We have devotions and prayer every Monday morning in each department. It's a time to fellowship with one another, check in on everyone's work load and personal lives, and set the tone for the week ahead. It looks different in each department, but by and large, I think everyone appreciates having this time. It's certainly different from what happens in other offices.
This week's devotional time has stuck with me quite a bit, so in true Hollopeter fashion, I've decided to beat it to death in a blog post.
Our reading this week comes from Acts 8:26-40, and because I'm a nice person, I'm going to copy/paste the Scripture here instead of making you find it. And I'm even going to switch my BibleGateway back to English so you don't have to read it in Spanish.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
There is a lot to unpack here, but I'll try to hit some highlights.
We tend to use the I Am Second questions when doing Bible study. If you haven't done it, I'd recommend it. It actually helps you look at a passage more critically. So the five questions are:
What did you like about this passage?
What did you not like or what was confusing?
What does this passage tell us about people?
What does this passage tell us about God?
How do we apply these lessons in our own lives?
One of the first things I noted is that this is a complete story. By which I mean, it's a self-contained story. Yes, there's a lot going on around it, but you don't really have to know a lot of other stuff to understand what's happening in this story. (I think you get more out of it when you do research into the background - for example, a eunuch can't enter the temple, yet he still felt a need to go to Jerusalem to worship. That's fascinating to me.) There's a premise, a conflict, and a resolution. And maybe I'm wrong, but this tells me that there's a lesson contained in this story that isn't necessarily contingent on other stories or the larger story.
This week's devotional time has stuck with me quite a bit, so in true Hollopeter fashion, I've decided to beat it to death in a blog post.
Our reading this week comes from Acts 8:26-40, and because I'm a nice person, I'm going to copy/paste the Scripture here instead of making you find it. And I'm even going to switch my BibleGateway back to English so you don't have to read it in Spanish.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
There is a lot to unpack here, but I'll try to hit some highlights.
We tend to use the I Am Second questions when doing Bible study. If you haven't done it, I'd recommend it. It actually helps you look at a passage more critically. So the five questions are:
What did you like about this passage?
What did you not like or what was confusing?
What does this passage tell us about people?
What does this passage tell us about God?
How do we apply these lessons in our own lives?
One of the first things I noted is that this is a complete story. By which I mean, it's a self-contained story. Yes, there's a lot going on around it, but you don't really have to know a lot of other stuff to understand what's happening in this story. (I think you get more out of it when you do research into the background - for example, a eunuch can't enter the temple, yet he still felt a need to go to Jerusalem to worship. That's fascinating to me.) There's a premise, a conflict, and a resolution. And maybe I'm wrong, but this tells me that there's a lesson contained in this story that isn't necessarily contingent on other stories or the larger story.
But what is it? You'd be tempted to take it as a lesson of ministry - go away from home, find people who are hungry for truth, give them answers, then leave to reach more people. And I'm not saying any of that is necessarily wrong. But it's not the only example of how to minister to people. It's not consistent with the story as a whole if you take it as the end all, be all. (Which is why you still have to read the self-contained stories in the context of the larger story.)
So what is the lesson? I posited the theory that the lesson is actually on listening and responding appropriately. It actually happens a lot in the story. The Spirit tells Philip to take the road to Gaza. Philip listens to what the angel says, and he goes. He doesn't argue that he had something else in mind for the day. He doesn't say it isn't part of his strategy. He just goes.
Then the Spirit tells him to go over to a certain chariot. Philip listens, and he goes. He doesn't say, "Uh, you told me to go to Gaza, so that's where I'm going." He doesn't question the supposed change in plan. (Because it isn't. The Spirit told Philip to take the road that goes to Gaza - not necessarily to go to Gaza. How many times do we interpret a message from the Lord as more than what was meant? But I digress.)
Philip overhears the Ethiopian reading from Scripture. He doesn't assume the man doesn't know what he's reading. He doesn't force his company on the man. He asks a question (possibly a closed question, but one that could lead to further dialogue either way) and then listens to the response. When the man says he could use some help, he extends the invitation to Philip. Philip listens to his question, and he starts from that question. He doesn't bring the history of his sending organization into it, or the philosophy of the founder. He uses that question as a bridge to the ultimate truth of Jesus.
At some point, they must have talked about baptism, because when the eunuch brings it up, Philip is cool with it. He doesn't insist the man go to seminary or quit his job or become a member of the Jerusalem church. He listens to the man's heart and baptizes him.
I don't know how the next part happened. Whether the Spirit literally made Philip disappear, or the Spirit told Philip it was time to leave. Regardless, Philip goes. He doesn't insist on follow-up or discipleship training. He doesn't check in six months later to make sure the Ethiopian is doing things the 'right' way. I got a little personal on this one, because I questioned our adherence to one of our most talked-about principles of training - MAWL. Despite being unfortunately named, I actually think it's a good idea. We Model a new application, we Assist those we train, we Watch them train others, and then we Leave. Supposedly. Because sometimes, I feel like we Linger. Are they really doing it correctly? It looks different from when we showed them. Maybe we need to stay in charge, just in case. Which is how you get the white savior complex in a lot of missionary movements. Of course things are going to look different! It's a different culture! If the message is good, then how it gets out is not as important.
What do you think? Is listening (and responding appropriately) a good lesson to get out of this? What else did you like? What was confusing? What did you learn about people? What did you learn about God? And how are you going to apply those lessons in your own lives?
I, for one, hope to learn how to listen more thoughtfully. But not just listen. I want to be better at responding to spiritual promptings.
It's a terrifying thing.
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