Readings:
Acts 2:14a, 22-32;
Psalm 16;
1 Peter 1:3-9;
John 20:19-30 

Collect:
Faithful God,
the strength of all who believe
and the hope of those who doubt,
may we, who have not seen, have faith,
and receive the fulness of Christ’s blessing;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Reflection

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles (to give it it’s formal name) starts with an instruction to wait. For all that, there’s a lot of doing things together going on. First, we readers are reminded of Jesus’ resurrection, and his instruction to the apostles to wait, and they are to wait for the Holy Spirit. Just as the person made of the ground receives breath from God in the Genesis story (Gen 2:7), so now the apostles are to receive breath from God to enliven them anew.

Jesus is with them for 40 days, speaking with them about the kingdom of God, and then is “lifted up” (a phrase reminiscent of the crucifixion) and “a cloud took him out of their sight” (1:9). Jesus is gone, and the apostles withdraw. They go back to the upstairs room where they are “united in their devotion to prayer” (1:14). While withdrawn, Peter stands up (the original Greek reminds us of the resurrection) and says they need to select a twelfth disciple now that Judas has died. This they do, selecting two by nomination, they pray and then draw lots (always like this phrase!). The one chosen is Matthias, a name reminiscent of meaning “disciple”. For those instructed to wait, there is no dallying here. 

The reading in Acts today starts: “Peter stood with the other eleven apostles” (Acts 2:14a, as translated in the Common English Bible). I perceive an ambiguity here. This might also remind us of Jesus’ resurrection as in 1:15, but a different word is used. The way I hear it, Peter is taking a stand. More than that, he is taking a stand with all the disciples, together. While Peter is named, this is not a single person acting. They act together.

Their sense of being together – being instructed together and doing things together – is there from the start. And when someone is missing, as Judas is, they extend the fellowship. I’m fully persuaded that the significance of 12 is as a representative number – the indication of inclusion and completeness. Only when their company is complete, significantly completed by one whose name is reminiscent of “disciple”, only now do we readers hear the story of Holy Spirit empowering them to speak to people at large. Today we challenge the andro-centric way this story is told. We know many women were involved too. But we notice that when they speak to people at large, they stand together. That for which they were to wait has now been given, and everyone, regardless of their place of origin, can hear the message of God’s deeds of power. And so, Acts becomes the story of the growing church, in which the Sunday lectionary will lead us all the way to Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday in June. This is a story full of challenges and foibles. A story which includes dramatic disagreement, and requiring persistent prayer. As I read the Acts of the Apostles I sometimes wonder if it should be called the Arguments of the Apostles. They disagree aplenty, sometimes seriously. Yet they keep on talking, discussing, even arguing. Most importantly, they recognize the origin from which they come – they are witnesses.

Members of any ecumenical partnership are in a unique position to stand together as witnesses in a way that members of a single denomination are not. We are heirs of those whose insight and vision it was to establish such a series of partnerships here in Milton Keynes, even build new and intentionally ecumenical buildings. The story remains the same – we stand together.

Barry Lotz