God knows, mission is messy. And I think the first, Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, knew mission would be messy, when it involved going out beyond their comfort-zone, into the wider world. That may be one reason why they remained in the familiar territory of Jerusalem, until God used the short, sharp shock of persecution – that began with the death of Stephen – to push the Church out into the next place Jesus. had already sent them: Judea and Samaria... preaching as they went. (By the way, I don't believe God sends these things; but he is sovereign over them and can either lose them – sweeping them away – or use them! And on this occasion he chose to use it.)
“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
Samaritans were not considered to be “gentiles”. They were “break-away” Israelites. Remember how 900 years BC, Israel had split into two kingdoms, Judea (ruled over by descendants of David) in the South, and Israel in the North. Israel had gone after false gods first then been carried away as captives, before Judah. The Samaritans were the old Northern “Israel” and the Jews were the old “Judah” kingdom. And the Samaritans still had mixed up ideas including a lot of pagan ones. Now, Philip is a Greek name; he was a “Grecian Jew” who had become a follower of Jesus (and then was one of the “seven”). He knew what it was to live in pagan lands, although he may have kind of “kept his distance” from his pagan neighbours. But now, he is mixing with Samaritans; telling them about Jesus. Setting them free from evil spirits. Healing their sick. It was messy. Lots of shrieking as the demons left. Why was there suddenly more deliverance ministry under Philip's ministry? I suspect, it is because he hit on an area where there was a lot of demonic activity.
As Kris Valloton of Bethel Church in Redding California says we need to “engage society at the level of their greatest pain and carve out a path through the snake invested jungle, carrying the weak to a place of safety”. As the song says, “And so we go into a broken land...”
In our world there are loads of people who don't know how to behave. In our world there are more people who are visibly in the grip of evil, We move among men and women, and we heal their sick, we challenge their darkness, we tell them the good News of Jesus. We will need to learn how to exercise spiritual authority and chuck these things out of people. (A task complicated by the fact that , in our world, lots of people don't even accept that demons exist!)
Missional Church isn't the way to go for a quiet, easy life. John Wimber became a believer, through the ministry of a very traditional, respectable, and “churchy” Quaker Church. The first time he attended worship, he was so unfamiliar with church culture, that he was looking for the ashtray to stub out the cigarette he was still smoking – as you would in a cinema or dance hall in the seventies. He used to challenge Christians troubled by the noise, and “mess,” which was tidier and quieter, a funeral parlour or a nursery. If there is new life, there will be noise, mess, exhaustion...
But in the midst of the mess, people are trusting Jesus and being baptised, including a guy called Simon; he’s the local magician – not a Tommy Cooper illusionist, but the real deal... he is in touch with real, supernatural power, and he uses it to “wow” the locals, so much that they decide he is “The Great Power of God”. He probably knows different, but he's not letting on. The power he has makes him important; it sets him off; he's respected, looked up to; maybe even feared; and he's making good money. When Philip arrives in town, Simon the Sorcerer wants a piece of the action.
And then rumours of revival reached the Apostles, and Peter and John came to check things out. They found group of new believers, baptised, but lacking the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I wonder why? Had Philip not taught them about the Holy Spirit? Were there still blockages in their lives that kept them from receiving the Spirit? Or did God want to show that they were just as accepted as the Jewish believers by giving them their own “pentecost”? There's no clear answer. For whatever reason, the experience of these believers was incomplete, even after their Baptism.
Mission is messy. People's journeys towards faith are untidy: there's no single, right order for trusting Jesus., receiving the Spirit, and being baptised. God deals with each person in the way they need him to. What I do see in the book of Acts, is that the coming of the Spirit is always visible and unmistakeable. There's no quiet, undetectable influence: more a rushing mighty wind, gifts of power and fruit of transformation. We need to let god deal with people as he knows is right for them. In messy mission, we may not always be able to herd people through the “system”, baptising them when they have neatly learned the four spiritual laws and confessed their faith in Jesus. as their own personal saviour, and then expecting them to be solid, growing disciples for the rest of their lives.
Messed-up lives.
Simon, the magician, is so impressed, as before his eyes, the Apostles lay hands on one, and another, and each one received the Spirit. He was impressed. “These guys are even better than me.” Simon wanted a piece of the action. “This is my kind of stuff. I'd look really good if I could get people filled with he Spirit like that. I'm a natural. I could be “The Samaritan Apostle”, I've even got the same name as the big one. And I'm sure there's money to be made. So there he is, cheque book in hand, offering to pay for the power to get others filled with the Spirit. Peter's response resonates with my sense of revulsion at this “To hell with your money! And you along with it.” (The Message). Here is Simon, the magician, who's seen the signs and wonders; professed faith, been baptised, shadowed Philip, watched the Spirit at work through the Apostles, at risk of losing the benefits of the word he had professed to believe. Pagan, magical ideas and crass materialism still jostled with Kingdom, word and Spirit to dominated his thinking. His life, frankly, was still a mess. Mission is messy because people come to us with messed-up lives, complicated stories, and loads of stuff they need to get rid of. We are not always secure in knowing everything is going to be all right with every new convert. I feel sad about some of those I have worked with, some I have baptised, here and elsewhere, because in some of those lives, the enemy seems to have gained the upper hand. But I believe that is part of messy mission.
The heart is key
Peter says to Simon, “your heart is not right before God,” and specifically it is, “full of bitterness and captive to sin.” or as the AV says “Still in the gall of bitterness.” Dt 29. 18 talks about a root of bitterness that turns people away to worship false gods. In the ancient world, “Gall” could refer to bitter, poisonous plants; ancient medicine believed the idea that the organs of the body are connected to the soul and that gall or bile was connected with anger and – as we still say – bitterness. The venom of a snake was understood to be “gall.” There is bitterness poisoning Simon's heart that keeps him in bondage to injustice.
We need to remember that conversion is about transformation that goes right to the heart of people; in messy mission, part of the process of discipleship, is walking with people towards the place where they are not controlled by bitter stuff or captured by the wrong in their own hearts or the wrong that has been done to them. And for each of us, we need to continue a journey of repentance, healing and surrender, as long as we live.
It certainly seems as if Simon was ready for the next step in that journey: he pleads for prayer and we have no reason to question his sincerity. He has put his spiritual life in danger but not killed it off completely. There is hope, when we have made our biggest mistakes and embarrassed ourselves and everyone else!
And the Apostles' journey continues. Inspired and challenged by what they have seen of the ministry exercised by Philip, Peter and John return to Jerusalem “preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages” as they go. Mission is messy. Our world, like Philip's, is confused, spiritually hungry. It's messy, but God calls us to messy mission.
© Gilmour Lilly September 2013
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