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Category: Acts (Page 9 of 12)

Around the Table: Part 7b

December 12, 2013 / / 2 Comments

We’ve established that the term “breaking bread” (“klasas artos” or “arton klao“) was never used in the Greek language before the writings of the New Testament and that it always and only refers to Christ eating and drinking at the table with his disciples. The phrase was never used to describe an ordinary meal. It is a strictly Christian term used exclusively in a Lord’s Supper or communion context. Every time. At the very least, “breaking bread” echoes earlier meals with Jesus and / or reminds the Church of what’s happening on Sundays at the Lord’s Meal. But the context is always a joyful community meal shared in the presence of Jesus. Therefore, we are compelled, I believe, to read familiar portions of the New Testament a bit differently. I’d like to examine three of those passages from Acts in this space today.

Acts 2:42-47 – We in the Churches of Christ have all but memorized these verses. We proudly point to this passage as the origin of God’s Church, the first days of Christ’s global community of faith. “This is how the Church started,” we say. “This is the pattern, this is how we should act today.” And I agree. Along with Ephesians 4, this is where I begin talking about the Church in our orientation classes with visitors and new Christians here at Central. Luke ties “breaking bread” here to the fellowship of the Church. This passages is about community. Communion. Koinonia. Christianity is a shared experience, lived in community with other disciples where men and women share their meals and their possessions. Church is expressed here in concrete and visible terms, not just spiritual or mental or invisible. These new Christians are sharing their lives with one another. But are the two uses of “breaking bread” in verses 42 and 46 about the Lord’s Dinner?

Typically, we pronounce the use of the phrase in verse 42 to be about the Lord’s Supper (“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”) and the same wording in verse 46 (“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts”) to be about common ordinary meals. The logic generally used in this analysis is that verse 42 is about teaching and prayer, therefore, it’s in a worship context, so it must be the Lord’s Supper. Verse 46, however, describes an every day action taking place in homes, so it must be a common meal. We ignore the line about praising God in that same context.

I would say the burden of proof is on those who claim verse 46 is not the Lord’s Supper.

The easiest criticism of our traditional view is to ask whether Luke really would use the same words to describe two completely different activities in a span of five verses. Most certainly not! But, I think that misses the point. In the first place, to even ask if one is the Lord’s Supper and one is a common meal is to assume that it’s not both. And we know it is! In the New Testament and for the first 200+ years of Christianity, the Lord’s Supper IS a common meal. In Scripture, you can have a meal without the Lord’s Supper, but you cannot have the Lord’s Supper without a meal.

But verse 46 says “every day.” It can’t be the Lord’s Supper because we only do that on Sundays.

Let’s not read our traditions and our practices today back into the Holy Scriptures. Remember that during New Testament times all Christian worship assemblies were held in homes. Remember that the Lord’s Supper was a full meal, never just bread and wine. Remember that these full fellowship meals were celebrated joyfully in the name of Jesus, with thanksgiving to God, as an expression of their blessings and unity in Christ. I would argue that for these early Christians, there were no common meals. Every meal they ate together is the Lord’s Supper. Remember, too, that sharing their food with the needy is an important part of the communion or Lord’s Supper instructions we find in late 1st century and early 2nd century writings in the Didache and by Justin Martyr. If part of the Lord’s Supper is about feeding the poor, you would have to do that more than once a week, right? Also, remember that the day of the week and the time of day for Christian worship assemblies is not uniform in the early Church until the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries. There are plenty of writings, Ignatius’ letters among them, that call for more frequent celebrations of the Eucharist. A Sunday-only Lord’s Supper and Sunday-only worship assemblies is only established later, generally linked to the separation of the Lord’s Supper from the common meal during the 4th century.

Acts 20:7-12 – This passage is about resurrection. The Church has gathered around the table to celebrate the resurrection, they are anticipating a resurrection, and then they actually experience a resurrection. As in the Gospels, this passage presents the communion dinner in a resurrection/life context, not a crucifixion/death context. However, like the previously discussed verses in Acts 2, we have traditionally interpreted the same phrase used in the same setting, separated by only four verses in this passage, as two different activities. We’ve said verse 7 is the Lord’s Supper (“On the first day of the week we came together to break bread”) because it’s Sunday and it’s the primary reason the Church gathers. But we claim verse 11 to be merely a common meal or even a snack (“Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate”) because it’s after midnight — Monday! — and there don’t seem to be any formalities mentioned.

