Readings of the day: Acts 5:17-26; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; John 3:16-21
“This life”: Here is
our focus, that we might all have life in the name of the risen Christ.
How many among us have ever taken on a
task or become involved in a way of life from which we were confident that
something good would result, but we were unsure where it would lead?
This is the situation in which Jesus’
first Apostles find themselves in today’s reading we hear from Acts. This
group; this movement has been founded by Jesus Christ; filled with the Holy
Spirit; commissioned to preach and to live the way Christ lived. But to this
point the way these Apostles live has no name besides the fairly nondescript
“the way.” And then, we hear today, they are imprisoned for their efforts. The
religious authorities of the day, the Sanhedrin or class of temple priests in
Israel, must have been concerned about this group of adherents to Jesus; to a
movement these authorities had tried to stifle by having Jesus crucified.
To a point, can we not empathize with
the Jewish religious authorities of this time? Have we not all heard of
political and even religious movements in our world that lack a focus but
nevertheless seem to draw followers and even cause trouble among groups of
people; seem often lead to violence in regions of our world? I see the
Sanhedrin of the earliest Apostles’ time as concerned with precisely this kind
of unrest in Israel.
Of course, we know in hindsight that
this Jesus movement would lead to great good; would develop a focus, inspired
by the Holy Spirit. But today, in our first reading from Acts, we hear just the
beginning of our Christian story. The first Apostles have been imprisoned, but
are set free by an “angel of the Lord.”
And what is the instruction to the
Apostles by the angel as they are released from prison? “Go and take your place
in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.” Here the Jesus movement, long before we became known as
“Christians,” is given its first name; its first focus: “This life.” I wonder:
How reminiscent, for the Apostles, were these words of the angel to Jesus’
words; to how they knew Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life”… “I
have come so that you might have life and have it abundantly”?
What is “this life” about which the
angel speaks? Here was the first focus of the first Apostles, and our focus now:
Preach and do what is most life-giving in the name of Jesus Christ. Build a
world in which nobody is in need of basic necessities of life; a world of
kindness. Build a world ready to forgive our failings freely; to heal “the
wounds of sin and division.”
The most life-giving action will depend
on the circumstances of our lives. For some of us, this will mean caring
especially for those who are poor; sick; unemployed; underemployed; homeless;
refugees or migrants… For many of us this might mean making a special effort to
be kind or to pray for somebody difficult to us, or enjoying time with our
wives; husbands; children; relatives, or simply a smile; a random act of
kindness…
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