14 August 2010
Psalm 107:33-43,108; Judges 16:1-14; Acts 7:30-43; John 5:1-18

Samson was as controlled by his fleshly desires as anyone who ever lived. He was a man of almost no self-control and this was continually a problem for him and nearly everyone he encountered. We begin this chapter with him visiting a prostitute and that became an opportunity for the men of the town, Philistines, to entrap him yet he rose earlier than anyone expected, tore out the gate posts of the city and walked off with them, amazing feats of strength. He then fell in love with yet another Philistine woman who betrayed him, this time not out of fear but of greed, the promised reward for the betrayal was somewhere around 140 pounds of silver. Their goal was to discover the secret of his strength, subdue him and harness that strength for their own purposes. In this reading we see only Samson’s playful deceptions of his wife and his lack of anger against her for attempting to use it against him. He must have been an awfully stupid man to have had these experiences and then reveal the truth to her.

A man who has been ill for 38 years is healed and he seems to be anything but grateful for the healing. When he is healed, Jesus tells him to take up his mat and walk. It is amazing that after 38 years and his own professed inability to walk or even drag himself to the pool when the water was “stirred” (believed to be a sign that the presence of God was there for healing) that he is now not only strong enough to walk but also to carry anything and walk at the same time. The problem is that carrying anything on the Sabbath, particularly a mat, is deemed to be sinful violation of the command to do no work on the Sabbath. He tells them that he is carrying the mat in obedience to a command. The Jews are witnessing a miraculous sign in this healing but their own “laws” cause them to miss the sign. Jesus’ confronts the man to tell him to sin no more lest something worse happen. Does this indicate that his particular case is one where it was punishment for sin? Incredibly, the man immediately seeks out the Jews to tell them the name of the man who healed him to deflect the blame for the sin of carrying the mat. I wonder what happened to the man?
Stephen continues his Jewish history lesson through Moses’ call to leadership and the wilderness years with a particular focus on the failure of the ancestors to follow and obey God. He is proving his bona fides as one of them and is going somewhere particular with this sermon, he is showing that these leaders are at one with those who have come before, there is a history of a failure to follow. So far, Stephen has said nothing that any of these men would not agree with completely.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples,
and I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and let your glory be over all the earth.