Again, for many of the same reasons outlined above, the burden of proof is on the one claiming that verse 11 is not the Lord’s Supper.

In this story, the breaking of bread seems intentional. This is the explicitly stated reason for this Christian gathering. Paul’s sermon seems to be an add-on or a special circumstance. There is, of course, theological significance to “first day of the week.” That’s the day of Resurrection and the birthday of the Church. The Eutychus episode serves as the table talk. It’s the sermon illustration. Jesus and Eutychus were dead, now they are alive. Christ eats with us at the table, just like Eutychus is doing right now. This community of faith ate their meal with this visible example of their hope in the resurrection. I wonder what the mood was like at that Lord’s Supper? What a powerful reminder that it’s around our Lord’s table where his followers celebrate new life, where we rejoice in our liberation, where we experience his perfect peace.

Acts 27:33-36 – This one’s a little tricky. Most scholars are divided here on whether Paul breaking bread during the storm at sea is the Lord’s Supper. I believe it is. But only because my definition of Lord’s Supper is communing with God and one another while sharing a salvation meal in the presence of Christ. Luke uses the same words for breaking (klao) and bread (artos) in verse 35. And, remarkably, he uses the same liturgical formula employed by Jesus in the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, the post-resurrection meals, and the feeding of the multitudes: “He took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.”

But these aren’t Christians; they are pagan sailors. This isn’t a worship service. They’re in a boat. It might not be a Sunday. These are not church people. How can it be the Lord’s Supper?

Again, the burden of proof is on those who deny this as a Lord’s Supper account. Let’s not read our current practices back in to Scripture. Notice the salvation context of the story and the meal. Notice how this story acts as a rehearsal of the Gospel:

v.22 – “not one of you will be lost”
v.23 – God’s angel promises salvation
v.24 – salvation is a gracious gift from God
v.25 – “I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me”
v.30 – sailors attempt to save themselves
v.31 – “unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved”
v.34 – salvation is tied to the meal
v.35 – breaking bread with thanksgiving to God

At the very least, allow me to assert that this meal at sea points to the Lord’s Supper as a reminder that the presence of the risen and reigning Christ can be experienced everywhere, anywhere. And that any meal eaten with thanksgiving to God and in recognition of our salvation through Christ is, in a broad sense, a Lord’s Meal.

While reflecting on the Acts 2 passage, you might consider how the community/communion aspect of the Lord’s Supper function in our understanding and practices of the sacred meal. Are those meanings properly emphasized in the Sunday morning practices at your church? What about the resurrection aspect of the meal emphasized in Acts 20? Is this facet of the Lord’s Supper properly expressed in your Sunday morning assemblies?

Peace,

Allan

Sunday

March 31, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear…

Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!”

~Acts 2:29-36

May God’s people today proclaim and rejoice in the earth-shattering, history-altering, mind-blowing truth of the Resurrection.

Peace,

Allan

Concerning the Women: Part Two

May 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Acknowledging together that we in the Churches of Christ must do something different if we’re going to remain a viable witness to the Christian faith in our rapidly changing world, we’re spending our time here reviewing and reflecting on Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?”

To paraphrase Garrett, what must we do to escape extinction in the decades ahead, to avoid being regarded as an insignificant Texas-Tennessee sect? What must we do to be loyal to the Scriptures and true to our Stone-Campbell heritage of unity? What’s it going to take for us to, as a movement, advance toward being “truly ecumenical, truly catholic, truly holy, and truly apostolic?”

In the 18th chapter, Garrett returns to the subject of women he addressed in chapter nine:

Bring women into the church.

Although Garrett gets much more into the “women’s role” passages in Corinthians and Timothy here than he did in the previous chapter, his focus in this essay is on Paul’s universal statement (creed?) in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

If that passage means anything it means that gender is not to be made a test of fellowship or ministry, such as, “She can’t do that because she is a woman.” Paul himself may have sometimes fallen short of that ideal of perfect equality, due to the pressures of custom, as in the case of slavery, which he tolerated, and which is forbidden in that same passage, “There is neither slave nor free.” If socio-economic conditions had been different, Paul might not have said what he did about women and slaves, tolerating their unequal treatment.

To put it another way, Paul almost certainly would not say to the 21st century church what he said to the first century church about women and slaves. But still he laid down the principle that applies to all generations because it so reflects the mind of Christ: In the Church of Christ there is to be no distinction between slaves and freedmen, Jews and Gentiles, men and women! We have to recognize that this was the ideal that even he was not always able to effect due to the conditions beyond his control.

