16 August 2010
Psalm 106:1-18; Judges 17:1-13; Acts 7:44-8:1a; John 5:19-29

This man, Micah, has stolen from his mother and in thanksgiving for the return of her silver she decides to have an idol made of the silver. Micah sets up the idol in his house, makes his son a priest to the idol, takes the “trappings” of the Jewish religion, an ephod and teraphim, and becomes a spiritual person, worshipping an idol. A levite who has left Bethlehem looking for a place to live (why?) comes along and Micah is now truly thankful because he convinces this man to become his priest, a real man of God. Have you ever seen a mixture of superstition and religion like this? It happens all the time in our world, we take a bit of this, a bit of that, sanctify it by adding a bit of real religion, and, voila, we declare ourselves to be spiritual. It happens sometimes in the church if we aren’t careful. Look again at the last line of the passage and see if you can see where it is powerfully infecting the church today.

Is Jesus speaking of two different ways to life here, faith and works? No. in the first paragraph he speaks of having faith in the Son and honoring the Son, believing in the Son is tantamount to believing in the one who has sent Him and this belief will result in eternal life, not just later but those who believe have already passed into that life. In the second paragraph, Jesus says that those “who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” Belief in the Son of God, Jesus, should lead to being filled with the Holy Spirit, which should cause us to live as He lived, doing the will of the Father. Just as He did what He saw the Father doing, so we should be doing those things Jesus did. Faith and works are inextricably tied to one another if we truly believe.

When Stephen’s sermon turns is the final piece of history that God does not dwell in houses made with human hands. They know this to be true but it sounds like Jesus’ comments about tearing down the temple and then to follow with the “stiff-necked people” statement had to have shocked his hearers. That particular appellation was used by God in the episode of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32) when the Lord said to Moses that He would no longer accompany the people. Stephen quickly moves from that to accusing them of being the betrayers and murderers of Messiah, in line with those who have come before, just as Jesus had done (Matthew 23). As he is stoned, he prays for those who are killing him just as Jesus had done from the cross. It is at this moment that we meet Saul, the man who will take up the mantle of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Praise the Lord!
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord,
or declare all his praise?