I received an e-mail last week. Someone wrote to say he needed to get baptized immediately. He had started a program in his church for those interested in baptism but that was going to take several weeks. He wanted to get baptized that day. He cited as precedent the baptism of the African court official… Read More »

In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action. We see that phenomenon at work in Acts 8. According to St. Luke the authorities in Jerusalem want to squelch the nascent Jesus movement so they launch a persecution. Those first followers of Jesus flee the city… Read More »

St. Luke deliberately patterns the death of St. Stephen, the first martyr (protomartyr), after the death of Jesus. Stephen, like Jesus, forgave his enemies: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Forgiveness is hard. Once when I was talking with a group of those who had been abused someone said, “Don’t ask us to… Read More »

It is not a coincidence that it was the “Synagogue of Freedmen” which debated with Deacon Stephen. Since they were outsiders they held onto the faith they acquired as a safe harbor in a stormy world. They didn’t understand that, while a boat is safe in a harbor, that is not why boats are made.… Read More »

Picture this scenario. You are watching “Dancing with the Stars” when a news alert comes on. “A panel from the National Science Foundation regrets to announce some bad news. The sun is expanding. The cosmologists thought this was going to happen many millennia in the future but it’s happening now. It will only be fifty… Read More »

One of the consoling things about the Bible is its portrayal of people just like us. For example, we read in the Acts of the Apostles that “the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews.” Dealing with foreigners, with immigrants was as neuralgic in the first century as it is in the twenty-first. Racism is nothing new.… Read More »

The book of Acts tells of a speech given by Gamaliel. A little later in the book we find out that Gamaliel was the teacher of a young man from Tarsus named Saul, who eventually became St. Paul. All of which serves to remind us of those who have been our teachers along the way.… Read More »

St. Peter standing before the Sanhedrin said, “Better for us to obey God than men.” How can we be sure that we are in fact in touch with God’s will when we are defying the conventional norms? Dr. MLKing, Jr. provided a method for ensuring that acting for justice in the face of unjust laws… Read More »

John 3:16 has become a Bible verse that is “advertised” at sporting events. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him … might have eternal life.” Which raises the question: what does it mean to “believe” in Jesus? Is it one option among many? You… Read More »

St. Luke near the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles wrote: “The community of believers was of one heart and mind.” The rest of the Book of Acts demonstrates a community which was NOT of one heart and mind. There were divisions between the different language groups. There was controversy over accepting Samaritans into… Read More »