Scripture: Acts 8:26-40 Message: Patiently Follow the Spirit’s Leading October 12, 2014; Bethel CRC, Brockville, ON Pastor Jack Van de Hoef

Have you ever come up to a stoplight, just as it was turning red, and complained (either to yourself or out loud): Now you have to wait a whole cycle before you can continue. Especially if it’s the light on Parkedale at Ormond, heading east, where the other side gets the advanced green. Have you ever stood in line inside a Tim Horton’s and watched the timer over the drive thru window, checking out how long people in their cars were waiting in line for their morning coffee? In fact, there’s a Timmy’s Wait Time App for your phone, so you can keep track of how long you wait in line or in a drive thru over a period of a week or two, or a month or more. An article on NPR News suggests that we have become "the Impatient Nation." We want quick answers to complex problems. The article puts it this way: We: Speed date. Eat fast food. Use the self-checkout lines in grocery stores. Try the "one weekend" diet. Pay extra for overnight shipping. Honk when the light turns green. Thrive or dive on quarterly earnings reports. Speak in half sentences. Start things but don't fin ...We tweet stories in 140 characters or less, yet some tweets are too long. We cut corners, take shortcuts. We clamour for more safety in the skies, then complain when security takes too long and is inconvenient. Can't take the time to drive to the video store or to wait for a DVD to arrive in the mail, so we order them on demand or stream them on the Web-well, clips of movies at least. (Linton Weeks, "Impatient Nation: I Can't Wait for You to Read This," NPR December 6, 2010) Or listen to the voter comments during our current municipal election campaign. We want change and we want it now. If someone has been in a leadership position for 4 years and we don’t have more industry and more jobs and better living and lower taxes, then they have failed and need to be replaced. Make things happen. Now. Pause. Breathe. Stop running. Think about how many really good experiences in life come from things that seem to take so long, so much time. Things like long-lasting friendships, a good wine, a shade tree, and really good dinners aren't prepackaged. A Thanksgiving dinner that includes a turkey that has baked in the oven for 4 hours, and a pie that has baked for an hour, and potatoes and vegetables that have been prepared through the course of the day is much better than a microwave TV dinner that’s ready in 5 minutes. In her book, Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg retells the following story about a famous first century rabbi named Rabbi Akiva:

1 “One day as Rabbi Akiva was shepherding his flocks, he noticed a tiny stream trickling down a hillside, dripping over a ledge on its way toward the river below. Below was a massive boulder. Surprisingly, the rock bore a deep impression. The drip, drip, drip of water over the centuries had hollowed away the stone. Akiva commented, "If mere water can do this to hard rock, how much more can God's Word carve a way into my heart of flesh?" Akiva realized that if the water had flowed over the rock all at once, the rock would have been unchanged. It was the slow but steady impact of each small droplet, year after year, that completely reformed the stone.” How often do we want a quick answer, a simple and short explanation? How often do we realize God likes to reveal truth over many years, as we learn alongside others. The big "splashes" aren't usually God's way of doing things. Instead, through the slow drip of study and prayer, day after day, year after year, he shapes us into what he wants us to be. Bono, the lead singer from U2, states it this way: “Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time….I have heard of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties "let go, and let God." But it was not like that for me. For all that "I was lost, I am found," it is probably more accurate to say, "I was really lost. I'm a little less so at the moment." And then a little less and a little less again. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting the computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet. (from the book U2 by U2, with Neil McCormick, Harper Collins, 2006, p. 7) Let’s bring this to our story from Acts. We have this man named Philip who had a fantastic ministry going in Samaria (See Acts 8:5-8). People were listening. People were getting healed. More and more people were hearing about Jesus Christ and the power of God and becoming followers of Jesus. Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go for a walk on a desert road." What a strange request! To leave a thriving ministry with even greater potential and go to the desert? What could he possibly do there? What about all the work he still saw around him? These people of Samaria were hungering for the good news of the gospel. There's nobody on a desert road. Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why am I here? Why did I accept to serve in this position? Why am I going to visit that person? Why am I choosing to be part of that particular group? Why am I telling these people what I believe? What is God up to? We don’t always know the reasons right away. We don’t always see results right away. It is the quiet patience of following the Spirit’s leading and trusting God to do his work through us.

