Early in the life of the Church (spiritual), following the Ascension of Jesus, the Apostles remained together as a group, in Jerusalem, launching the ministry of Christ to go into the world and preach the gospel. They later dispersed in the various directions of the compass to do what they could in the rapidly expanding church movement (institutional). Samaria, formerly shunned by Jews, received the gospel. The Apostles sent Peter and John to minister abroad and organize appropriately. Paul launched world ministry. Proof of the need for such oversight came quickly with Simon, a magician highly profiled because of the tricks of his trade. They seemed to give credence to his extravagant claims of his own authority. However, the message and demeanor of Philip displaced Simon’s modus operandi, and he responded by appearing to go through Christian steps to redemption. The public was amazed. Even Philip appears to have been duped by imitations. When Peter and John arrived, with greater authority and effectiveness than even Philip had shown, Simon sought through bribery to be given the power he observed in Peter and John. Peter gave him a stern dressing down for offering money to gain what the gospel provided freely to all. So effective was Peter’s strong response that Simon requested prayer for escape from condemnation. We don’t know how the story played out for Simon. I presume it may have led to a genuine experience in that the old Simon would likely have simply gone away offended to some other community and picked up his former profession. In his experience he was effective with it. We will attend to one lesson from the event.
Not all persons, although showing some sacrifice in their witness and actions, are genuine in making what appears to be an admirable change or shift in personal life and general society. Wealth, humility, personality, play acting, cooperation, and other human factors will not assure genuine experience. Genuine persons should not be evaluated on the experience of the faker, hypocrite, and self-centered.
We know from Scripture that doors/windows are opened and closed for us. If open we decide to go through them or shy away. If closed the time may be too late, or it may be invitation to knock. Perhaps the knocking will permit the door to be opened – especially so if a latch is on both sides of the door.
In 1993 Barbara Walters, a serious television celebrity, prepared a program on the effect of prostitution on female prostitutes, and included some concern about the conditions under which these women plied their trade. She noted that prostitutes have their pecking order. Her interest was in those who were at the poor end of things taken by uncontrollable urges for drugs, by ravages of ill health and aging, by pernicious poverty and abuse. Walters asked questions of three women she followed for several days. One question was: What do you fear most? One feared AIDS the most, another feared being discovered by her family, and the third said: My greatest fear is hell, and I will not be saved. She sensed death saying that she had been diagnosed with the HIV virus, but continued as a prostitute.
What a wonderful moment to address issues I thought the program might address, relative to solutions to a fearful trade that was destroying these women, and illustrating the depravity of the human race in what is called: the oldest profession known to mankind. Especially would this be meaningful to the listener/viewer to exchange ideas with a woman who had sunk to the lowest level of her profession. These women were frowsy, with bruises, some teeth missing, bodies racked with years of abuse and called upon to perform the most bizarre sex acts. Even Walters wondered openly in the interviews why men would seek sex for hire with women whose bodies and emotions had become repulsive for the purpose. The woman tormented about hell responded that some men were animated by having sex with women spaced out on drugs. Walters shifted the conversation. Nothing to say about hell or hope in some spiritual experience, some difference in the context presented, in the bedraggled women before her, and consideration of the mass of people tuned in, left hanging in mind and emotions with no suggestion about how this sordid business might be challenged and healing offered. Christians yearn to inform the troubled to open the door to solutions. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020