No Other
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
January 13, 2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Acts 8: 14-24
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
14
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to
them. 15 The two went down and prayed for them that they might
receive the Holy Spirit 16 (for as yet the Spirit had not come
upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). 17
Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the
Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through
the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying,
“Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the
Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with
you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! 21 You
have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent
therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible,
the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you
are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness.” 24 Simon
answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may
happen to me.”[1]
Today is an exciting day in the life of the church. Today we
install the new ruling elders, who have answered the call to lead, and today
they begin that journey. Two of our newly elected officers are new elders, so
today we also get the unique opportunity to witness an ordination, how appropriate
that we do so on this day of the church calendar where traditionally is
celebrated the Baptism of Christ and the beginning of his ministry with us on
Earth. And on this second Sunday of my new discipline of preaching according to
the Lectionary, I got to make a choice. The way that the Lectionary works is
that there are four readings. Typically there is a selection from the Old
Testament, a Selection from the Psalms, a Selection from the Gospel, and then
another from the New Testament outside the gospels. The calling passage from
Isaiah, proclaiming God's ever presence with those whom he chooses to call,
certainly appropriate for today's special service. But then I had a choice. The
Gospel Reading was Luke's account of the Baptism of Jesus by John, but I was
strangely intrigued by this more obscure story from Acts.
There are a couple of aspects of the
story that grabbed my attention. The first was the thought that the baptism of
these folks was not sufficient, on one hand, and then the man Simon's attempt
to buy the power, of giving the Holy Spirit. I thought that these two aspects
of the story are very important for us to look at today, because it offers a
reminder to who is really in control, who is in charge, who does the calling,
who does the commissioning, who does the ordaining, whose mission we are on,
and most importantly whose church this is. These reminders are central to the
business of today, and are easy to miss in the rituals and the roles that we
play, easy to forget as we get bogged down in the business of church. For those
called to lead, it is easy to lose sight of in the heat of the battle, in the
hard days of service, on those days when we are frustrated by the process and
the slowness of progress, the long meetings, when the temptation to go our own
way and "get things done" is strong. It is easy to lose sight of the
fact that it is Christ who is in charge. It is Christ who calls us, and it is
Christ whose will is to be done.
But let's look at the story. It is
an interesting one. It is an away game for the apostles because conversion, or
at least something like it, is going on in Samaria. Phillip had been preaching
there for a while, ever since Saul had been persecuting the Christians in
Jerusalem, he hasn't had his big change of heart and name yet, that is the next
story after this one. So Phillip has been in Samaria, and has called in
reinforcements because he was having such success. Now remember what Samaria
is, and what it represents. Remember all the Good Samaritan sermons you have heard,
and remember that Samaritans were hated by the Jews. They were seen as turn
coats, sell outs, compromisers, and as such blasphemers. People who would leave
tradition and make peace with the occupiers, folks who had cooperated with the
enemy. And now they had, as the text says, "accepted the word of
God." But when John and Peter got to them they found that there was still
something missing. Though they had been baptized, they were only baptized in
the name of Jesus, and as yet the Holy Spirit had not come to them. More had to
be done.
Now this can be troubling for folks
in the Reformed tradition, mostly because we only believe in doing one baptism.
Now here it seems that, that one baptism is not sufficient, as the text says
because it was "done only in the name of Jesus Christ." What does
this mean, to be baptized only in the name of Christ? Does it mean in name
only, and so not in the totality of Christ? Sure there seems to be a
distinction there, but how could you ever know? What would it look like to only
be baptized in the name and not in the totality of Christ. There is a clue in
the text here, and that is that apparently at least one thing is missing in the
people. . . the holy spirit. How does that happen?
Let's look back at the text here,
because there is more to this story, some clues to the idea of Christ in name
only, and there also is this guy Simon, who gets chastised by Peter. The
earlier part of the story gives us a glimpse at just who this guy, Simon is.
Here is the beginning, starting back at Acts 8:4:
4 Now those
who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. 5 Philip
went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6
The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip,
hearing and seeing the signs that he did, 7 for unclean spirits,
crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others
who were paralyzed or lame were cured. 8 So there was great joy in
that city.
So we get a glimpse of Philip and his ministry. There are
healings, exorcisms, crowds all together listening eagerly, and finally great
joy. It certainly seems like a gospel like encounter. There are stories of
people encountering Jesus in the Gospels that are at least parallel to what is
going on here, but the story continues.
9 Now a
certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed
the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great. 10 All of
them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, “This
man is the power of God that is called Great.”
Hmm there is something here. At least there seems to be a
pattern of behavior for these folks. Strange man comes to town, performs
wonders, every one listens intently, or as it says both times, eagerly. Even
the words the adverbs are repeated, that the people "listened to him
eagerly." The parallel caused me to look to the original Greek word. In
both it is the same "Prosecho," which can mean listen eagerly, but it
can also mean take heed, and can mean to attach or moor yourself to as a ship
attaches itself to a dock. Now here are these folks, seemingly attaching themselves
to each new teaching that comes along. But if you look at the chronology of the
story, the encounter with Simon and the people listening eagerly happens before
them listening to Philip, so why bring it up here, unless it is significant,
and you want to show how wishy washy the people are. Flip flopping to whoever
comes to preach. Let's continue on.
