WILLIAM H. WILLIMON
Acts
Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, copyright, 1946, 1952, and © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willimon, William H.
Acts.
(Interpretation, a Bible commentary for teaching and preaching)
Bibliography: p.
1. Bible. N.T. Acts—Commentaries. I. Title. II. Series.
BS2625.3.W56 1988 226ˊ.607 87–26085
ISBN 0-8042-3119-2
The Gospel Embodied in Community
If Acts were written from a purely contemporary point of view, we might expect all of the uproar of Pentecost, Peter’s moving sermon, and the crowd’s eager response as reported in 2:1–41 to be the end of the story. Contemporary religious life is plagued by momentary enthusiasm, periodic outbursts, and superficiality. In fact in contemporary parlance, “enthusiastic” (literally: filled with God) is a virtual synonym for a short-term high that does not take root in long-term commitment. So we become suspicious of religious emotion, suspecting that all of this charismatic fuss and bother will amount to little. The claim that “there were added that day about three thousand souls” moves us little, even though Luke intends to impress. We have seen these revivals and outbursts of piety come and go.
But Luke will not leave us there. Instead, he shows an immediate embodiment of the Pentecost enthusiasm. Our gaze is directed toward the church, where we see a fourfold embodiment of the gospel:
1. They devote “themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” The once popular distinction between the apostolic didache (teaching) and kerygma (preaching) was overdrawn. Certainly, Luke makes a distinction between what is said to outsiders and what is proclaimed within the ongoing life of the church. Far from any modern mushy “inclusiveness,” Luke is quite careful to separate those on the inside, who know, from those on the outside, who do not know. Yet teaching the ones who know about what is known continues to include the gospel. In fact Acts itself was part of the ongoing attempt of the church to reflect upon the implications and applications of the gospel within the church so that the church might continue to be faithful to its calling. The church is not to drift from one momentary emotional outburst to the next, to resuscitate Pentecost on a weekly basis; rather the church moves immediately to the task of teaching, keeping itself straight about what it is and what it is to be about.
2. The church is in fellowship. The Spirit has produced koinonia. Some have remarked that the real miracle of Pentecost is to be found here—that from so diverse assemblage of people “from every nation under heaven” (2:5) a unified body of believers is formed. What is more, this koinonia cannot be some merely warm-hearted animorum concordia, human-initiated brotherly and sisterly love. It is a fellowship which produces astounding “wonders and signs” (2:43), not the least of which was that “all who believed were together and had all things in common,” selling their possessions and distributing them to all (2:44–45). Later commentators seem intent on showing such claims to be an idealized and romanticized creation of the later church. Their interpretations testify more to the loss of the church’s confidence in the ability of the resurrection faith to overturn all material and social arrangements. That Luke later speaks of the generosity of Barnabas in 4:36–37 suggests that this early communal sharing was somewhat exceptional within the community. Yet the commonality of goods is set forth as concrete testimony that something unsettling, specific, and substantial has happened to these people. Deuteronomy 15:4–5promised a land free of poverty. That land now takes visible shape within a fellowship that goes beyond the bounds of conventional friendship. In Luke 19:8 a little man is confronted by the gospel and responds by parting with material goods (cf. Luke 12:13–34). Now, a whole community does the same. Furthermore, the spirituality described here is considerably more than some ethereal outburst. Everything they once held has been set free so that the word koinonia means something.
3. The church engages in “the breaking of bread.” The gathering of the fellowship at the table is another tangible, visible expression of the work of the Spirit among the new community. Go through the Gospel of Luke and note all occasions when “he was at table with them.” Each dinner-time episode in Luke is a time of fellowship, revelation, and controversy. Jesus was criticized for the company he kept at the table: “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2), they charged. He failed to make proper distinction between persons at his table. We know, from contemporary experience, that social boundaries between persons are often most rigidly enforced at the table. Eating together is a mark of unity, solidarity, and deep friendship, a visible sign that social barriers which once plagued these people have broken down. Whether this “breaking of bread” is a reference to our Eucharist or Lord’s Supper is a matter of debate. Probably, Peter’s church of Luke’s day would not know our distinction between the church merely breaking bread and the church breaking bread as a sacramental religious activity. In good Jewish fashion, when the blessing is said at the table, the table becomes a holy place and eating together a sacred activity. We do know in verse 46 that their partaking of food with glad and generous hands suggests the exuberant joy at the advent of the Messiah (so Bultmann). Perhaps every meal for the church was experienced as an anticipation of the Messianic banquet, a foretaste of Jesus’ promise that his followers would “eat and drink at my table in my kingdom (Luke 22:30).” In their eating and drinking the resurrection community is already a partial fulfillment of that promise, enjoying now what shall soon be consummated in the kingdom of God. The prophet’s call is fulfilled,
“Ho, every one who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money, …
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price” (Isa. 55:1).
4. The church also has prayers, possibly at the Jewish hours of prayer for daily devotions. Furthermore, we are told that they continued to attend the temple (2:46). In the midst of all the newness, the community does not neglect the traditions of the ancestors, does not cease being devoutly Jewish. In all these activities of teaching, fellowship and sharing, breaking of bread, and praying we see a well-rounded picture of the church, the marks of authentic embodiment of the Spirit in the community’s life, a canon for the measurement of the church’s activity today. As one views modern congregations, many with their hectic round of activities—yoga, ceramics, basketweaving, daycare—one suspects that socialization is being substituted for the gospel, warm-hearted busyness is being offered in lieu of Spirit-empowered community. One wonders if the church needs to reflect again that when all is said and done “one thing is needful” (Luke 10:42), namely to embody, in the church’s unique way, the peculiarity of the call to devote ourselves “to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42).
The order of activity in 2:42–47 is not presented as a primitive order of worship from which we can construct an early Sunday service pattern (against Jeremias, pp. 118–22). Rather, Luke is fond of this type of summary (cf. 4:32–35; 5:12–16) as a means of tying together two literary units (in this case Peter’s speech to the crowd and his speech before the temple). More importantly, 2:42–47 focuses our attention on the main concern of Acts—the community. In Acts individual personalities have their place in the story, particularly Peter and Paul, but are they the purpose of the story? Neither Peter nor Paul is developed with much depth of detail. Luke had little interest in apostolic biography or a primitive life of the saints. The protagonist of Acts is the Holy Spirit, enlivening and driving the young church. This summary of the activity of the church focuses our attention away from preoccupation with individual actors toward the true concern of the story—the community.
Willimon, W. H. (1988). Acts. Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press.
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