Readiness and Responsiveness | Disruptive Presence 67

AI Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] David:  
 

[00:00:04] Well, John, we left last time with Paul's amazing sermon that he had been invited to give. And as far as we can tell, he, he either came ready or this was an incredible impromptu extemporaneous sermon because he he wasn't invited to come and preach. Came and then they asked him to say something. 

[00:00:25] John: Yeah, yeah, I well, I just love the idea of the readiness. I think whatever in whatever way he was ready He was ready and I like that and you do get a sense of that from Paul. He's on the front foot. He is Entering whether it's as we'll see in the book of Acts a place of prayer a common place of meeting Or a stage like a synagogue, and he's going in expecting, I think he's almost expecting something to happen or expecting an opportunity to come his way. 

[00:00:57] So there is a readiness, which, which I think speaks to all of us, if we live our lives with a sense of readiness in terms of our story, our message, our conviction as followers of Jesus, then we'll probably end up. More often than not having a an opportunity in one form or another of sort of sharing something of our Jesus story 

[00:01:20] David: Yes, and that's and I think it, we're not probably going to be able to do it like Paul does necessarily, but, but I love that. I love that idea of, and I think, and we see that in the reading that we're going to do today. There's also a sense of. Paul is there in the city on the Sabbath, he's coming to the place that people go. 

[00:01:43] I love that line in verse 14 on the Sabbath, they went to the synagogue and sat down. It's it's just the normality of it, I think leads to some of the. perhaps the preparation. But there's, there is some beauty in that he goes and does what he normally does, but he's also prepared for what might happen in that sort of process. 

[00:02:02] And then the story sort of where we left it last time You have Paul and Barnabas, we'll get to the end of the sermon and they get a response, don't they? Paul and Barnabas are going out. The people urge them to speak about these things again the next Sabbath and And that's really what we're gonna read then about today, isn't 

[00:02:21] John: Yeah, absolutely. And again leaning into our, our reading, I, I think again, we've talked about the readiness of Paul and Barnabas and here's a readiness in the responsiveness. So, The end, our reading is going to pick up from verse 44, but the end of verse 43 to 44, a week has passed. 

[00:02:40] So, so, it's, it's the fact that, okay, these guys in response to the response are willing to hang around another week. And obviously they, they would have done a lot of stuff in between the two Sabbaths. But, but, it's, it's not lost on us that between verse 43 and 44, a week has passed and the Bible does that just beautifully and regularly these little time lapses that seem to happen immediately, but they're not quite so immediate. 

[00:03:07] And again, we have to reflect on the cost of that. Here's two men and others who may be with them. And this extra week, if they didn't find hospitality, would have cost them at some level they would need financial reserves or they're needing to find a way to generate some financial support. So, so, that, that, that week has not been cheap at one level or another. 

[00:03:32] And, and we pick it up in verse 44 as if like nothing has happened. 

[00:03:36] David: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. And so let's, well, let's, let's pick it up. It's, it's a pretty tense text, actually. You really do feel the, I mean, I don't know. I feel the anxiety as I read this text of of the conflict of the, The potential ways, and we say this regularly, but with the events of the world right now, I feel like I want to say it even more intensely and regularly reading this text in the 21st century, it, it, you feel like you're walking on ice a little bit, don't you? 

[00:04:14] With the way it goes. And, and we sort of want to hold to our space that, that. We've got to be careful not to apply our modern concerns onto this when we're actually looking at a movement of early Christians dealing with conflict with their, with their community who are Jewish. And this is being written from within that conflict. 

[00:04:38] But because of the problematic history of the world beyond that, this feels even more problematic. Is that, I mean... We've talked long about this in other places, so I don't know that we need to rehearse it again, but is that a decent kind of nutshell of our tensions when we read a text like 

[00:04:54] John: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, and I, I think we've tried to be super sensitive and contextual to, to the, the, the types of people, to the names and the groups listed within the book of acts. So far, we, we, we've tried to always Not interpret that as a generic idea, but a particular idea contextualize the and it may have been certain people, individuals or groups that have responded. 

