Faced with certain evidence to the contrary, Abraham believes God when he is called out of his home and family to established a new nation through his offspring, even though he is already past 70 years old. God reveals more and more of Himself to Abraham along the way, as His promises increase in scale and Abraham's faith grows. We walk beside Abraham as our faith is tested as his, and we share with Abraham the wonder of growing trust in God because of the trials we walk through with Him. Abraham's refrain is, "What do you do when the Creator of the universe tells you to do something? You do it!"

Paul in Athens -- a View on the World

Paul has encountered the diaspora synagogue (Antioch), popular paganism (Lystra), Roman domination (Philippi). Now after Thessalonica and Berea, he comes to Athens, worried for the survival of the infant churches.

Athens, the most famous city in the Greek world, not big or powerful, but very influential, a university city with an unmatched cultural heritage.

Again he starts with the synagogue, where people know Israel's story, but he also goes to the famous Agora/plaza, with the open-air Stoa/colonnade, that gave Stoic philosophy its name. Where popular philosophies, 'world-views,' were taught, debated, shaping shapers of culture.

Here he meets not persecution but puzzlement. He uses ideas people recognize, but puts them together in strange ways, a 'phrase-dropper.' He talks about Jesus and Anastasis/Rising.

Epicureans, Stoics, and the Areopagus

Athens was famous for philosophy: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, their schools. Epicurus an Athenian aristocrat founded the "Garden." Late 4th c. bc. Zeno from Cyprus started the Stoic school, early 3rd c. bc. Both had wide influence by Paul's time. Many Jews studied philosophy: Philo.

Epicurus: (like deism) If gods exist, they are far away and happy and not interested in us. We are only "atoms" and dissolve at death, nothing to fear. It is best to withdraw from difficulties of life and find imperturbability (ataraxia) in a quiet 'garden' with friends. Salvation from ignorance/fear!

Stoics: (like pantheism) We, like everything, are part of a single web of material being -- nature (physis), guided from within by reason/Logos (Zeus?). No real evil. All is unchangeable, connected, cyclical. Don't fight it. Seek calm, freedom from passion (apatheia). Live according to nature. Paul quotes a saying from two Stoics: Cleanthes, leader after Zeno, and Aratus, Phaenomena.

Areopagus: relic of an ancient law court. In its founding myth, recounted by playwright Aeschylus (Epimenides): Apollo tells the Areopagus: 'Once a man has died, there is no rising (anastasis).'

Paul faces an audience with a high self-opinion, strong and varied views, wide potential influence. They wonder if this is some foreign mystery religion (with secrets) that might be illegal.

The God who Transcends, Creates, and Inhabits Creation

Athens was concerned both with ignorance and agnosticism. He starts from evidence of reverence (big word), shown in an agnostic altar. He has no secrets but wants to overcome real ignorance. With every phrase, Paul interacts with their world views: affirming, reversing, modifying, focusing.

God (singular) transcends the cosmos and created it (a beginning, flow of time). He is Lord, caring about the creation. Not living in human temples or served by humans. He is always giver of life. God is personal and passionate, not abstract reason. He is beyond creation but not withdrawn.

God in creation unites all humans in a single family (no barbarians), living out a real history that matters (not cyclical). Part of what unites humans is the desire to seek ultimate reality, God. He is always close but knows that we can't reach him alone. He wants humans to feel for him in all their experiences in the hope of finding him. Greek poets expressed this well: ancient Epimenides and Stoics. We, as God's creatures, are part of God's family (God's image).

Just as creation moves from God to us, so knowledge of God must move from God to us. Not our creation, but God reaching out so as actually to be felt by us. He teaches us a new way of thinking by incarnation, a person and a sign: a man dying as one of us and Rising! A New World!

Passionate, fearless life with God! A lot to digest. Some scoff, others reflect, some come to faith. The world looks very different. Here is the basis for love and service, struggle against evil, hope!

