I'm a gardener, not a god. (Acts 14)

Reflections on the book of Acts

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My year as an intern was a Herculean feat. Besides going to graduate school full time, I built a database system, helped a broken family repair themselves and their income, taught various classes, all this while helping a churchplant get off the ground. It was common practice for me to get 3 hours of sleep 7 days in a row. It was also common practice for me to have an IV drip attached to a 20 ounce bag of coffee that fit snuggly into my backpack.

I had ordained myself the god of internships.

That’s when I realized that I didn’t want to be a god anymore. I wanted to be a gardener.

Shortly after my internship ended, my only inclination was to go to Home Depot, buy 6 packs of seeds and plant a garden. I wanted to put a bean in the ground, water it, and let it grow. Then eat it when it when it had ripened. I had been told all my life that gardening was not the life for an upwardly mobile American citizen. The work of a gardener was slow, methodical, and at times uninspiring. In the end, you only helped life grow instead of making a life of your own. More so, technology, education, religion and any other enlightenment propaganda told me that I was born to be a god.

V8-18

Paul and Barnabus went to Lystra to continue fulfilling their task of sowing the goodness of God throughout the world through word and deed. As Paul began speaking the gospel to the crowd, the crippled man’s expression must have spoken faith. Paul did as all good apostles do, he healed the man. And that is when things got complicated.

The crowds saw this miraculous work, and did what it seems to be in our nature to do, to make gods out of men. The physicist, J Robert Oppenheimer physicist looked at the first atomic explosion and said those mortal words, “we have become as gods.”

Paul went nearly out of his mind when he realized they tried to ordain Him a god. Something about men who suffer a cosmic identity crisis, and began christening one another as gods drove Paul mad. He ripped his clothes and launched into a speech about who was the true God.

But, the crowd was also dealing with their own baggage. See, according to the poet Ovid, the gods Zeus and Hermes had come disguised as mere mortal 50 years early to the town of Lystra. No one in the town knew the meaning of southern hospitality, (they were from the north after all) and told the hungry gods to go away. Finally, a peasant couple did invite them in, and hit the hospitality lottery. The gods (still disguised as men) blessed them and turned their home into a temple (which, I don’t know how cool it would be to turn my apartment into a sanctuary. House parties would be a bummer). But, the gods didn’t forget the town’s inhospitality toward them. Having treated Zeus and Hermes like Trekkie fans at a biker convention, they decided to flood the whole town. So, the town of Lystra made a promise to that if a anyone came to Lystra acting like a god, they would show them the respect they deserve.

That is exactly what Paul was fighting against when he ripped his clothes in verse 15-17. First, Paul explained to them that he could never be a god, but there is only one, true God. More so, this is not a god who has a universe-sized chip on his shoulder. Paul presents a loving and gracious God who is the source of life by providing crops and food.

This is the God who loves the worst part of you.

This is the God who is faithful when we are faithless.

This is the God who knows what you did this morning, and doesn’t hesitate to forgive you.

Even more, this God DID come to earth as a man. He was ignored, passed over, and finally murdered. His response? He heaped on MORE redemption by using the very instrument of his execution to bring eternal life for all.

If gods truly existed, they would be a very dangerous lot. Consider all the myths, much like the one above. Grumpy gods, sexually active gods, manic depressive gods, stupid gods. Imagine if these gods truly roamed around the earth, imposing their will over all. They believed themselves as all-knowing, all-powerful, everlasting. The earth would be their playground to consume and use for their own entertainment.

Hmm. Sounds familiar?:

You are Invincible.

You Are All-Powerful.

You Are Unstoppable.

You Are on Your Way to the Grocery Store.

- Hummer

It seems that everything in this society today wants me to be a god. Technology makes me all-knowing, consumerism makes me all powerful and marketing makes me the center of worship.

A god will use this existence as their playground. They consume relationships, money, and experiences. But:

• A gardener tends, manages, oversees, loves.
• A gardener knows that I must help shape the beautiful message that God has come to bring redemption.
• A gardener knows that by friendship, people’s lives are grounded and brought in order.
• A gardener knows that we have finally produced enough resources to feed the whole planet. It’s no longer an issue of production, but an issue of distribution.
• A gardener knows that I am to stitch back together all the brokenness that is around me today.

Paul brought the gospel. And the beautiful message of the gospel is this: Do not make me a god. I tend to the job of sowing the message of peace. I am a gardener, He is God.

That is a very good thing.

19-28 If you refuse to be a god, then you are less than human.

The response by the crowd is probably one of the most tragic events in the book of Acts. Paul not only removed Lystra’s deification from himself, he denounced any other man-made idols. In response, and fueled by local Jewish leaders from another city Lystra, the mob raised up and stoned Paul.

You’re either a god or an animal.

If you refuse the deification of man, they will demote you to something less than human. So begins the persecution of the church. So begins the persecution in your own life. Yet, for those who do accept that we are all just humans – just gardeners of God’ kingdom, you will understand the blessing of growing a handful of beans from Home Depot.

Peace

Kevin