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“The most radical revolution”, part 2/3

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  Text: Acts 1.1-11 Chosen      Isn’t it thrilling to be chosen for something?   Perhaps it was getting picked by a sports team, maybe it was being selected to act in a play, perhaps it was getting a job after successfully navigating a competitive hiring process, maybe it was getting proposed to (or receiving a positive answer to your proposal), perhaps it was being promoted to a position of greater responsibility or leadership.   Whatever it may have been, it’s almost always a rewarding experience to be selected to use one’s abilities to contribute to the success of a group, an organization…or a couple.      Being chosen is the fun part.   But what about what happens from that point on?   A lesson that the Bible teaches again and again is that those who are chosen by God are not usually chosen for their strengths, talents or the usual reasons why we get chosen for various things in life.   In the Bible, God c...
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“The most radical revolution”, part 1/3

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  Dangerous religion      Historian Tom Holland, with his 2019 book Dominion , has reminded us that we are the inheritors of the greatest ideological, social and religious revolution the world has ever seen.   As 21 st -century Christians, it may be difficult for us to believe that there was ever a time when the Church was a dangerous, subversive and outlawed movement of revolutionaries.   As a contemporary Anglican bishop has said, “Everywhere St. Paul went, there was a riot.   Everywhere I go, they serve tea”.   Whatever the Church in the Global North may now be, we probably wouldn’t use the words “dangerous” or “subversive” to describe it.   How can we be dangerous once again?   As Christians, should we even desire to be “dangerous”?   Dangerous to whom?   Make no mistake about it.   It is impossible to read the New Testament without noticing that this collection of radical books is concerned with the question of...
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Who are we?

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       Sometimes, the most “obvious” questions are the ones that allow us to better understand who we are; this morning, I invite you to reflect on the following question: What is a Christian?   Perhaps our first reaction is to say: “Come on!   If we’re here, it’s because we know very well what a Christian is .”   You might be aware that the word “Christian” only appears 3 times in the New Testament (Ac. 11.26 ( plural ); Ac. 26.28; 1 Peter 4.16).   It is far from being the Bible’s favourite term to speak about… us .   In the Gospels and the book of Acts, the preferred word to describe “Jesus followers” is the word “disciple”.   Let’s take a closer look at this term. “DISCIPLES” OF JESUS      At the very end of Matthew’s Gospel, the risen Jesus gives a last command to his apostles: “Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of a...
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