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Achsah & Othniel: Springs for the Negeb

Hespeler, June 8, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Day of Pentecost
Joshua 15:13-19, Acts 2:1-21, Psalm 104:24-34, 35b, John 14:8-17, 25-27

Two weeks ago, we began our discussions about our new identity, and you were introduced to two people that I call Ancient Israel’s first power couple, Achsah and Othniel. I told you that we needed to know about them because we are like them.

We are like them in our amalgamation, I said, because we too have come together in a somewhat rushed arranged marriage. But we are also like them in that God used them as a power couple to lead the people of God into a new era in a strange new land. That is absolutely what God is calling us to do right now.

Not So Obscure

And admit it, some of you wondered why I came up with these two biblical characters. Out of all the amazing characters in the Bible that everyone has heard of before, and people actually even know how to pronounce their names, why did I have to talk about this obscure couple?

But guess what, they are really not as obscure as you think. Two weeks ago, we read two passages about these people from the Book of Judges. This morning, we read an entirely different passage of scripture from a different book. And yet right there, once again, we were told the story of this same power couple.

And do you think that it is just a coincidence or an editing error that this story is told twice in two different biblical books? No, I don’t think so. I don’t believe in coincidences when I’m reading the scriptures. There is a message in this repetition, and it is a message for us and it is for us where we are today.

There is something else that God is calling to our attention. It is the secret of the success that this couple enjoyed in leading the people of Israel, and it is a secret that we need to reveal as we embrace the next phase in our life together.

A Problematic Conquest

But there is something you need to understand first though. In the Book of Joshua, the Bible tells the story of the emergence of the tribes in the land of Israel in a particular way. It is told as a conquest – something that I know people may find to be rather troubling. In fact, the invading tribes who are led by Joshua often engage in what would absolutely be called genocide today, wiping out entire tribes and peoples at once.

That is troubling – and it should be troubling! And it is doubly troubling when you realize that the story of Joshua’s conquest has also used to justify modern atrocities such as apartheid in South Africa, the treatment of indigenous people in Canada and all over the world, and the ongoing targeting of children, civilians and health infrastructure in Gaza. Again and again, people acting in the name of God have said, if Joshua did it, why can’t we do it too?

Hebrew Origins

But here is the simple historical truth. The conquest, as told in the Book of Joshua, didn’t happen. The archaeological evidence is quite clear. The Israelites did not enter the land of Israel as a large group of outside invaders.

As far as we can tell, the Hebrew tribes had their origins in the hill country of what later came to be known as Israel. It was there that they learned to cooperate together and developed a common identity built around worshiping their common God. But they were not culturally very different from the Canaanite people who surrounded them.

Now there are some reasons, and very good reasons based on their experience with God, for why they came to see themselves as a former slave people who had escaped from Egypt. This was actually a very important part of their identity, and the stories pointed to the truth of that. But the stories of genocidal conquest were much more about understanding how they felt their God was calling them to live in relationship to the land than it was about what actually happened.

Recognized in Scripture

And it seems that they knew, as is often recognized in the scriptures, that they were not in the land as outside conquerors. There is regular acknowledgement that the tribes of Israel were living alongside “the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,” and were intermarried with them and even joined them in worship. (See Judges 3:5-6)

And the story of Achsah and Othniel, told as it is in both the Book of Joshua (which is about a conquest), and in the Book of Judges (which is an alternate history of the people living alongside their Canaanite neighbours), offers us a unique way to look at the meaning of these alternate views of history.

Moving Out from the Hill Country

Achsah and Othniel start out living in the tribe of Judah up in the hills of Judah and they then move out beyond that traditional territory. They represent the tribe spreading out their influence from the lands where they have been established for generations.

They move out to this place called Kiriath-sepher. Settling there is, in fact, what brings them together. And Kiriath-sepher is in a region called the Negeb. And the Negeb is, kind of famously, a very harsh desert.

If this power couple extended the tribe of Judah’s territory into such a forbidding place, they likely did not do so as violent conquerors. They came as partners working together with the people already settled there. They offered them the protection of being associated with the tribe of Judah and its mutual defence pact with the other Israelite tribes.

Living in the Hill Country

Now, I realize that ancient politics and military alliances don’t mean a lot to us today, so let me put this in terms that we can relate to. The Presbyterian Church in this area, has been established for a very long time. We celebrated our 150^th anniversary as a national church just last week!

But it has become pretty clear in recent times that the church has become more isolated from the mainstream of society. We are like the tribes of Israel, isolated up in the hill country while the society around us has changed and diversified and grown.

