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Santa Subito

Last Sunday's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles gave us the names of the first seven deacons ordained by the expanding early church. The second of them was Philip about whom we read again this Sunday. He's described as the first Christian to saunter off into regions outside Jerusalem to spread the good news of Jesus and his resurrection - specifically among the low-regarded Samaritans.

Now if you look closely at today's selection you'll notice a whole section (between verses 8 and 14) left out - for the sake of convenience no doubt. But the missing part is all about a very interesting convert of Philip's named Simon Magus. I guess today you might call him a pitchman, a purveyor of magic or better still of patent medicines. He had flair, a confidence that left simple folk mesmerized. He had a star quality like some TV personalities who beguile people with their one and only method of losing weight, achieving success, or improving one's personality.

You could possibly say he was equivalent to the Duke and the King in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry and his fugitive friend Jim run into these characters while rafting down the Mississippi and it's not long before the Duke and the King take over. Real extroverts, clever, devious, they can sell anything - doesn't matter what. The older one claims to be "the late Dauphin . . . son of Looey the Sixteen and Marry Antonette." The younger fellow claims to be the Duke of Bridgewater (consistently pronounced Bilgewater by his partner). This latter had recently made a living "selling an article to take tartar off the teeth - and it does take it off, too, and generally the enamel along with it - but I stayed one night longer than I ought to." The other fellow had recently spent time "a-runnin' a little temperance revival . . . and was the pet of the women-folk . . makin' it mighty rough for the rummies - ten cents a head" when he himself was discovered with a jug and "didn't wait for breakfast - I warn't hungry."

We could go on describing the versatility of their ways of ripping people off and you do get the impression that Simon Magus was just their sort of fellow - especially when he seems to get baptized only to piggy back on the success of Philip and later earns "You can take your money and go to hell" from St. Peter when he actually tries to buy a share in "this Holy Spirit business". All of which reminds me: have times changed so much. Well, maybe so - but only in the widespread, electronic opportunities pitchmen have in this day and age to exploit the neediness of people with one costly prescription (medical, spiritual, whatever!) after another. And do they work? Well, the Holy Spirit can gain access to souls by whatever means are available; "the wind blows where it will".

But, unlike the days when the deacon Philip brought the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans as a fresh commodity, a breath of fresh air to challenge the phony nostrums of Simon Magus' era, today the Church has been around so long and become so familiar that many see it as unexciting, routine. Faith is seen as a habit instead of something dynamic, attractive, impressive, intoxicating, competitive and souls are left to go shopping wherever they can for something "new" -- until next week.

And so that's why we long each year for another Pentecost to happen, for another outburst of the Spirit capable of producing new Philips to save us from the quack remedies of today's marketplace. Indeed it's time for outbursts of the Spirit similar to that of our Lakeport sister Marla Ruzicka who this month won the attention of the world with a faith right out of the Acts of the Apostles - a joyful faith, in no way morose, even under the threat of martyrdom. What could be more competitive? Santa Subito!

-- Geoff Wood