No Walking It Back-January 13, 2025

No Walking It Back-January 13, 2025

"Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." (Acts 8:14-17)

Don't you just hate it when a public figure, elected official, or politician walks back their earlier claims?  Doesn't it just feel slimy and cowardly? You know how it goes: someone makes a big promise or a bold new policy (often when they are running for office), and then when it turns out that's not going to be feasible, they have someone else get up behind a podium like a press secretary or spin doctor and give a statement to try and make it all go away.  Sometimes the poor spokesperson will have to outright lie and make us believe that Mr. So-and-So "never really said" whatever it was we all heard him say.  Sometimes they'll find some weaselly way of twisting their original meaning. And sometimes they'll just play a good old-fashioned game of "But what about when the guys on the other side of the political aisle did the same thing?"  But if you and I are paying attention, we'll see through all those smokescreens.  We know when someone is trying to walk back a claim that they didn't have the authority or power to make in the first place. We've seen it too many times.

That's why I find it so refreshing to read this short scene from Acts that many of us heard this past Sunday in worship. It's a story of the early church taking a bold step to include outsiders and outcasts, and then when the leaders of the church were asked to weigh in on the situation, they don't back down or weasel out from that bold position, even when it would have surely been controversial. It's a story of the central figures of the first generation of Christians saying, "Yes, God really is including THOSE PEOPLE, and we are not ashamed to stand by them." After decades of watching public figures talk a big talk, only to water down their grand statements later on, it is a hopeful thing to see that the earliest church was willing to be led outside of its comfort zone and stay there, even when it brought public scrutiny and controversy.

Let me back up for a moment.  In this short scene, we get the summary that a group of people in Samaria had come to faith in Jesus and been baptized (you can see that story in the beginning of Acts 8, as Philip goes to Samaria and brings the Good News of Jesus there).  That move by itself was a big deal, because of course, Samaria was where Samaritans lived, and there was a notorious hostility between Judeans and Samaritans.  They looked at each other with scorn and derision, and most Judeans would have excluded Samaritans from sharing the same table with them, because they were outside the bounds of the "right" ethnicity, culture, and religion. But along came Philip, who had been recruited to help the food delivery ministries of the early church in Jerusalem, and he just decided to share the Gospel with these folks in Samarian--and what do you know, but they wanted to follow Jesus, too!

This was a big deal. It was a watershed moment for the church to decide whether God's Good News included these outsiders (who were hated by a lot of the in-group members, mind you), and Philip didn't so much as bat an eyelash at the situation. Well, that meant that the leaders of the community back in Jerusalem were going to be asked if they also endorsed this potentially scandalous inclusion of the Samaritans.  This would have been the chance for leaders like Peter and John to put the brakes on the situation. They could have said, "Since the inclusion of Samaritans is highly controversial, we will form a committee to study this possibility," or "What Philip did was not authorized, and he has been put on administrative leave while we investigate who he told about Jesus." Instead, they doubled-down on the audacity of the Good News and endorsed the belonging of these Samaritan Christians, laying their hands on them and affirming that they belonged. Nobody walks back anything.  Nobody gets thrown under the bus.

Even the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at this point of the story is meant to signify that God, too, was backing this decision to include Samaritans in the community of Jesus.  Once Peter and John--original disciples of Jesus--show up and pray for these new believers, the Spirit is unleashed in some obvious way on these new believers, and the conclusion is clear: not only do the human leaders of the church welcome these outsiders, but so does God. It is one of a whole series of moments in the book of Acts where the church crosses a boundary to include people previously deemed "unacceptable," and the Holy Spirit affirms that welcome.

In this season of the church year--often called Epiphanytide or the beginning of Ordinary Time--this year we are going to be looking at how the Good News of Jesus leads us to the edge of our comfort zones.  And this moment from the book of Acts is a powerful example.  When the first Christians dared to include outsiders and enemies into the community of Jesus, both the human leaders (apostles like Peter and John) and the guidance of the Holy Spirit affirmed that daring welcome, knowing full well that it would be controversial to some and downright scandalous to others. It would have seemed "safer" to distance the church's policy from that bold welcome, or to quietly put out some ambiguous press release that didn't really address the question. But they didn't.  The apostles--those who knew and followed Jesus from the beginning--saw the direction the Spirit was leading, and they moved outward as the Spirit affirmed the welcome of outsiders and those previously seen as unfit to belong.

The question to ask, then, on this day is simply: Where will the Spirit lead us today?  And when we see the pull of the Spirit pointing us to welcome people beyond our comfort zones, will we turn back to where we think it is "safe," or will we run headlong like Peter and John to affirm that God is allowed to include people we didn't think could belong? Will we dare to let the Spirit speak in all boldness without thinking we need to walk it back or water it down?

Let's find out...

Lord Jesus, keep us open to see the welcome you extend beyond the lines we have drawn, and make us ready to follow the promptings of your Spirit.