To Boldly Go...

I have been thinking a great deal about Star Trek as of late. I think it has something to do with my upcoming sermon. As I mentioned earlier I am preaching on Acts 11:1-18 which tells the story of Peter recounting the events that led up to him being led by the Holy Spirit to share the Word of God and Baptize Gentiles...which was a no-no back in the day. Now, let me be clear, I am not a Star Trek nut. I don't know much outside of what some causal viewership gets you but I am, like most, very familiar with the goals of the USS Enterprise. As far as I can tell it was the job and call of the USS Enterprise and their crew "to boldly go where no man (read everybody) has gone before" and when they got to those far reaching places deal with what they found. The connect with my Acts passage is that this is what they had been charged with, not what they came up with themselves. The Federation (or whatever it was called) charged them, called them, and put the right team together so that they would live into their orders. My guess, no matter how gung-ho Capt. Kirk and his crew were it would have been easier, safer, and much more lay back to just put around space seeing what was up.

I am not here to assume that Peter and the early Church was interested in the "if they want to know about Jesus they will find us model" that a lot of churches and folks seem to be into, but I am saying that what the Holy Spirit called Peter to do was as dangerous as messing with some Klingons. Peter, like the USS Enterprise, was charged and called to go to the places that were on the fringe of acceptable, rule-based, law-governed society. It was what was set before him and for Peter and the early Church those places were Gentile places. Now, Jews and Gentiles were like oil and water - they didn't mix. Gentiles were off limits for many reasons and yet when conventional wisdom said stay away the Holy Spirit said come on down. This is what I mean by dangerous. Heading into an unfamiliar place, where the rules that you hold as sacred don't apply and then start talking about faith as the thing that will unite us? Yeah, I think that would be dangerous. Yet as Peter tells us that same Holy Spirit that brought you out of the comfort and the familiar beat you to the place where you were called. The Holy Spirit got there first and started calling some folks in those far away places too. This is the moral of the story I would suggest....where the Spirit leads us will often be to places that require a charge, a call to get there.

I am going to try to explore this further on Sunday...maybe minus the Star Trek. Hope to see you there!