worship this Sunday…

Last week, my son Zebbie and I went to a comic book store to update our collections, and we spent a good part of the afternoon deciding what we would buy. He got a few books he wanted, and eventually, I found a graphic novel for me, one which looked pretty interesting solely from the artwork and brief description on the back. I didn’t read too much about it because I didn’t want any spoilers, so I just skimmed the back and made sure it was the first book in the series, and that was all I needed to know. 

We made our purchases and headed back home, and later that evening, I walked to a comfy chair to read my new purchase. I got settled in place, and as I went to pick up the book, my eyes happened to see these words on the back of the book in fairly small print “....this series continues the exciting story started in ‘The Nice House on the Lake.’” Oh no, I thought, I bought a sequel to a story I’ve never read before. After some brief research, my fears were confirmed…although I had been careful enough to buy the first book in the series, I hadn’t realized that this whole new series itself was a sequel.

Which, frankly, is how I often feel about any of our Scripture passages from the Book of Acts — like the one we have for this Sunday. And that’s because, although the Book of Acts is its own stand-alone book, it was also clearly written as a sort of sequel to another book, the Book of Luke. Scholars have told us that one author wrote both books. Once you know those things, as you begin to read them, it becomes pretty evident that the author isn’t telling two separate stories, but instead one story in 2 parts. The Gospel of Luke tells the story of how God acted as Jesus, who made the disciples and ushered in a new epoch of God’s grace into creation. The Book of Acts tells the story of how God then acts through the church to continue that same movement of Christ, in making disciples and sharing God’s liberative outpouring of grace to the world. This dynamic between the two books always makes it hard to just preach from one book when you know that the full story is always spread out over both books.

But maybe that’s always the trick, isn’t it? To think about what we are called to do and who we are as a church in light of who Christ is, right? Maybe the best way to think about ourselves as a church is that we don’t ever live in our own self-contained story. Instead, our being the church is part of the much larger story, a continuation of the story started in Jesus’ life and ministry. So this week in our Scripture passage from Acts when it says the church “shared all things…so that no one had need,” it is important to remember that our call to depend on one another is not an isolated or abstract aspect of the church, but rather it is a direct continuation of Christ’s work to build a community of disciples to carry on his tangible actions of grace and liberation.

See you on Sunday as we pick up in the middle of a story already being told, and keep celebrating that it doesn’t mean we’ve missed something…but rather that we are right where we need to be in the story. See you then!

See you on Sunday,

Brent

Acts 4: 23-37

After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’ For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.