fundamentalist. We do not have a pope nor denominational authorities of high office to define unified belief systems or practices, which is why even us (yes die stillen im lande – the quiet peaceable ones) are splintered into divisions and denominational structures almost exactly like political allegiances of the various provinces, states, or nations we live in. We probably don’t like it, but we are quite blended into the world! So a little organizing principle as in lectionary guidance from the larger church does not hurt us a bit.

It is within an increasingly non-denominational evangelical, ecumenical, interfaith, liberal, conservative, secular, sacred environment that we read on and we go on, a movement that began as the 16^th Century historical Anabaptists. Today we are among hundreds of other Christian denominations and also among many other faith practices and traditions! 

Fortunately the Bible is still available to us all. Today’s reading is from Acts 8:26-40. Acts is one among 66 books in the Protestant canon of scriptures (yes we’ve leaned toward the Protestants on this, designating another 15 books into a section labeled Apocrypha, which the Catholics include in their canon). This book, sometimes subtitled “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” is a very formative document, as close as we get to a play-by-play of the beginning of the Church after the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1) and outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).  

Acts 8 pushes in all directions as the early church becomes a force. Onward and outward! Yes, it’s Philip the apostle who is protagonist in this chapter. Although Jerusalem has been the scene of the confrontation (as in death and resurrection of Jesus and early outpouring of the Holy Spirit), Philip the freshly spirit-enabled apostle has already been up in Samaria, mixed race territory just above Jerusalem. Doing what? Taking some orientation classes? Nope! He's already doing it; proclaiming the Messiah, and crowds paying close attention because there were healings and shrieks as impure spirits came out of people (:5-7). The crowds of this territory were a hodgepodge of those Hebrews who had not been exiled to Babylon in 722 BC and promptly got into misunderstandings with 'family' when the exiled ones returned 70 years later to try and rebuild Temple in Jerusalem. In intervening years mixed in with locals (labeled Pagan in Google!), they believed the Temple belonged on Mt Gerizim (not Jerusalem). Many differences! Into all of this comes Philip doing visitation 😇 and dealing with all that comes up. Then it's southward to some more adventure. 

Down the road to Gaza - as per angel dispatch (:26). To this very day a trip in that southerly direction may still be dangerous and at least always interesting. [My memory still testifies to that as I recall a trip to that part of the world some thirty years ago!] Who does Philip meet on the desert highway but an envoy, an important official from even further down. Two things about this important person from Ethiopia. Firstly he is a eunuch, and secondly he’s enroute to Jerusalem to worship – an official in charge of the treasury (yes) of an African country already knowledgeable about Christianity and wanting to learn more! All this in today's devotional reading!! A person of high responsibility physically altered to help him to be focused on his job? And not only that, but he is totally interested in what he’s been reading.

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

The old and the new is still strangely mixed. Even as today we hear about civil war wreaking havoc on the citizens of that early Christian nation, Ethiopia. Even as Palestine-Israel remains a hotbed of world sabre-rattling, one may wonder what was accomplished back there.  So what was? I'm thinking it was perfect illustration of ongoing world history, ongoing work of God. Did I also mention, just prior to these encounters there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? In today's intercultural interfaith environment it is still so very important. No amount of historical explanation or even religious and political dialogue or diplomacy is adequate if there not be a recognition of ongoing spirit of God. Not all things were definitively solved but all things totally moved forward in Acts 8. How can one speak with impact in Samaria among Jews and Arabs trying to understand each other? Philip was the man. How might one address a strange official from another country come up to Jerusalem seeking answers to his query? Philip was the man. Philip was the man, but it was a work of the Spirit of God blowing in and among this new movement taking hold – as promised. This is quite in keeping with Jesus’ explanation to his disciples of upcoming things even before he was crucified, ^7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. … if I go, I will send [the Advocate] to you” (John 16:7). There are so many ways yet to learn and experience the ongoing everlasting intercultural Holy Spirit empowered presence of Jesus the Messiah. 

This north-south Acts 8 story ironically reminds me of quite a few years back. Once upon a time when I was a longhaul trucker I walked into a coffee shop in Estevan, SK, just before border crossing and on to some way-down-south U.S. destination. Sitting at a corner table was a young man reading his Bible. On impulse (and perhaps a holy hunch) I asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He looked up at me with a smile, “How can I unless someone explains it to me.” Needless to say that became occasion for two pastors, one young and eager and the other slightly shopworn, to immediately engage in animated conversation. Our shop-talk (or work of God), was really a celebration of the occasion, really many occasions, when it is a privilege to speak with one another as the spirit urges us to. I enjoyed his hospitable heart, understanding and possibly even envying this older preacher and his truck out there in ‘the world’. With a knowing smile and almost in code I asked him if he had already been baptized. He assured me he had, also with a knowing smile (see Acts 8:36 😏). We did not get into intricacies of mode, pouring or immersion! Then we blessed each other in our ongoing ministry, me the Mennonite going to be among the Americans, and he the American Baptist to preach to the needy Canadians.