And so God (who I guess is Caleb in this metaphor) is coming along and saying to the church, “Who will go out from the hill country where you have been comfortable and familiar? Who will take this message of good news and go out into the Negeb, where it is dry, and resources are scarce, and people are not feeling so secure?”

A Partnership for the Negeb

What’s more, God is saying specifically to us folk who were part of St. Andrew’s and Knox that, if we take on the challenge of living out the kingdom of God in the Negeb, God will give us a partner – a spouse if you wish – to go with us, so that together we will be stronger and more able to meet the needs of the people of the Negeb.

And the wonderful thing is that we have already responded to this challenge from God. I hope you recognize that, when we signed up for this amalgamation – this marriage – together, we accepted God’s challenge to go to the Negeb, to go outside of what is comfortable and familiar, to actually show the love of Christ to people who have lost contact with the churches in the hill country and who are struggling.

So that has all already been taken care of. The marriage of Achsah and Othniel has already taken place. So, you may well be asking why we have not yet left their story behind. Well, it is because these two people do something very important before they head off to take up their mission in the Negeb. They have a very important conversation.

Achsah’s Ask

“When [Achsah] came to [Othniel], she urged him to ask her father for a field.” What is she saying here? This is about resources. She is saying to her new husband that, if they are going to meet this challenge, they are going to need to know that they have what they need to make a success of it.

And the field she is thinking of is a very particular resource that is particularly fitting for where they are going. In fact, having spoken to her husband, Achsah doesn’t wait. She doesn’t hold endless congregational meetings and strategy sessions; she goes straight to the source, her father.

“As she dismounted from her donkey, Caleb said to her, ‘What do you wish?’” What a perfect picture of our God, who can’t even wait for us to get off our donkey, who is so eager to provide us with what we need to thrive that he can’t even wait for us to come inside and sit down to tea!

Springs in the Desert

And Achsah knows exactly what she is going to ask for. “She said to him, ‘Give me a present; since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me springs of water as well.’” And so, we discover what sort of field she has in mind.

And, of course, what better resource to have access to if you want to take care of the needs of people in the desert than a steady and reliable supply of water. Caleb clearly approves of her request and immediately gives her not one field but two fields – both the upper springs and the lower springs.

How has God Gifted Us?

Today we turn in our discussions to something that is absolutely key to the new identity that God is giving us as an amalgamated congregation – the question of how God has gifted us with what we need to minister in the Negeb. We take it for granted that God has called us together, that God is requiring us to step out of the familiar hill country and into the unfamiliar desert territory around us.

But if we are going to understand exactly what it is that God is calling us to do in the Negeb, we need to understand how God has uniquely gifted us for that ministry. God has provided, and will always provide for us, streams of living water. But God loves to use our unique gifts and talents in highly personalized ways.

So today, we are dismounting from our donkey and asking God, “If you have sent us to be the church in this challenging place and time, what particular springs of water have you given us and how can we employ them to bring life to a dry and desolate land?”

Abundant Springs

I do not mean to prejudice our discussions afterwards, so I won’t tell you what I think our particular springs of water are. I’ll just say that I know that they are abundant – that God has given us both the upper and the lower springs and a few others on the side. What’s more, I’m going to encourage us to think of those springs in the most open way possible.

For example, we have two key assets as a congregation. Those assets are real estate. We have a field in Hespeler and we have another field in Preston. I’m not sure which one is the upper spring and which one is the lower spring, but it hardly matters. And of course, we live in a world where real estate is seen as a very important asset. In the heart of two of the villages of Cambridge, these are valuable fields, right?

Now, I know that we could just put a dollar figure on those two pieces of property and say that we are finished calculating the value of our assets. But that is not what we’re supposed to do. We are called to see them as springs of water, sources of blessing upon all those who live in this Negeb. That is the challenge we are dealing with.

Assets in Many Forms

And we are not just talking about assets that are valued in the larger economic world. We have assets that are human skills and talents and abilities. We have assets in terms of our reputation in the community. And we have assets in terms of our connection and our partnership with other groups in the community, like the food bank.

These are all springs of water that our Father has given to us and is calling us to use them to minister and to serve in this dry, desert land where we find ourselves. That is the challenge. I am excited to be able to explore all of these possibilities with you.

CLOSED THIS WEDNESDAY DUE TO WATER BEING TURNED OFF.

