Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Easter – Acts 2:42-47
Over the last few weeks, the first reading has been taken from the second chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostle Peter has preached on the day of Pentecost which has resulted in many receiving baptism and incorporation into the community created by the Spirit. Sunday morning sermon recipients in the pew may consider their preacher’s sermons a dubious gift, we should ponder again the significance of how, in Paul’s words, “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Romans 10:17). What people say helps to determine the world in which they live. Luke, the writer of Acts, constructs what Peter should have said at Pentecost and therefore what world he thinks the crowd should embrace. The speech points beyond Peter to the God who saves. It is the God who keeps promises that matters in this sermon, so that when the sermon ends no one is in doubt that there is a God who is busy in the world.
If Acts were written from a purely contemporary point of view, we might expect all of the uproar of Pentecost, Peter’s moving sermon, and the crowd’s eager response as reported in 2:1-41 to be the end of the story. Contemporary religious life is plagued by momentary enthusiasm, periodic outbursts, and superficiality. In fact, in contemporary parlance, “enthusiastic” (literally: filled with God) is a virtual synonym for a short-term high that does not take root in long-term commitment. So we become suspicious of religious emotion, suspecting that all this charismatic fuss and bother will amount to little. The claim that “there were added that day about three thousand souls” moves us little, even though Luke intends to impress. We have seen these revivals and outbursts of piety come and go.
But Luke will not leave us there. Instead, he shous an immediate embodiment of Pentecost enthusiasm. Our gaze is directed toward the Church, where we see a fourfold embodiment of the gospel:
1. They devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Luke makes a distinction between the preaching which is directed to outsiders and what is proclaimed and taught within the ongoing life of the Church. In fact, Acts itself was part of the ongoing attempt of the Church to reflect upon the implications and applications of the gospel within the Church so that the Church might continue to be faithful to its calling. The Church is not to drift from one momentary emotional outburst to the next, to resuscitate Pentecost on a weekly basis; rather the Church moves immediately to the task of teaching, keeping itself straight about what it is and what it is to be about.
2. The Church is in fellowship. The Spirit has created a koinonia – a communion. Here is an astonishing miracle – that from so diverse assemblage of people “from every nation under heaven” (2:5) a unified body of believers is formed. It is a fellowship which produces astounding “wonders and signs” (2:43), not the least of which was that “all who believed were together and had all things in common,” selling their possessions and distributing them to all (2:44-45). Deuteronomy 15:4-5 promised a land free of poverty. That land now takes visible shape within a fellowship that goes beyond the bounds of conventional friendship.
3. The Church engages in the “breaking of bread.” The gathering of the fellowship at the table is another tangible, visible expression of the work of the Spirit among the new community. Each dinner-time episode in Luke’s gospel is a time of fellowship, revelation, and controversy. Jesus was criticized for the company he kept at the table: “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2), they charged. Whether this “breaking of bread” is a reference to our Eucharist is a matter of debate. Probably, Peter’s church of Luke’s day would not know our distinction between the Church merely breaking bread and the church breaking bread as a sacramental religious activity. In good Jewish fashion, when the blessing is said at the table, the table becomes a holy place and eating together a sacred activity. Perhaps every meal was experienced also as an anticipation of the Messianic banquet , a foretaste of Jesus’ promise that his followers would “eat and drink at my table in my kingdom (Luke 22:30). “
4. The Church also has prayers, possibly at the Jewish hours of prayer for daily devotions. Furthermore, we are told they continued to attend the temple (2:46). In all the newness, the community does not neglect the traditions of the ancestors, does not cease being devoutly Jewish. Together, these four actions constitute a well-rounded picture of the Church, the marks of authentic embodiment of the Spirit in the community’s life, a canon for the measurement of the Church’s activity today.
Kevin+
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