[00:05:22] But we have to, we have to have the courage to read the Bible in the context of its moment and let it speak in its moment before we ever sort of think about, Oh, that's interesting in the light of today. And, and that will probably protect us from saying some stuff we shouldn't be saying both textually and. 

[00:05:40] David: Yes. 
 

[00:05:42] John: Sort of at a contemporary level right now. 

[00:05:44] David: Yeah. So let me jump in and read the text then for us, John. And so do I'm going to do? I'm going to read from chapter 13, verse 42, just to give us those couple of verses to sort of remind ourselves and then jump into the overlap. We'll read down to the end of this chapter at verse 52. It says, as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next Sabbath. 

[00:06:09] When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and blaspheming. 

[00:06:27] They contradicted what was spoken by Paul. Then, both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it, and judge yourself to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. 

[00:06:52] When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord. And as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. Thus, the word of the Lord spread throughout the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the region. 

[00:07:13] So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. 

[00:07:24] John: Wow. Wow. And it feels, it feels here David, like we, we are starting to experience a wee bit of a continuous pattern here when it comes to the, to the sharing of the message of Jesus that we've already sort of Nibbled at the edges of this were in terms of Paul and Barnabas journey But of course we have seen this before in the book of Acts that though this is an amazing message of hope in Jesus It is also it seems extremely potentially divisive message of Jesus and and ironically for Paul and Barnabas both Jewish men who are now followers of Jesus and and followers of the way. 

[00:08:12] It's, they're getting almost Most of their direct pushback from sections of of the Jewish quarter So that this is both awkward and difficult for these two men because their passion is to see the Jewish world embrace Jesus Messiah But at the same time there's there also seems to be a trajectory towards the Gentiles So so actually that the danger is that in reaching One moving towards the Gentiles. 

[00:08:42] They are potentially fracturing themselves from the group. They don't want to be detached from, from, from the Jewish community. That actually as Paul ironically says quite in Isaiah, that that, that they are the light to the Gentiles. So, so there, there, there's an incredible paradoxical feel to this little passage because the very people who should be carrying God's light to the world. 

[00:09:05] are in danger of missing the light of Messiah that's come to them right now. And and, and yet just, just hearing that reading from, from verse 42, right to the end of the chapter, you just get a sense of that without jumping even into the detail. You get a sense of the tension and the paradox and, and the potential divisive fracture that it might start to occur here as this message goes out. 

[00:09:31] David: yes. And, and I, I mean, I, I have read Willie Jennings commentary alongside our work in acts for some quite time now. And our listeners know that he makes his gorgeous point that this not only is this A quarrel within Israel, so it's Jewish leaders opposing Jewish followers of Jesus. He said, but the quarrel is the age old quarrel of the people of Israel. 

[00:10:01] It's, it goes back to Moses in the desert. Are we better in Egypt? And do we want to step forward into what the Lord is revealing us? And The, and this is gorgeous quote from, from Jennings where he says, the dilemma intensifies the burden, right? If a resurrected Jesus and the presence of the spirit are not enough to convince you, then what will? 

[00:10:28] Right. And then he says this, and this might shape some of our conversation this morning, Luke does not have an answer to that question. All he has is another step forward, the Gentiles, 

[00:10:40] John: yeah 
 

[00:10:40] David: isn't it? And I think that's maybe why we, I think what Jennings is saying there is why we find these texts so difficult is because Luke reports on them. 

[00:10:50] But doesn't solve them for us. He leaves that for Paul. Paul's going to deal with that in Romans, right? Paul's going to, but we're just left to these texts where it's like, Oh, okay. So, so like, if you just read this on its own, it feels like the conflict is cataclysmic, whereas I wonder if what Luke's saying is, Oh, that's not the story I'm trying to tell, acts is not how did the church find theological coherence with the people of the synagogue. 

