The Spirit in Action ACTS 5:1-16; 12–25, 29-32, 42
"THE WIND OF CHANGE!"
Don: It's good to see all of you, to be with you. I trust y'all had a good holiday?
Friend: I did! Thanks. So how was your holiday? Did you & Claudia go out for the 4th?
Don: You're kidding, right? Our idea of a wild night is to put extra honey in our tea.
Friend: ...Oh. Old ways die hard, I guess. You know that better than anyone, I suppose!
Don: Wait – what? What’s that supposed to mean? That I need to change? Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm perfect the way I am! I'm staying like this, and everyone else can just get used to it! (Friend rolls his eyes & exits) If people don't like me the way I am, tough beans! This is how I am - take it or leave it! By golly, life's too short to waste time trying to please every meddlesome moron who comes along! I'm not..., (hello)...? Speaking of change - you should be more attentive when someone is speaking!
Nice attitude, huh? The “this is how I am - take it or leave it” attitude summarizes the position of many. Maybe you've experienced, even exhibited it? As a result of some hurt we build walls around and within us. It's so common that it shows up in films, especially films made for young audiences. (pics from Wolverine, Ice Age, Lion King, Up, Frozen....)
So it was with Ananias and Sapphira – a couple clearly bearing a lot of baggage. I mean, why would you go to the lengths of selling your property to benefit your church and then lie about it? These two had issues! As Peter puts it, “Annanias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit!”(Acts 5:3) Truth is,'We act out of our woundedness.' What was their woundedness? What pain or fear were they covering up? Were they afraid their needs wouldn’t be met, or angry with some-one in the church? Did they want to appear more godly, more spiritual, more generous than they really were? Why'd they care so much what others thought and so little about God thought?
We don’t know, but we do know that their fear and insecurity gave the enemy an opening and in so doing they refused to let the Spirit do what the Spirit does – change them from the inside out.
Change is a funny thing. Without it life couldn’t exist (fetus..) and yet life seems out of control when there is too much of it. If the bumper stickers are any indicator, we both embrace it and abhor it: “Change is good - unless it happens.”; “Change is inevitable – get used to it!” “Change is good – you go first!” But scripture tells us: “We will all be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51)
In the immortal words of Carl Sandburg, “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” Some times I'm more hippo than eagle.
(Carl Sandberg)
We are all changing, the question is, into what? In our reading this morning we see God at work once again, effecting change. Some are being changed as the Spirit brings healing to their broken bodies. Others are experiencing inner healing. Demons are cast out and all the while hearts and lives are being changed as more and more people embrace the Good News of Jesus Christ.
“More and more people believed and the church was growing. Crowds came in from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those with evil spirits, and they were all healed. Peter declared, 'We must obey God rather than any human authority. God has put Jesus in the place of honor at his right hand... He did this so that the people would repent of their sins & be forgiven.” (Acts 5:14, 16, 29-31)
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God did this so that the people would repent; that is, so they'd see their need to change. Enter one of God’s secret agents, a cosmic messenger, an angel who comes with a message to effect change both within and through them. ...An angel, huh? What do you make of that? Why....an angel?
Angels intervene mostly in two ways. One, they come on a mission of protection, as the term, guardian angel implies. We see this in play in the story of how Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were protected from the flames of a fiery furnace... God's protective services are at work here in Acts 5 as well as God's secret agent steps in to liberate the apostles from prison and further harm.
I'm reading a book that Fred loaned to me about about how people with severe autism, impair-ing them from speaking or being understood, are finally finding their voice through a new technology. In addition to the discovery that , contrary to common belief, these autistic people are very bright and perceptive, many have similar stories of seeing the unseen spiritual world, including the presence of angels. One such young man has shared that he regularly sees angels present. When asked what they are doing, Cody matter-of-factly responded: “They are protecting her/us.”
Angels' other mission: the proclamation of God's good news. Luke reports in his gospel that the angels were fulfilling this mission when they came heralding Jesus' birth to his mother and later to the shepherds. Later they are seen at Jesus' open tomb, announcing his resurrection to the women and sending them out to spread the good news. Now they tell Peter & John: “Go, stand in the temple and give the people this message of life!” (Acts 5:20) – the message that Jesus loves you exactly the way you are, but because He loves you, he offers to change the way you see yourself in relationship to the world around you and in relationship to God's unconditional loves for you.