Roman City and Its Cast of Characters

Paul is on his 2nd mission journey (with Silas, Timothy, Luke and others).

He crosses into Europe to Philippi, named for Alexander the Gt.'s

father. Site of battle of Mark Antony and Octavian against Brutus and Cassius, a colony of Rome. On Roman "Egnatian Way."

There is a Jewish community with a 'Place of Prayer' outside the city walls near Gangites River. Paul finds women there (sitting apart from men?) including Lydia, a merchant, a gentile 'God- fearer,' seeking new identity. She listens to the story of Jesus as Lord, becomes a believer in the Lord. She is baptized and offers her home as a base for the group teaching others by the river.

A slave girl, with 'Python spirit,' double slave fortune-teller. Corruption of Gk religious tradition as business for slave-owners: 'her lords.' She becomes a prophet crying "slaves of God Most High proclaiming a road to deliverance." Deliverance from what?-- oppressive powers, Roman, demonic, enslaving, corrupt religion. Paul frees her from the spirit, but that stops her fortune-telling biz.

The power structure: Her Lords, profit-seeking slave-owners. Roman Officers standing for Lord Caesar's control. The crowd fearing outsiders. The soldiers beating Paul, instruments of violence. All trust the unshakable power of Rome. The uproar caused by Jewish outsiders telling about a different Lord and his power of deliverance must be securely locked down and silenced.

The Jailer does his job. Paul and Silas locked in stocks in a secure cell. But who is free? With songs and prayers, Paul and Silas are not stopped by jail walls. The earthquake shakes the unshakable power. Paul stops the Jailer from self-execution for his oppressive Roman Lord. He comes in shaking: "How do I find this deliverance?" You have to find a new Lord -- Crucified Jesus is Lord!

Who is Lord of Life and Death? Really!

These were the stories believers in Philippi remembered about their foundation, their commitment. Differing stories, all involved pain and hope, radical change of life, seeing the world differently.

Running through all is an emphasis on the word Lord (kurios) in various meanings. It is the great name of God in Scripture. But in society it marks the structure of power, success, and meaning.

Lydia had found the Lord God, but now the Lord opens her to the Lord Jesus. She experiences an opening of her world as a Gentile. The slave girl is under her slave Lords and their business with an enslaving spirit. Her deliverance means a radical change of life, very different from Lydia. The slave lords draw in the enforcing power of the Roman Lords with soldiers and Jailer. But those in power here are in chains of greed, prejudice, fear of outsiders, anger, corruption, abuse of power.

Lord of Joy in a World turned Right Side Up

About 5 yrs later, Paul writes a letter to them from jail in Ephesus. So much has happened but the fundamentals are the same. They have to live in the power structures of the world, but they see that they're deceptive, founded in the power of death that seems permanent but is passing.

Thus Paul can meditate on life and death, with peace and calm. He can call them to rejoice always, and live within a Peace that is beyond understanding with strength to deal with any circumstance.

What unifies and shapes them is the New Lord at the center of their lives who reveals the nature of God and all reality. He empties himself for us in self-giving love, serves, and even dies for us.

The Lord of the Universe says, That is who I Am. The Crucified Jesus is "LORD." His crucifixion turns the world's power on its head. New welcoming identity. Freedom from slavery. Songs break out!

Our passage today is a small glimpse into the process of reconciliation that God initiated through Jesus. Luke, has one of the most vivid descriptions and comprehensive narratives surrounding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of all the Gospels.

The text in Luke 2:41-52 is the final of four blocks of text that captures the key events in the infancy of Jesus. It is important to recognize, that Luke is a very careful and deliberate writer. He intends to "draw up an account" of all the things that he has witnessed and investigated as a disciple and follower of Jesus. Luke begins his Gospel with the end of Acts in mind. He is steady and clear in making an ordered testimony of all the events that surrounded the coming of the Lord’s Messiah, Jesus. Luke is trying to make the point, that our expectations will not bind the Messiah, and that Jesus will not only be fulfilling the promise of God’s deliverance, but he will also be undoing our limited expectations of God.