[00:11:17] Luke's story is. This is about the disturbing spread of the Holy Spirit, which is disrupting, moving, changing, and including people who previously thought they were out. So it's almost as if Luke's like, Oh, but that might, that's not the story I'm telling. Cause I'm telling you that story because this is how we end up getting to the Gentiles. 

[00:11:36] But it leaves us thousands of years later, kind of conflicted sometimes because you're like, well, oh, okay. I need to, I want to know more about that. Don't I? 

[00:11:46] John: Yeah, yeah, totally. And I, I think the sort of sense of intensity is, is just ratcheted up in that little, the next Sabbath, the whole city gathered. So we've certainly gone from sort of the end of Paul's sermon where Jewish believers and converts to Judaism are having a conversation. In, in, in the week in between, something has gone platinum in that area. 

[00:12:12] And it's gone platinum to the extent that clearly. Whether it's literally the whole city or Luke is essentially just saying, wow, it looks like everybody's turned up sort of thing. But, but the fact that then the whole city would include not just Jewish believers and converts to Judaism, but quite obviously, and later on explicitly explained Gentiles who are going, what? 

[00:12:37] Hold on a minute. There's a message here for us too. And, and I, I love the echo of that even in Jesus. I think, I think sometimes we miss this, when Jesus proclaims that great sermon on the mountain in Matthew. I think one of the things we miss is the, is the the content of the crowd. There's clearly, clearly people who are from the world of Jesus in that crowd, but there's also people from Syria and Damascus and, and from different areas who've, the word has spread and it's like, it's almost like, oh, and the whole city has gathered. 

[00:13:11] So where hope begins to be proclaimed, and especially if it's being proclaimed to people who thought they weren't on the list for it to be proclaimed to, and we've lent into that hard in some of our parable discussion many, many, many, many years ago, sort of it feels now so, but, but, but that sense of certainly hold on, there's a group of people now at the door going, we're really interested. 

[00:13:35] Yeah. in this and it's it seems in this context David that it is the wider accessibility of the message which has spread from one sabbath to the next that is now irritating and creating anxiety within the synagogue community or the Jewish community in terms of the reaction of the gentiles and what this might look like for them and that seems to be sort of part of the conversation that's happening there. 

[00:14:04] David: Yes. Yes. No, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's it. I mean, I think it's worth being aware of this sort of stuff. When we're doing a slow read, it's hard to remember chapter one, where we set up what we think Luke is trying to do. And it's even harder then to remember Luke's telling us of the story of Jesus. 

[00:14:26] But, but as I read this text today, I thought so much of the echo of the story of Jesus happening in this as well, John. So I love that you, I love that you saw that. I, I also thought it was interesting that there's... The way Paul tells the story. I was thinking, and I might be chasing, I might be chasing, ghosts here, but the way he tells the story about these ancestors who are in a desert and then he finds, just a guy from the tribe of Benjamin to become Saul. And then then a kid who's the son of Jesse is David and then John the. Baptist, some guy out in the wilderness who becomes the announcer of the Messiah. 

[00:15:11] And then he gets, at some point later, he gets to Abraham's family, but he tracks the story of the everyday inclusion in the story of God. It's not and I, and I wondered about how. with Luke's trajectory of the spirit breaking out into the people you wouldn't expect. Whether, whether that, that's learned from Paul that look how he tells the story. 

[00:15:34] He doesn't tell the story of the history of the kings. He tells the story of the two kings that don't come from royal lineage, right? And, and he doesn't start with, The Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he starts with God's faithfulness to, to them in the desert, right? But then I thought it's interesting in contrast to that, the opposition they get in our text is amongst the people of high standing and the leading people in the city. 

