(if you are viewing this via email, the website has a recording of this poem and commentary; click the title above)
In my crawl through Acts, I’m finishing up chapter 8. One of my observations here and elsewhere in Acts is that many of the stories feature bigshots—people we tend to think of as “important.” I find that curious, to say the least. It’s not what one might expect from reading the Gospels. It’s not what we see in the Epistles. Consider James, Peter, and Paul. You can probably think of many passages in their writing where the proud are brought down and the humble lifted up.
Maybe this focus has something to do with Luke’s target audience: “most excellent Theophilus….” I’ll have to bear his excellency in mind as I continue my crawl. How would Theophilus have understood the stories Luke was telling?
LA-DI-DA, ONCE LONG AGO
Back in seminary, we occasionally heard from renowned evangelists in our daily chapel. On one such occasion, the speaker was so famous that we had to use overflow seating in a second auditorium. I gladly joined my fellow miscreants there. In this unsupervised setting, we could loosen our ties, remove our uncomfortable jackets, and grab a bite to eat.
On the big screen, the evangelist in his pinstripe suit was talking about evangelizing in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Picture this heathen,” said the evangelist. “One day he’s wearing a loincloth. Then, he converts to Christianity. Before long, he’s wearing a 3 piece suit!”
I hear a groan from the next table.
Another student and I look at each other in dismay. Our eyes roll. In unison we exclaim, “Well, la-di-da!”
(background image by Mohamed Hassan on Pixabay)
#evangelism #bigshots #ladida #1corinthians1v26 #james1v10
