Led by the Spirit

Today is May 4th commonly known as Star Wars Day. People celebrate Star Wars Day on May Fourth because of the phrase from the movies, ‘May the force be with you’, which sounds very close to May the Fourth. Just in case you didn’t make that connection. I have apparently loved Star Wars since the day I was born because my mom used to love to tell the story that the day I came home from the hospital, as the new baby brother to my two older brothers, I brought Star Wars figures to them. So you could say, I was the cool younger brother from the very beginning.

Besides all the incredible lore, the sci-fi theme, and the intricate stories, I have loved Star Wars for the stories and lessons that it teaches, or at least has the potential to teach. At the heart of Star Wars are the Jedi who’s real main purpose is to bring balance to the universe. Their counterparts are the Sith who are trying to serve their own purpose for their own selfish gains usually through the means of manipulation and suppression. They want power more than anything else and will use any means necessary to achieve and hold onto that power. So to me it is more than just the struggle between good and evil, because even good jedi are imperfect and make mistakes, and even people who seem bad, end up redeeming themselves through their recognition that balance is more important than power.

Without oversimplifying things, I feel that this is how we can look at the stories of the Bible. Imperfect people, chosen by God doing their best to care for the world, for one another, and to share with the world how much God loves them. And now that we have moved to the book of Acts, we see this new fledgling church doing just that. While this church grows in large numbers, issues arose. And I don’t think it’s too hard to acknowledge that as communities grow, whatever kind of community it is, more things come up which can cause tension. So even in this new Christ-centered community, there are things that aren’t going smoothly.

The issue that comes up is the fair treatment of widows regardless of what language they speak. Which is what this issue seems to center around. What is incredible is that the issue is brought up, discussed and a solution is created. In fact, Luke tells us that everyone was happy with the proposal. As I said, the issue was that a certain group of widows weren’t being cared for and the solution was to appoint 7 outstanding people from within the community to make sure they were taken care of. It is a wonderful solution to the issue. I say it is a wonderful solution because everything seems to be handled in a healthy way. Despite the fact that there was oversight to begin with, they issue was presented to the leaders, the apostles, the apostles present a solution and it is implemented. This is a great model for issues that arise in our church today. This was all done to make sure that hunger was no longer an issue in their community. The leaders that were lifted up were diakonia, or what we call today, deacons.

One of those deacons lifted up was a man named Stephen, who, like many people who get lifted up in a faith community, ends up moving beyond his original scope of work into doing more. Not better, just more. What Stephen does is that he lives out his faith so much so that he starts sharing it with anyone and everyone he can share it with. And as you can imagine that doesn’t always go well. And while the text gets into the specifics about who he’s arguing with, that part doesn’t really matter, because I am sure that you have experienced when you try to do something and you are met with opposition.

So one of the ways that we can look at this story of Stephen is to contrast it with the story about making sure the widows were fed. There are good and healthy ways to handle situations and there are bad and unhealthy ways of handling situations. In the first situation, as I pointed out, there was a wrong, everyone acknowledged it and they came up with a solution. In this second situation, the people didn’t like what they heard, they twisted his words, and brought people in to lie about him. The end result was Stephen’s physical death. But imagine the ways that we as individuals or a community could hurt physically or emotionally someone with the ways that we might try to protect ourselves by attacking those who are outside or different from us. Or even someone who is just new and someone else is threatened by the changes or the different way, or talking about things than the ways that we have done it in the past.

One way of thinking about this is are we open to the ways that the Spirit may be moving us in a new direction or even just re-opening our eyes to something that we should be doing that has been neglected? Or are we too set in our ways or our own understanding of something that we are unwilling to let someone else who may have the Spirit alive in them, speak to use and help us move into ways that put us on a more faithful path to that of the one that Jesus lived. After all, the care of widows is, both something God instructed people to do, and is something that had been done for so long. This was a way to remind the community that all widows needed to be cared for in this growing community. This was not anything new but making sure that everyone in the community was being cared for equally.

In this scripture we can see the ways that the apostles and these new deacons were trying to bring and maintain balance to this new community. They were doing their best to make sure that all people were cared for. In the second part of our scripture we see how a group of people focusing their own selfish desires to keep things how they want them was harmful. And if we take a look at scripture we can see that throughout the entire unraveling of God’s story with us, God is constantly drawing us away from our selfishness and into selflessness. That’s not to say that we neglect ourselves for the sake of others, but that we should always consider ourselves and others simultaneously. God intends for us to be in community with one another and with God. This isn’t a solo gig. Not even Han Solo went things alone. Before he joined the Rebellion he at least had Chewbacca by his side. That’s a Star Wars reference in case you weren’t sure. I had to tie it back in somehow, right?

So as we reflect on this story of Stephen and this new fledgling church think of the ways that God has called you into this community and how each of us can serve this community and beyond like Stephen did for his community. Also remember that in all things we do, God is walking along side reminding us that God is here for each of us and that we are all here for one another. God give us the gifts of the Spirit not for our own sake but for the sake of others. So for our gifts of the Spirit, and for the gifts God placed in Stephen and all the others and the ways they used them to lift one another up as God intends, we give thanks and praise. Amen.