Faith

To change or not to change – Wednesday, 5th Week in Easter – Acts 15:1-6

On January 29, 1959, Pope John XXIII shocked the Church and the world with his announcement at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls in Rome that he was convoking the first ecumenical council in nearly a century. There was no real crisis in the church. It was, by many measures, a healthy, if ancient institution. Yet the Pope recognizing the signs of the times called for this great council.

Today, the council is often presented as one that wound up with lovely ribbons and bows but the truth is that many disagreed vociferously with what the Council fathers came up with. Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani one of the council fathers, allegedly told confidants he wanted to die before the end of the Council.  When asked why, he said it was so that he could die a Catholic! Such were the shrill voices from the left and right.

The Church is no different today. There are still shrill voices on the left and the right which have been amplified to catastrophic and schismatic levels by home-baked theologians on the internet. Don’t worry, Christ is in charge of the Church. (PERIOD – for those who missed the tiny but affirmative punctuation). But this is also true; change does come to every institution.  While some bemoan the pace of change others resist it vociferously. A health debate is always a good thing. It is good when an institution such as the Catholic Church goes through a process of thesis and antithesis to arrive at some synthesis that is in line with the will of God and places the Church in the modern era.

Today’s text reminds us of the first such change that came rather quickly to this infantile Church. We have come to call it the Council of Jerusalem which you can read in Acts chapter 15. Paul and Barnabas have just returned from their first missionary journey that took them to Cyprus and modern-day Turkey. At each stop, they took the message of the Good News to the Jews, only to have it rejected by them. It was the Gentiles who responded with great enthusiasm.

But herein lies the problem. The Early Church had a distinctive Jewish character even though they were called ‘Christians,’ a name given to this sect of Judaism at Antioch. They were Jewish in cult and custom except for their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. Judaism was the vehicle that carried the Jesus movement.

The hallmark of the Jewish faith was the sign of the covenant expressed in the act of circumcision. Now that the Early Church was exploding with Gentile converts, there was an attempt to shed this expression as merely a Jewish requirement that had lost its relevance for those who wished to follow Christ. But such a change was hard to swallow for the Jewish Christians who once belonged to the Pharisee party. This called for a meeting which came to be known as the council of Jerusalem which was held around c. 48–50 AD.

We will learn more about it in tomorrow’s teaching.

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Faith

Beaten, bruised but not buried – Tuesday, 5th Week in Easter – Acts 14:19-28

How would you define a successful mission in the Church today? Packed to the rafters is what most people look for. If not, a great music ministry and a wonderful riveting speaker. Throw in a couple of miracles and healings and you have the makings of a successful Church mission.

But what if a Church mission ended in division and chaos? What if the visiting minister was booed? What if a group of disgruntled Christians disrupted his service and then stoned him and left him for dead? Would you call that mission successful? If your answer is NO then you just called the first missionary journey of Paul a failure.

Paul has worked miracles and performed healings. He has given the most moving sermons and drawn crowds to his words. He has travelled land and sea to make Christ known and yet he was not always met with acceptance. His first mission almost left him dead.

The text of today will tell us that Paul having been left for dead will retrace his steps. He will visit the same cities he ministered to, but he does this not with his head hung low. If Paul has boasted it has been of the many stripes on his back, his jail sentences, shipwrecks and hardships.

What is amazing is his fortitude! The fourth gift of the holy spirit. But even more was his ability to “strengthen the hearts of the disciples” (verse 22). Here is a man who truly identifies with the people of God. Here is a man who suffers great hardships and persecutions. This is not a motivational speaker but rather a moving exhibition of the kingdom of God. He has walked the talk and hence with authority has the ability to tell us that the kingdom of God demands persecution. This is the badge of honour we must wear when we present ourselves before the Lord.

But Paul is also a practical man. He knows the Church must be strengthened in his absence. He leads the Churches into prayer and fasting so that they may be guided by the Holy Spirit. We know that after a period of discernment, they appointed elders in these Churches.

The first missionary journey may be seen as a failure in the eyes of the secular world and perhaps even for many Church leaders today. For God, this was the way the Church was to move forward, with stipes of humiliation on its back. We are told that they made “many disciples,” a claim the Church sadly cannot make today.

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Faith

Not how you look but how Jesus is looked upon – Monday, 5th week of Easter – Acts 14:5-18

While preparing this reflection I was looking for something new to write or say. We want things to look and feel different; black and white seems boring and a splash of colour may get the eyeballs. Hopefully, the reader or the viewers’ attention will be snatched away from the thousand other articles or channels on the Internet vying for your attention and be drawn to what “I” have to write or say.  Clever lines and well-articulated thoughts do draw people’s attention. Yet the reality is that God’s word is often repetitive for a reason and not to charm us every new season.  

Paul and Barnabas are on the first missionary journey that takes them from Antioch in Syria to the island of Cyprus and further to the coastal city of Perga in modern-day Turkey. From there they travel north, about 220 kilometers to Antioch of Pisidia (in Turkey) and then further east, to Iconium (14:1-7) and then south and southeast to Lystra and Derbe which were cities of Lycaonia.

