ZIONSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
March 15, 2009 Rev. Glenn McDonald
Acts 9:10-19; 13:1-3

Back to the Blueprints
(11) Think Small

How does God heal people? Almost always, he brings them into the presence of other people. This is one of the great mysteries of the way that God chooses to work. He uses broken people to help repair the brokenness in others, and he uses those who are spiritually myopic to open the eyes of the blind. None of the people you saw in those small groups have their act together. But they do have this in common: They all want God's best for each other, and they all are looking to Jesus for what happens next. In such an environment God is able and willing to do amazing things.

Fill in the blank: "The best things in life are...not things." The secret of human health and happiness is actually no secret at all. It's relationships - close, committed, and enduring relationships. What is the first thing in the Bible that God says is "not good"? It is the aloneness of the first human being. God created us to be in transforming relationships. The reason solitary punishment is such a crushing penalty is that it isolates us from the human contact that we all so desperately need.

When the Great Plains were first opened up for settlement about a century and a half ago, properties were allocated in simple geometric blocks. Where did the settlers build their homes? Generally they built them in the corner of their property closest to their neighbors. That gave them a kind of "instant community." People learned to count on each other's tools and each other's friendship.

How are suburban properties generally developed today? First we erect a privacy fence so that the neighbors can't see what I'm cooking on the grill this evening. Then we build our houses at a maximum distance from the street, surrounded by a maximum amount of green space. What does this pattern suggest? It screams, "I don't need to know you, and you certainly don't need to know me." The same thing tends to happen where we work. Management may insist on calling us a "team," but when push comes to shove in the midst of a fierce recession, we suspect that our fellow workers will do everything they can to hang on to their own cubicles instead of going to bat for us.

The Bible shouts back, however, that none of us is going to do well and none of us is going to get well unless we embrace the risks of authentic relationships. That being said, as we continue to work our way through the New Testament book of Acts, which is the story of the early Church, have we finally found an exception to that rule about needing other people? Last week we dived into the story of Saul the Pharisee, who would one day become known to the world as Paul the apostle. Paul is knocked flat and struck blind by the power of God as he travels along the road to Damascus. It certainly seems as if God is entirely happy to deal with Paul one on one.

But watch what happens as the story continues. Let's turn together to Acts chapter nine. When last we encountered Saul/Paul, he was blind. Others have led him by the hand into the city of Damascus. He hasn't had anything to eat or drink for three days. We pick things up in verse 10:

"In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, ‘Ananias!' ‘Yes, Lord,' he answered. The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.'
"'Lord,' Ananias answered, ‘I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.'
"But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'
"Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord - Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here - has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength."

Ananias' hesitancy in this account is entirely understandable. Presumably he was one of Paul's human targets - one of the very people Paul hoped to take back to Jerusalem in chains. Now the roles are reversed. It's Ananias who is hunting for Paul: "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street" and you'll find him. Straight Street, by the way, still exists. It runs straight down the middle of Damascus.

So why is Ananias being asked to do this? Paul has been savagely persecuting the body of Christ. Now it is through the body of Christ that Paul is going to be made well. Look again in the middle of verse 17: "Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord - Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here - has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Ananias might well have been losing sleep that a man named Saul was one day going to put his hands on him. Now he is putting his hands on Saul - and furthermore calling him brother. What do these two men have in common? They both are looking to Jesus for what happens next. That makes them members of the same spiritual family.

Now if someone were to approach you at a small group meeting and take you by the hand and say, "The Lord has sent me to you so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit," you might find that to be just a little bit creepy. But that's what happens all the time in the body of Christ.

God uses other people to open our eyes. God works through relationships - even with people whom we might have dismissed out of hand - to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit. God works powerfully through focused friendships and through small groups of men and women who want God's best for each other, and who are looking together to Jesus. It turns out that Paul is no exception to that rule. Neither are you and I.

The pain of feeling cut off from other people is hard to put into words. But a couple of years ago Chicago Tribune columnist Marla Paul did a pretty good job. She openly confessed to her readers that she was lonely. "This loneliness saddens me," she wrote. "How did it happen I could be forty-two years old and not have enough friends?"

She asked her husband if there was something inherently defective in her. She wondered if people had gotten too busy to have friends. She wrote that it seemed as if "every woman's friendship quota has been filled and she's no longer accepting new applicants." She wondered if perhaps "there are women out there who don't know how lonely they are. It's easy enough to fill up the day with work...[but it's] not enough."

Marla Paul concluded her column with these words: "I recently read my daughter Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling. I felt an immediate kinship with this bird who flies from place to place looking for creatures with whom he belongs. He eventually finds them. I hope I do, too."

The response to the column was dramatic. Marla Paul received seven times her usual amount of mail. She was stopped on the street, at work, and at her daughter's school. "Do you feel this way, too? I thought I was the only one." Across the boards, everyone was asking the same question: Why is it so hard to find and to keep good friends?

