Acts

A good friend of mine wrote these words:

“Words aren’t enough any more. People don’t care what you have to say. This is a generation where everything worth knowing is on the TV or the Radio or the Internet, not in books and letters and diaries. In the few centuries following Jesus’ death, writing was the only way to spread news, excitement, events. And so it was by letters that the word was spread, but that’s not enough any more. Of all the books of the bible, Acts is probably the most comparable to today. People like acts. We have short attention spans. We need to be entertained, or we will find something better to look at or listen to. Actions are the only effective evangelism.”

Play.Laugh.Grow.

They say church is about three things: 

Fellowship.

Worship.

Teaching. 

I think church could be based around these three things (which happen to be the tag line for fisher price, where I stole this from): 

Play.

Laugh.

Grow. 

The first three would be encapsulated within these corporate things; being involved (playing), enjoying yourself (laughing) and increasingly living life to the full (growing). 

swords

I was in church a while back and they were talking about the war on terror.  

It surprised me how many people seemed pro-war.  

As if Jesus was up for the idea. 

One guy was chatting about Deuteronomy where God says to Israel ‘When you go to war…’, and he was making out that because it says ‘when’ that God expects us to go to war, and it makes it ok. I

t’s makes you think though, cos the way I see it God was telling specific people at a specific time ‘look when you go to war, because its coming up, its about to happen, then…’ It was a detailed point made to the relevant people group. Yeah we can learn from their story, but God isn’t necessarily saying to us ‘when you go to war’, as if we are standing on the edge of the battlefield. Do you see? 

Problem is that still doesn’t help with the problem of why an all-loving God would justify war… 

Holy war?

Necessary to get to the next stage? get where we are now?

A political / financial / geographic / military agenda – of God? Or the Israelites?  

Who knows… 

All I know is I read Jesus as a pacifist. I don’t see any other alternative.  ‘love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you…’ (Matthew 5:44)  

I never understood this. Sounds like Jesus’ is a push over, but Paul sums it up nicely. ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Romans 12:21) 

Jesus is more like ‘solve the problem, fight your enemies back, but find new ways of doing it, loving ways’

Another section of the Bible people use to justify war is Matthew 10:34, where Jesus says he has ‘come to bring a sword…come to set a man against his father…a mans enemies will be those of his own household’. 

Imagine for a moment a strictly white family provoking racial tensions from American history say, or a Nationalistic German family in the 1940’s, or a Muslim family from Birmingham. What would happen if a set member of such a family decided, for some reason, to follow Jesus’ teachings, that all humans are equal and that we should ‘love one another’. Would a ‘racist’ family be happy of their son for seeking black welfare? Would a Nazi be proud of their daughter for siding with Jewish prisoners? Would a Muslim family embrace a family member who has turned from, some aspects, of their culture, tradition and thinking?  

Tensions would be high. Voices would be raised. A fight over heritage, or doctrine, or lifestyle, or worldviews may follow.

Hey, do you know what, you may even describe it as bringing a sword into your own household.  As if Jesus demands we follow him over anything else, including our family. 

O wait…