Today's passage is Acts 19:32-41.
The rioters won't let a Jew talk to them but they listen to the city clerk who tells them they are in danger of being charged with rioting. They have no reasonable cause for behaving they way they are because no one has robbed a temple or blasphemed Artemis. If they have a legal case, they must take it up with a proconsul. The crowd disperses.
Demetrius had stirred up the silversmiths and attendant workers and sellers by their greed. They were losing money because people were turning away from Artemis idol worship and to the worship of Jesus in gratitude for their salvation.
The rioters disperse because of fear and greed.
They worry about the further loss of money if they are charged with rioting, and they are afraid of the physical punishment of the Roman army.
The Ephesian rioters are not free. They have no principles.
They are slaves to their greed, their worship of money.
They are slaves to the fear of threats to their bodies.
They are controlled and manipulated by their sins, consumed by self-interest.
How is that true of me?
How am I consumed by self-interest? How much do I live by principles?
By the grace of God, better than I once did, but still a ways to go.
In Luke 6, one of the supplementary readings to today's QT passage, Jesus says this of his teaching: "These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living.
They are foundation words, words to build a life on. ... If you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation." (Message Bible).
The was me.
I believed in Jesus, went to church, raised my family in the church, but when the river of hardship threatened my self-interest, my world collapsed and I lost everything.
My house of hards fell down.
In the years of hardship that followed the collapse of my world, God began digging the foundation of my present life.
First, I had to see myself as a self-interested rioter, blaming others for my circumstances.
I had to see my sins and see myself more objectively.
Next, I had to let go of my fear of losing what little was being restored to me, what little dignity I was wrapping myself in to protect my frightened, broken self.
When I saw how absolutely powerless I was to make any enduring change to my circumstances, and when I saw that the changes I wanted to make were empty dreams out of magazines, I gave up in despair and let it all go.
That's when God came with power and told me to love my Jin Kyeong.
For me, it was the moment of loving the unlovable, acting on Jesus' words to live generously and give without thought of reward.
I certainly muddied those clear waters with my recurring selfishness!
But that was the re-start of my life in Christ.
The Lord has continued to test me on that principle of generosity of time, effort, and resources without expectation of reward or benefit.
My brother in law and Andy Murray are prime examples.
My problem students and troubled teachers are more examples.
My failures have been great but the progress is also evident.
God has been generous to me by making me into a tree whose fruit is not so wormy anymore.
When I act on God's word, I can walk peacefully out of the riot of self-interest.
Lord, let me build on your word each day. Let me live my life on the foundations of your love. Inspire me daily to live generously. Let me give away my life so I can be true to you. Let me praise you for my circumstances so that they can bring out the best in me.
