I have a confession to make. My favorite book of the Bible is the Gospel of Luke. No single part of Scripture speaks to me as does Luke’s Gospel. Now, that’s not my confession. My confession is that until several years ago, Acts was one of my least favorite books in Scripture. The irony of that confession is that the same person who wrote Luke also wrote Acts. I’ve often wondered how the power and poetry of Luke could become the humdrums of Acts. I was sure that I was missing something. So, I decided to try to understand the book of Acts afresh. I went to Christian Theological Seminary and researched the best books and commentaries on Acts. I discovered a few interesting details, but nothing really grabbed me. After hours of research, I returned home thinking that if I ever preached any of this, we had better pass out NO-DOZE with the bulletins at the beginning of the service.
But then I did something I usually do when I become frustrated about my study and preaching. I reached for some of the books that have meant a lot to me over the years. I suppose it’s the comfort of familiarity, but one of the books I picked up was a collection of the writings of Clarence Jordan. And in that collection, I found an observation regarding Luke and Acts that I had not thought of and had not found in the commentaries – an observation that made sense of the second volume of Luke’s work and allows it to speak to the contemporary church.
Jordan’s observation was this: Both Luke and Acts begin with birth stories. In volume 1 (Luke) Mary is the mother. In volume 2 (Acts) the church takes the place of Mary, and God implants the Holy Spirit in the church to bring forth a new kind of child on the face of the church. Volume 1 is a biography of Jesus in human flesh. Volume 2 is an account of the life of Jesus in his resurrected body – in his new body – in the Body of Christ Paul calls the church.
The Gospel writer provides two clues to alert readers of this connection between Mary and the church. In chapter 1 of Acts we read, “All of them, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, were continually praying together.” Mary, the mother, was there, just as she had been at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel. So, we are to “make the connection.”
The second clue focuses on the Spirit. In Luke 1, Mary was approached by Gabriel, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit. Her response to God is this: “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” She was willing to become pregnant – to conceive – to give birth to the Son of God.
In Acts 1-2, during the forty days before the Ascension, Jesus, “while staying with them, urged them not to leave but to wait for God’s promised gift.” So, all of them – the 12 disciples, Jesus’ brothers, the women who had been faithful to the end, and Mary were continually praying together, waiting for the promised gift – waiting like Mary some 33 years before for the gift of her son Jesus.
And finally, it came. The second birth took place. In Luke, Mary was the mother by agency of the Holy Spirit. In Acts, the church became the mother by agency of the Holy Spirit. The church gave birth to children of God. The church became the womb in which they were conceived and through which they would be nourished. The church, like Mary, was willing to become pregnant with the Holy Spirit – willing to become the agency through which Jesus stays in this world and continues his healing and redeeming work.
The Pentecost experience is described with symbols and metaphors. We are told of a mighty wind. Both the Hebrew word and the Greek word for wind can also mean breath and spirit. The writer of Acts is making a play on words that any Jew or Greek would have recognized. A rushing, mighty wind filled every nook and cranny. Fire, a symbol of God’s dynamic presence, is the second metaphor in our passage. The energizing Spirit of God came upon each of them – men and women, young and old, privileged and destitute. That day, prophetic dreams were fulfilled, as Peter saw, quoting the prophet Joel. The Spirit of God was poured out not on just a select few, but upon all who were willing to receive God’s gracious touch. And immediately the church moved to mission, and in doing so the church became the womb.
Peter took to the streets and preached the first sermon in the history of the church. The same Peter who had been the denier, the braggart, the blunderer, the fisherman who always had his foot in his mouth, and the coward took to the streets and preached the Good News of Jesus Christ. And three-thousand were born that day – children of God born in the womb which was the church. And in that womb, there were nurturing, teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, praying, and sharing. All they had they distributed according to need. As a mother takes care of her children, so the church nurtured and cared for her own. “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (those who were being born).”
And exciting perspective, isn’t it? But what does it say to us, the church of today? The early church was willing to become pregnant with the Spirit of God. The question is, “Are we willing to be impregnated with the Spirit of God? To become the womb through which God’s sons and daughters are to be born?” Sometimes I’m not too sure that we, the church of North America, are willing to say to God, “Here we are, do with us as you will.”
So, what is required for the church to become pregnant with the Holy Spirit? Love, willingness, priority, change, and risk are all required for anyone to become a parent. Nothing is ever the same once we bring a life into this world and into our family. Mothers and fathers can bear witness to that. And once we say “Yes” to God and mean what we say about God’s Spirit nurturing, guiding, and challenging us in our midst, then we will never be the same either. Peter and the early church certainly were not.