[00:16:02] So, and I'm, again, this is where I maybe I become aware that I'm clutching at ghosts, but I was wondering about this tension, um, where. Jesus in Luke. We see him as this prophet to the outsider. We see him as, Oh, look, this poor woman whose son has passed away. This poor woman who can't stand up straight in the Sabbath. 

[00:16:25] The people, the system are rejecting Jesus is present to. And then here we have in Acts, the church, everyone from the city is gathering to hear What's going on? But the, the, the powerful and the rich are being leveraged to oppose it. And 

[00:16:44] John: mm, 
 

[00:16:46] David: I just, at very least, I think what I want to say is I recognize a theme here that I wonder how intentional it is from Luke to just make sure we catch that theme, that Jesus was a minister to the margins. 

[00:16:59] And the people at the very opposite end of the margins are being leveraged to push this message of Jesus out. I think maybe that's what I'm trying to say. Is that, do you feel that in here? Am I making any 

[00:17:11] John: absolutely. I think that tracks through the whole Luke and Corpus. I think that sort of status reversal type conversation is a constant and ever present in Luke. And I think you get a bit of it in the text here. 

[00:17:24] David: Hmm. 
 

[00:17:24] John: know, verse 45, when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. 

[00:17:30] David: Hmm. 
 

[00:17:31] John: They began to contradict or speak against what Paul was saying and heap abuse, the NIV says, or literally blaspheme. 

[00:17:39] I mean, it's really, really quite strong language here in the context of that. And again, in our X trajectory, we have an echo of that back in X chapter five, then the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy. 

[00:17:56] David: Yes. 
 

[00:17:57] John: So your idea of of the challenge to status, the challenge to power, the challenge to influence. 

[00:18:04] So this is not just, I think Luke is hinting here, hold on, this is not just a theological challenge. It's not just two groups of people disagreeing on how to interpret Isaiah, but it's the response to the church's interpretation of Isaiah. It's a response to Peter and John in Acts 5. It's a response to Paul and Barnabas, where you've got now a whole city showing up, uh, of, of a range of people responding in a way that maybe hasn't been seen before. 

[00:18:37] And this provokes this incredible jealousy. The jealousy seems to suggest more to do with power and influence 

[00:18:46] David: Yes. 
 

[00:18:46] John: than security in theological integrity. So, so if, if you're secure, I think in in your belief system that there's a sense in which we have the security to ride the fad to ride the storm. I think Amelia hints at that, doesn't he? 

[00:19:02] We've touched on Gamaliel a long time ago. We're chameleon sort of says if this is of God. You all need to chill out because because you don't want to fight God. If it's not of God This is just another one of those fads It's got to come and go and it will disappear and we need to remain secure in our conviction of Moses and the prophets I'm sorry. 

[00:19:22] I'm summarizing Gamaliel there, but but that's roughly the idea. I think the same here It's the it feels this is a reaction not just to the message but to the response 

[00:19:34] David: Yes. 
 

[00:19:35] John: And I, and I think it feels like something else is going on here as well as the obvious, hold on a minute, Paul, you talked about Isaiah and you talked about the prophets and explain that a bit more. 

[00:19:47] I think that's there, but also the response is quite traumatic. And I think there's a jealousy around the influence of these, followers of the way. 

[00:19:58] David: I think this is where I love the genius of Luke, that the way he tells this story alerts us to, and I love the way you put that there, John, because that's, that's what I was feeling was this, this sense of there's an economic and political thing going on here as well. These powerful people recognize there is a power shift happening here. 

[00:20:23] I if this message is for all people, and if you, I mean, I, I, you, the, you think about the IIC prophecies, he will, he will fill the valleys and lower the mountains, and and for those of those who are in the valleys. That is great news. But for those of us who are on the mountains, it might not be so great news. 

[00:20:40] We, we rejoice we're, Advent's not that far away. We'll hear the Mary's Magnificat, he's brought the lofty down from their thrones. Well, that's a great message unless you're the lofty, right? And all of a sudden the gospel is not as good news as you maybe thought it was going to be. 

