In Acts 6:1-7, the Hellenistic Jews complain their widows neglected in daily distribution. The apostles say "it is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve tables." The community chooses seven men "full of the Spirit and wisdom" (including Stephen and Philip). The apostles pray and lay hands on them. Word of God continues to spread; many priests become obedient to the faith. How quickly even in an inclusive environment we are to find ways of categorizing those who are "in" and those who are "out" this is a problem older than the church? How do we be people who are cautious not to overlook those who wouldn't naturally fall into our tribe?

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In Acts 5:41-42, the apostles leave rejoicing that they were "counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." Every day in temple and house-to-house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. Sometimes we have been given the vision in the Western church that being a Christian means living the good life… but here the disciples rejoice because they have been considered worthy of suffering. How is suffering something we rejoice over?

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The apostles find themselves before the Sanhedrin again, the High priest asks: "We ordered you to stop!" Peter responds: "We must obey God rather than men." he goes on to describe Jesus' resurrection, exaltation. The leaders furious, want to kill the apostles. Gamaliel intervenes: "If this is from God, you can't stop it; if not, it'll fail on its own." The leaders are persuaded and the apostles are flogged, ordered to stop speaking about Jesus, and are then released. There is a sense in this passage that God can work however God wants to. There is also this element of exploring the movements that went before the Jesus movement--the ways they missed it, and the ways we are still missing it 2000 years later.

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