Acts 1-20

During the months of June and July we will be reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It's the 5th book of the New Testament, and it also functions as "volume 2" for the Gospel of Luke, as Luke makes clear (Acts 1:1).

For a couple of days there the account in Acts actually matched up with our liturgical year, as we read about the events of Ascension and Pentecost.  On Sundays, all through the Great Fifty Days of Easter we read from Acts, though, in some ways, it would make more sense to do so after Easter.

But the liturgical year is divided into two parts: one part governed by events in the life of Jesus and dependent on the lunar calendar for the determination of Easter's date; and from the Sunday after Pentecost until Advent, a second part governed by the secular calendar, during which most of our Gospel readings for Sunday Eucharistic worship come from one Gospel. (Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, and Luke in Year C.  We're in Year A in 2014, until Advent, when we will roll over to Year B.)

This is Luke's account of how the Church follows Jesus' words that "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (1:8).  It is also Luke's attempt, decades after the fact, to write a sort of biography of St. Paul, whose epistles are such an important part of the New Testament, and were all written before any of the gospels.

You can watch Peter assume leadership in the beginning of Acts (1:15), and then see the focus move to Paul after his conversion.
You can see how the Greek conventions about oratory and speeches are followed in Acts, and notice the important speeches and who gives them.  They are clearly not verbatim, start-to-finish transcriptions, but designed to show in summary form the kinds of teaching that Peter, Stephen, and Paul engaged in.
You can see how Luke, as he did in his Gospel, continues to quote scripture (the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) as he seeks to show how Jesus is the One to whom the scriptures had been pointing from the very beginning.
You can watch a shift from concern with believers who were Jews to believers who were Gentiles.
You can see a continued concern for food and table fellowship and its meaning.
You can see an attempt to show the Church unified about matters which Paul had earlier found very disruptive and contentious.
You can see language about Jesus as Savior, Healer; and throughout, you can see the work of the Holy Spirit continuing, as it had in Luke.
You can see Luke showing (for example in Chapter 3) how the apostles did the same kinds of acts of healing that Jesus had done; and you can see the joy that the healing brought into the hearts of those who were healed (3:8).
Interestingly, in his speech explaining this healing, Peter speaks of the Messiah as still to come: "Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appoint for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets" (3:19-21).
In Chapter 4, we see how opposition to this group of followers of the Way of Jesus continues.  It is infighting within the Jewish community at this point.  We get to our third speech by Peter (4:8 and following) and a second manifestation of filling by the Holy Spirit (4:24-31), in the context of a rather detailed prayer offered by the apostles.    And we find ourselves introduced to Barnabas, whose name means "son of encouragement." Barnabas has sold a piece of property and given the proceeds to the apostles (4:37), and his behavior is contrasted in Chapter 5 with that of Ananias and Sapphira, who claimed to do so, but gave only part of the proceeds (5:2).  In behavior which is really quite reminiscent of Moses, Peter is aware of their deception.  When people in Moses' day treated God with insufficient honor and respect for the utter holiness of the LORD, they, too, died.
The apostles are imprisoned by a high priest who belongs to the sect of the Sadducees (remember? they're the ones who don't believe in the resurrection of the dead or any kind of life after death). And they are miraculously released by an angel (5:19) so they return to the temple to continue proclaiming their message, where they are caught again and flogged.  Luke summarizes in 5:41: "As they left the council they rejoiced that they wee considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name."
In Chapter 6 we read about the development of the office of Deacon (which means "servant"), the selection of seven deacons, and their receiving the laying on of hands by the apostles (6:6).  One deacon in particular, Stephen, comes to prominence because he is "full of grace and power" (6:8).  He is arrested, and in an eloquent speech in Chapter 7, Stephen links the events of his own time with the history of God's deeds among the people of Israel.  He is articulate and eloquent, and things are actually going okay until he applies to his listeners the same labels the prophets had given to the Israelites.  In 7:51-53, he calls them "stiff-necked people…forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do".  And that is the straw that broke the camel's back; and the crowd decides to stone Stephen. As he dies, Stephen, very Christ-like, cries: "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Then, a moment later, quoting Jesus, prays: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" and, finally, "Lord, to not hold this sin against them."
Luke brilliantly names Saul --who will be re-named Paul--as a young man present and approving of this stoning of Stephen.     Stephen is the first Martyr (Greek word for "witness"); and the persecution of the Church really takes off at this point (Chapter 8).   And the proclamation of the Good News moves from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria (8:9 and following).   So the apostles needed to check out this new thing; and they sent Peter and John.  Their response was to lay hands on the new Samaritan Christians and ask God that they might receive the Holy Spirit (8:14-17).   Simon the Magician thought that was pretty amazing and asked to buy the power that the apostles seemed to have a connection to. Peter was incredibly dismissive--you don't manipulate God, after all! and it is dangerous to try--but Luke leaves the encounter open-ended, as Simon asks the apostles to pray for him (8:24).

