Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, May 5, 2013 Read – Acts 1:1-5 We may be tempted to skip over passages in the Bible like the one assigned for our reading today. We want to get to the real action. But, like the preface to Luke’s gospel (Luke 1:1-4) our reading for today is crucial. We can learn a lot from pondering it. First of all, Acts 1:1 leaves no doubt that this book is the continuation of the gospel of Luke. The same author who wrote the gospel wrote the book of Acts. That leads us to contemplate how we should view the relationship between these two books. Do each of them stand on their own – the book of Acts being simply a second attempt at writing? Or, did the author intend them to be read together as one writing? The most likely response to that question is that Luke intended his gospel, “Luke,” and this book, “Acts,” to be one unit. That means, of course, that we cannot understand the gospel of Luke fully without Acts and that the book of Acts is continually reaching back into the gospel of Luke, assuming that the reader will make the connections between the two. It is my assumption that Luke intended us to see Luke and Acts as one unit – both books dependent upon the other. As we read through the book of Acts we discover that the same themes that we find in the gospel of Luke appear in the book of Acts. In fact, the gospel of Luke is not fully complete without the book of Acts. Together, “Luke-Acts,” is one book! That’s why we are spending time with the book of Acts during the upcoming summer months, even though we traditionally “stop for the summer” when it comes to education. It is somewhat unfortunate that the gospel of John has been placed between Luke and Acts in our Bible. There are good reasons why that happened. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are gospels that belong together – they tell basically the same story in the same order and, as we have seen, are related to each other in a close dependency – they belong together. John is also a gospel story and belongs with the other three. Acts is unique. In one way Acts does not belong with the four gospels. In another, because Luke intended his books to be one book, Acts belongs with Luke. But we can’t have it both ways – so from nearly the beginning of the church Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have been grouped together in that order leaving Acts to follow. Knowing this, we can easily accommodate ourselves and read Luke and Acts as one. Luke has made a strong and clear connection between his gospel and the book of Acts. The gospel ends with Jesus taking his disciples out to a mount near Bethany and telling them that they are to be witnesses, proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, but that they are to wait until they have received power from God. Having said that, Jesus is lifted from their presence into heaven. All of this happens on Easter Sunday in Luke’s gospel (Luke 24:44-53). Now, as Luke begins the book of Acts he reminds his readers of these very things – however, careful readers will notice that Luke has expanded on the time-frame. He tells us that Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples after the resurrection before his ascension (Acts 1:3). How are we to understand this discrepancy? Is Luke careless? Probably not! The very presence of these two ways of telling the same story tells us a lot about Luke’s style of writing “history” and likely about all the other writers besides Luke. Exact detail is not important and surrendered to literary and theological needs. It is important for Luke in his gospel to wrap up the proclamation of the resurrection on one day. All of chapter 24 of Luke’s gospel happens on one day – and what a day it must have been! There is great literary impact in reading the story as Luke has told it in his gospel. So, telling of the “lifting of Jesus to heaven” on that day is appropriate for Luke’s gospel. But Luke is also aware that others have written of appearances of Jesus in the days after Easter Sunday. John and Matthew both tell of appearances that Luke does not mention. Paul’s letters share even more. It is likely that Luke did not have copies of John’s and Matthew’s gospels, or even Paul’s letters – but the stories were there in the tradition that Luke has been investigating – remember that he told us in his preface to Luke that “others have written” and that he has followed all things closely (Luke 1:1). Here in Acts, it is theologically important to Luke that an “interim time” be marked out to speak of the appearances of the resurrected Jesus and that there came a time when they ceased. Actually, when we read his gospel, Jesus not only disappears at the end but he has also disappeared from the Emmaus travelers (Luke 24:31). Luke’s intention in the gospel is different from his intention in Acts – so he feels free to tell the story in two different ways. The likely truth is that neither Luke nor anyone else actually knew how long the resurrected Jesus appeared and that it really didn’t matter. Once again we are confronted with our passion for exactness and the gospel writers’ lack of concern about that. We want to know exactly what happened – as if that is somehow important to the truth. They don’t seem to care and tell the truth about the meaning of the events even though they do not know exactly what and when things happened. The number 40 is probably Luke’s choice. After all, Moses was on the mountain 40 days receiving the Ten Commandments, Elijah was on the mountain 40 days until God spoke to him in the voice of stillness, Jesus was in the wilderness 40 days tested by Satan – we could add a whole lot more of these 40 days/years episodes. What better choice than to speak of the resurrections appearances of Jesus lasting for 40 days? Luke’s point it that the appearances of the resurrected Jesus ended – there was a unique time in which Jesus appeared after which those kinds of appearances happened no more. Luke will tell us that Jesus appeared to Paul on the Damascus Road but that is an appearance of a different type. Luke is also aware of a great event that happened in the church when the promised Spirit of God actually was poured out upon the first followers of Jesus. That event was connected with Pentecost which happened 50 days after Passover. Theologically, it is important to Luke that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God in order that the ascended Jesus might send the promised Spirit. So, limiting the appearances of the resurrected Jesus to 40 days serves Luke, both to acknowledge that resurrection appearance stories happened after Easter Sunday and to delineate a time when they ceased. Through this “interim” period Luke has bridged the story from the events of Jesus to the events of the Spirit led church. Luke has made clear that the power of the church does not reside with the people who make up the church. Jesus is still acting – though now he is acting through the Holy Spirit he had promised his followers they would receive. How precious it is for us to know too that it is the Spirit that empowers the church! It is not dependent upon us – and sometimes we need to wait for the Spirit too. But, of course, we need to move when the Spirit moves!