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Hespeler, June 1, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 16:16-34, Psalm 97, Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21, John 17:20-26

She had always been a very odd child. She never behaved like the other children. She didn’t play with them, often preferring to sit, staring at insignificant things for hours. She was almost two years old before she spoke a word.

And yet, she was not lacking in intelligence. In many ways, she was too smart for her own good. She often saw things about people that they didn’t quite realize about themselves. And when she spoke, people didn’t quite know how to handle it. She wouldn’t look people in the eye and spoke as if they weren’t quite there. It made everyone feel so uncomfortable. Her parents didn’t know what to do with her. They doubted that they would ever be able to marry her off. And what was a daughter for if not that?

Neurodivergent

They didn’t have the words to describe someone who was neurodivergent – whose mind didn’t work quite like everyone else’s. In fact, the only way that they had to describe someone like her was to say that she had a demon or a spirit in her.

It was a relief to her parents when the slave masters came around and offered to take her off their hands. Her mother and father agreed to sell her and told themselves that there was nothing else that they could have done.

Her new masters knew exactly what to do with her though. Though she was strange, she had abilities they knew could be valuable. It was just a matter of packaging those abilities in the right way.

A Python Spirit

And so, they put out the word that she indeed had a spirit. It was, they said, a Python spirit – the spirit of the Pythia. That was a key marketing term. The Pythia was the name of the famous oracle at Delphi. Traditionally a young girl like this one, the Pythia would breathe in the noxious fumes that seeped up from a chasm in the ground below the sanctuary at Delphi. She would then make strange and enigmatic statements about the future.

It didn’t really matter if her words predicted the actual future. She just had to say something that sounded perceptive enough. The reputation of the Pythia was enough for people to take it from there and turn the enigmatic words into a certain prediction of the future.

The Trick

For example, when King Croesus of Lydia enquired of the Pythia at Delphi, asking whether he ought to attack the Persians, the oracle answered back that, if he did, he would certainly destroy a great empire. And so, Croesus confidently attacked, assured that there would be victory. As predicted, the ensuing war did destroy an empire. It just happened to be Croesus’ own empire.

You see, that was the trick of the Pythia; she had a way of couching her predictions so that it seemed that she had predicted the future no matter what happened. And that is why the slave masters told everyone that this girl had the same spirit. With her ability to observe all kinds of details that no one else noticed, she picked up the trick very quickly and soon people everywhere were clamoring for her predictions.

Ergasia

Her owners were ecstatic. They could soon charge anything they wanted for her services. Nobody remembered what she had been called before she was sold, but her masters gave her a new name. They called her “Ergasia,” the word for profit and gain because they loved the profits she brought them.

But if Ergasia brought great gain to her owners, her life anything but comfortable. The work that she did was taxing. The large crowds she often drew frightened her, and working closely with people created a deep and uncontrollable anxiety within her. But, of course, she had no control over any of those circumstances. She was a slave, and she had to do whatever her owners desired. They had no care for her well-being.

Paul and Silas

When Ergasia first spotted Paul and Silas in the marketplace of Philippi, she could immediately see that there was something different about them. Everyone that she had ever known in her entire short life had been the same. Everyone had only ever been interested in anybody else in terms of what they could get out of them. Her masters were only interested in the profits she produced, and her clients were only interested in the promises for the future she could offer them. And she had never been given any reason to think that anyone was any different.

But, as she watched Paul and Silas talk with people, she could see none of that attitude in them. They freely offered to people whatever they needed most: hope, encouragement and even the promise of new life. She kept watching them, kept expecting to discover what their game was and what they were trying to get out of people. But all she saw was how they offered nothing but good news to people in the name of this man they called Jesus.

How She Reacted

And you might think that she would have seen this in a positive way, but she didn’t. It troubled her deeply because, as far as she was concerned, that was not how the world was supposed to work. The world was divided into two sorts of people, those who were exploited and those who exploited them. These two men did not fit into her worldview. They seemed to see people as having value apart from what could be extracted from them. That was deeply disturbing to her.

The situation became unbearable. She had to make it make sense. And so she pointed to them and cried out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” Like with all of her special prophecies, she knew that she was speaking a truth, that she had observed something true in these men, even if she herself didn’t understand it.

And, like often happened with her, once she had become fixated on something, she just couldn’t let go of it. She began to follow them around everywhere they went and calling out her prophecy for anyone to hear.

Paul’s Reluctance

In his recent travels, Paul’s companions had been admonishing him. He had just been too disruptive in too many places, and it had become exhausting. That was why, when they crossed over into Europe, he had turned over a new leaf. He had promised his companions that he would be good and that he would stop provoking opposition.

