Sermon Transcript: May 4, 2025
Our scripture lesson this morning comes to us from the book according to Acts. As many of you know, we follow what is called the Narrative Lectionary here at Roland Park Presbyterian Church. And what that means is that since the beginning of the year—actually since Christmas—we have been in the Gospel according to Luke. We’ve followed the story of Jesus’ life, his ministry, and through Lent we followed the story of Jesus’ passion—his arrest and death, his crucifixion, and his resurrection.
Scholars believe that Acts was written by the same author as the Gospel according to Luke—Luke—because there are so many similarities. In fact, Acts is kind of the second half of the story of the Gospel according to Luke.
We are skipping over a few things that we’ll come back to in a couple of weeks—Jesus’ ascension and the story of Pentecost as well—but really, we are diving right into what the Book of Acts is all about, which is: what happens next? After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension?
How do his followers respond, and how do they gather? How do they form community? And how do they grow? And how do they handle the challenges that come with that?
And we get a little—a little taste of that here today in Acts 6:1–7:
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, brothers and sisters, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
For the Word of God in scripture,
For the Word of God among us,
For the Word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.
***
Just a few weeks ago, I was at a clergy gathering in the city with clergy of all different denominations. And we were asked to, as we introduced ourselves to the group, to say something about how our particular denomination—how our particular tradition—regards power.
Now, most, as we went around the circle, talked about responsibility and service to others or to the greater good. But when it came to my turn to talk about how Presbyterians regard power, I simply said, “We don’t trust it.”
Now, this turned more than a few heads. And in fact, one Catholic priest—who shall remain nameless—declared, “You know, I think I might be Presbyterian.”
I elaborated, saying that specifically, we don’t trust individuals with unchecked power. We believe in sharing it—spreading it out over groups and people—and even then, we put more checks and balances in place to avoid abuses of power.
And I explained to them that, as a pastor of a congregation, I actually have very, very limited power. There are only a few things that I am trusted to do on my own—picking the scripture for Sunday morning and a few other small things. Other than that, it is our governing board, our Session, that makes all of the decisions for the church. And they are called and elected by you, the congregation. And I have exactly one vote on Session—the same as everyone else.
Now, I chose to reframe my response in that setting with all the clergy in that particularly negative way, because I kind of knew that would draw people’s attention. But there is a positive.
We Presbyterians believe that together—with multiple perspectives, with the views and experiences of different people—we get a clearer picture of how God might be calling us. And hopefully, we make better decisions.
And I can attest to this being true. There have been many times where I have gone into a meeting with our Session with an idea or an opinion on how something should go, only to have that shift in the course of our discussion. Rooted in prayer and respectful dialogue, we often come up with very creative solutions and options that maybe—perhaps—none of us at the beginning of the meeting had thought of.
But in the course of the sharing and the talking and the listening to one another, something happens. The Spirit moves. And together, we come up with a solution. And often, when the meeting is over, I’m in awe of the wisdom of our group.
Now, to be clear—this does not always happen. But more often than not, in my experience, it does. And it is fun to be a part of something like that.
It makes me appreciate the wisdom of those who came before us, who helped to create the rules and the guidelines and the system that we have in place even today. And today’s passage is a prime example of that.
The apostles have been running the show since Jesus’ death and resurrection. They have been telling the story and sharing the good news, and the word is spreading. And more and more people are joining up. And they’re from all different backgrounds—Jews and Gentiles, people who speak Greek and people who speak Aramaic, people from Judea and people from outside of Judea—all different people coming together, forming community.
And the apostles begin to realize that there’s too much for them to handle on their own. And so they call everyone together, and they say, “We need you to select from among you those who are fit to serve, to help us in this ministry.”
While they want to maintain focus on telling the story—I think Acts puts it as “in prayer and study of the word”—they know that there are other needs that need attending to. And there are some among them who feel neglected. And they are some of the outsiders. And this is where community gets tricky, right? Because that’s the beginning of a fracture right there—where they feel they’re being treated differently because they’re not maybe of the original group.
And so they come together and they appoint these others, and they form the very first Board of Deacons. It’s true. This is where we get deacons. This is their origin story. It is a name that is derived from the Greek word for service and hospitality: diakonia.
And this points us to a very important part of what it means to be Presbyterian. Because, you see, deacons are not called to a ministry of service and hospitality so that the rest of us don’t have to do that. They are called to lead and remind us all that we are each called to use our gifts to serve and welcome others.
Now, unfortunately, we don’t need to look too far to find plenty of examples of people—people—abusing power. It is part of human nature to seek out power, perhaps at first for noble reasons, but power can be intoxicating. And the church is not exempt from this—not by a long shot.
Some of the most egregious abuses of power have come in the name of faith and religion and church. But we have passages like this in scripture to remind us that there is another way—a better way—a way of sharing power and responsibility, of working together, of celebrating our differences, because they help us get a better understanding and a bigger picture.
And all of this is part of resurrection living—as it says on the quote on the front of our bulletin. We as Christians are called to a different way. And we don’t always get it right. But we do a lot better when we share power and when we listen to each other—including those on the margins. When we recognize they too are children of God, just like us.
And while none of us get the whole picture, each of us gets a part of it. And the more that we share, and the more that we celebrate our diversity, the clearer God’s will becomes in our own lives and in our community.
And thankfully, we have people in our own midst to remind us of this as well. And you see them every Sunday—or at least, you see the effects of what they do. They make us coffee and tea. They set out treats for after worship. They greet us at the door and give us bulletins when we arrive.
You may not know this one: they pray for us at their monthly meeting. They send out cards. They deliver flowers. They give us a ride to church on Sunday. They plan fun fellowship events like bingo and game night and Fellowship at Home. And so much more. They are our deacons. The same as those who were appointed all those years ago.
It’s one of the great things about being the church—and about faith—is we have this deep well of wisdom to draw upon for how we can live together in community. And that forms and shapes us even today.
So this morning, I would like us to take just a moment and recognize our deacons. I’m going to ask them to come forward and stand here in front of you. Please.
Friends, these are some of our deacons. And they were called and elected by all of you. And we ordained and installed them. And just like it said in the Book of Acts, we laid hands on them and prayed over them. And I’m going to pray over them now, and then I invite us to share our appreciation with them.
Let us pray.
God of love and compassion,
You poured out your life in service of your Son, Jesus Christ.
By word and example, he taught us to find fulfillment in giving ourselves
and greatness in serving others.
Bless those called to be deacons,
who lead us in service and care.
Empower them by your grace and your Spirit,
that your whole church may give its life for the sake of the world.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
who came not to be served, but to serve.
Amen.
