It's hard to get over the hurdle of Ananias and Sapphira and the apparent unfairness of God, but what caught me and wouldn't let go was found in the remainder of the reading. Under the section They All Met Regularly, this comment was made, "Even though people admired the apostles a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them." Remember that Luke is the defender of the outsider. Here is the description of his Gospel, "Religion has a long history of forming 'in' groups, but with God there are no 'outsiders'. Luke, being the only Gentile in an all-Jewish cast of New Testament writers, is a champion of the outsider (women, shepherds, Samaritans, the poor). For all of us who have found ourselves on the outside looking in, the doors are now wide open."
Because of what Jesus did for us, there truely are no outsiders with God, but the church is a different story. Too often, I've seen believers forget that this good news is meant to be passed on to others in need, others who are very different from us, others who make us uncomfortable, those who may sit in our season tickets because they don't know any better when they visit our church. God is in our midst, drawing others, all kinds of others, to himself. We can either follow the Spirit's lead in this or get in the way. We can either be limb-climbers or branch sitters and it doesn't just affect our faith and lives. We can be a stepping stone or a stumbling block for others' understanding of God's love for them.
In the last section of this text, Gamaliel's wisdom is profound. Peter and the apostles can't help but follow God. They would literally rather die than go that way...every one of them, including Matthias, do in fact. Is what we're doing at this church going to have a lasting impact on our community? Is God behind it? Let's make sure we're following him and not get ahead of ourselves (or his presence). It's not about us...it's about those God is trying to reach.
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