11 And they
listened eagerly [ there is that word again, "prosecho"] to him
because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
So if you can do some magic, you can get these guys to
follow. Do you see it, these folks are attracted to the wonders and the
actions, and they are connected to the person who stands in front of them doing
these things, but they do not have a real insight about who or what is the
source.
12 But when
they believed Philip, who was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of
God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13
Even Simon himself believed. After being baptized, he stayed constantly
with Philip and was amazed when he saw the signs and great miracles that took
place. [2]
It is at this point that our passage begins, when Peter and
John show up and pray that the Holy Spirit will come to these people. But look
at Simon, he believes, and he attaches himself to Philip, amazed at the signs
and great miracles. "He stayed constantly with Philip." What is he
waiting for? What does he want to see? Is he seeking a relationship with
Christ? At this point in the story we don't know, but since we read the rest of
the story earlier we have a glimpse of his real motivation. . . because John
and Peter show up, and they say a prayer, lay their hands on the people and the
Holy Spirit comes down on them. And then Simon, this guy Simon, we get a
glimpse at his heart. Can I get some of that action? He seems to say, Can I
become a bestower of the Holy Spirit, too?
Isn't it interesting that he doesn't
ask for the Holy Spirit to descend upon himself, but rather to have the power
to give the Holy Spirit to others? He has no interest in relating with Jesus
himself, he has no interest in being transformed himself. He wants to transform
others. He wants to be a wielder of power. He wants to lead people, but not in
the name of Christ, who he does not know, or care to know, but in his own name.
The story introduces him as a magician. He is from the ancient Pagan tradition.
He is not up for submitting to Christ, instead he is out for control. He wants
control. He is interested in Christ, sure, at least he is captivated by the
possibility and by the power, it seems that he is drawn to it, but here we see
his real motivation. It is to control it, he sees it as a commodity that can be
bought and sold. So rather understanding it, he wants to buy it. He wants to by
that which is freely given. Oh Simon, Simon. . .
Now why was I drawn to this story?
Why do I feel that it is important to us to hear this morning as we install and
ordain our new leaders? I think it is important for them to hear, and also us
to hear anew that it is not us who are in charge, but Christ. This very fact is
the central truth of this story. There are miracles in this story, there is
magic in this story, there are hungry souls searching in this story, there is
great potential for conversion in this story, but we also get an important
glimpse at how quickly it can all be misinterpreted, how easily it can be
corrupted, how easy it is to miss the source for the messengers, how easy it is
to trivialize the true source of the transformation. The power is not in Philip,
the power is not in John and Peter, the power is not in the words, not in the
rituals, not in the laying on of hands, not even in the name of Jesus, if it were
Simon could have bought it, for all of that stuff is cheap, but instead the
power is in the totality and the person of Christ. If Christ is not present, if
the Holy Spirit is not moving, the actions themselves are empty, and
insufficient.
So today we will perform a ritual,
we will lay hands on Kane and Lizbeth, ordaining them as officers in the
church, as Ruling Elders. And years ago when Nancy became an Elder in the Presbyterian
Church, it was the same for her. Today is the confirmation of their call to
serve, and though we elected them, and though we nominated them, it is not us
who calls them, nor is it us they serve. Elders in the Presbyterian Church do
not function like elected officials in the United States Congress, which is
certainly a good thing judging how well congress is working these days. They
are not the representatives of the congregation, ruling based on popular
opinion. The members of this Church are not their constituents, from whom they
form their understanding of how to make decisions, nor do they represent
themselves and their own agendas. They serve this church as representatives of
Christ, called by Christ, serving Christ, and beholden only to Christ. Christ
and no other, not power, not money, not personal agendas, not popularity, not
what is practical, not what sustains the church, not what will grow the church
at all cost, at the center of their call is the principle: not my will be done,
but thine.
Otherwise we serve Christ in name
only, and we like Simon are simply trying to buy empty authority,
misunderstanding the source and the true value and import of our calling to
serve, and Peter's rebuke rings a little too close to home:
21
You have no part or share in this,
for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent therefore of this
wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your
heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of
bitterness and the chains of wickedness.”[3]
We are not perfect. We may falter. We may fail. We in ourselves
are not worth, but in Christ all things are possible, and in Christ only is anything
possible. May Christ bless this his Church with the leadership of his servants Nancy,
Lizbeth, and Kane, and may their relationship with Christ grow in the years to come
as they walk a new and wonderful path of called leadership. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ac 8:14-24). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[2]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ac 8:4-13). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[3]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ac 8:20-23). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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