The final chapter in the story of the first church reconnects us with the first chapter of Acts. The story began with Jesus commissioning the disciples saying, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Paul’s commitment to be a witness for Christ has taken him a long way from home. Throughout his journey, he seems as drawn to Rome as Jesus was to Jerusalem. Rome for Paul was like Hollywood for a movie star or Broadway for an actor or Wall Street for a stock broker. It was the locus of power in the Roman Empire. It held the greatest risk for Paul, but also the greatest opportunity.
And yet in today’s text we are told that the first thing Paul did when he arrived in Rome was to repeat the same failed pattern that he followed in every city he visited. He called together the Jewish leaders and gave his testimony before them, hoping that they would recognize him as a faithful Jew and be convinced of his testimony that Jesus is the messiah. We can hear in their opening greeting that Paul is preaching to a deeply skeptical audience: “we would like to hear from you what you think, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”
Today we face a similarly skeptical audience as we seek to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the residents of Battle Creek. Research tells us that the views that people who are thirty and under have of the church are extremely skeptical. About eighty percent of them don’t belong to any faith community and the three most common perceptions they have of the church are: 1. It is judgmental, 2. It is hypocritical, and 3. It is anti gay.
The last chapter of the book of Acts ends in the same place where we find ourselves today. We have our work cut out for us as we seek to overcome the skepticism of a public that is waiting to see if we actually believe and are committed to living out the message of God’s redeeming love that we proclaim in the name of Jesus Christ.