Paula and Barnabas are missionaries who bring the NEWS of Jesus to draw people to a NEW way of life in Jesus in order to establish a NEW community of Jesus. Yet this mission of Paul and Barnabas is predictable and repetitive. There is no novelty when one goes out on mission. There are just two scenarios that play out; receptivity or resistance.

As I said earlier, you can look for something new to say in today’s text but that is clutching straws at best. If you look at today’s text, especially verses 8-18 it sounds so familiar. A reading of Acts 3 is when the penny drops. Paula and Barnabas do a Peter and John! The narration of what happens in Lystra almost seems to be cut, copy and paste job when you read what happened to Peter and John in the temple of Jerusalem.  

In both narrations there is a lame man from birth, in both cases the apostle looks at him intently. In both cases they were commanded to “stand up” and both sprang to their feet (allomai, in Greek). In both the narratives the response of the people was to create a ‘cult’ around the apostles which in Lystra went a step further to worship. In both cases the apostles sharply rebuke such a cult and reiterate the agenda of the mission; it is Christ alone who is to be proclaimed and worshipped.

What I write now is out of love and not jealousy or envy. (Perhaps some readers or viewers may allow their minds to drift towards such a thought.) The internet has opened up a new world for the work of evangelization and this field must be exploited to the fullest. The focus, however, cannot be on the evangelizer. This is a constant struggle which I must confess to having fallen prey to, from time to time. The very medium of the internet is fast and glitzy and there is a danger that the message is overshadowed by the messenger, the proclamation by the proclaimer.

We who proclaim Christ from a pulpit or a mass media platform must constantly ‘tear our clothes’ like Paul and Barnabas when we release that we were being ‘worshipped’ rather than Christ. While presentation helps, evangelizers must not get caught up in how they look but how Christ is looked upon.

Evangelists must review their mission and if need be, renew it. Satan will stop at nothing especially if he wants to snare a preacher with a billion followers on YouTube and distract him with incidentals (read himself) rather than focus on the mission (read Jesus).

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Faith

Virtue lies in the middle – Friday, 4th week in Easter – Acts 13:26-33

Most of us have been cautioned against making the mistakes that others have made. These well-intentioned tidbits of advice are gently offered in the hope that one does not have to learn the hard way. Sure, one can put their hand in the fire and learn first-hand, but while that is good in theory it is rather daft in reality. It would do well to heed a good warning.

Paul is doing the same while delivering a Sabbath homily to the Jews and also to those who “fear God.” It was not uncommon for Gentiles to attend sabbath services. But this homily is delivered with kid gloves not because he is afraid but so as not to offend and with a clear goal to win over.

Paul has to speak the truth about the death of Jesus. Yet he has to place that blame very gently at the door of those who killed the author of life. He appeals to the Jews of Antioch and addresses them as “children of Abraham.” In doing this he alienates the blame for the death of Jesus and places it on the “residents of Jerusalem.”

Yet for a greater cause, he speaks rather of the ‘ignorance’ of their Jewish brothers in Jerusalem than their viciousness. They who had read the words of the prophet each sabbath, were unable to ‘recognize’ the messiah when he came. But even more, it was the leaders of Jerusalem who inadvertently fulfilled the prophecies when they condemned him to die even though he was innocent.

Paul is sensitive to the mission. Sure, he could have called a spade a spade but then what would it have achieved? So much of our life is all about dishing out the truth in the way we think people ought to hear it. Condemnation gets us very little; conversation achieves much. This could have been a fist-thumping, finger-pointing, and name-calling homily. Yet the truth was delivered with love. For truth without love is cruel and love without truth is sentimental. Paul shows us how to balance both; virtue lies in the middle.

What was the result? Verse 42 which is not part of our text tells us that as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people urged them to come back the next sabbath and speak about these things. Were they converted? I guess their hearts were warmed and their mind was open. The next sabbath ‘almost the whole city had gathered.’ But where there is good news, bad news is soon to follow and what we are told is fueled by ‘jealousy.’ (verse 45).

For now, let us be inspired by Paul. These were not some smart life skills he was employing; these were skills of love.

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Food

PRAWN FRIED RICE Din Tai Fung-style

For Prawn Marinade

– 10 large fresh prawns

– 1 tsp neutral oil

– 1/2 tsp salt

– 1/2 tsp white pepper

– 1/4 tsp baking soda

For the Fried Rice

– Neutral oil, to cook

– 2 cups white rice, day old and refrigerated

– 4 spring onion, chopped, whites and greens separated

– 4 eggs, whisked

– 1 tsp salt

– 1 tsp sugar

– 1/2 tsp white pepper

– 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder

Clean and devein the prawns then marinate with salt, pepper, baking soda and oil for 10 minutes. Pan-fry with a little oil on both sides until cooked through, about 2 minutes, then remove and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the same pan over medium heat and add the white part of the spring onion. Cook for 30 seconds until fragrant then add the whisked eggs.

Scramble, cooking briefly until 80% cooked then add the rice in. Turn the heat up to high and cooking, stirring for about 2 minutes. Season with salt, sugar, pepper and chicken powder and stir-fry. Taste and adjust the seasoning as desired. Add the green parts of the spring onion and the cooked prawns (reserving a few for presentation) in and toss until well combined.

To assemble, place 3 prawns into your bowl then fill with the fried rice. Gently flatten the rice then invert onto a plate.

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