We started today with psalm 42 - suggested to us by one of our members. It was beautiful: "As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for you, the living God" (42:1-2). I think I felt that thirst among all present.
Here is a short recap of chapter 1:
Luke
starts his account of what happened after Jesus the “taken up to heaven” (1:2).
“For forty days after his death he appeared to [his apostles] many times in
ways that proved beyond doubt that he was alive They saw him, and he talked
with them about the Kingdom of God” (1:3).We talked about what we thought these experiences of "the risen Christ" may have been in those days and also how we had experienced God's presence in our lives. We went back and took a look at Luke's account of Jesus' resurrection and the common presence in his accounts of the "two men dressed in white" [see Luke 24 and Acts 1:10].
The
two men in white robes appear, and they ask the apostles why they are staring up toward
heaven, that Jesus will come back to them in the same way at some point in time
(1:11). There is a reference in Book of Daniel, chapter 7:13 of clouds
bringing the one who is like a Son of Man. We talked also about the deep Old Testament context that surrounded everything written of Jesus.
The apostles
return to Jerusalem and go to an upstairs room where they stayed and
prayed—Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James
the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James and certain
women, including his mother and his brothers too. Peter stands up among a crowd
of about 120 and addresses them. The tenor of his address is that the betrayal
of Jesus by Judas was a fulfillment of Scripture. As an aside he relates that
Judas ended badly in the field he had bought with the dirty money he got for
his betrayal. Psalms made reference to here are 69 and
109, both Davidic psalms reflecting cries by David for divine justice against
enemies that have plagued him. They want to name a replacement for him,
someone who can witness to everything Jesus did from his baptism to his
ascension. Joseph, Barsabbas, (or Justus) and Matthias are proposed. They pray
and ask the Lord for guidance. They cast lots and Matthias is picked (1:26). It is interesting to consider that it is really Paul who will be named the replacement apostle by God. Could it have been that this might have been the beginning of the "apostasy" - assuming that the authority structure they were setting up could replace the work of the Holy Spirit amongst them?
For next time we agreed to try to read through chapter 2 before coming next month. Here are a few questions to consider:
1. What is it that happens to the apostles and disciples at what is called "pentecost"? What does it mean to you?
2. What are the core elements of Peter's message, the first public teaching of the apostles about Jesus?
3. What is the significance of the Old Testament references made by Peter?
4. What kind of community arose?