The favorite hymn of the church I served as a seminary student was “Footprints of Jesus.” The hymn spoke of going over cold, dark mountains and into the homes of the poor and lowly, and declared “We will follow the steps of Jesus wher’ere they go.” But I’ll tell you the truth. If God had appeared in that little church and said, “You, Effie, go to Africa.” “You, Bill, go to the ghettos of New York.” Or “You, Mary, go down the road to the widow Jones with her four kids and few options,” the people of that church would have dropped dead where they sat – and so would I! We had no intention, much less expectation, of letting our lives be shaped by the will of God. We were too content to be bothered.
And yet God continually comes to the church and asks, “Will you be the womb through which MY sons and daughters can be born?” And here our possessive pronouns are very important. They are not just sons and daughters, but God’s children. Sons and daughters are born every day in the church. But the question is, “Are they sons and daughters of the Living God, or are they children sired by such camouflaged spirits as self-centeredness, apathy, and a pursuit of mammon?” All of these spirits seem to be the ruling forces in our society.
But what if we say “No” to God’s request that we become the womb for God’s children? In his autobiographical book entitled Brother to a Dragonfly, Will Campbell related a conversation he had with his friend, P.D. East.
“You know, Preacher Will, that Church of yours and Mr. Jesus is like an Easter chicken my little Karen got one time. Man, it was a pretty thing. Dyed a deep purple. Bought it at the grocery store.”
I interrupted that white was the liturgical color for Easter, but he ignored me. “And it served a real useful purpose. Karen loved it. It made her happy. And that made me and her Mama happy. Okay?”
I said, “Okay.”
“But pretty soon that baby chicken started feathering out. You know, sprouting little pin feathers. Wings and tail and all that. And you know what? Them new feathers weren’t purple. No sirree bob, that damn chicken wasn’t really purple at all. That damn chicken was a Rhode Island Red. And when all of them little red feathers started growing out from under that purple, it was one hell of a sight. All of a sudden Karen couldn’t stand that chicken anymore.”
“I think I see what you’re driving at, P.D.”
“No, hell no, Preacher Will. You don’t understand any such thing, for I haven’t got to my point yet.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. Rave on.”
“Well, we took that half-purple and half-red thing out to her Grandma’s house and threw it in the chicken yard with all the other chickens. It was still different, you understand. That little chicken. And the other chickens knew it was different. And they resisted it like hell. Pecked it, chased it all over the yard. Wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Wouldn’t even let it get on the roost with them. And that little chicken knew it was different, too. It didn’t bother any of the others. Wouldn’t fight back or anything. Just stayed by itself. Really suffered, too. But little by little, day by day, that chicken came around. Pretty soon, even before all the purple grew off it, while it was still just a little bit different, that damn thing was behaving just about like the rest of them chickens. Man, it would fight back, peck the hell out of the ones littler than it was, knock them down to catch a bug if it got to it in time. Yes sirree bob, the chicken world turned that Easter chicken around. And now you can’t tell one chicken from another. They’re all just alike. That Easter chicken is just one more chicken. There ain’t a damn thing different about it.”
I knew he wanted to argue, and I didn’t want to disappoint him.
“Well, P. D., the Easter chicken is still useful. It lays eggs, doesn’t it?”
It was what he wanted me to say. “Yea, Preacher Will. It lays eggs. But they all lay eggs. Who needs an Easter chicken for that? And the Rotary Club serves coffee. And the 4-H Club says prayers. The Red Cross takes up offerings for hurricane victims. Mental Health does counseling, and the Boy Scouts have youth programs.”
Brother to a Dragonfly, pages 219-220
The only way I know for the church to keep from becoming an Easter chicken is to say to God with genuine humility and firm commitment, “Behold I am your handmaiden. Do with me according to your will.”
It can happen, you know. It’s happened before–not just at Pentecost, but countless times. And it can happen again – not only can happen, it will happen if we are willing.
(Will Campbell was a personal friend of Clarence Jordan. Campbell often stayed at Koinonia Farm which Jordan founded. Brother to a Dragonfly is very entertaining, but it also contains some of the best theology you will ever read.)
Discussion Questions:
- What does it take for the church to become “pregnant” with the Holy Spirit?
- Why are mainline Protestants so leery of talking about and embracing the Holy Spirit as an important part of our faith and witness?
- There are many worthy organizations which “lay eggs” in our world. In what ways is the church different from these organizations? What is unique about our existence, mission, and witness?
- What kind of sons and daughters are being born in the church today? Are they sons and daughters of God, or have they been sired by other spirits? What are those other spirits?
- How can the church join forces with organizations which seek the common good in our world and at the same time maintain its uniqueness? What kinds of organizations and movements should we support? Is there a uniqueness to the witness and mission of the church?
- At what points in church history has the church been faithful as the Body of Christ? At what points has the church in the U.S. been faithful as the Body of Christ? At what points does the church in America need to be more faithful as the Body of Christ?
Acts 2:1-21 (NRSV)
2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Acts 2:41-47
41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds[a] to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home[b] and ate their food with glad and generous[c] hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