Despite Paul’s clear directive here and his similar admonition in Colossians 3:11, the Christian church in America used the Bible for decades to justify slavery. Wherever slavery is mentioned in Scripture as the current conditions in society at the time of the writing, those passages were used by Christians to say, “Well, God didn’t condemn it in that Scripture; it must be OK. Or at least, it’s just the way things are.”

Today the practice of slavery is officially, socially, morally, and publicly condemned in every corner of the United States. Our churches now preach against slavery, loudly abhor the idea of slavery, and lament the behavior of our forefathers who justified it. What changed? Scripture certainly has not changed. Our God has not changed. The evil of slavery has not changed. What’s changed is our society. That’s what’s different now. For an American church today to actually uphold the idea of slavery and teach and practice in favor of slavery is unthinkable. That church would not do very well at evangelizing. That church wouldn’t grow. That church today wouldn’t have much credibility when it came to proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. Who would listen to a church like that?

Regardless of the ways you might interpret 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 or 1 Timothy 2, we all agree that the social conditions that existed then in first century Corinth and Ephesus do not exist today in 21st century America. It’s vastly different. It is certainly not a shame for a woman to speak in public. It’s not a disgrace for a woman to teach in a room full of men. It happens all the time. Women are just as educated as men, just as capable as men, just as qualified as men. Nobody blinks when a woman is named president of a major university or CEO of a global corporation. Your professor or your police officer or your accountant or your doctor is just as likely to be a woman as a man. The cultural conditions to which Paul wrote in Corinth and Ephesus do not exist in America today. It’s different. It’s changed. For an American church today to actually uphold the idea of man’s superiority and teach and practice in favor of denying women leadership and teaching roles is unthinkable. That church would not do very well at evangelizing. That church wouldn’t grow. That church today wouldn’t have much credibility when it came to proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. Who would listen to a church like that?

OK, is that a little strong? Maybe. I hesitated to write it that way, but I think I need to in an effort to at least present the possibility that the two issues are the same in Paul’s eyes. Afterall, in speaking to the Galatians he uses both examples in the same breath.

Garret points out that we are very good at drawing lines according to our own preferences and comforts. Foot washing is both a command and an example in Scripture, but we decline to practice it because it only applied to that biblical culture during that biblical time. Same with the holy kiss. In Acts 15, the church council claims the Holy Spirit himself gave them four commands that had to be followed by all Gentile Christians. We completely ignore the first three! And I’m not so sure we even take the fourth one very seriously.

1 Timothy 2:8 tells men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. It’s a command. Is it then, that all men who do not lift their hands while they pray are sinning against God and his Church? No! Of course not. The command is to pray; lifting hands was the customary and cultural prayer posture of the day. Does that mean that it’s OK for the women to be angry and to dispute? No! It’s that the men were apparently the problem in this particular Ephesian church, not the women.

1 Timothy 2:9 tells women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. Does that mean that all women who braid their hair are sinning against God? No! Of course not. It’s cultural. The command is to dress appropriately for the culture in order to preserve your Christian witness to a lost and dying world.

1 Timothy 2:11 says women should learn in quietness and submission; women are told not to teach or to seize authority from a man; women must be quiet. Does this mean then that a woman who speaks in church is sinning against God?

For way too long we’ve not hesitated to answer “Yes! Of course!” For way too long we’ve interpreted verses 8-10 as cultural and no longer applicable and verses 11-12 as universal and for all time.

A husband’s rule over his wife is part of the curse of sin and death in Genesis 3, not part of the original creation plan of God as found in Genesis 1-2. A husband’s superiority over his wife is a result of sin and death, not a divine facet of God’s eternal will. As children of God and partners of reconciliation with his son Jesus, we are commissioned to reverse the curse, to join our God in overturning the effects of sin and death. We never ever actually labor to impose the curse.

Our task in the 21st century is not to do precisely as they did, but to do for our generation what they did for theirs, bring in the Kingdom of God. And our men and women should be at it today just as their men and women were at it back then, but not necessarily in exactly the same way.

What I want for the Church of Christ down the road is that there will be no social, racial, or sexual lines drawn. None whatever. Liberties and ministries will be shared equally and indiscriminately, according to gifts and talents. We must overcome the mentality that half (or more) of the church is to be subservient to the other half. All because of gender! Christ has made us one and we are all equal — and half of us are not more equal than the other half!

