Second Sunday of Easter, Year B: Acts 4:32-35: Radical Christianity

Source: iStockphoto.com

You can see all the lectionary readings for the Second Sunday of Easter, Year B by clicking here. Last year I discussed the passage from the Gospel of John, so this year I will focus on the brief passage from the book of Acts, quoted in full below.

The whole group of believers was united in their thinking and in what they wanted. None of them said that the things they had were their own. Instead, they shared everything. With great power the apostles were making it known to everyone that the Lord Jesus was raised from death. And God blessed all the believers very much. None of them could say they needed anything. Everyone who owned fields or houses sold them. They brought the money they got and gave it to the apostles. Then everyone was given whatever they needed.

Acts 4:32-35, Easy-to-Read Version

Imagine how radical it would be (radical in the revolutionary sense, not in the 80’s cool sense) if the church still functioned like this. Imagine if the world functioned like this. (I’m now hearing John Lennon’s voice in my head).

I am not going to get too political here (that’s not my strong point), but I have to point out that this is far different from the way the United States works today. I also have to point out that many churches today emphasize individual prosperity as a sign of God’s blessing. Certain preachers emphasize that if you are right with God, you will have more money, that you can then donate to their ministry. However, they aren’t using that money as the early church did–to share everything in common with all the believers or the rest of their community. The ministers who crow the loudest about prosperity are typically keeping a lot of that money for themselves, though they may use some for soup kitchens here and there. American Christians often like to trumpet that we are a Christian nation founded on Christian values, but you don’t see them wanting to put this passage or the Beatitudes up in public places, but only the Ten Commandments.

How can we change this paradigm? How can we become Christians who live radically and share radically like the early Christians? I confess I don’t know, but I know we need to speak out when we see the exact opposite kind of Christianity in the public sphere. I want to speak out when I see Christians who oppress the poor, refugees, and other marginalized people instead of professing the true love of Jesus. I pray to God that we can really be Christ to people and that we can turn around this vision of American Christians as cruel and hateful.

 

 

Day of Pentecost, Year A: Happy Birthday to the Church: Acts 2:1-21

Venice – Descent of the Holy Ghost by Titian – Source: iStockphoto.com/sedmak

You can see all the lectionary readings for the Day of Pentecost, Year A by clicking here. I have chosen to discuss only the First Lesson reading from the book of Acts.

This week I think I will again explore the story in the book of Acts rather than sticking to the Gospel as I often prefer to do. They are both referring to Pentecost (here’s a nice little succinct link about Pentecost if you want to know more), which is celebrated this Sunday.  The John passage is about when Jesus comes to his disciples after his resurrection and promises them the Holy Spirit will come to them.

The Acts passage is a bit more of a story to tell, though it can still be a bit confusing at first. It’s actually a bit of an exciting story with roaring winds and tongues of fire and miracles. On the day of Pentecost, (which was a Jewish holy day) all Jesus’ followers were gathered in one place, probably to celebrate the day because they were still all Jewish and all following Jewish customs as well as following Jesus. (This was after Jesus had been taken up to Heaven and the apostles had chosen a replacement for Judas, who had betrayed Jesus. The replacement’s name was Matthias, just so you know.) While they were in this house together, a violent wind blew down from heaven and filled the house. Then they saw tongues of fire settle on each of them. Try to visualize this miracle; like little bright flames like you see on a candle above their heads.  That was a visible sign of the miracle that followed. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages.

It seems that they went outside among the crowds of people visiting Jerusalem for Pentecost and began to speak to them, and the people were amazed that they all heard their own languages from these Galileans. And picture the apostles; they were not all a bunch of rabbis or well-educated men. They were fishermen and the like, for the most part. So this bunch of working class dudes come out and are all speaking in languages everyone can understand, though the crowds are from all over the place and speak many different languages. They asked one another, “What does this mean?” And this part is a little funny—some of them think they’re drunk. I suppose that would explain this group of people coming out and speaking all at once but not the fact that everyone can understand in his or her own language.

Then Peter speaks up and addresses the crowds and tells them, they’re not drunk, it’s only 9 in the morning! (Look at Peter, remember this is after Jesus reinstated him by saying “Feed my sheep”.  This is him as a leader of the new church, strong and fearless, never denying his Christ again!)  He quotes them a scripture from the book of Joel, a promise that God would pour out his Spirit and his servants will prophesy and there will be wonders. The point is he basically goes on from there to tell them all about Jesus and his teachings and called on them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

One important point is that Pentecost is seen as the birth of the church. Before they were all kind of hanging out; Jesus had died, risen, and then ascended into heaven again, and they were just sort of waiting and praying. Then after the miracle of Pentecost happens and Peter makes his great sermon, they go on to have more miracles and spread the word of God and the love of Jesus everywhere. Pentecost was the moment when the Holy Spirit came upon them and the church really began. Now the church is not just one little group, not just our local church, but a worldwide family. We can carry the love of God out from our own churches into the larger world as they did on that day.