[00:20:56] I love that Luke is pointing this out to us, but, but there's a dynamic been in this. I mean, thinking about this a lot recently, and maybe that's what's drawing it out of me is the, the, the ability, and I see this in contemporary Christianity. I see it myself, the ability to be mad about theology. But it's a mask for a different sin in my life that is actually, I realized that that theological position is going to affect this theological thing that's going on with me. 

[00:21:28] And, and I don't want this theological, this thing going on with me fixed. So I'm just going to be, I'm going to resist the theology. I think about it I see it in. Something I've been thinking a lot about recently because of the time of year it is over here in Canada. I see it in the question of truth and reconciliation about Canada's indigenous history. 

[00:21:47] I think you see it in the American civil rights movement. So often we use theology to mask what is actually a concern about our power. Our privileges and but if we can make it about theological issue that looks better and I think that's unconscious. I don't think we do that intentionally. I think it's unconscious. 

[00:22:07] It may even be a bit of a sin, right? I think we see that pattern in the scripture that one of the. Brilliant things that sin does is make us think that something else is the problem. 

[00:22:17] John: yeah. 
 

[00:22:18] David: So, so I read this story and it's so heavily theological, but I love that Luke just drops it in that. So wait a minute, but who was upset? 

[00:22:26] It wasn't the poor guy on the corner. It wasn't, it wasn't the marginalized person. It wasn't the Gentiles. It was the people that were leading the city. I just want, I want to, I don't want to miss that as a, as a reader that, let me be careful. That when I'm mad at an interpretation of scripture, what am I actually mad at? 

[00:22:47] Does that make sense? 

[00:22:48] John: Oh, totally. And I think one of the great tensions that humans have to manage is in the extraordinary idea that the Lord is with us, that the Lord. 

[00:23:00] David: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:23:02] John: Loves us, that the Lord cares for us and has come to us. The danger is then we can interpret that as sort of, the Lord is mine. The Lord is with me. The Lord is for me now. 

[00:23:18] Now don't, don't mishear me. Of course, he's for us as humans, he's for us as people. But one of the dangers is then having experienced that God is for me then, then we can. We can interpret that as an idea that actually God is for me and therefore not for you. And that's when it becomes then an issue maybe of protectionism and power and status quo and not so much protecting God, but protecting our advantages because, because God has come to us. 

[00:23:59] And, and I think you get a sense of this in Paul's response, I think. What's really interesting to me, David, when Paul responds to the jealousy, and the abuse that they know. And the language there's really strong in terms of, contradicting them, speaking against them, and blaspheming. So this is strong language. 

[00:24:23] We haven't sort of found this before. It's one thing to have a disagreement, but this feels like, okay, the ante's been raised a little bit here in the language. And look at how Paul and Barnabas respond. It says that then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. So you get a bold response to this sort of speaking against an almost, this, how Lucas interpreted, blasphemous language. 

[00:24:50] And he says this We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you rejected and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. Now, again, just to pause there, I think Paul and Barnabas always wanted to follow the pattern of Going to the Jewish community first for obvious reasons, uh, and then to the Gentiles. 

[00:25:18] So I, I think, I think you've got a wee moment where Paul is going I don't think he's saying this in a way that is going to be normative, but he's saying this, if, if, if those who've, Rece receive first are going to reject it, then we will turn to the Gentiles. We won't hesitate to do that now, I think, I think they were always going to the Gentiles, 

[00:25:41] David: Yes. 
 

[00:25:41] John: but, but the, the idea of going first to the Jewish community and then to the Gentiles, I think that was going to be their preferred pattern. 

[00:25:49] Paul is essentially saying, look, if, if you're gonna block the path here, then, then we'll just skip to the Gentiles. We'll go straight there. And as if to ram that home, he goes, he quotes Isaiah, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And it feels to me like David, there's almost a double play on this quote. 