It's a message that suggests that the main purpose for which we're here, and experience a rebirth through our relationship with Jesus, is so that we can pass it on to others. It's another thing that Cody and other autistic people like him, have reported being told by the angels they see & hear around them.
Such is the testimony of Genelle Guzman-McMillan. Genelle, a shy young single mother of two from Trinidad, is an unlikely candidate to attract the world to herself. Her claim to fame? Genelle was the last survivor to be pulled from the wreckage of what had once been the World Trade Towers.
She was on the 13th floor when everything went black as 110 floors came crashing down around her...
“There in the dark, my mind started racing. More than anything I worried about what would happen to me after I died. I'd been living the life of a party girl, so I prayed, Lord, give me a second chance. Please save my life. The next day I heard a beep-beep sound like a truck backing up. I called for help, and stretched out my hand thru a crack, but they couldn't see it. I blacked out.
When I woke, I prayed again. I tried yelling, but they still couldn't locate me. So I stretched my hand as far as I could, and this time someone grabbed my hand. "Genelle, I've got you! You're going to be all right. My name is Paul and I won't let go of your hand until they get you out.' As soon as he grabbed my hand, I felt completely at peace. He kept telling me I'd be all right, and remarkeably, I believed him. Finally two men took hold of my shoulders & he let go of my hand. It had been 27 hours.
Weeks later a reporter interviewed me along with some of the men who rescued me. When I asked about Paul, they seem puzzled. There's no one named Paul on our team, I was told.
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But someone was holding my hand when you were digging me out, I insisted. I'm sorry, ma'am, but nobody was holding your hand when we were removing the rubble. Though my story has been told on Oprah and CNN and in Guideposts and Time magazines, no one named Paul ever stepped forward to take credit for rescuing me that day. I know now that Paul was God's answer to my prayer, a messenger of His love in the midst of my pain. He seemed to bear another message as well: God gave me a second chance so that I can live for him and tell other people about what he's done in my life.”
(Genelle Guzman-McMillan)
As with the apostles, Genelle had been rescued from a prison of concrete so that she could tell others about this message of life! To be sure, though, not every prison wall is made of concrete. Some are made of abuse, alcohol, drugs, fear, anger, regret - but regardless of its composition, lasting liberation is found in this message of life – the good news that God's love for us, embodied in Jesus, has beeen poured out through the Holy Spirit, that we may change for the better, as God's cosmic messengers made clear:“Go...and give the people this message of life!” (Acts 5:20)
This new life is vividly evident in the courageous faith of Jesus' friends – the same men who abandoned him in his hour of need and hid away behind locked doors lest the authorities come looking for them – and yet who now keep showing up talking and healing in Jesus' name in spite of their being threatened, beaten and imprisoned. My favorite verse in Acts 5 points to this shift: “Someone shared the startling news with the religious leaders: 'The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people.'” (Acts 5:25) Wait; what? How'd they....? So what are they teaching?
What the Jesus/angels told them to – this message of life – everything else we might talk about pales in comparison and in significance. God underscores this by giving them a free get out of jail card, and the next thing you know they're right back in the very same streets going at it again! These guys have a new perspective; Jesus' perspective: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” (Acts 5:29)
Jesus viewed life from an eternal perspective, that all this.... is but a trial run, and that we far too quickly settle for mediocrity when we could be experiencing the exciting vitality of fully following him! Too easily we settle for merely existing whereas Jesus wants to help us be absolutely thriving!
His friends were told to turn it down but they asked God to turn it up, and as a result “More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” (Acts 5:14)
For those of you who've never done so, or who've been so wounded that you've lost heart along the way, I'd like to give you an opportunity to respond to this message of life Peter & John's angel was referring to: this radical message that God loves you exactly the way you are, but because He loves you so much, he offers to change the way you see yourself in relationship to others and in relationship to Jesus, as you let go of your way and embrace the Way, the Truth and the Life as His Spirit guides you.
Out of respect to those so ready, let's all of us, close our eyes. You can echo my prayer in the quiet of your heart, mind. Gracious God, Lord of Life and healer of hearts..., I admit there are things about the way I've lived, or am living or thinking, that are out of sync with your loving plan for me... I need your help... Forgive me, heal me, change me... I invite you to fill me with your Spirit that I may become more like your son, Jesus. Thank you that you love me so much. Help me to love you and those put in my path, the way you love me! Come, Holy Spirit, and fill me...!