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În biserica Străjerul, predicile din cadrul slujbei de duminică au rolul de a întregi tabloul unei experienţe liturgice specifice zilei de duminică, ziua Domnului.

Predicile se realizează structurat, pe cărţi ale Scripturii. Alegerea carţilor se face în funcţie de dinamica şi de nevoile comunităţii.

Prezentăm aici câte un sumar al predicilor din duminicile anterioare, în ideea că vor fi folositoare pentru cei care le citesc, dar şi ca o expresie a viziunii şi specificului comunităţii noastre. See archive.

 

Book „Acts of the Apostles” (chap. 6:1 - 7)

This Sunday Gospel offers us an occasion to reflect upon the manner in which the divine services were arranged in the Primary church.

We can first notice that the apostles did not hurry to institute positions in the new form community. The organization of the Christian community life around Jerusalem was gradually carried out depending on the needs which occurred and the maturity of the development progress of the Church life.

We can intuit here something of the manner in which God chose to work with man - reference to the man's rhythm and freedom, patience for a mature and accountable answer of man to the divine actions and plans.

The primary Christian community, spatially organized around Jerusalem, was heterogeneous, consisting of the autochthon Jew and the Jew from Diaspora. Among the issues almost inherent to any group of persons, the Gospel presents us a case which is meant to highlight the apostles' manner of thinking and working. It is about a situation occurred among the Grecians who had not received a part of the daily ministration for their widows. The apostles heard about their protest and they need to find a quick solution as there was the risk that the issue extended.

A first important aspect in the text is related to the fact that upon the cause solving, the apostles requested the support of the community within which the issue occurred. The solution was choosing a group of seven men who bear the community responsibility under social aspect. The criteria according to which the men had to be elected were: spiritual maturity (full of Holy Spirit and wisdom) and community visibility (to be well talked of by their brothers). The call to these criteria highlights another important aspect of the primary Christian community. The Christian service, irrespective of being a service of Gospel Announcement or a social service is a spiritual issue and mature people are required from these points of view. The apostles attitude qualify as spiritual all the thinks achieved in a life of a Christian and therefore in the community life.

The issue of choice and investing to service was and remains one of the most delicate issued of the Church. The present event in this text suggest that the apostles referred to a biblical principle clearly presented in the Old Testament: the spiritual authority comes from God, who is the Sovereign Master. When God invests someone with authority in service, that man and his service will be highlighted before the community by the efficient guidance and involvement of the Holy Spirit. The community has to acknowledge this divine investment and to facilitate the Work of God by means of His chose ones.

According to their names, the seven deacons were from among the Grecians, which suggest that they were elected from the Christians having the issue in question. Certainly, the choosing of the seven was made by dialog within the Grecian Hebrew community, but it was not democratically achieved but by the reference to the criteria issued by the apostles.

It is highly likely that the seven deacons have had organization skills as well but these competencies did not prevailed, but the spiritual maturity, the capability to understand the nature of the issues and the nature of solving the same.

The Scripture does not present us the manner in which the case was solved by the effects. The apostles' mission continued more powerfully as the Christian energy was no longer used for inside debates but for an outside mission.

Among the seven deacons the figure of Stephen stands out, man endowed by God who did great wonders and miracles and was powerfully preaching the good news. This man's quality will be shown not only in mission but when facing the world and in the limit situation of sacrifice.

Iassy, 4 March 2006

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