This Way of Life - A Rethinking of Acts 2:42

"They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.  Everyone around was in awe - all those wonders and signs done through the apostles!  And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common.  They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.  They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God.  People in general liked what they saw.  Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved."  Acts 2:38-42

This passage should be very familiar to anyone who's ever been a part of redefining church.  Often it has been used a blueprint for the ‘ideal church’.  The argument goes something like this: “Acts 2 is virgin church, unblemished by 2000 years of schism.  It is church at its most zealous, most Spirit-filled, most connected and unified.  If only church could be like it was during those times…” and so on.  For the last 20 centuries the church has struggled to recapture the simplicity and synergy of this genesis.

But what if Luke never intended to set a standard for ideal church?  He probably would shudder at the attempts made to reproduce this short account.  So why do we continue to try?  Why are we convinced that if only our churches could grasp the ‘principles’ outlined in Acts 2 all of our problems would be solved and we’d uncover some sort of ecclesial-utopia?

I believe that we have missed something fundamental about Luke’s description of life in the earliest church.  This error has forced us to decontexualize poor Luke and his friends in order to mine those supposed ‘principles’.  In order to put us on the right track, let’s meditate on another familiar passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

"And so I insist - and God backs me up on this - that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed mindless crowd.  They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself... 

But that's no life for you.  You learned Christ!  My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus.  Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything - and I mean everything - connected with that old way of life has to go.  It's rotten through and through.  Get rid of it!  And then take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you."  (Eph. 4:17,18,20-24, The Message, Eugene Peterson)

For the past few years I've been captured by the idea that the Gospel is an invitation into a new way of life - something God-shaped, kingdom oriented.  This is what it means to become a follower of Jesus, to “repent and believe the good news” that the kingdom of God is near.  Being renewed from the inside that transforms outward conduct, taking on a new character…a new lifestyle, with a new Master.  Meditating on this process - a journey in which I've embarked - has produced in me the beginnings of awareness.  Seeing and hearing what the Father is doing.  Tending the good soil.  Everything around me, every passing moment is shaping me.  I am recognizing how the Spirit is forming me and those around that he is calling.

Into this Ephesian and Gospel context (“take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life,”) the words of Acts 2 emerge in a completely different light.  I want to suggest, to make an argument perhaps, that what was described in those few verses had nothing to do with a model for ideal church or much to do with church as we know it at all.  Instead, I think Luke was reporting to his friend Theophilus how the Holy Spirit was teaching the first community of disciples a new way of life.  He was not describing once-for-all activities for the institution of church, but speaking of people discovering life together as the renewed people of God.

Consider how Jesus called his first disciples.  They left behind everything - family, jobs, security - to follow him and to learn about the kingdom life.  Peter, James, and John didn’t keep their fishing boat for a side income and tromp around Judea in their spare time.  Jesus wasn’t their ‘spiritual teacher’ like some sort of first century Deepak Chopra in sandals.  They didn’t attend meditation seminars at posh Mediterranean resorts and then return home to the comfort of their luxurious Jerusalem mansions.  They set down their nets.  They left their tax collection tables in the middle of a business day.  They sold out.

“Your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to see you.  He replied, 'My mother and brothers are the ones who hear and do God's Word.  Obedience is thicker than blood."

"I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living.  They are foundational words, words to build a life on.  If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock…”

"Go out and train everyone you meet in this way of life..."

With words such as these still ringing in their ears, the apostles set out to continue the ministry of Jesus by training new disciples in the Way.  Peter in his famous Pentecost sermon repeats the Gospel call, “Change your life.  Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven.  Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”  Three thousand responded that day and entered into a new way of life as followers of Jesus under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the apostles.

Now my question is, do you think those three thousand people were joining a church?  Did they have any imagination of starting anything remotely like our institution of church?  Of course not!  These people were Jews.  They were temple-going, festival celebrating, Torah-honoring, circumcised Hebrews.  However, they were Jews who had just killed the incarnate Son of God.  Faced with that revelation, faced with their sin and hopelessness concerning the turbulent world around them, they repented.  They changed their life. 