And he had been doing so well ever since they had arrived in Philippi. He had kept things very low-key. He had found a group of women who worshipped in a place down by the river and had quietly started making disciples among them. Everyone had been relieved to see him staying under the radar.

That is why, when Ergasia started to cause disruptions wherever they went, Paul tried to ignore it. He understood that she was a slave and that anything he did that made her question that status would be seen as a real provocation. To threaten any master’s hold over a piece of property was to attack the very foundation of society. He knew that it was wiser for him not to respond to her.

Paul Snaps

But before long it began to really bother him. Here she was, a child of God, and one who had been given a certain insight into God’s truth, and yet no one had ever stood up for her. No one had ever seen her as anything other than something to use for their own profit. Eventually he could not bear it anymore and he realized that he had to do something, even though it might be costly to him and his companions. And so Paul finally snapped one day. He turned and he said, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”

He was speaking, of course, to the Python spirit that he and everyone else understood was the source of both her torment and her abilities. I realize that we would understand it differently. We would see, perhaps, someone who was strange – whose mind worked differently – who had been exploited because of it for the profit of others. But they, of course, didn’t have that kind of language to help them understand it. They could only speak in terms of spiritual forces. And so, Paul had to address the problem in those same terms.

But by speaking to her in those terms, he did get a message across to her. He had just told her, in the name of Jesus, that she was more than just a condition that someone could profit from. He had told her that she herself had value. That is a powerful message for anyone who has never heard it before.

What This Did for Ergasia

It did not change her status as a slave. But it did affect her abilities. The way she had looked at people and their stories, she had only been able to do that because of how she could look at them in a totally disconnected way. But now, she had seen the possibility of connection. And she continued to connect with Paul and Silas and some of the others in ways that made her feel as if she had some value apart from the profit she generated for her masters.

 And so, while her masters had not lost their property, they had lost the ability to continue to exploit their property by using her. They may have owned her body, but they no longer owned Ergasia, her extraordinary spirit that generated extraordinary profits. Many of those who earn great profits in our world without actually doing any of the labour themselves do so by taking everything from those whom they exploit. They no longer had access to everything, and that enraged them.

“These men, these Jews,” they shouted out to all who would listen, “are disturbing our city and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us, being Romans, to adopt or observe.” And what were the customs that they were overturning? The custom of counting profits as more important than people.

Slavery and the Early Church

Paul’s interaction with the slave girl in Philippi is fascinating. He doesn’t do for her what we, as modern people, might like him to do. He does not denounce the institution of slavery and set her free from her masters.

Of course, the reality is that he had no way of doing any such thing. If he had attempted to challenge the most central institution of that society, he would have changed nothing for her, and he would have immediately ended up in a much worse position than the local jail.

Slavery, at that moment in history, was absolutely foundational to the entire society. That is why we do not see the earliest church challenging its existence. No one could conceive of a society functioning without it.

Challenging Dehumanization

But, though they did not challenge the institution, they seem to have been willing to challenge the essential dehumanization that went with it. In one of his letters, Paul cited an early creed of the church that said, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:27-28)

This was a radical statement. The earliest church recognized that the divisions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female existed in the world around them and that that was not going to change. But they also embraced the truth that the new identity that was given in Christ did allow people to overcome the limits put upon them by such categories. And that meant that slaves were not defined by the profits they produced for their masters.

A Different World

We live in a different world. But we do still live in a world where various divisions matter – racial and ethnic differences, gender, rich and poor. And just because we no longer accept institutional slavery doesn’t mean that we don’t tend to reduce the value of someone to the profits that they can produce. In fact, we do it all the time.

Paul disrupted the way in which people profited from someone’s spirit. By doing so, he disturbed the city, threatening the very foundations of the way that it worked. We still live in a world where there are people willing to break the spirit of some to feed their own profits. I only hope that we could be as bold as Paul in setting people free from any hold that such ways of doing things places upon people.

Who Are We Now? Part I

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Hespeler, May 25, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Sixth Sunday of Easter
Judges 1:12-15, 3:5-11, Psalm 67, John 14:23-29, John 5:1-9

In the opening chapter of the Book of Judges, the children of Israel are facing an enormous crisis. Joshua, who has been giving leadership to the whole nation during their entrance into the Promised Land is dead.

