Saturday Night Theologian
14 May 2006

Acts 8:26-40

What sorts of people do churches, either implicitly or overtly, bar from full participation in the congregation? Some churches bar divorced men and women from communion, while others bar them from positions of leadership. Other churches do their best to keep homosexuals out of their congregations. Some churches still contrive to make African Americans or other ethnic minorities feel unwelcome. Many churches, while allowing women as members, refuse to grant them equal opportunities to serve God in every area of ministry. Still other churches bar illegal immigrants, or people who don't speak English, or the poor from either membership or positions of authority within the church. In making these distinctions among different types of people, the church is following the example set in Deuteronomy 23:1-8, where people with various physical handicaps or from certain ethnic backgrounds were prevented from full participation in the community. Some of the prophets countered this message of exclusion with a message of inclusion, and Isaiah 56:3-8 explicitly reverses the message of Deuteronomy, asserting that all who are willing to worship God are welcome. The Ethiopian eunuch, because of his physical deformity, was a person who would have been excluded from full participation in the covenant community under the Deuteronomic theory of community. Despite that difficult reality, he took the opportunity to worship God to the extent possible, and he read the scriptures enthusiastically and expectantly, believing that God had a word even for him, a eunuch. Philip interprets the passage that the eunuch is reading, from Isaiah 53, as an indication that Christ's sacrifice is offered to all who will come. The eunuch learns that day that though many people, even religious people, may exclude him from the house of God, God welcomes him with open arms. Do our churches follow the same example?

For another discussion of this passage, click here.

Psalm 22:25-31

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed an extension of certain tax cuts, which will drain another $70 billion from the budget. Who will benefit, and who will suffer from these tax cuts? A typical, middle class family will see net savings of less than $100. The extremely wealthy, those making $1 million per year or more, will reap as much as $40,000 in tax rebates. And the poor? As tax revenues decline, services to the poor will be cut even further. Is this the way to celebrate God's blessings, by rewarding the rich and punishing the poor? The psalmist doesn't think so. After describing his own desperate situation, he receives a prophetic word that God will deliver him (unstated, but implied by the change in attitude in the middle of verse 21). He shows his gratitude to God by offering a sacrifice, one in which the poor may benefit: "The poor shall eat (the cooked sacrifice) and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord." When God blesses us, what do we do to show our gratitude? Some people thank God heartily for the blessing and keep the benefits for themselves. Others give generously to the church, which may be either good or bad, depending on how the church chooses to use the gift. Others might give directly to a worthy charity, or even directly to someone in need. The important thing for us to remember is that when God blesses us, we need to share that blessing with others, especially those most in need.

For another discussion of this passage, click here.

1 John 4:7-21

I have an acquaintance who proudly displays an anti-Semitic bumper sticker on his truck, and he often drives to church and parks his truck with its disturbing message in the church parking lot. About the only thing positive I can say about this person is that at least he's honest about his feelings. He is not shy to tell other people why he doesn't like Jews (or blacks, or immigrants, or various other people). Once you meet this person, you have no doubt as to his convictions or his prejudices. Most people are better at hiding their prejudices, but that doesn't mean that they have none. They claim that they love the poor, but they think that people are usually poor because they're basically lazy. They proclaim themselves free from racial prejudice, but they would do everything they could to prevent their child from marrying outside their racial or ethnic group. They say that God hates the sin but loves the sinner, then they proceed to support legislation that discriminates against homosexuals. They thank God for the blessings of being born in a free country, then they oppose those born in other countries who want to experience the same freedoms. "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another." What's so hard about that? If God loves us, unworthy as we are, how can we deny God's love to our neighbor? Is our neighbor a sinner? So what?! Aren't we just as bad, or worse? Maybe the problems is that we sometimes think to ourselves, "OK, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm a whole lot better than most people!" An attitude like this underscores two truths. First, we have failed to come to grips with the seriousness of our own sin. Second, we don't really understand the power of God's forgiveness. Instead of thinking, "I know that God has forgiven me, but I'm not so sure that God really wants to forgive her," we should be thinking, "If God can forgive me, God can forgive anybody." And if God can love and forgive us, we can certainly do the same for all those we meet.

For another discussion of this passage, click here.

John 15:1-8

The recent discovery of the Gospel of Judas has raised interest in the teachings of the Gnostics, a diverse group of people in the early Christian centuries whose followers believed that salvation could only be attained by means of secret knowledge passed on by Jesus to his disciples, or perhaps to certain disciples. From a Gnostic perspective, the problem with the world was that the divine spirit had been split up in the distant past and imprisoned in human bodies. The spirit was eternal, but the flesh that surrounded it was weak. The ultimate purpose of life was to free the various bits of the spirit that were trapped in human flesh by enlightening people with secret knowledge. In a very real sense, each person's salvation was achieved individually, because the specific pieces of knowledge had to be accepted by each person in order to liberate the spirit within. Today's reading from John describes a much more communal setting, one in which individual believers all share a common relationship with Jesus, described in terms of a vine and its branches. Unlike Gnosticism, which has a strongly individualistic component, the community that the gospel describes is based on people remaining together and following the teachings of Jesus as a group of people bound to one another and to Christ. Knowledge can be a very good thing, if it helps us to understand ourselves, others, and God better. However, it can be a bad thing as well, if we become smug and conceited, thinking of ourselves as smarter than our neighbors or, even worse, holier.

For another discussion of this passage, click here.