Saturday: The Three Working Ideas
WEEK 25
SATURDAY
THE THREE WORKING IDEAS
Hebrews 12:1-2
The three working ideas of Acts are: (1) Jesus is alive; (2) Jesus has come within in the Holy Spirit to abide forever; (3) Jesus is Lord, he is at the right hand of ultimate authority.
Stephen, who incarnated the Christian gospel perhaps better than any person in the Acts, sums it all up in these words about Jesus, “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55 RSV). He was Lord of heaven and earth. He illuminated heaven; he illuminated earth. He illuminated sorrow; he illuminated death. He illuminated everything. He was the Great Clarification.
So when they worked out from Jesus to God—to life, to everything—they knew where they were going; they were on the Way! Confusion of thought and act and attitude was mastered. They knew where they were heading. Life was adding up to Sense. Everything in Jesus clicked into meaning. They had found the clue to the jigsaw puzzle of human living. They were through with bypaths and roads with dead ends; they were on the Way with both feet and with the consent of all their being. This was It!
An African American minister said, as he was leaving an Ashram: “I am going from here to read myself full, think myself clear, pray myself hot, and let myself go!” The people in Acts were full, clear, hot, and, therefore, could let themselves go. For they knew where they were going. Jesus was the Alpha—the Beginning; and he was the Omega—the End; the First and Last and In-Between! He was everything.
Of one minister it was said, “Without a problem spake he not unto them.” But those people of the Acts were not dealing with problems; they were dealing with possibilities. Life wasn’t an impenetrable jungle; it was an open road, and they went dancing along that road knowing it was the Way!
They knew that they knew, were sure that they were sure, and it was all self-verifying. Here was knowledge that was so knowing that it turned into Wisdom. Here was faith that had turned into Fact. Life was alive—and how!
O blessed, blessed Jesus, you have turned all my sunsets into sunrises, all my gloom into glory, all my doubts into delights. You are the Great Illumination. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am on the Way with both feet, with the consent of all my being and with all I have.