But the problem is not just that they have lost one visionary leader. Joshua had also been the last link to the glorious story of how they came to be there. As the former lieutenant of Moses, he had been there for it all – the confrontations with Pharaoh, the plagues, the Battle of the Sea of Reeds.

The Vision of Joshua

He had been present – and right up there on the mountain at a distance – when the Law had been given in moment of clarity and revelation. Things had since become somewhat muddled as they attempted to live out that vision in a practical world surrounded by strangers and enemies, but, having been there, Joshua had been able to keep that original vision alive.

But now, with Joshua gone, it was truly the end of an era. Lacking that consistent central leadership, it felt as if the whole project might fall apart completely. Rather than looking out for what was good for the entire nation, the people would simply dissolve into tribalism, with each clan or tribe only looking out for what was good for themselves.

A Difficult Transition

It was, to put it in terms that we can relate to, a difficult time of transition. And I think that, in many ways, it is similar to the transition that the church has been dealing with in our own times.

Surely you recognize many of the feelings that the Israelites were having. Once we knew how to make churches work in our world. Success for the church was mostly a matter of ringing a bell at the appropriate time and people – who really didn’t have anything else to do during those hours – would just show up. We knew what programs would attract people and we could count on a large volunteer base to do all of the work that was needed.

But today the church finds itself a strange new land where the old approaches don’t work like they once did. And we haven’t quite figured out what the new approaches should be.

Our Loss of Joshua

What’s more, many congregations are struggling with the loss of a “Joshua.” Clergy, who have long been the keepers of the tradition and who know how things ought to be done, have been getting scarce. Like what happened in Knox Preston, churches have had to figure out how to thrive without that consistent clergy presence.

And I was thinking that, if we are facing some of the same challenges, maybe we can learn something from how they navigated the situation. In particular, how did they find the leadership and vision to enter into the next phase in their life?

Caleb’s Plan

“Then Caleb said, ‘Whoever attacks Kiriath-sepher and takes it, I will give him my daughter Achsah as wife.’ And Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it, and he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.” That is apparently what they did.

And I know that that doesn’t really sound like much of a visioning or leadership development process, but apparently it turned out to be quite successful. That is why we kept reading into the third chapter of Judges this morning.

Othniel’s Leadership

In the third chapter we discover that Othniel was not just a one-hit wonder who attacked a place to win a bride. He went on to unify and lead the tribes that were falling apart for a period of forty years. He was the guy who laid the foundation for any success that they experienced in the next entire phase of their existence. That is success in leadership development by any measure.

And it all began, apparently, with Caleb offering up his daughter in marriage as a prize to whomever would lead a successful raid against a place called Kiriath-sepher. And I realize that that might seem like an odd way to start something that is going to lead you into a new future but stay with me for a minute here.

Presbytery’s Plan

What if you understand it this way. Caleb, one of the last leftovers of the old authority system, is like the Presbytery in our system. And imagine that the Presbytery says to one of its congregations – one of its children – the following, “I don’t think that you should go it alone anymore.” In fact, it says that if that congregation doesn’t get married off soon, it is not going to be sustained.

Now, does that sound a little bit harsh? Well, when you put it that way, it certainly does to us. But parents did do that kind of thing back then and it wasn’t seen as problematic. As readers, I think we are supposed to give Caleb the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has his daughter Achsah’s interests at heart – that he wants this to lead to good things for her.

Achsah and Othniel Become a Team

At least, let’s give Caleb’s plan a chance. Achsah is put on notice that she is going to get married to someone who can take the settlement of Kiriath-sepher – that is to say, someone who is courageous enough to take on this great challenge that lies before the people of God.

That is where Othniel comes into the story. He is the one who steps forward. And we need to understand that he doesn’t do it because he wants the settlement. He does it because he wants Achsah. He has seen something in her and knows that there is great value in her. He knows that they will make a great team together.

Our Marriage Metaphor

As you all know, throughout our amalgamation process, the one big metaphor that we used to talk about it was marriage. These two congregations coming together to become one. We said it again and again: it was like a marriage. And we have already used the marriages of some biblical heroes to talk about our amalgamation.

But today I want to tell you that our amalgamation is specifically like the marriage of a biblical couple that you have probably never heard of before: Achsah and Othniel.

Part of that is that their marriage may not seem ideal by our modern standards. It is arranged by other people and is very rushed. And, yes, our amalgamation kind of went like that.

The Guarantee of a Good Marriage

But here is the thing. I have never encountered a marriage that had a perfect start. We sometimes think that if we get the start of a marriage right – if the couple meets in the perfect way, if they wait the perfect amount of time before marrying and if they have a perfect wedding – they are virtually guaranteed to have a perfect marriage together.

