Week 35—Friday Luke 3:1-3
Luke 3:1-3
COLLECTIVE GUIDANCE
We continue our study of the word of the church become flesh in Antioch.
Ninth, the church was sufficiently united so the group as a group could get collective guidance. “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.’” (Acts 13:2). Here was a group so attuned to God and so attuned to each other that the Holy Spirit could give them a united guidance. We would have thrown it open to debate, then have taken a vote, and the majority would have ruled. This would have left a disgruntled minority. But their method of guidance was different, they desired to come a common mind—and did—under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28)—that was the classic phrase that characterized the early church.
And note again, “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me.’” And again, “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit . . .” (Acts 13:4). The church, unlike the modern church, did not insist on their label being put on the sending. They did not say, “Missionaries, sent out by the Antioch Church, through the Holy Spirit.” We would have had our denominational labels, prominently displayed. “There is no limit to the good you can do provided you do not seek credit for it.” That church asked for no credit and forgot themselves into immortality. We cannot forget those who forgot themselves.
And it did something for Paul and Barnabas to be sent out by the Holy Spirit and not by a church alone. Success and failure were irrelevant—to be true to the call of the Holy Spirit was the only thing that mattered.
So power not their own was working creatively through the church. It was a contagious center of the new life. The Word became flesh and the flesh became word.
O Holy Spirit, make me the center of contagion. I offer my powers to be made creative with your touch. You Spirit of Creation create through me. Create hope, love, joy, and new life in others through me. I can cooperate in creation. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The Creative God makes me creative.