2 Philip went to this desert road, but it was not deserted. On his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch. The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Well, it's a good thing that the Spirit did not tell Philip to go and talk to that eunuch. Philip knew well enough that eunuchs were excluded from being part of God’s worshiping people (see Deuteronomy 23:1). Then again, Philip may also have recalled the promise that God had made in Isaiah 56:4, that there was a time coming when even eunuchs would be welcome and have their place in the Lord's house. Philip goes. As he comes near to the chariot, he overhears the eunuch reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip uses that reading to introduce his presence. A literal translation of his question would be, "You don't understand what you are reading, do you?" It is said in a way to imply a negative answer. In so doing, Philip is hinting or offering his services as one who could help the eunuch to understand. The eunuch accepts this indirect offer from Philip. "Come on up. Maybe you can explain it to me." Then we are told that he was reading from Isaiah 53. What an ideal place to start to explain to someone about Jesus Christ. We couldn't make it any better, if we had set it up ourselves. Some people may read this story with that kind of skepticism. It sounds too much like a story someone would make up. Everything fits too neatly. A story like this can’t be true because the details seem too stacked. Or we smile or even admire these events as a very neat set of coincidences. Isn't it a wonder how things just seem to work out sometimes? How come it never seems to happen that way in real life, at least not to me? Or is it an invitation to patiently look around us and see how the Lord is at work. Maybe it is to step back from rushing from one thing to another and look at the big picture. We might see more clearly how the Lord has been working, shaping, putting together all the details, so taht we find ourselves in the right place at the right time. The eunuch comes to believe in Jesus and is baptized. Then Philip is gone. The Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again. It could have been a disappointment to have the person who brought such joy and understanding into his life suddenly be gone. But the eunuch goes on his way rejoicing. It is the joy of peace with God through the blood of the cross. It is the joy of knowing God to be a reconciled Father. It is the joy which every forgiven child of God understands from their own experience. The eunuch has come to know someone more special, and more important, than Philip. He now knows Jesus Christ. He knows that this Jesus is with him always, which was even better than having Philip stick around. Philip ends up in Azotus and continues preaching. The Spirit took him there and led

3 him to continue to proclaim the good news. The Holy Spirit moves the church. Next Sunday evening we will have a presentation on where Bethel Church finds itself in a typical cycle of life of a church. That discussion will force us to ask some more questions about where the Lord is leading this church. Some people will quickly say that we need to fill up the pews. We need more young families. We need to do something to get this church full again. We need more people. Now. Maybe. What we really need to do is patiently listen to the Lord”s leading. We need to pray that our minds are open to what the Lord is calling us to do. Maybe we have to walk along a desert road for a while. Maybe we have to talk to one person. Maybe we need to stop talking and listen to the conversations around us, and realize that people are searching for meaning in the movies they watch and the news articles that are coming up in conversation at the coffee shop. We might offer to give a perspective and wait for others to invite us to share our understanding. Maybe there’s not a quick answer. Maybe it’s the patience of waiting on the Lord. Do you seek to know what the Lord has in mind for you? How do you decide where you are going to continue your studies or what vocation you will pursue? In your employment or business, how do you plan for the future of your operation? How do you make decisions for how you spend your time in retirement? As a church we must seek the Lord's will in continuing or ending certain ministries or beginning new areas of emphasis, to continue being witnesses of Jesus Christ. Are you, are we, seeking and following the leading of the Spirit? It is the Spirit of Christ who empowers us and directs us in doing the Lord’s work. Sometimes that direction may come in a clear voice, telling us what to do. It may also come through a quiet and constant walk with the Lord. The Lord uses us in our everyday circumstances with our individual natures to work for him. We don't need a special call to be led by the Spirit. We do need an awareness of the Lord's involvement in our lives. We do need an openness to the Lord’s leading. That comes from a life of communion with God in all that we do. The fruit of the Spirit is patience. By the way, that stoplight at Parkedale and Ormond, going west, takes about 1 minute and 15 seconds to change. You could impatiently tap your steering wheel. Or think about how many people you could pray for in that time. Or pray for the people in the cars around you. Patience. A quiet waiting. Letting God take the lead. Pray. Listen. Follow. To God be the glory! Amen.

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