About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way.
Paul is in Ephesus, a town in modern-day Turkey, where a riot breaks out. There is a healthy trade of people making statues for the goddess Artemis. A Jesus-follower tells the people that a god made by human hands is no god. The people realize this threatens both their livelihood as human-made gods, and their practice of worshipping Artemis. And so there is conflict.
Today, we don’t have fights over Artemis, but we have plenty of fights. Plenty of dissent and fighting. Plenty of war and violence. The reasons are different, but the effect on individuals and society is the same.
I saw a fascinating series of prints of Jesus washing a person’s feet, people it would be hard to imagine. Jesus washing the feet of the police officer. And the inmate. Of the Ukrainian and of Putin. Of the person refusing vaccines, and the health care worker. For more information or to buy these beautiful and haunting prints, see https://saltandgoldstore.com/collections/all/footwashing-series
There is no shortage of disagreements and dissent. The accompanying reflection for this section of Acts is from Eugene Peterson, author of The Word. He writes, “People submerged in a culture swarming with lies and malice feel as if they are drowning in it: they can trust nothing they hear, depend on no one they meet.” This is increasingly the setting I find myself. Peterson continues that people with this sense of dissatisfaction with the current world, coupled with a desire for a better way of peace and love, can set a person on the pilgrim’s journey for God.
He writes,” As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith.” Yes!
I’m seeing that in people I love, people who have professed a deep skepticism of God. They are now talking about God’s way, and about how God wouldn’t want all of this fighting, hurt and despair.
In this time when many traditional religions are struggling with dwindling numbers, I’m wondering if the mounting turmoil in the world might turn people back to God. I’m not suggesting the turmoil will result in an uptick in any particular way of worshipping. But Peterson may be right, that “A person has to be fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.”
This morning, I’m thinking about how I might help show others the grace of God in a way that seems so obviously the antidote to the current despair. In order to have God’s kingdom here, we need more pilgrims. We need more people who believe that there is an alternative to the worry and fretting and despair.
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