New Territory, Changing Audiences, Continual Danger

Paul and Barnabas left Antioch of Syria, worked in Cyprus, crossed to Asia Minor, traveled north through mountains of Pisidia into Phrygia to Antioch, a Roman garrison, then to Iconium and Lystra in Lycaonia, a Roman garrison. Layers of old culture, Greek, Roman. Jewish communities. Travel was very dangerous. The ethnic conflicts in cities were sensitive. Jews were vulnerable.

The message of Paul and Barnabas set off conflicts in all three cities. Jewish teaching already had impact in these cities: "God-fearing" Gentiles and Proselyte converts. A major identity shift. Paul comes saying that in Jesus, faith in Israel’s one God, forgiveness and life are now open to all ethnic groups. No new religion, but a realization that Israel’s faith through the Messiah was for all.

In the Lystra conflict after a healing, they stoned Paul to death, though he barely survived. Ethnic identities, the struggle for rights, were strong and long-standing. New vision of identity was hard.

Birds of Different Feathers - Two Ways of Seeing Something New

Luke shows a long, familiar speech in Antioch and a short one in Lystra’s strange situation. Both are radical. Each speaks to a group living in treasured boundaries and shows them God outside.

In the Synagogue, Paul affirms Israel’s election in Abraham, its messianic promises in David. But where are these promises going? Jesus is David’s seed as Anointed King, beyond the prophet John. But Jerusalem rulers, like many before, didn’t recognize God’s promised savior and killed him. God raised him, opening his promises of forgiveness, even to Gentiles excluded by Torah.

People in Lystra try to put the Apostles’ sign into a framework they know. Paul insists they must see more. Pagan gods were part of creation like people. They need to know the living Creator. But that God has always been with them and showed his love by caring for their lives, as Jesus said.

Each speech takes the listeners where they are and shows how what God has done opens their world, their story, to a larger vision, greater hopes, rooted in the vast love of God manifested in Jesus. But in each case, the familiar story is hard to overcome. Can we live in a gracious new story?

Antioch -- History, Pain, and Hope

Antioch was capital of Roman Syria, founded in 300 bc after Alexander Gt. By Seleucus I, named for his father Antiochus. On the Orontes River controling trade from south and east into Asia Minor and Europe. Fortress, 2 sq miles, 150,000 people in 1st cent. ad. (nearly 2x as dense as modern Manhattan). Had Jewish community from beginning with some rights, conflicts.

Ant. was important in NT times as the place where inclusion of

Gentiles became substantial and mission to Gentiles began. It was

also the place where the Latin name 'Christian' was first given to the mixed community.

When we imagine ancient cities, we often think of monumental ruins and place ourselves among the elite. But most people lived in tiny 1-room wooden 5-story tenements. No sewage, fire-places, windows, or building codes. Stench! Always dangerous. Night deadly. No police. Antioch was often (13x) conquered or beseiged, 4 city-destroying fires, many smaller, 10 great earthquakes; 3 major epidemics; 5 famines. On average, a major disaster every 15 yrs. Continual influx of people was required to maintain population. Diverse, conflicting ethnic groups. Riots common. Walled areas. Antioch's patron goddess was Tyché (Fortune, Chance). Still people kept coming.*

People of Vision and Experience

Antioch was a center of realization of the new vision of God's purposes embodied in the Gospel -- fulfilling the promise to Abraham by including all those conflicting people in one new humanity. The name Christian crossed boundaries and embodied a vision of God of inclusive hope and love.

It began with Stephen's debates with Diaspora Jews in Jerusalem. His death set off persecution led by Saul/Paul that scattered many. Philip with Samaritans and an Ethiopian. But Paul was called by God to go to Gentiles and brought into the church in Jerusalem by Barnabas from Cyprus. Then Peter with Cornelius the Roman in Caesarea. The Greek-speaking Jews, at home in the Diaspora travel widely: Alexandria, Cyrene, Antioch. They don't hold back but take this Jewish message of the crucified Messiah/King to Greek-speaking Gentiles. Surprisingly they believe!

