Sermon for April 23rd, 2023

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Exodus 17:8-13 (O.T. p. 64)

8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men for us and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. 13 And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword.

Acts 6:1-7 (N.T. p. 123)

Who's in Charge Here?

Recently, a large corporation hired several cannibals to increase their diversity. "You are all part of our team now," said the CEO during their welcoming briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any employees." The cannibals solemnly promised they would not. Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard and I'm satisfied with your work. We have noticed a marked increase in the whole company's performance since your arrival. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?" The cannibals all shook their heads, "No." After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?" A lone hand rose hesitantly. "You fool!" the leader continued, "For four weeks we've been eating managers and no one noticed anything. But no, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something."

In most churches, if you asked the question, "Who's in charge here?" you would probably be directed to the church secretary. Coming in at a distant second, someone might answer, "the pastor." And while both of those answers are certainly understandable, in a Presbyterian church neither one is correct.

Well, who is it then? Is it the church officers? The elders, the deacons, the trustees? We are going to talk about them today, and all the things they do...but still, no. By now you've probably guessed where I'm going with this, but just in case you're still wondering, it's a pretty simple answer:

The Second Helvetic Confession, which is part of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), teaches that the one and ONLY head of the church is Jesus Christ, from whom all other leaders derive their authority. This is supported by scripture, in Paul's letter to the Ephesians and to the Colossians, both of which name Jesus as the head of the church.

For the 16th century Reformers who gave birth to the Presbyterian movement, when they said that Christ was the ONLY head of the church, by implication they were sending a clear message to the world that the Roman Catholic Pope was NOT the head of the church, nor any King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, or any of the other pieces on a medieval chess board!

Just Jesus. So where Jesus speaks to us through the words of Scripture, we as the church, cannot follow any other voice. Of course, the problem with this is that Jesus, in the Bible, is pretty silent about what date and time would be most appropriate for our monthly potluck luncheon, or what the check-in procedure ought to be for children's programs, or how many times a year should we have the church rain gutters cleaned out? And while those may not be the MOST important things, they are still reasonably important things in the life of any local church.

In the medieval Catholic church, the Pope appointed the cardinals, the cardinals appointed the bishops, the bishops appointed the priests, and the priests made the decisions for each local church, or else delegated them to others. But the Presbyterians of the 16th century took a different approach: They turned to the scriptures, and asked the question, "How were decisions made in the early church, by the earliest followers of Jesus?"

And they found this story in the Book of Acts, chapter 6, which is one of our two scripture passages today.

Verse 1: Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

So already, in the earliest days of the church, there are two factions arguing with each other--what a surprise! The Hebrews are the Jewish Christians, like Peter, Paul, Mary, the disciples. They are the "originals," the "O.G"'s, many of whom knew and vividly remembered Jesus. The Hellenist faction are the Greek-speaking converts like Mark, Luke, and Cornelius. They are the "newbies"--and they were probably responsible for most of the rapid growth of the early church. You can see how tensions would arise: "Hey--you're taking care of their people better than our people!"

Verse 2: And the twelve (that is the twelve disciples, recently promoted to the title of 12 apostles) called together the whole community of the disciples (in this case the larger group of those who followed the teachings of Jesus) and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Now that sounds pretty harsh, and possibly even like a false dichotomy. But you have to remember that when they say it's not right for them to "neglect the word of God" they are referring to the very last command that Jesus gave them after his resurrection and before he ascended in to heaven: GO into all the world and preach the gospel (or the Word of God), making disciples and teaching them all that I've taught you. We call that the GREAT commission for a reason: It's great. It's important. It's the MOST important thing a church can (and should) do. It's our prime directive. Mission and purpose numero uno! And the 12 apostles are killing it--I mean that in a positive sense--they are doing great, and so the church, the faith, is growing like crazy.

Feeding the poor (or in this case, the widows), what the disciples call "waiting on tables" is also important. Jesus said to do that, too. But here's the twist: It's not the MOST important thing. In order for people to understand WHY they should take care of the poor, in order for them to have the right motivation, first you have to teach them, you have to share the gospel with them. And you want your most passionate, most committed people to do that.

So the twelve apostles are not wrong. But they're also not without compassion. They see the validity, the importance of the request, so they say, in verses 3 through the end:

3 Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word" (ie preaching, teaching and spreading the word). 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch (notice these are ALL Greek names--they are recognizing and addressing the source of the complaint). 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests (that is, the leaders of both Jewish AND the Roman pagan religions) became obedient to the faith.

Ok, now fast forward back to the 16th century, and to our early Presbyterian ancestors in the faith: They took several guiding principles from this text and put them into effect in their churches:

  1. A local church community should choose (or elect) its own leaders from among its membership.
  2. To be a leader, one should be in good standing with the community, full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom.
  3. There should be a division of labor--different offices to focus on different things, each important, but also in the right order, the right "flow."