Peace,

Allan

Stand in the Grace of God

May 4, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We’re working through Leroy Garrett’s book “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?” We’re losing members and congregations at a steady rate in this country. Some would say we’re losing, or have already lost, a great deal of credibility. As a denomination (just wanted to see if you’re paying attention) there are some changes we need to make if we’re going to remain a viable partner in the Kingdom of God. Garrett’s fourteenth suggestion is a call for all our congregations to not just believe in the grace of God, but act on it. Live it!

Stand in the grace of God.

Every member of the Church of Christ believes in the grace of God. They would all readily acknowledge that we are saved by the grace of God and not by our own works. No one among us has the slightest interest in minimizing the significance of the grace of God. However, we must stand in the grace of God, and not simply believe in it. The Church of Christ has a head knowledge of grace, but at the gut level it does not, generally, know the grace of God. It is like living in a house wired for electricity and not being plugged into the power. This is why we’re not going anywhere, we’re not plugged in.

When we consider what grace does for people, we do not appear to have “seen the grace of God,” to quote Acts 11:23, even though we believe it is around. Grace makes believers more and more like Christ, but we are not known for our Christlikeness. Grace causes them to exult in their blessings, filling them with joy, good humor, and laughter; but we are not known for those qualities. Grace makes people gracious, less critical, more tolerant and more accepting; but is this where we are? Grace is never what one deserves, but is this what we have emphasized? Grace is God’s free gift, unconditionally bestowed, no strings attached; but haven’t we attached strings?

By now you’ve noticed a couple of fairly prominent themes in Garrett’s writings: Christian unity and grace. Our misunderstandings and misapplications of both have certainly stunted our growth as a Christian movement and greatly stifled our salvation impact in God’s world.

We have such a hard time realizing that God’s gift of grace is absolutely free, that it’s completely undeserved and totally unearned. We have traditionally understood the grace of God as his gift that makes up the difference as, or after, we travel the road to eternal life. We do the good works, we pray the right prayers, we worship in the correct manner, we get baptized by the proper method, we set everything up in our churches according to the Scriptural pattern, and God’s grace closes the gap to get us to heaven. We have lived by a “God helps those who help themselves” mentality, which, by the way, goes wholly counter to everything we read in the Bible. Scripture makes it clear that “God helps those who can’t do a crying thing for themselves.” But we don’t accept that. Or, at least, we’re not living like we do.

The proper view of God’s grace will, as Garrett observes, transform us into a more Christ-like people. We will act more like our Father when we finally realize what our Father has done for us. Jesus says we are to love one another as God has loved us. That means loving one another even when everybody around you is at their most unlovable. Our Lord tells us to forgive as God forgave us. That means forgiving everybody of everything. Everybody. Everything. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive. And Scripture says we are to accept one another as God in Christ accepted us. That means we accept each other — yes, we accept all other Christians; those within and those outside our Churches of Christ — who don’t have every single thing completely figured out.

Jesus told the parable about the servant who was forgiven by his master of his great debt and then refused to forgive a fellow servant of his tiny debt, abusing that fellow servant and throwing him in jail. And we’ve been guilty of the same thing. We’ve imagined grace as something that covers us in our sins, but not in our Scriptural interpretations and doctrinal understandings. Grace covers us for things we might do out in the world, but it’s not enough to take care of us if we get something wrong in the Church. We’re not totally saved; we’re just barely saved, maybe. And everybody else is in a lot more trouble than we are!

I hold to the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi: the way we worship is the way we believe. If we view our Father as a tight fisted tyrant who’s keeping track of every single misstep, as a God who’s looking to judge and condemn, as a Lord who delights in watching us sweat it out, then that’s how we’re going to behave, too. If we view him that way and worship him that way, looking over our shoulders to make sure we’re doing everything exactly right so we can get to heaven, we’re going to treat other people the way we think God is treating us. That is not Good News. It’s not salvation.

When we “stand” in the grace of God, trusting in his goodness and mercy, then love, joy, and peace will flood our hearts. We will then be a more gracious people, magnanimous, full of life and enthusiasm, eager to praise God for his great mercy. We will take ourselves less seriously and be able to laugh at our foibles. We will not be so uptight, we’ll quit worrying, be less critical of others, more accepting, more forgiving.

Peace,

Allan

Can You Hear the Prayers?

