Even When the Road is Spinning
Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. Philip when down to Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. (Acts 8:4-5)
Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, (this is the wilderness road). So he got up and went. (Acts 8:26-27a)
The days at hand were days of severe persecution against the church in Jerusalem and the folks who followed Jesus were scattered far and wide. It is no fun to find oneself scattered about the place when we would rather have things falling into place as we know them and like them. Anxiety can scatter our minds and disturb our hearts. Fear can make us turn right around and go in another direction. Feeling lost makes us spin and spin and spin.
There are many ways to resist the anxieties of the day - ignore our fears - always act as though we know the way. I find that many people are quite proficient at living a life like this. They appear to be in control and able to self-secure their lives. They often occupy positions of influence and speak with sure-footed, authority. The world around us admires such people. They seem to know how things are to run. They come across as having the skill set to make the world around them work for them. They speak and act in such a way that other folks are willing to follow them - for at least they appear as though they are not lost or wandering or standing still.
Having the knowledge as to how to live in our world and make things come out just as we want - is quite amazing. To be able to take life by the ‘whatever’ and make sure things will go as we like - attracts other people. To be able to never show that one is full of fear, anxiously wondering about the day, or simply lost, looks like strength and such strength is seductive. It is - in some way - messianic in appearance. I did not capitalize messianic here because it is a false image of the vision of the Messiah or the Christ. In every aspect of our lives, there are messianic people who are able to appear as though they know all that is to be known or they can do whatever is necessary to shape life according to their own vision - a vision they then slap with the sticker Holy or The Best or Better Than Ever Before.
When I drive my car to the coffee shop where I regularly read and write, I often take the freeway. Well, some years ago the state and city reconfigured how the traffic was to move into and through downtown. One of those changes involved setting up a new exit that placed traffic going downtown up and over the existing intersection of two freeways and then down onto a downtown street. The GPS in my car never got the memo - even after all these years.
The first time I started to exit, the map twirled - I was flying above the map as it once depicted this part of the city: No exit - No road - No hope - No direction. If I was new to the city and didn’t know the roads in and around downtown there would be a good chance that I would have been freaking out. This GPS was worthless for the moment. During this time, the calming voice of the directional assistant repeated over and over again: recalculating. There I was - flying in space somewhere - and the voice was say: recalculating. I knew that I was on a road. I could see that I was moving closer into downtown and yet my placement in the world was confusing the voice that was suppose to know where I was and how I was to make it to my destination - recalculating - recalculating!
It is at this point in the freeway system and one other new, large, freeway interchange that I have come to see that the map - the way things are to be - how they are to appear - the route we are to trust - the voice of assurance and confidence I expect - may be quite useless. I now press on in confidence that this spinning will come to an end and between now and then I will land and the journey will continue even if I am thrown off course a bit. There is no need to pull over in the midst of the spinning. There is no need to grasp for control. There is no need to turn around. There is no need to hire a consultant.
I enjoy the stories of Philip in the Book of Acts in those days when the followers of Jesus were being persecuted. For just as the map in my car was spinning and the next steps in life were in question - there was no well thought out plan - no map as to how one could survive and make through the time of persecution. People fled - people ran - people stumbled - people wet their pants - people lost all hope. There is no story of a great leader rising up and settling the followers of Jesus with a plan to secure the future - stabilize the foundations of their lives - present a plan that would empower them to win the day. Instead, there was a breeze that brought forth a knowledge that moved people beyond the expectations of the broken world around them. Ordinary stories of folks moving out into life.
Philip finds himself in Samaria. No, it was not magic. When the world is spinning and fear abounds and anxiety festers in our minds, there is a knowledge that does not make sense to the knowledge of the world. Samaria? What did Philip think when he was moved into the middle of those folk? Geez. First Jesus is lynched and now he’s in the middle of folks who really want nothing to do with a person coming from Jerusalem. Yet, he tells a story - he shares a vision - he brings to mind how the powers of the world and all their great ways of knowing how things should be run are nothing more than a lie - a self-serving force that cannot survive unless they control the lives of others. Whew. A victim speaks to the victimized about how there is one who did not let the spin of the world rule the day. And - they understood and embraced the story.
Yet, that was not enough. Right when there could have been a place to settle down and make a new life, Philip is blown off course. He is moved into the path of one more of the despised of a world. Everything was spinning - the road was not straight - the encounter was all wrong - the GPS was malfunctioning, but Philip alongside a Eunuch unfolds the knowledge of the Reign of God. It is a ridiculous story and it will take thousands of years for people to accept it as a gift that brings the availability of God’s love into and through all the spinning and confusing times of our well-order and well-run world.
For too long the church has been stuck to a map and it was the way things had to be. And yet, I find that the church is a breath of fresh air that is able to live within the spinning of a new world in which the goal is not to control the world - but to be free to live out a new direction for life even when no one else seems to be going there.
TRRR
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