But it really doesn’t work that way. The only guarantee of a good marriage is not how it starts but how it functions in the long-term. And if the couple can learn to respect and value and lift each other up in a relationship of mutual support, that is the primary predictor of a successful marriage.

An Incredible Team

So, it had a strange beginning, but I think it is clear that Achsah and Othniel’s marriage was extraordinarily successful. If Othniel went on to be the first great leader of the people of Israel in a new era, he didn’t do that alone. He did it because she was at his side.

Othniel is obviously a strong person at the beginning of this story – leading a successful raid – but there is clear strength in Achsah as well. We see her boldly stepping forth and demanding from the Presby… from her father the resources that they are going to need to thrive in their marriage.

That is why I suggest to you today that the secret of their extraordinary success was that they recognized the strength in each other and they worked together to build each other up. They discovered that they were stronger, wiser and better equipped together, than either of these very strong people could ever have been separately.

Two Becoming One

The congregations of Knox Preston and St. Andrew’s Hespeler came together very quickly and in what seemed like a bit of an arranged marriage kind of way. Nevertheless, we seem to have had a good beginning. But the ultimate test of a good amalgamation is not how it begins; it is how we work together as one in the long term.

We were two separate things; we were two independent congregations. But we have now become one new thing together. And if we are going to be as successful at shaping a new future for the church in this region as Othniel and Achsah were in shaping the future of the people of Israel in a new era, I think we need to follow their example. We begin by learning to appreciate the incredible strengths that we find in each other and combine them in new ways because we embrace a new identity.

Our New Identity

Today we are beginning that intentional process of finding that new identity. Of course, we have already begun in many ways. We have started to get to know one another. But truly embracing a new identity is a process of letting go of what used to be in order to fully embrace something new. And that doesn’t just happen all on its own.

Change is always a difficult process of letting go of old things and old ways of doing things. Even if you are going through that transition for the best of reasons and are excited about moving into the future, it is always hard to say goodbye to what was.

The Uncertainty of Transition

And it is made all the harder because, if you really embracing change, you do not know what that future is going to look like. So, transitions bring with them a great deal of uncertainty. You fumble around for a while not quite sure of how things are going to work or what you are supposed to do. It is exciting, because you are heading for a new future, but it can also be a bit daunting.

Well, that is where we are right now. We have all left behind the two separate congregations we used to be. They are, and always will be, a part of our revered and valued past. But they are not actually who we are anymore.

Because we are in this murky transition period, we will sometimes slip into old ways of thinking and old ways of seeing ourselves. That is only natural. But never forget that God is calling us to be something new together and is encouraging us to think of ourselves in those new terms. That is exciting, but it is not going to happen without us working at it.

A Power Couple

Who are we now? I can’t answer that for you. We can only find the answer to that question together over time. But let me let offer this identity to you.

We are Achsah and Othniel, not two individuals, no, but Ancient Israel’s first power couple. We are two congregations who came together to become. It happened quickly and in unexpected ways, but I have no doubt that this was a marriage that was arranged, not by Caleb, not by Presbytery, but by God because God wants us to play a key role in laying out new approaches to living and thriving as a church in this strange new landscape where we find ourselves.

Power Couple Names

You know, sometimes they give nicknames to power couples. You know like when, for a while, they called Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Brangelina, and when people referred to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as Bennifer. I’m not going to suggest that our new identity should be “Achsothniel, and not just because nobody would ever be able to spell it.

A name – a new name – can be a helpful way to cement a new identity – at least if everyone can spell and pronounce it – but the point is not actually to find a name. It is about discovering our identity – learning who God is calling us to be and what story God is telling to us. That is our task and we are starting it today.

And whatever identity we fully embrace, I hope you will carry this sense of calling with you into it. We are not just a random couple of congregations thrown together by circumstance and maybe desperation. God arranged this marriage because God has a plan for the future of the church around here and this particular power couple is essential to that plan. Carry that truth with you as you move forward.

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Hespeler, May 18, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35

There is one question that the Christian church has stumbled over again and again throughout its entire life. That question is this: what can God do and what can’t God do. I know that may sound like a foolish question to ask. It might even seem like the answer is so obvious that no one would even bother to ask it. But they did. And people continue to ask that question. And it is a question that often leads us to very difficult and conflicted places.