A mixed community takes shape crossing the hard boundaries of hate and conflict between Jews and various ethnic groups, between slave and free. Barnabas is sent and sees "the Grace of God." He gets Paul (Jewish Pharisee, Roman, Greek, called to the Gentiles). God builds the community.

Luke calls attention to the leaders in Antioch (13:1). Barnabas from Cyprus, Simeon called "Black" (Latin, Niger, like the Ethiopian?), Lucius (Latin name, perhaps Luke) from Cyrene in N. Africa, Manaen (Menahem) from the court of Herod Antipas, and Saul/Paul from Tarsus in Cilicia. All had deep Jewish roots but also shared the language and life of Greco-Roman culture. They knew and interacted with people from radically different backgrounds, saw them as inherently valuable.

The Great Debate -- The Spirit, Scripture, God's Grace, People's Lives

The Spirit intervenes, calling Barnabas and Paul to an expanding mission. They return with news of faith among Gentiles. But that set off intensified debate about scriptures (circumcision as sign of the people of God). It required discernment and boldness in re-reading the ancient story in ways that shifted traditional, long-struggled-for interpretations. What defines God's people?

The whole future of this movement was at stake. Would it continue in an ethnic identity? Would the "God's Grace" among Gentiles be discounted. How does Jesus affect scripture and a vision of God?

Caesarea: New City, Roman Center

Caesarea, built by Herod the Gt., gift of Augustus. 10 bc. Harbor. Excavations. Many Caesareas. Mixed pagan and Jewish. Herod's Temple to Augustus. Like other Gk cities. Center of Roman government. Pilate inscription.

Philip came there after Jerusalem (6:1-7), Samaria (8:5-
25), and the Ethiopian (8:26-40). He was a leader of Gk-
speaking believers who began the process of realizing
the promise of Pentecost, reaching out to the world. The Spirit pushed him to new encounters. Now that same Spirit pushes Peter. Luke shows Peter had no intention of going to non-Jews, but visions to Cornelius and Peter (10:1-23) show God's determination to leap that barrier.

In Caesarea: Agrippa I was acclaimed as god and died. Paul visited Philip, was later imprisoned, and appealed to Caesar. In 66, the Jewish war with Rome broke out. Vespasian was acclaimed Caesar.

Cornelius and Peter -- Both Learn the Gospel

Cornelius is a captain (centurion) in the Roman army (Italian cohort). His name has ancient Roman roots. He's a pagan already strongly drawn to the God of Israel (one God, morality), known as a "God-fearer." He also embodies the oppressing Roman empire, the enemy.
He shows the complexity of human stories and inadequacy of dividing lines among people.

Peter is leader of the disciples, taught directly by Jesus. He's a Galilean Jewish fisherman, with assumptions about the world. He was ready to fight the Romans when they arrested Jesus. He was learning, changing: Learned from visions but cautiously took Jewish believers along. He comes to Cornelius' house with trepidation: A boundary crossing is dangerous.

Peter's speech (in Luke's summary) is not smooth and eloquent, but halting, ungrammatical, like someone very nervous. He has something powerful to say but is just taking hold of it.

There is no way to overestimate the revolutionary importance of Peter's statement that "God shows no partiality among people." It is fundamental theologically -- One God of all. It's an old idea: God looks at the heart not the face. But it had never come to any realization even among Jews. The Roman empire was founded on the opposite idea: a stratified society of rich/poor, powerful/powerless, slave/free, men/women, various ethnic groups all keeping in their place. That was law and custom. Our society echoes that long tension. Could a community exist within that empire that embodied a fundamentally different vision?

