The Midweek

Nobody Asked the Widows to Fill Out a Form

I (Pastor Donnell) am sorry I’m a little late with today’s Midweek. After traveling to the Northeast with my eldest daughter for 10 college tours in five days, getting home, and catching up on the sermon, it has taken me a little longer than I anticipated to draft and publish it.

If you were with us on Sunday, you’ll notice that we heard our first sermon from Acts in our Out of Egypt series. Remember, Exodus is the story of God forming a people, and Acts is that same people, filled with the Spirit, learning what their freedom is for. I’m grateful to Jonathan for opening up Acts 6 for us, and here are some of my reflections inspired by his sermon that I want to share with you.

Jonathan gave the apostles the benefit of the doubt, and he said something I want to hold onto this week: it doesn’t take intention for there to be injustice. The church in Acts is going great. Thousands added. Everyone was one in heart and mind. No needy person among them. And yet the record scratches. The Greek-speaking widows are being passed over in the daily distribution of food. Same faith. Same Jesus. Different language, different accent, no family nearby, and somehow their names never make it to the top of the list.

Jonathan walked us through what the apostles did next. I want to sit with what they did not do. They did not interrogate the widows. Are you sure you are being mistreated? Did you get in line at the right time? Did you fill out the right forms? Did you fill them out in the right language? They didn’t tell them to toughen up, they didn't say you need to assimilate, and they didn’t say, maybe you Greeks should just take care of your own. They gathered the whole community, made public space for the complaint, and treated it as a gospel issue, because it was one. Then they did the thing power almost never does. They gave power away. Jonathan pointed to the names. Seven men, chosen by the whole church, and every one of them with a Greek name. The people who were being overlooked were put in charge of the whole distribution, not just their corner of it. That is not a one-time fix. That is a structural repair, so it doesn't happen again.

Now let me tell you why Acts 6 is an Out of Egypt story. Deuteronomy 10 says God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner living among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love the foreigner, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. That is the whole logic. The reason the people of God are commanded to feed the widow and love the stranger is Egypt. You were overlooked once. You remember what it felt like. So the daily distribution in Acts 6 is not church administration. It is Exodus memory doing its work in a room full of people who had been set free.

Jonathan quoted Pastor Pricelis Perreaux-Dominguez, who said,

“Practice discomfort for the sake of unity and loving your neighbor.”

So here is a practice for the week, and it is not comfortable. Sometime in the next seven days, somebody is going to bring you a complaint you do not want to hear. A kid, a coworker, a partner, a neighbor, maybe someone in our church. Before you ask any of the four questions, ask one instead: What do you need? Then sit in the silence long enough to hear the answer.

Were you gone this Sunday?

• Catch Jonathan Hurshman’s sermon on Acts 6 in our Out of Egypt series on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts during your commute or morning walk this week.