Who To Tell? - August 27, 2010

Daily Lectionary for August 27, 2010
Psalm 32
Job 9:1-15, 32-35
Acts 10:34-48
John 7:37-52

Acts 10:34-48
Peter preaches the good news of Jesus.  Gentiles respond and believe.  Peter decides to baptize them.  "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."  Not people just like we are.  People who have received the Holy Spirit like we have.  Peter is just consumed with sharing what he has been witness to.  His goal is to get what he knows in his heart, mind and soul out.  He is not aiming to control what happens with it once he gets it out - he just wants it out. Faith sharing as Peter does it in this passage is not something to be diagrammed or strategized.  He's not concerned with demographics or target audiences.  His need is to bear witness to Christ.  Sometimes in those moments when God's Holy Spirit is very nearly tangible to us we have a sense of what he must have felt like.  God is so near and so real that we can't help but talk about it, share it, pass it along.  When we witness Christ at work in our lives and in our world we are moved to bear witness.  Not to determine who hears, but to offer the possibility of hearing to anybody within earshot.

John 7:37-52
Jesus says, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink."(v.37-38)  Maybe Peter in the passage above was remembering this moment and these words.  The good news isn't only for the Jews.  It isn't only for the Gentiles.  It's for the thirsty.  Offer thirsty folks Jesus and if they want to drink they are welcome.  Jesus is for the thirsty.  That's all of us.