Here's one of the answers: Transforming friendships are expensive. They don't just happen. If we were to tell you that all you need to do is carve out a few hours a month and attend a few small group meetings and your deepest hunger for relationships will be satisfied, we would be seriously misleading you. If we really want our hearts to be healed - if we truly want the scales to fall from our eyes, so that we can see the truth about God and about ourselves - we will have to commit ourselves to remain in the presence of other imperfect people for long stretches of time. This is a huge risk. But it is totally worth it. Make the choice to share life with a few other people who will join you in looking to Jesus for what happens next.

The apostle Paul ended up in a small group of people who made that their practice. They continually looked to Jesus. We get a glimpse of Paul's group over in Acts chapter 13. At this time in Paul's life he is living and ministering in the city of Antioch. Beginning in verse one we read:

"In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch), and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off."

So who are these guys? Barnabas is Paul's friend and mentor to whom we were introduced earlier in the book of Acts; his nickname is "son of encouragement." Simeon is a Jewish name, but Niger is a Latin loanword that means "black." Therefore Bible scholars speculate that he was originally from Africa. Not only so, but Simeon may well have been the "Simon of Cyrene" (which was a district in Africa) who had been compelled by the Romans to carry Jesus' cross up to Golgotha.

We really don't know anything about this next fellow, Lucius of Cyrene. But Manaen is described as a syntrophos or "foster brother" of Herod Antipas, the man who arranged for the beheading of John the Baptist and who interviewed Jesus on the night he was arrested. So picture this: These guys are having a meeting in Antioch and they start getting into it on a really thorny Bible question. Finally Simeon, like he does every meeting, throws his trump card down on the table and says, "Hello, I carried Jesus' cross." And Manaen says, "Don't get me started about Herod." And Paul says, "You guys were all on my hit list." Meanwhile, Barnabas is going around trying to encourage everybody. This was not a dull small group.

The one thing we know for sure about this gathering is its spiritual energy. They sought God's voice. They responded in faith. They prayed, they fasted, they worshipped, they laid hands on each other, and they launched Paul and Barnabas on the world's first missionary journey, which we'll look at next month. When it comes to seeking God's work and God's direction in your life, think small. God works powerfully through the faithful, specific prayers of other people, and often through the most unexpected voices.

Paul Eschelman, who founded the evangelistic endeavor known as the Jesus Project, was meeting a couple of years ago with advertising executives at Warner Films. One of the power brokers in the room motioned to Eschelman to follow him to an adjoining room.

"Paul," he said, "you've got to help me. As you know, I'm Jewish. Some time ago our child became very ill. It was a terribly difficult experience for my wife and me. About that time I was walking past the maid's room in our house and I noticed that she was on her knees. ‘Are you all right?' I asked. ‘I'm fine,' she answered, getting up on her feet. ‘I was praying.' ‘Praying?' I asked. I had no real experience of prayer, so I asked, ‘What exactly were you praying about?' She answered, ‘I was praying for your child. I've prayed for her every day since she became sick. In fact I pray for you and your wife every day.'"

The Warner exec was stunned. He was also spiritually moved. Later, when his wife became seriously ill, he found himself walking into a church. The pastor there listened to his story, offered a prayer, and then embraced him. The next day one of the physicians at the hospital said, "Hey, I thought you were Jewish." "I am," answered the exec. "Then why," asked the doctor, "was that Protestant pastor praying beside your wife for so many hours during the night?"

Now the Warner exec said to Eschelman, "You've got to help me. Two days ago our maid died. Paul, who is going to help me get to God?" By the end of that conversation Eschelman had led him in a prayer to receive Christ as Savior and Lord.

Who is helping you get to God? Who is helping you get well? Who is praying for you in the middle of all the crud you are facing right now? It is costly and it is risky to trust yourself to the company of other imperfect people over life's long haul. But it is even costlier and riskier not to do so.

A number of years ago I attended a Promise Keepers gathering of about 40,000 pastors in Atlanta. It was an assembly that represented hundreds of different church groups and denominational affiliations. At one point author and pastor Max Lucado stood at the speaker's podium and made a simple request. "On the count of three," he said, "would you please shout out loud the name of the group or tradition or church body of which you are currently a member? One, two, three..." And all of us shouted our affiliation. I was actually pretty lucky. All I had to shout was, "Presbyterian!" The guy sitting in front of me, no kidding, had to say, "The Church of God of Prophecy Incorporated!" What everyone heard echoing through the Georgia Dome was an undifferentiated blob of sound.

Then Lucado made a second request. "On the count of three," he said, "would you please shout the name to whom you have trusted your heart, your soul, your ministry and your entire spiritual future? One, two, three..." And there rose, in unison, the sound of just two syllables that filled that entire dome: "JESUS!" For one incredible moment afterward there was absolute silence - as if the leaders of God's people were suddenly struck dumb by the realization that we have always had in common more than we dare allow ourselves to imagine.

How about you? Are you willing to trust yourself to a small group of people who may come from every kind of background, who may do who knows what kind of work, and who may be facing every kind of struggle, but who want God's best for each other and are looking to just one name to bring that about? On the count of three, let's shout that name together: One, two, three...Jesus!