Acts 1:1-8; Psalm 77
May 24, 09
Patrick Preheim
Apostlegeschichte
God’s Holy Spirit is still going to the ends of the earth. One April a few
years back James Sevigny and a fried went mountain climbing in a remote area
near Lake Louise. Ice gave away, they fell, and an avalanche pounded them six
hundred meters to a plateau on the mountain. The friend was dead, but he was the
lucky one. In the tumble Sevigny’s arm fractured, ribs cracked, knee ligaments
tore, nose /teeth / back all broke (the back in two places). Sevigny
realized there was no vast gulf separating life and death, but rather a fine
line, and at that moment, [he] thought it would be easier to cross that line
than to struggle on.
He then felt a sudden, strange sensation of an invisible being very close at
hand. “It was something I couldn’t see but it was a physical presence.” The
presence communicated mentally and its message was clear: “You can’t give up,
you have to try.” Sevigny wrote,
It told me what to do. The only decision I had made at that point of time was to
lay down next to Rick and to fall asleep and to accept death. That’s the only
decision I made. All decisions made subsequent to that were made by the
presence. I was merely taking instructions... I understood what it wanted me to
do. It wanted me to live.
The presence urged Sevigny to get up. It dispensed practical advice. It told him, for example to follow the blood dripping from the tip of his nose as if it were an arrow pointing the way...The presence, which stood behind his right shoulder, implored him to continue even when the struggle to survive seemed untenable...[The presence] accompanied Sevigny across the Valley of the Ten Peaks, to the camp he and his [his friend] had started from earlier that day. [He was too bruised to light a fire or even crawl into his tent, so he sat down and made ready to die]. “Then, at once he thought he heard some other voices, and called out for help...Had [the late afternoon Cross Country skier] not heard him, Sevigny would have been left for the night, and would have almost certainly died. (story of James Sevigny, in The Third Man Factor by John Geiger, pp. 7-9)
God’s Spirit is still seeking out broken and bloodied people at the ends of
the earth. The Apostles of Acts, and the apostles of today, are invited to go to
the ends of the earth to behold and testify to God’s saving spirit.
Acts is the Biblical book Anita and I have chosen to look at this summer. I like
the German name for this book of the Bible: Apostelgescheichte—Apostle stories
or Apostle histories. Acts is the story of God’s Holy Spirit working through and
beyond the Apostles as the good news takes root in Jerusalem and spreads across
the known world. It is God who spreads the good news to the ends of the earth,
and the Apostles give witness and testimony to what God does. The stories of
Acts are in the past, yes, but they are still happening. God is still out there
doing amazing stuff! The apostles are still called to be there as witnesses and
in turn give testimony to God’s work in the world. How does one present God’s
story past and present in a compelling way? I read a journal a couple weeks ago
that pointed me in a direction I think is helpful.
An article in Vision (A Canadian Mennonite University and Associated Mennonite
Biblical Seminary publication) by Allan Rudy-Froese addressed the recent
transition from sermons that simply define the gospel to the sermon that does
the gospel. He asks, “if the biblical text one is preaching from is, for
instance, a narrative, why would the sermon be organized as an essay with one
argument following another?” (Allan Rudy-Froese, “The Preached sermon as a
happening of the gospel” in Vision: a journal for church and theology, Spring
2009; vol. 10, no.1, p. 7). This theory of preaching suggests that if the
biblical text is a story about God or Christ in the life of a person or a
people, consider writing a one act play and preaching in the first person. If
the biblical story is a set of parables about the Kingdom of God, consider
preaching a modern day parable. Allan’s words and their implication made me
wonder about the book of Acts.
If this book of the Bible is the story of God’s spirit working through and
beyond the Apostles, according to the theory mentioned by Allan Froese, then we
will preach Acts best by having an ongoing report of the Apostles witness of the
Holy Spirit. Anita and I want to give this try. We want the congregation to
experience the book of Acts. We want the faithful who choose to gather here on
Sunday morning to experience the Holy Spirit which continues to appear in our
world, even at the ends of the earth.
This Sunday and next Sunday we will hear the story of God from the lives of the
apostles who are joining Nutana Park Mennonite Church in membership. Through the
summer every second Sunday we will hear about an “encounter with God” from one
of the apostles of the congregation who has been worshipping here regularly.
This encounter with God will not be a chronology of a person’s faith
development. It will not sermonize or moralize. It will simply be a window into
an encounter with our God who is still active in the world-- shaping spirit and
soul. It will be short-- two to three minutes. The Apostelgeschichte, the book
of Acts, is about the spread of good news from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth. It is the story of God working salvation in the world. It is the record
of Apostles who witnessed and testified to the work of God. I can tell you these
things. I can preach it with the prowess of theological studies and Biblical
exposition. My guess is, however, that we best internalize the apostle story
through stories of the apostles. Hearing the Apostelgeschichte past and present
will encourage us; it will make us remember the God moments we have witnessed;
it will help give language to our own encounters with the Divine; it will model
for children, youth, and adults who are growing in the faith; it will expand the
number of voices reflecting on spiritual matters in the course of a morning
service. For so many reasons it is good to hear the Apostelgeschichte.
Acts is addressed to God lover, which is the transliteration of Theophilus . I
am guessing the author probably means that the narrative of Acts is for anyone
who loves God. It is good for we God lovers to hear about the spread of the good
news. It is good tell the story-- the story back then and the story now. The
Psalmist says, “I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your
wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty
deeds.” God’s spirit, angels, and messengers are all around us. They are
bringing down empires and rescuing the lost. The Apostelsgeschichte continues
and the Bible invites us to tell the on-going stories of salvation. May God’s
blessing be added to the telling and retelling of the Spirit’s work in the
world. Amen.