Eastertide
April 24, 2017
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.’
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. –Acts 2:36-38
Hindsight often abbreviates memory. Acts was probably written in the 80’s CE following the fall of the temple around 70 CE. Some 20 to 30 years earlier Paul wrote extensively about his work mediating the issues of integrating the idea of Jesus as Messiah into the mainstream of Judaism while taking on the task of spreading that same news to the gentile world. By the time of the writing of Acts, Christianity was a separate religion with strong reliance on Judaism as its parent faith. Paul seemed to remain a good practicing Jew throughout his life. The writer of Acts, presumed to be Luke as identified, was Christian. With one sentence, one verse, Luke sums up several years of history with, as he states, certainty. Peter is the speaker in our scripture today. He was most likely martyred about the same time as Paul in the early 60’s CE. In this presentation, Peter appears to have transitioned to the new faith by the Pentecost immediately following the resurrection.
As we struggle with being church today, we should remember that since its beginning, leaders and followers met barriers or cultural norms that had to be addressed to fulfill the calling to be the Body of Christ in the world. These are normal in all aspects of life and our most important task is keeping our purpose of being the Body of Christ foremost so that dealing with issues remain means to the end rather than the end itself. I fear we get so caught up in what divides us, we, at times, lose the bigger picture.
Prayer: Lord, help us as the church universal identify the things on which we can agree and work diligently toward their fulfillment. Where we disagree, guide our discernment to find common ground. Amen.