This was a question that arose very early on in the life of the church related to one particular thing. People wondered whether Gentiles could possibly be saved and whether they could have a place in the Christian church.

God Couldn’t Accept Them

And the answer to that question seemed obvious to just about everybody. No surely not, most everyone else objected. God couldn’t do that – God couldn’t save non-Jews. At least God couldn’t do that unless those Gentiles became completely Jewish by following the law, eating kosher and by becoming circumcised. Maybe – just maybe – if Gentiles did that, God might be able to save them. But otherwise clearly no!

And by the way, that is how we usually discuss such matters. But what was really at stake in that whole discussion? I mean, down at the brutally honest human level, what was motivating these early Christians to ask that question? I’m pretty sure there was you might call a yuck factor. Somewhere, deep down inside, they were thinking, “Eww, you know what those Gentiles are like, don’t you? They eat disgusting things like ham and bacon, and they don’t even circumcise their men. Yuck!”

And, yes, I know that none of those things sound particularly yucky to us, but that’s because we’re Gentiles and they’re fairly normal for us. But they really struggled with things like that.

Tribalism

It is something that is built into our humanity. We tend feel more comfortable with those who are like us and to want to exclude those who are unlike us. It probably goes back to the days when we lived in tribal societies, and it was safest to stick with the people of your own tribe.

But, if this was really about them just feeling uncomfortable around Gentiles because they were so strange, they didn’t talk about it that way. They didn’t say, “I struggle with accepting Gentiles.” They said, “God can’t accept Gentiles, or at least God can’t accept them as they are.”

Our Prejudice Becomes Our Theology

That is what we do. We take an issue that is essentially an issue of personal bias or maybe prejudice or maybe even racism and turn it into a theological statement about what God can and cannot do. We push our own prejudices onto God. This is not to suggest, of course, that they didn’t have all kinds of scriptures and interpretations to back up what they were saying. But, on a very personal level, it came back to the question of what they felt about Gentiles.

But then something happened. The Apostle Paul came along and he said look, here’s this amazing thing that God has done by raising Jesus from the dead. And Paul asked, what if, because of this amazing thing that God has done, maybe God can accept Gentiles just as they are.

And so, the church had a full-blown theological crisis on its hands. Most of the people in the church said one thing about what God could do, and Paul said something else. Who was going to solve this?

Luke Solves the Problem

And that is where the author of the Book of Acts (who we traditionally call Luke, because it is the same guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke) comes in. Luke was writing his Book of Acts, and he figured that he knew who the best person was to solve this conundrum. He figured that the Apostle Peter should know the answer better than anyone else.

Peter was someone who knew Jesus personally and was probably the first highly respected leader the church had. What’s more and even better, Luke remembered that he had heard a story about how Peter had personally worked his way through this very issue of including Gentiles. And so, Luke made the decision to include the story that we read this morning about Peter and a Gentile named Cornelius.

And that is what we often do with these sticky questions. When we disagree over what God can and cannot do, we look for some authoritative person – a Peter – to settle the thing. So, I am sure that when the early Christians first received a copy of this book, they were leaning forward eagerly. The were sitting on the edges of their seats waiting for the final answer to this thorny question.

Peter’s Journey

And that is what makes this story so interesting and so challenging. Because Peter, this authoritative and wise leader, doesn’t respond to this challenge in the way they might have expected.

Peter starts off thinking that he knows the answer. When he is offered, in a vision that has been fueled by his hungry stomach, a menu that includes the meat of all kinds of animals that a good Jew would never even touch, Peter replies vehemently, “By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.”

This is a response that is entirely based on everything that Peter knows about his tradition and the clear teaching of the scriptures. And it is not just a response to the question of what he can eat. The food laws made it impossible to associate with Gentiles during meals. So, this answer also meant that the Gentiles could not be acceptable to God.

That is where Peter starts out in this story. He is absolutely certain that he knows what God can and can’t do based on his understanding of the scriptures and of the tradition. And that is what makes where he ends this story so interesting.

Who Was I?

So, what does he say at the end? Once he goes and actually meets Cornelius and his household, once he shares the message about Jesus with them and sees how they respond with enthusiasm and excitement, Peter says something very different. “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”

I want you to listen to those words. What did Peter say? He was an apostle, and yet he said, “Who am I that I could hinder God?” He was someone who knew Jesus personally, and yet he said, “Who am I?” He was a good Jew who knew his tradition and his scriptures well and yet he said, “Who am I?” He recognized that, no matter what biblical, personal or theological understanding that he had, he was not in a position to tell God what God could or could not do.