Peter starts from God's/Jesus' proclamation of peace. He was anointed as Messiah by God's Spirit and power shown in service, concretely healing brokenness. He brought release/ forgiveness to those under the Accuser's slavery. Rulers responded by crucifying him, but God overturned that verdict, creating new life in resurrection and establishing him as judge.

The Spirit's Great Surprise

As Peter turns to his exposition of scripture, the Spirit freely decides to intervene. He "falls" on the listeners. He is a gift "poured out" on even Gentiles. They "receive" the gift as the apostles had. Peter is learning about God even as Cornelius is. This is the God of the promise to Abraham, the one God of all nations, all creation. Nothing will ever be the same.

But people are very resistant. People could cite scriptural law against including Gentiles. It's hard to cross cultural, class, economic lines. A lot of work had yet to be done. But it started! This Spirit would continue to push the believers, even Peter and Paul, to join in leaping boundaries.

From Jerusalem to Rome - Hope among City Crowds

Though Jesus came from a village, the Faith in him spread from city to city across the Roman empire. The Spirit came at Pentecost among the crowds gathered from far and wide. The messengers of this new hope, love, understanding of God and life in Jesus took their announcement into the meeting places and markets of Jerusalem, Rome, and far beyond.

Crowds are ‘dumb and panicky’ (MiB), a person is smart. On Pentecost Peter spoke in the court of the great Jerusalem Temple to the persons who had been part of the crowd that crucified Jesus. When they listened to the promise of scripture in Prophets and Psalms, they realized one by one that they had rejected the very Messiah (anointed King) they hoped for.

He called them to transformation: changed thinking, a decisive plunge one by one into a new life given by Jesus, into the power of God’s Holy Spirit, into a new community, not a crowd.

Jerusalem, a City of Promise and Disaster

Since David conquered Jerusalem and Solomon built the Temple there, the city had been center of the people’s hopes and mistakes. Northern tribes broke away and were ultimately conquered and dispersed. Southern tribes had some good rulers but more bad ones and suffered exile. They returned full of hope but also under pagan rule. They hoped for deliverance and Messiah.

Under Rome, some sold out. Zealots wanted military revolution. Rome was central in both visions. Either lose identity (as High priests! often did) or drive out the foreigner for a ‘pure’ nation. Jesus called them to new vision, to follow God in loving even foreigners- promise to Abram.

Jesus was crucified. Jerusalem and Rome had ever more conflict. War broke out in 66, and Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70. War came again in 132: Jerusalem obliterated. Luke is likely writing in the period after 70 when the way of violence had brought disaster. In 30,

Peter told the people of God’s Spirit poured out on all, calling even those far off. He learns.

Turning from Death to Life, from Exclusion to Inclusion

Jerusalem becomes the starting point for deliverance from the ‘twisted generation’ of violence and exclusion. There is not a hint of revenge. But the humility of receiving God’s grace. "Change your thinking" (repent). Commit yourself (plunge in water) to the Messiah you crucified but God raised to new life. You become a community conscious of its own vast sins but receiving unearned forgiveness by God’s grace: no triumph over others, only joy. Receive the unimaginable gift of God’s own Spirit living in you. Realize it’s for everyone.

The Jerusalem community learned that implementing these realities was challenging. Even among Jews, language barriers could cause conflict. Different cultural contexts interpreted Jesus’ meaning in different ways. The Greek-speaking Jews were more radical and more defensive. They laid the groundwork for ultimately including even Gentiles in the community.

Together - Sharing Transformation by Jesus

Luke shows the building of a community based on this new way of thinking, committed to Jesus, inclusive, forgiven, empowered by the Spirit - strangers united in a family of God’s promise.

Teaching. Everyone had a lot to learn and knew it. Thinking in radically new ways of Jesus is not easy for any of us. There are simple beginnings but challenging depths. We’re all still learning.

