The Chosen Instrument

 Twenty-Fourth Saturday after Pentecost

Thanks to Vicki for her comment. She asked whether there are more women ministers than men. I think we have to limit the question to Mainline Protestants and Pentecostals. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptists, and most non-denom Evangelical Churches do not accept women in ordained ministry. Among the Mainlines I think United Church of Christ may now be majority female (I'll check on that). Other Mainlines all have increasing percentages of female ministers. The rate of increase is similar to that of many other professions, such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc. Pentecostals throughout there 20 year history have always had women ministers, Amy Semple McPherson being the most famous (cf. Joel 2:27-28). I'll accept Vicki's possible answer for the spirituality question and am open to other possibilities as well.

It's back today to our Acts Bible Study. Please read Acts 9:8-19. The first thing to note is that Paul is struck blind for three days. Then his sight is restored. Three days is the same time designation for the time between Jesus' death and his resurrection. Do you remember the Sign of Jonah--Jonah was in the belly of the big fish for three days. I got to thinking about this a couple of years ago, after hearing a song by the Contemporary Christian band "Third Day." I started reading the OT looking for the terms "three days" and "third days." It was astonishing how often these terms came up and how often they came up in reference to some kind of rescue experience. I haven't seen this at all in other ancient literature, and I read a lot of ancient literature. 

A Christian in Damascus named Ananias is summoned by the Lord in a vision to go to where Paul was taken and lay hands on Paul for the restoration of his sight. If it seems like you've heard the name Ananias before, you have. There are actually three different Ananiases in Acts. The first one, husband of Sapphira in Acts 5 who kept back some of proceeds of a land sale and was struck dead. A third Ananias, a priest in Jerusalem, will appear later in Acts. 

 

Ananias at first resists the Lord's call, because he has heard of Saul/Paul's persecutions of Christian in Jerusalem. The Lord then tells him that God has chosen Saul/Paul as God's instrument to bring the Lord's name before the Gentiles. 

 

Ambiguity over the meaning of the word Lord (kyrios in Greek) is frequent in the NT. Is it God or is it Jesus? Here I think it's Jesus. 

Ananias finds Paul and lays hands on him. Not only does the laying on of hands result in  Paul's healing but also fills him with the Holy Spirit. Paul is then is baptized. The relationship between laying on of hands, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being baptized, and in some cases speaking in tongues is frequent but not always consistent in Acts. We'll talk about it more in Acts 10.

Chris asked about the "something like scales" that fell from Paul's eyes. I never thought about this until I had an opthamologist in my Sunday School class at Christ UMC, Greensboro, who became quite fascinated with the subject of Paul's blindness and healing. He did some research, but I don't remember what he came up with. I read what the four different commentaries I have here in my study (I've got a couple of other older ones in my disorganized mass of books in the shed, but I'm not going to try to find them today). What I found was that the word translated scales (lepis in Greek) has widespread meaning. It can mean fish scales, snake scales, onion skins, the "cup" of an acorn, and a few other things. As one who suffers from seborrhea, I frequently have scales of skin falling from brow into eye. Luke says "something like scales." He is making a simile for a word that either does not exist in Greek or that he does not know. Two of the scholars whose commentaries I consulted (Barrett, Witherington) noted that ancient Greek medical writers, e.g. Galen, used the term. Witherington noted that this goes along with the idea that Luke was a physician.

Why would Luke add this detail? He frequently notes seemingly insignificant details. Detail does tend to lend greater credibility to any historical narrative. I can't think of any other reason.

Enough for now.

Faithfully,

Christian