May 4, 2008

Have you ever felt like you were irreplaceable? That nobody can do your job at work. No one could fill your position on a sports team or in your family. It's a great feeling to feel as if only you can fill that certain spot and offer those specific gifts that no one else can. But, if you opt out, quit, leave the family, take the new job, notice that the show does go on without you! Sure, people grieve your loss ?and then, usually in stages, they move on. They hire someone new to sit at your desk, they pull someone else off the bench to play your position, and even your family makes adjustments when you decide to take the job inTransylvania.

The book of Acts constitutes a very pivotal book in the New Testament. It was written by the same author who wrote the Gospel of Luke - which means that one author wrote almost � of the entire New Testament. We know that it was written sometime between 70-100 in the first century and somewhere in the Mediterranean world. The author makes use of various Christian sources at hand and uses a variety of literary techniques to "proclaim the mighty acts of God." (Interpretation, by W. Williamson, p.1) The gospels report on the life and ministry of Jesus and end with the accounts of his Passion and resurrection appearances. Then we are left with the question - what now, that Jesus is gone in a physical sense?

Acts answers that question with the formation of the early church. The themes are very church-focused: what is the relationship between Jews and Christians, Christians and pagans? what is the relationship with Christianity and the modern state? What are some of the problems with prayer, the purpose of preaching and teaching? For those of us in the church today, it is an important source-book for the issues of the early church. But first there are a few loose ends to tie up. The most complicated of the loose ends is Jesus' departure. He has lived, he has died, he has made some post resurrection appearances; now, how are we to end his tenure on earth so that people can focus on their discipleship and their life without Jesus in their midst? Well, the author of the Luke-Acts books decides to send Jesus out by being lifted or carried up into heaven. An extraordinary farewell to an extraordinary life. That frees us up to get on with the task at hand - namely, to assign a new twelfth apostle and to build up the entity of the church.

While the book of Acts reports historical happenings and is set within a specific time in history, it is important when reading Acts to read it as a proclamation and not as a documentary. These stories that are presented to us in Acts tell us that God acts and we are to listen. These stories reveal to us that God is creating a new heaven and a new earth, and we are to be co-creators. These stories have as their goal our preparation for discipleship. These stories, while filled with history and identifiable names and places, are also full of miracles, visions, and dreams. These stories share with us that the real barriers to the spreading of the gospel were not geographical, but national, theological, doctrinal and economic. ((Ibid. p. 9) Ultimately these stories are trying to tell us that the larger story that our stories fit into involves a God who is dependable and truthful and hopeful. The goal of sharing this larger story with us is to help us become more dependable and truthful and hopeful in our own lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.

My family name is Wagner. Growing up I heard that on my mother's side we were Italian - that's where we got our personality - and English. On my father's side we were Scottish and Dutch. Then, someone does a little scratching on the finish of that story and finds out that we aren't Scottish after all, but German! Turns out that Papa Wagner didn't like the idea of being German. He grew up in the early part of the 20^th century and didn't like that part of German history and refused to be associated with it. So, he "re-created" our family history by telling everyone that we were Scottish on his side of the family. A little fanciful storytelling to cover up the parts of our lives that we aren't proud of, or that we can't explain easily.

Luke/Acts involves its own little fanciful storytelling with regard to Jesus. The author has to figure out how to end the story of Jesus here on earth. In the last chapter of Luke's gospel we are told that Jesus blessed them and "withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven." Then, in the first book of Acts, he reports another account of Jesus being lifted up in a cloud and disappearing into the sky. There have been only three biblical persons who have been lifted or carried up to God instead of dying in the usual way: the first is the person of Enoch in chaper 5; not much else is reported about Enoch, other than the fact that he is a few generations away from Adam. The second person to be lifted up to God instead of dying is Elijah who went up in the midst of a whirlwind in II Kings while his successor Elisha watched and prayed. Jesus is the third person. What company is Jesus keeping through these affiliations and why does Acts present Jesus' departure in this manner?

Elijah was a beloved prophet who burst onto the scene in the 9^th century before Christ. Four significant stories are written about him and his magical powers, including the story of Naboth's vineyard and the competition between Yahweh and the prophets of Baal. Queen Jezebel, an ambitious and wicked Queen vows to have Elijah's head on a platter after he triumphs over the prophets of Baal. In these stories God is represented as being on the side of those who are the downtrodden. Elijah comes as God's prophet to bring justice to those who are oppressed or exploited. Elijah takes on the imperial powers of the day and works his magic to come to the aid of the average person. He is considered to be one of the greatest and first prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Bruce Feiler writes in his book Where God Was Born, "So why were prophets suddenly necessary in the first millennium B.C.E. when they hadn't been needed earlier? One reason is the dramatic shift in the lives of the Israelites. As the wandering tribes of the desert became the settled people of the land, society became more polarized. Landowners and nobility amassed great wealth, often by oppressing the needy and forcing the lower classes into harsh labor. In contemporary parlance, the rich got richer and the poor poorer. Also, everyone was having a bit too much fun. Faced with their new urban lives, the Israelites responded as many country-come-to-towners have done, by indulging in the licentiousness of the big city - fornication, adultery, gluttony, callousness. The prophet (Elijah's) history-altering breakthrough was to suggest that this carefree, heartless social condition violated God's vision for humanity. The proper worship of God involves the proper treatment of human beings. " (p. 132)

As we open the book of Acts and begin to think about the formulation of the church, the writer of Acts cements the meaning of Jesus' ministry by drawing this close association between Jesus and Elijah. We are meant to recall Elijah's work as we hear of Jesus being lifted up into heaven. Jesus is like the prophets of old - calling people to love God fervently and to advocate for the lives of others. That is the foundation that the church is to be built upon.

I believe that the foundation of the church today should be the same fervent desire for God, mixed with the same compassionate care for humanity exemplified by Jesus and Elijah. In a time today of spiraling costs for basic necessities such as housing and food. In a time where luxury goods are still being purchased by people who have extraordinary means while others can barely afford necessities. In a time when schools are beleaguered and funding is being cut for extra programs for schools, where is the voice of prophecy advocating for the poor if not in the church? The book of Acts reminds us of our history - a long history that reaches back thousands of years to critique self-indulgent living. The book of Acts asks us again to examine our lives and to figure out what will define us as people of faith, people in the tradition of Elijah and Jesus and the early Church. Amen.