And now, Philip, in obedience to God's guidance, shows how the Good News will go to the whole world, as he preaches to the Ethiopian Eunuch, who though God-fearing, could never become a Jew because Jews with crushed or missing testicles could not enter the Temple (Dt. 23:1).

So…to the ends of the earth!
Now we watch the focus begin to shift, in several transitional chapters, to the mission of Paul to the Gentiles.

In Acts 9, we see the dramatic conversion of Saul, and meet a different Ananias, who is, in his own way, very brave to trust God that this Saul was no longer a danger to followers of Jesus.  We meet Barnabas again, who is the one who takes Saul around and introduces him to Christians as now himself a Christian.  What a "Son of Encouragement!"
Also in this chapter, we see Peter call a woman back from the dead, so she may continue to serve God and God's people.  (Another way that Peter's apostolic status is confirmed as he follows Jesus.)

Then the major transitional chapters, where what we saw in Chapter 8 with Philip, is confirmed by Peter's behavior toward gentiles as he meets Cornelius and, in the power of the Spirit, overcomes his own visceral reaction to Gentiles to invite them into relationship with Jesus.  This is a HUGE, HUGE shift in Peter's thinking.  Amazing that for Luke, table fellowship and food --hospitality of God opening up to Gentiles--are the central nexus of this conversion of Peter to openness about the Gentiles also being part of God's plan. Again, the Spirit of God is present in power, and these Gentiles are baptized (Chapters 10-11).  Again, it requires ratification by the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem.  Their conclusion is "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life." (11:18).

And Gentiles even further off, in Antioch, are also becoming Christians, and Barnabas, then Barnabas and Saul, spend time with Gentiles there, teaching.  "It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians (11:26).

In Acts 12, we read about further persecution of the Church, and the first martyr of the apostles: James. Peter is imprisoned, miraculously led out again by an angel of the Lord.  He thinks he's having a vision, so he is really shocked when he discovers he was actually free.

In Acts 13, Barnabas and Saul are consecrated for their work, which will turn out to be among the Gentiles.  We hear the first long speech of Paul (13: 16 and following). (And note, in this chapter, Paul becomes known no longer as Saul but as Paul! (13:9) As a result of that speech and his further teaching in Antioch, Paul concludes: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you.  Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles." (13:46).

Similarly, in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas begin in the synagogue and extend out to Gentiles.  Greeks treat them as if they are Zeus and Hermes.    Whenever they return home, they share what they've seen God do through them.

By Chapter 15, the Church in Jerusalem needs to weigh in on what has been happening.  The elders interview Paul and Barnabas, and the question becomes: are we expecting Gentiles to become Jews as a result of their giving their allegiance to Jesus?  Their dialogue brings them to the conclusion that Gentiles do not need to become Jews.   And Paul and Barnabas propose a missionary journey to the churches where they had been before.  But they disagree about John Mark, and it is bitter enough--alas! even among godly followers of Jesus this happens sometimes--that Paul and Barnabas part ways, and Paul takes Silas along with him.

In Chapter 16, we watch Paul and Silas begin their journey and then revise it in the context of a vision.  They head to Macedonia (Greece), and end up on Philippi, a "leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony" (16:12).  This chapter also has the story of the conversion of the Philippian jailer that I loved so much when I was a kid--another miraculous release from prison!

Chapter 17:  By now we are seeing that Christianity is not only problematic to Jews but also to Gentile governments as the values of the Kingdom of God clash with the values of the world, the desire to make money not the least of those values (16-17).  And Paul gets to Athens and preaches his sermon about the "Unknown God" whom he proclaims to be Jesus.   For Greeks, the resurrection of the dead is just as much a problem as it was for the Jews (17:32ff), though for different reasons.

Chapter 18:  And now we notice Timothy and Apollos, who appear in Paul's letters.  And we see Paul make a definitive turn toward the Gentiles: When the Jews of Macedonia opposed him as he preached that Jesus was the Messiah, "in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads!  I am innocent.  From now on I will go to the Gentiles" (18:6).  So he moved from synagogue as the locus of his teaching to the home of a Gentile.  And he stayed a year and a half with these Gentile Christians.
Chapter 19:  There is a story that clarifies the difference between the baptism of John "of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" and the baptism in the name of Jesus.  And the affirming presence of the Holy Spirit, with the laying on of hands and the sign of speaking in tongues.  Interesting that the text says of these Corinthian believers "there were about twelve of them." (19:7)  Is this a sort of new apostolate to the Gentiles?  A sort of reprise of the Pentecost event (which was to Jewish believers) for Gentiles?
There is another narrative about local exorcists/magicians in vss. 11-20.  And it is made clear once again that the Way of Jesus is not about manipulating spiritual powers, but about submitting in repentance to the Lord of the Universe, about receiving his love and forgiveness.

And in 23-41 the Christian Way has begun to disrupt the economic status quo in Ephesus.
In  chapter 20 we begin to see the pronoun "we" creep into the narrative, as Luke joins the travelers. We also see Paul show a tender and very human side as he bids these people farewell.