Many of you
can identify with my journey of beginning to question and then discard
firmly held convictions (mostly about how to do church). Too many
"Biblical principles" turned out to be cultural or institutional dogmas.
In this process I began to wonder about the early disciples and to
look at the book of Acts through a big question mark- What was their
journey?
Luke
writes the Acts account by simply telling the story. He makes no value
judgements. He does not say whether something done was consistent with
the teachings of Jesus or not. He just tells the story. We assume
that everything he records the early apostles as doing was good, but
should we? Acts begins with them asking Jesus, "Lord will You at this
time restore the Kingdom to Israel?" They were still thinking of an
earthly kingdom that would kick out the Romans and give them BMW camels.
They were still asking this question after a forty day seminar on the
Kingdom of God! They were on a learning curve and I do not think it
ended with the Day of Pentecost.
Jesus
talked about building on rock or on sand. Sand used to be rock. Sand
is bits broken from the rock. You can choose bits of the scripture but
what you build upon your favourite bits will fall. We need to wrestle
with the whole as revealed in the Rock, Jesus, if we wish to build
something that will last. The old saying "Text without context is
pretext." is accurate. If you cut and paste, you can make the scripture
say anything you like.
Maybe
the problem is not just understanding the original historical context
but seeing our own? How much of what we see in the scriptures is
because we are looking at them through the filter of our present
presuppositions and reading that back into them? Or maybe just reading
the scriptures through the lens of our own desire for significance,
power, position and privilege?
Is
this what the early apostles did? The church at Jerusalem was hugely
successful but were having a problem feeding all the widows and orphans.
More accurately they were having a cultural problem in that the Jewish
background widows and orphans were getting better food than those of
Greek background (Acts 6). The apostles did not think it was desirable
"that they should leave the Word of God and serve tables..... but we
will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word."
so they appointed deacons to this task. Luke says this "Pleased the
whole multitude" but does not say if it pleased the Holy Spirit.
These
verses have been quoted over and over again in support of "full time
ministry" but should we not question them? How could the very men for
whom Jesus made breakfast, the very men who heard Him say that even a
cup of cold water given in His name would be rewarded, the very men who
helped Him feed the multitudes, the very men who received the
instruction that whatever was done unto the least was done unto Him....
How could these men think that serving tables was beneath them? In
appointing deacons were they forgetting the teachings and example of the
Master and reflecting the privileges of the religious leadership
culture all around them?
To ask questions through the book of Acts you may have to question some of your favourite bits and cultural filters.
You may have to acknowledge that you are on a journey.
You may have to question some of your security blanket convictions.
You may have to ask the Holy Spirit some questions.
Your brother
Steve
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