Shared life. Meals, conversation, friendship, helping those in need. Creating a family where there can be freedom with each other, no masks, real concern for needs, shared resources. Breaking the Bread. Living in the shared story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Sharing the

story concretely with each other. Being shaped by Jesus in mind, heart, action, love, joy. Prayers. A real and deepening life with God. Awe before his love and welcome. Celebration of grace.

Pentecost - Last Days, New Life Begins

Peter’s letter was written not long before his death under persecution, 32+ yrs after Pentecost, 35 yrs after he first met Jesus. He was spokesman on Pentecost, interpreting the strange events to Jews crowding Jerusalem from all over the Roman empire. Possibly a few of his readers were there.

Filled with this new experience of God’s Spirit, given by the crucified and resurrected Jesus, he knew that this was the fulfillment of ancient promises from God (Joel, David, etc.), promises that marked it as the start of a new age, the "last days," when the God of Israel would give his life, his Spirit to all people, men and women, old and young, even slaves, all would receive his gifts of grace.

Peter began an adventure of transformed vision, breaking his own prejudices, learning just how broadly God intended this - even non-Jews were included. Now 30+ years later he writes this letter to believers just that diverse - pagans, Jews, slaves, women, men, old and young.

They never knew Jesus, never read a Gospel book, but they know him through the message that people like Peter brought, through the new life, new vision, and new experience of God’s presence and Spirit that message brought. They have come to know and love and trust Jesus as their living Lord, one who has conquered even death by his resurrection and united us with God. They have been "born again to a living hope" (1:3), a new vision of the reality of the world,

of what is true and lasting. They are transformed, even though facing fiery persecution.

The Sufferings of the Messiah

From present usage you might expect that the term "Christian" would be common in the NT. But it occurs only 3 times. It’s based on the Greek title "Christ" (Christos = Messiah, anointed king), but expanded with the Latin ending -ianus, meaning a partisan or follower of Christ, a Messianist. That Latin ending suggests it was a term created by Roman government authorities to mark the group. In Antioch, the population was deeply divided. This was a new group crossing boundaries.

It marked the group as suspicious, followers of royal pretender/traitor, crucified by a Roman governor. But for believers it also marked a reality that deeply shaped their view of the world. Their Lord, the very presence of God in the world had been rejected and shamefully crucified by religious and government and popular powers. That event was not just a momentary mistake but marked the fact that Jesus brought a vision of reality and life that challenged and undermined the structures of power, control, empire, and religion so pervasive in human history. Though the Roman empire was still powerful, they embodied a vision that said its basic assumptions were false and passing. That was the "Living Hope" - the vision of reality seen in Jesus. In the face of impossible odds.

Hostility was rising. The crucifixion of Jesus was not the end of opposition. A "fiery ordeal" based on simply being a "Christianus" (partisan of the pretended King) was rising into view. Peter would die. But Peter says "Rejoice." You are already experiencing "inexpressible joy." That Spirit given at Pentecost is resting on you. Don’t let the powers define it as "shame." It is God’s glory now.

Thinking Clearly toward Love, Friendship and Service

But what do we do? Think clearly, soberly, in terms of reality - the goal (telos). Pray together. Don’t let their violence define you. Strengthen the new reality seen in Jesus by concrete action among you.

First, Love! All believers are sinners. Stress can bring out the worst. Do everything to keep your love for each other strong and real. Be gracious and forgiving to each other. Then love flows outward.

Second, hospitality. Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free - you wouldn’t naturally associate with each other. Actively work to build real friendship across the divides created by the world. Welcome the world.

Third, God’s grace and Spirit give gifts of grace to each person. Everyone has something to give. Use those gifts to serve each other. Learn to see them as God’s grace working through you. If you teach or speak, if you serve, always by God’s strength. Embody God’s grace in all you do.

Then even under suffering, the reality of Jesus’ Resurrection life is alive in you. That lasts forever!

Amy preaches a powerful sermon on the "Good Samaritan" for our Mother’s Day Sunday morning service.