Summer Focus

The Acts of the Apostles

"You are witnesses of these things," Jesus said. "And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

This is how The Gospel According to Luke ends, the first of a two-volume account of the launch of the Jesus movement. In Volume I Jesus is born and demonstrates his authority through a variety of good works. He defines his mission using a passage from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.

This passage was originally addressed to the people of Judah who were in captivity in Babylon. Jerusalem had been destroyed in 586 BC and its people enslaved by a foreign power. In Jesus' day 600 years later, the foreign power was Rome. The people felt like exiles, captive in their own land.

As the people listened to Jesus' teaching and witnessed his works of healing they experienced a drawing near of the power of God. Surely, the Kingdom of God was at hand.

No one faults Jesus' disciples for expecting him to "restore the kingdom to Israel." They thought that as the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus would restore the national pride to the people of Judah who lived under the subjugation of the Romans.

But Volume I ends tragically. The Christ, after demonstrating a capacity to attract the interest of the masses, is suddenly betrayed by one of his own. The leaders of Jerusalem hand him over to the Romans to be crucified.

End of the story? It would have been. If it had ended this way we would have never heard of Jesus, or of his mission, or of his teaching, or of his works of power.

But the Jesus story does not end with his betrayal. And the Jesus movement does not end with his crucifixion. Witnesses to his resurrection gather quietly in Jerusalem. They are waiting for something. They are waiting for God to act in a way they do not understand.

Here ends Volume I, The Gospel According to Luke. Volume II, The Acts of the Apostles, picks up the story.

The Book of Acts begins in a pensive mood. Jesus' disciples expected to see the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. But God has bigger plans. God is not interested in petty, ethnic nationalism. God's purpose is not to restore national dignity to Israel, but to restore human dignity to the whole human race. Jesus' mission transcends national boundaries, interests, cultures, and even religions.

Volume II picks up where Volume I left off, Jesus addressing the disciples.

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you," Jesus said. "And you shall be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

The disciples are more than just a little confused. What does this challenge mean? What will it require of us? How shall we, a small band of frightened, discouraged, and penniless men and women, accomplish such a mission?

They have no idea. They have no resources. They have no plan. They have no confidence. All they have is a promise: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." And they do not even know what that means.

Then came the Day of Pentecost. On this day this little band of disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. In the classical language of the church, the Holy Spirit is "the Third Person of the Holy Trinity."

The Holy Spirit is God every bit as much as God the Father is God and God the Son is God. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be united in common purpose with God and to have access to the power that lies beyond the deepest mystery of the Cosmos.

The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were empowered. The power that lies beyond the deepest mystery of the Cosmos was flowing in the midst of them.

But even after being filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples still had no idea what their mission involved. They still had no resources. They still had no plan. But they had something that made all the difference.

They had confidence. Their confidence was not in themselves, but in the power of God that was moving in their midst. That made all the difference. It continues to make all the difference today.

This summer in our Sunday liturgy we will read The Acts of the Apostles together to discern how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of faithful people. What is the mission of the church? How does the Jesus movement advance in a world that crucifies the Christ, and persecutes his disciples? What does it really mean to be "filled with power from on high?"

Volume II ends with one of Jesus' disciples sharing his faith openly in the city of Rome, at the heart of the empire that nailed Jesus to the cross. Volume III continues to written though the lives of Jesus' disciples today.

Monthly Focus Archive

2006:

Easter Focus: New Covenant
Lenten Focus: A Covenantal Response to Poverty
February Focus: Moving Forward

2005:

December Focus: Longing
November Focus: The Gift of Years
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Foundations
Summer Focus: The Book of Acts
Easter Focus: Tapestry
Lenten Focus: Rule of Life
January Focus: The Next Wave

2004:

December Focus: Surprising Grace
November Focus: Free Indeed
October Focus: Money Madness
September Focus: The Outrageous Promise
Summer Focus: Into the Fullness
June Focus: Thick Faith
Easter Focus: All Things New
Lent Focus: A Hungry World
February Focus: Commitment
January Focus: Unity

2003:

December Focus: Hope
November Focus: Worship
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Seasons of Faith
Summer Focus: The Gospel of John
May Focus: Faith
April Focus: Resurrection
March Focus: Truth
February Focus: Covenant Groups
January Focus: Sabbath

2002:

December Focus: Shut Up and Sing
November Focus: Spiritual Gifts
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Intentional Faith