March 11, 2012 / / 1 Comment

We were so blessed to have four crazy Legacy kids crash at our house last night as they swung through town on their way to snowboard in Colorado. Payton, Chris, Landon, and Paul arrived in time to share a full Carrie-Anne cooked Mexican food dinner complete with sopapilla cheesecake and ice cream and a couple of college basketball games on TV. I’m pleased to report that Chris has lost his lip ring; but Landon showed up with two huge honkin’ earrings! It’s always good to have Payton around because he makes me feel so young. Seriously. He acts older than my dad! And Paul was able to refresh me on my very limited Russian vocabulary. (Remind me to call David Nelson soon. Apparently, the word Nelson taught me to say as “Thank you” while we were in Kharkov is actually “Delicious!” It’s a wonder I didn’t get arrested over there! Somebody’s messing with me.)

We teased each other mercilessly into the night. We reminded one another about goldfish in the back of my pickup, glow sticks in the front yard, apple trees on the front porch, and living room furniture in the lawn. And we talked about Quincy and praying together and serving the homeless and ministering to the outcast in the name of our King. These are the prayingest young men I’ve ever known. And sacrificial. Servant hearted. What a blessing to have them as friends. What a blessing to be able to worship with these great kids this morning at Central.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.” ~Acts 10:9

I love the way this one verse ties two stories together. This one verse takes two men and their two different stories and eternally connects them into one unforgettable reminder of God’s mission and his power to accomplish it. Cornelius’ men had left Caeasarea to find Peter in Joppa. Peter goes up on the roof to pray, not knowing he’s already part of a story that began the day before. Peter is the answer to the prayer of a guy he’s never met. Cornelius’ men are on their way to get Peter and Peter doesn’t even know he’s got an appointment. He just thinks it’s lunch.

The angel of the Lord has already told Cornelius that his prayers have been heard by God and are being honored. His prayers are being answered. Peter is that answer. Peter is the one who will open up the truth of salvation from the crucified and risen Christ Jesus to Cornelius.

See how that works?

I wish we could hear the world praying.

“God, I don’t know where else to turn; I don’t know what to do. God, who’s going to take care of me?”

“Father, I’m at the end of my rope; I’m desperate. Please help me, God; please help me.”

Lord, I want to know you. Please show yourself to me. Please reveal your will to me. I want to belong to you, God.”

“Holy God, please provide someone to help me. Please, God, send somebody to help me.”

I wish we could hear the prayers of everybody at the apartment complex on Washington Avenue. I wish we could hear the prayers of all the kids at Bivins Elementary. I wish we could hear the prayers of the guys living under the bridge at Paramount and I-40. I wish we could hear the prayers of the man across the street in his $200,000 house. I wish we could hear the prayers of the single mom around the corner and the widowed lady who greets us at Wal-Mart and the waiter at The Burger Bar. I wish we could hear their prayers because I bet a bunch of them are praying for us. They’re praying for our hearts and our minds and our attitudes and our mission. They’re praying for God to shake us out of our comfort zones and get us moving in a reconciliation direction.

Can you hear your own prayers? How do you pray? What do you pray? If every single one of your prayers from last week were answered, would the whole world change? Or just your world? Seriously, how do you pray?

God, help us. May God give us minds and dreams and prayers big enough to imagine what he’s going to have us do next.

Peace,

Allan

Forever Changed

March 8, 2012 / / 0 Comments

You can fertilize your lawn. You can mow and edge, water and weed. You can get your yard in Chamber of Commerce shape, putting green great. But it won’t last forever.

You can clean out your garage. You can throw away and sweep. You can organize and shelve, hang and hook for three straight weekends. You can buy a bunch of plastic bins and put all the junk up in the attic. You can get your garage into mint move-in condition. But it won’t last forever.

You can scrub your oven and vacuum the carpets. You can get a haircut and a manicure. You can wash the car and repaint the kids’ rooms. But it won’t be perfect forever.

We can clean up our church. We can plant new flowers, clear out from under the stairwells, and plug all the holes with spackle. We can polish off another mission statement, coordinate our ministries, re-emphasize our doctrines, and unify our beliefs. But it won’t be nice and neat forever.

We can choose to share Jesus with a neighbor. We can love the guy across the street in Christ’s name. We can reach out to strangers and friends, men and women, rich and poor, with our Father’s mercy and grace. And they will be changed forever. They will be transformed, radically and dramatically re-made for eternity. They will never be the same again. Ever.

The Apostle Peter gets a clear call from our God in Acts 10 to get out of his comfort zone and take the Gospel to people who don’t look like him, talk like him, or think like him. Peter was shocked by the command. And he was astonished by the results.

Jesus says the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Peace,

Allan

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