Author: Administrador

Saul: A Change of Plans Each of Luke’s stories is particular. God is doing a new thing. Yet each story is God yet again making good on God’s promises. This story of Saul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the way to Damascus was clearly a favorite of Luke, since he tells it three times … Continue reading “Acts 9:1-6 [7-20] Commentary by James Boyce”

One of Luke’s primary protagonists enters the literary stage in a most suspect way.1 The first time we hear about Saul (7:58), Luke tells us that he was standing guard over the coats of those who would execute Stephen in brutal fashion. But he’s not just a passive witness. No, he “approved of their killing … Continue reading “Acts 9:1-6 [7-20] Commentary by Eric Barreto”

The post-Easter texts assigned for this year contain several readings from the Book of Acts. These texts come in no particular order, save for the fact that the Sunday of Pentecost features the Pentecost story from Acts 2. Acts is a book carefully structured by Luke to do many things, not the least of which … Continue reading “Acts 8:26-40 Commentary by Richard Jensen”

God who raised Jesus orchestrates unlikely relationships that the status quo does not otherwise permit for the transformation of marginalized individuals. This narrative is the second encounter between the Hellenist evangelist Philip (one of the six chosen for table ministry, including Stephen, 6:1-7) since the persecution that began after the stoning of Stephen (7:54-60). The … Continue reading “Acts 8:26-40 Commentary by Mitzi J. Smith”

The narrative assigned for the fifth Sunday after Easter represents a critical moment in the emerging church as it moves beyond Judaism and Judea. To fully appreciate the importance of this episode, let us consider it in context. The first seven chapters of Acts (up to 8:1a), the narrative has focused exclusively on the nascent … Continue reading “Acts 8:26-40 Commentary by Coleman Baker”

The story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch provides a transition in Acts from phase one to phase two of the mission set forth in Acts 1:8:  “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  The first eight chapters feature the mission in “Jerusalem, … Continue reading “Acts 8:26-39 Commentary by Marilyn Salmon”

Commentary for these texts is forthcoming. PRAYER OF THE DAY Fulfillment of the prophesies,With Scripture and water you claim people as your own. Claim us with water and the word, so that we may rejoice in the life given to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the one whose spirit lives … Continue reading “Acts 8:26-39 Commentary by Working Preacher”

The Setting Acts 8:14-17 is situated in a section of Acts that is both extraordinary and ominous (8:4-9:31). With no less than three conversion stories in this unit, one has to wonder in what way four little verses in the midst of such a monumental shift in the mission of the Gospel might have some … Continue reading “Acts 8:14-17 Commentary by Karoline Lewis”

The reading catches us up in the midst of a veritable whirlwind of events in the early post-resurrection church.  The simple newspaper-like report of the opening verse points us in two directions at once. We want to hear more of what has been so significant as to call for the “sending of Peter and John”; … Continue reading “Acts 8:14-17 Commentary by James Boyce”

As truncated by the Revised Common Lectionary, this text is as unpromising as it is repulsive. Without warning we are thrown headlong into the furious conclusion of an orthodox if long-winded sermon (Acts 7:2-50, appearing nowhere in the lectionary). The story’s characters come off no better–grinding their teeth, stopping their ears, then mobbing and stoning … Continue reading “Acts 7:55-60 Commentary by C. Clifton Black”