[00:26:13] It feels like there's a sort of an Ironic translation of this quote that hold on the very people now resisting messiah were called to be the light of messiah to the world 

[00:26:26] David: mm 
 

[00:26:27] John: and paul is sort of saying if you're resisting that then then actually we're going to carry the light to the gentiles and the gentiles will carry that light which which seems like oh my goodness that's that's a dynamic you status reversal on a dynamic juxtaposition, which is quite, quite striking. 

[00:26:47] And, and, and of course, what's, what's lovely in the Isaiah quote, if you actually go back to Isaiah 49, the quote, it's here's the full quote from verse six. Is it too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob? And to bring back those of Israel I have kept. So this is God's desire in Isaiah. 

[00:27:11] His desire is to restore his people. His desire is to bring them back. And, and this is, this is clearly Paul's trajectory. He wants God's people, the Jewish community, to be brought back by this Messiah. To be brought in. And then it goes on to say, And I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach you. 

[00:27:35] to the ends of the earth and, and, and Paul is assuming that they understand God's desire is to restore you, but he wants to restore you through Messiah. If, however, you reject Messiah, then this light will go to the Gentiles, whether you carry it or not. So, so the original idea was that they were supposed to carry it. 

[00:27:59] Paul is now saying, if you don't carry it, we will carry it by implication, the followers of the way will carry it, and there's almost a little shift in who's going to carry that light now to the Gentiles. I, I don't know if that's too strong, but, but I think the Isaiah quote there is absolutely dense with potential impact there. 

[00:28:20] David: Yes. Yeah, no, I think so. I was, I was wondering about the. The verse 47, for so the Lord has commanded us. And I was thinking about my, my background naturally wants to read that, as a Pentecostal, I read that as, Oh, Paul feels he has a word from the Lord and, and his word from the Lord is to go to the Gentiles. 

[00:28:43] Whereas reading this with you and, and the way we're thinking about this, I think what Paul. I think this is part of his statement to the people he's arguing with, like, no, the Lord has commanded us. This is like, we're doing, we're doing what we're not doing what the Lord has told the followers of the way to do. 

[00:29:03] We are now going to do what the Lord has told the people of. Well, the Jewish people, us, because Paul, that's still Paul, isn't it? Like this is our call, this is what we're supposed to doing. And Paul's invitation is not let's do a new thing. It's let's do what we were supposed to do. And, and, and if you're not gonna do what we're supposed to do, then I'm gonna do what we're supposed to do. 

[00:29:23] It's is. And I think that helps us read this, not in. Anti Semitic ways, actually, because Paul's not saying it's been taken from you and given to me. Paul's saying, no, you is me, we are we, and I'm trying to figure out why are we not doing what we should be doing? But if we're not going to do what we should be doing, I, at very least, am going to do what we should be doing. 

[00:29:46] I mean, that's a complex way to say it, but I think that's what's going on here, isn't it? 

[00:29:50] John: Oh, absolutely. 100%. And I think you've put that much more succinctly than I, than I was attempting. And that's why this Isaiah reference is absolutely loaded because it is both an appeal and a challenge. So he's saying, look, this was our job to take the light to the Gentiles that, the, the, before Messiah, Jesus Messiah is layered onto the servant songs. 

[00:30:16] The traditional interpretation of the servant of Israel is Israel. I, that, or the servant of the Lord, sorry, is Israel. So, so, so Messiah in some level has become the fulfillment of the servant of the Lord's songs. He is the fulfillment of all that was promised in Israel. But now, of course having, having come, are we going to pick up the challenge of that? 

[00:30:43] embodiment and fulfillment and then become the people that carry not just the light, but his light, the light of Jesus Messiah to the ends of the earth. And so there is, there is an appeal. We should be the ones doing this. Are you going to come and do it with me? And, but if you're not, then we, we will carry this on as a light to the Gentiles. 