That is why I think that we are in great need of more Peters in the life of the church today. We don’t need more people who think that they know God better than Godself. We need more people who realize that, however much they have studied the scriptures, they don’t actually have all the answers.

The Ongoing Struggle

This is important, of course, as we continue to struggle over questions of who is in and who is out in the church. There will always be issues that arise. We will encounter people whose lifestyles seem to be incompatible with Christian teaching as we have experienced it. We will run into people whose opinions threaten to divide us. We may even meet people who repel us for some rational or irrational reason.

I understand that the presence of such people might cause some issues that we have to manage and that it might cause us to re-evaluate some things in ways that are uncomfortable. Of course it will. But let’s not just fall back on the easy assumption that, because people may cause us some problems, God can’t accept them. Let us not put our prejudices onto God. Let us have the wisdom and the humility to say, “Who am I?”

Scriptural Inspiration

Peter’s humility doesn’t just apply to questions of who is out and who is in, though. It applies to all areas of theology and doctrine. One very important application for me is to the doctrine of scriptural inspiration.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” (3:16-17) We might discuss, I know, what inspiration means and how it functions, but I will say that I believe absolutely that that verse is true. God inspired scripture.

But I am often annoyed in my discussions with some people who insist that they know exactly what God can and cannot do while inspiring scripture. How many times have I had people say to me, “Well, if God inspired it, therefore it must be one hundred percent literally true and historically accurate because God cannot inspire a lie.”

Can God Inspire Something Not Literally True?

There you go again, right? You’re telling us what God can’t do. Peter wants a word with you. Who are you to tell God what God can’t do? First of all, there is a literal story in the Bible of God sending a “lying spirit” to inspire his prophets. (1 Kings 22:22) So there are stories in the Bible of God inspiring lies.

But much more importantly, while I would agree that the scriptures have been inspired by God to communicate God’s truth to us, I do not agree that that means that God can only communicate in literal truth. Passing on data, facts and completely accurate information is indeed one way to communicate truth. But is it always the most effective way?

It isn’t for me. I realize that a wall of completely accurate data, a spreadsheet of numbers that reflect the true state of the universe or a list of who did what and when, may really turn some people on, but it is much more likely to bore me. It is certainly not going to inspire me.

Truth in Many Literary Genres

Much of the truth that I have learned about this world and how to navigate it came to me not by reading textbooks but from reading things like fiction, science fiction, poetry, mythology, legend and folk tale.

I learned perseverance and dedication by reading the Lord of the Rings. I learned tolerance and the power of friendship by reading Harry Potter. I certainly learned more about the real-world politics we are dealing with today by reading 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale than I did in civics class.

Fiction and myth and legend are all excellent ways of passing on important truths that may not be literal truths. And are you going to tell me that God is not allowed to use them to communicate truth to us?

By all means, study the various types of literature that are there in the Bible and do your best to judge how they are seeking to communicate truth, but if you are going to try to tell me that God is not allowed to use certain kinds of literature, I’m going to ask you who are you to tell God what God can do!

Atonement

There is one other area of theology where I see people doing the same thing: the theology of atonement. That is concerning the question of how God saves and forgives us. I have often had people explain the importance of Jesus’ death to our salvation by saying that God is so righteous and just, that God simply cannot forgive us without a price being paid.

They then explain that I must therefore understand the death of Jesus as a transaction – that God sent Jesus to buy off God’s wrath against me because otherwise God couldn’t forgive me.

The Meaning of Jesus’ Death

Now, I do believe that the death of Jesus is powerful and effective. It does bring me into communion with God. It is atonement which refers a process used by the ancient Hebrews to manage their relationship with their God. But I do not see it in terms of buying off an angry God who is unable to forgive me otherwise.

God’s forgiveness, as depicted throughout the scriptures, is a powerful force. It is an action that bursts forth from God’s steadfast lovingkindness which is deeper than the sea, higher than the heavens and wider than all the horizons. I believe that anyone who thinks that they can tell God who and how God can forgive has to ask the question, “Who am I?”

Learning from Simon Peter

So maybe we all need to take a lesson from Simon Peter and the humility that he learned in the home of Cornelius. Whenever you run up against something that seems like a limit on love, on compassion and forgiveness, on inclusion and on potential, you need to ask where those limits are coming from. And if they are portrayed as limits on what God can and cannot do, you need to reject such thinking. You need to ask who am I to tell God what God can and cannot do.

Margaret McKenzie-Leighton

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