Pastor's Weekly Word

 

One of the things we talked about on Sunday morning was how the book of Acts is a story about the apostles constantly trying to adjust to an ever-widening gospel. More and more they were beginning to realize that this gospel seems to have no boundaries at all. Earlier in Matthew 10, Jesus told the disciples to steer clear of the Samaritan villages. Then in Acts chapter 1, he began talking about how the Holy Spirit will lead them to places they never expected, even “to the ends of the earth,” a big sign of the widening span of the gospel.

 

In order to be receptive to that kind of faith, the apostles were required to keep their door open to the Holy Spirit. Philip wound up preaching in Samaria and giving the Good News to an Ethiopian eunuch because his door was open to Holy Spirit. Peter later baptized a Roman Centurion, a gentile name Cornelius, something he never would have fathomed before, because he was open to the Holy Spirit. Paul, once a persecutor of the church, became one of the faith’s greatest advocates because he was open to the Holy Spirit.

 

What we find in the ministry of the earliest followers is this: they became more open to other people simply because they became more open to God. These two things are mutually intertwined with one another. You cannot be open to God and not be open to others. It is simply not possible. Being playful in our faith, in part, means remaining open to the movement of the Spirit of God in the lives we live. With that kind of spiritual posture, like Philip and the others, we can find ourselves in surprising places and in front of the most wonderfully surprising people.