Acts 5:38,39: “So I am telling you: Hands off these men! Let them alone. If this program or this work is merely human, it will fall apart, but if it is of God, there is nothing you can do about it—and you better not be found fighting against God!”
We get a lot of catalogs through our home this time of year from L.L.Bean to Victoria’s Secret. They are marketing their summer fashions that, I suppose, are, to some extent, different than last year’s. It makes good economic sense to create a new trend so that people will feel the need to buy the new product only to be replaced the following year with yet another variant. In addition it satisfies a basic human proclivity towards the new and different. Still, aren’t we hoping that some things in life are more than just what happens to be hot at the moment? In the passage above a famous teacher is advising the leaders that the then current “Jesus movement” could easily be just the latest in a series of hyped events that come and go without leaving a lasting mark. Of course, if it’s not, if it is something of lasting value that God is doing, then maybe it should be treated with more respect he reflects. And so here we sit 2000 years later. I think it is safe to say that the events from Palm Sunday through Easter that we remember this week have had a lasting affect. When our world and our lives can too often be consumed by the transient, maybe it’s a good time to consider if the Jesus story has something more permanent to say to us, something we can build a life around while other things come and go.
Don
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 