[00:31:07] So I think it's a very powerful and provocative, but, but not without Compassion and not without empathy appeal from from Paul again. It's easy to read Paul as being a bit hard faced here and sort of like wiping them out. But actually, Paul is appealing for them to join the journey and say, Come on, carry the light of Jesus Messiah with me. 

[00:31:31] David: Yeah, it's, it's gorgeous cultural work, actually, because that's, I just, I think we get so messed up when we read Paul because we forget. I mean, it's amazing that we do manage to forget because he talks about it on almost every page, but we forget that Paul is Jewish. So, so he is. He is a guy within a group saying, let's be what we're supposed to be. 

[00:31:53] And, and I think what we've done with Paul is read him as a Christian, right? Which of course is not even really a category at this point in history. And we read him as a Christian and like, my goodness, this man's come in and he's stealing texts from these people and rejecting these people. 

[00:32:10] But I don't, I don't see any of that in this. Paul saying you're rejecting what I think. Is our call to go and do, but I'm going to go do it anyway. And and, and I think, I mean, it's, it's, it's a subtle lesson for all of us in how easy it is to reject the very things that we supposedly stand for when they come to us in different forms. 

[00:32:33] And, and it's gorgeous. Like, I love this. And a bit of silence on this, but when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praise the word of the Lord. I mean, that's a sad sentence, actually, at some level, if you think about it. And it's a sad sentence for those of us. In the church today as well, because my suspicion is that, we're dealing with a slight insider outsider conversation here where, you know, one group currently are aware of the message and they're about to take this message to the people who are not aware of the message, but isn't it sad that the Gentiles didn't know this? Even though Paul's just quoted a really old piece of scripture. So it's nothing new that Paul said yet. And and the Gentiles hear, salvation for us? Oh, this is great news, but then before we jump on and say, Oh, that's terrible failure of all these communities in there. 

[00:33:25] I wonder how often people live within sight of a church, but don't. No, the good news of Jesus, because the church has gotten itself so caught up worrying about power and influence and, and that there's people in our doorstep who, if they heard the message of Jesus would say, Oh, this is great news. 

[00:33:47] John: Yes, yes, completely, completely on. And we're back to that. How precious are the feet that bring good news? That ultimately it's no, it's no coincidence that again, another great isaac allusion is that Is that the gospel is carried on willing feet. It's, it's taken, it's, it's meant, it's never meant to stay within a boundary, but was always meant to travel and, and travel far. 

[00:34:17] And again, I, somebody once said, said to me in a completely different context, but it was a powerful moment. He said, he said, one of our greatest challenges is that we often say no for other people. Before we even ask them and and there's an assumption that that maybe they they are not ready. 

[00:34:36] They will not receive. They will not say yes. They they won't listen to us. And actually, here's a gen. Here's a gentile section of this city going. Wow, this is amazing. But of course, again, in the, in the, in the Lukan gospel, we've seen this before. We've seen that people are receptive and they've always been ready 

[00:34:58] David: Yes. 
 

[00:34:58] John: in so many ways, if we are willing to take the message to them in a way that can be heard and understood. 

[00:35:06] And we've seen this, this trajectory is an undeniable trajectory. We've seen it in Samaria. We've seen it in Cornelius. We've seen in other communities where people who are Deemed sort of outside the realm are actually ready to believe on that. Maybe those inside need to have more confidence and clarity and compassion and maybe generosity to just go and share it. 

[00:35:32] And, and keep it. And, and I think this is Paul's provocation. He desperately, desperately wants his people to be what his people were always called to be. They were called to be the servant of the Lord. They were called to be God's representation in the earth. And they were called to bring both light and healing to the nations of the earth. 

[00:35:53] So, so this is what he's appealing to. This is what he wants. This is what he desires. He sees the followers of the Way carrying Messiah as an expression of that Isaiah idea. And he wants his brothers and sisters in the Jewish community to join him in carrying the light of Messiah to the world.