Scattered With Pinpoint Accuracy - August 17, 2010

Daily Lectionary for August 17, 2010
Psalms 123
Judges 18:1-15
Acts 8:1-13
John 5:30-47

Acts 8:1-13
Following the stoning of Stephen at the end of Acts 7 we have this summation of what is happening:  "That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria."  Further on in v. 4, "Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word."  It continues by telling of Phillip's success in Samaria and then (I peaked ahead) a little later in Ch.8 it's going to talk about Phillip with the Ethiopian.  What draws my attention is the word scattered.  It probably appeared they were scattered.  It felt like they were scattered.  Scattered implies kind of a random scurrying, a getting away from one place without much planning as to what the place one is going to will be.   All of which may be true.  They were scattered and they felt like it.  But God has a whole different perspective on scattering.  God scatters with pinpoint accuracy.  Phillip doesn't end up in places where his message will flourish by accident.  He doesn't magically show up just where an Ethiopian is looking for someone to interpret scripture for him.  Phillip lands there because God scattered him directly to where he was needed.  We are where we are for a purpose.  Even if it feels random to us, God scatters with pinpoint accuracy.

John 5:30-47
Jesus on Bible study.  "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.  Yet you refuse to come to me to have life."  Jesus, I think, is all for us reading the Bible.  It tells his story.  We find him in it.  But reading and knowing the story is not the whole project.  Reading and knowing the story brings us to a knowledge of a living God who wants us to seek him in our lives, in our actions.  If we find God in scripture and God stays there we may not have found God in scripture.

Did a funeral for a non-member this morning and am thinking about that in relationship to the Acts passage for this day.  Someone kind of randomly gets referred to me as someone who might be able to do their mother's funeral.  Call came out of the blue on Sunday evening and the funeral was this morning.  It felt a little like a random occurence that might happen or maybe not.  But I happened to answer the phone Sunday night, my schedule happened to be open this morning; I'm reexaming the whole experience.  What was God up to in this?