Acts 2, for me, has become one of the most important chapters in all the Bible. Faith is an ever-evolving thing: growing, shifting, adapting. And part of that adaptation has been a clearer view of resurrection and the role of the Spirit. Growing up Southern Baptist, most sermons and Bible studies pointed to salvation and the cross. Little attention was given to the role of the Spirit and resurrection was taken for granted. But faith in Christ is not just a salvation check box or a ‘get into heaven free’ card. Faith in Christ means that I am being saved; that my will, my desires are being slowly subsumed by God’s will for this world. That work in us is done by the Spirit, certainly not by us. And God’s will for this world, which is to restore and renew it to a state of perfect well-being, like it was in the very beginning, begins to be reflected through us by that faith. On Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus – Easter. We do that every Sunday when we worship as a body of faith, whether it’s in a building or from our homes. The resurrection of Jesus shows us what our future will be like by faith in Jesus. A future world restored back to full life, just like Jesus was restored. When we gather, we seek to catch a glimpse of that future.

The lectionary passage for the next two weeks is from Acts 2, focusing on the sermon of Peter following the miracle at Pentecost. And I think it’s as good a place to go as any right now while we are adapting our faith traditions during this pandemic. Luke, who wrote both the gospel of Luke as well as the book of Acts, was concerned about history but also about what it meant for the church to represent the work of Jesus in the world, that work of salvation. In some very real ways, we are still living in that book, as the church, struggling with life on earth while at the same time seeking to be faithful to Jesus. And we read about the failures of the early church too in Acts, just as we know of churches now who get it wrong all the time. Sometimes it feels like we all get it wrong all the time, but we are works in progress by faith in Christ.

Creation, rebellion, Jesus, Spirit, (Jesus). The last one is in parentheses because it hasn’t happened yet. By faith in Jesus, we believe it will; we believe Jesus will return and restore God’s creation to an original state of perfect well-being. Peter’s sermon in Acts was one that launched people with faith in Jesus into action towards that future hope. We call that movement the church. Let’s look in and see what God can do through us over the next several days, starting with some questions:

What are we as the body of Christ doing to represent God’s purposes of redemption, restoration and renewal even while the earth seems to treat us like antigens? What are we doing right now to represent a future that we believe will be a state of perfect well-being for all creation even while we are having to keep our distance from others because of disease? What does it mean to be focused on a future hope so that we can better act on our present when we feel so displaced by this virus? I believe that even while we feel stuck at home, we, as the church, are called to be on the move. When Jesus ascended, about 120 people were not sure what to do next. But God had plans and reached them by the Spirit Jesus had promised. That Spirit continues to reach us and continues to call us to act.

— Paul