So what did life look like for these followers of what would later become called “The Way?”  It seems that they spent a good deal of time listening to the apostles tell stories about Jesus and teaching on the kingdom.  They shared their few possessions in order to express the great love they had for each other and the Master.  They ate meals together, great boisterous feasts where the lowliest took the place of honor.  They lingered in each other’s homes enjoying sweet intimacy generated by hearts full of God’s Spirit.  They worshipped God in the temple and committed themselves to prayer.  But most of all, they lived in constant awareness that Jesus was alive and among them in spirit and that he would return soon in the flesh to fully establish his kingdom on earth. 

Back in the 21^st century, we are embroiled in a discussion concerning church life and praxis in a postmodern world.  Many of us are experimenting with different forms of church: old, new, borrowed, and blue.  Others have jettisoned the church (at least in its institutional forms) entirely and are attempting to follow Jesus in his wide world.  Personally I’m beginning to identify more with the latter group.  I crave informal, candlelit dinners with other friends on the journey, sharing bread and wine, conversing, disagreeing, praying, crying, laughing.  Kingdom encounters are sought in the ordinary:  sharing a laugh with my son on the playground, helping a friend that can’t pay their light bill, praying for healing for a coworker who just found out they have cancer.  I am looking to be transformed into the image of Jesus, to be deeply and authentically Christian, a “little Christ”.  I have friends that are also interested in this way of life.  They are lawyers, youth workers, moms, dads, teenagers.  We are discovering how to worship.  We are learning to be committed to prayer.  We are teaching each other and telling our stories and the Story to each other.  We are convinced that Jesus is alive enough to teach us his Way and anticipate his returning to set things right. 

Recently a group of us showed up to a small beach pavilion on a cool, overcast Sunday morning in West Palm Beach.  We usually gather there every Sunday because it’s a beautiful (and free) place to enjoy each other’s company and God’s.  There is no band, no sermon, and usually not even a planned discussion.  Just friends allowing each other the space and time to recognize and embrace the Immanuel reality - God is with us.  This particular Sunday it was too cold for our South Floridian bodies so we hopped back in the cars and had breakfast at a popular restaurant across the street.  God and scrambled eggs.  The Spirit at work over waffles and coffee.  Is it offensive to you that liturgy can involve ordering French toast?  Is it an abomination to preach between bites?  Or pray after the meal?

I want to lay down a challenge to those of you in this emerging church discussion.  Will you consider taking the path of powerlessness?  Will you throw your lot in with the sinners who killed Jesus yet received the Holy Spirit?  Are you willing to give up your dream for the next, great postmodern ministry or sure-fire, snake-oil model for Acts 2 church?  Will you choose to learn a new way of life instead of building more monuments to the Constantinian dream? 

I realize that this may spark a discussion about the relative merits of structure, organization, and models.  “Why can’t we have this new way of life and our institutional forms of church?”  Maybe you can, I’m really not sure.  My argument is not against structure but for a rethinking of purpose.  The earliest Christians did not carry around with them allegiances to institutions or personalities.  When they did, they were strongly rebuked and refocused on the centrality of Jesus (see Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 1).  The early church was a group of people who believed that Jesus might appear any day.  There was no time for constitutions, bylaws, or corporate mission statements.  They said, “Hey, God’s kingdom is here.  Let’s party!”  Consequently, their relatively disorganized ‘organization’ has some pretty amazing accomplishments on its record. 

My prayer for us in the so-called ‘emerging church’ is that we rediscover kingdom living.  Let the Holy Spirit be our guide as we traverse in a world that despises beauty, simplicity, and faith.  Let’s refuse positions of power in organizations that will only lead to more suffering at the hands of men supposedly representing God.  Instead, let the church join in the incarnation - become God-in-the-flesh - living, breathing little Christ’s who usher in the kingdom wherever they live and work.  That is the life described in Acts 2.  It is still possible today.