Dear Theophilus

Acts 1:1-10

May 28, 2006

Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo

If you have ever read the beginning of the Gospel of Luke you will note that Luke dedicates the book to a man named Theophilus. Luke is the only Gospel writer who writes a sequel, if you will. He continues the story of Jesus with a story of the early Christian Church. Acts of the Apostles is a book which teaches us, on so many levels, how the church came to be.

In our day and age the Christian Church lives and breathes in so many different forms, on so many different levels, that the church of Acts bears little resemblance to what we have now.

We, in modern day Christianity debate about buildings. In the Church of Acts, there were no buildings.

We, in modern day Christianity debate about what kind of music we ought to have in Worship. In the Church of Acts, there was no church music.

We, in modern day Christianity debate about how to interpret the Bible.. In the Church of Acts, there was no Bible.

We, in modern day Christianity debate about what role tradition has in the life of the church. In the Church of Acts, there was no tradition.

In fact, Luke tells us, Jesus ascends into Heaven. This is, on one level, a glorious story. However, on another level, the apostles lost the one person they most needed. Jesus was no longer walking with them.

The preaching was now on them.

The miracles were now on them.

If Christianity was going to survive, it was on them.

And Luke gives them in a gentle way, a little reminder of something. His words, “After his suffering…” are words of a reminder to the apostles and to everyone who reads this document, that the Church of Jesus Christ wasn’t going to come into existence painlessly.

We sometimes lament that Christians are persecuted in our day and age.

The Religious Right has said this time and time again.

The Religious Left has said this time and time again.

The Religious Centrists have said this time and time again.

Within the United Church of Christ, when the networks refused to show our commercials, we clamored censorship and persecution.

There has been a lot of uproar about the movie, The DaVinci Code as being anti-Christian and persecuting of Christians.

Let me first apologize for saying this as it may be offensive to many people sitting here. The early church was persecuted. Modern day Christianity whines a lot.

It is said that when Constantine called the bishops of the early church to Rome to discuss the role of the Church in the Empire, Constantine was appalled at what he saw. The men who came to Rome were a battered, beaten group. Many were missing eyes, tongues, limbs, and all were beaten, bruised and scarred. Constantine was no wimp. He was the Emperor, he was Caesar, and you didn’t become Caesar without doing some brutality in your life. But Constantine was amazed. And these were the ones who had survived. Countless Christians died for their faith.

We lament because people don’t honor us as much as we think they ought to. We lament because our values aren’t embraced by everyone. We lament that the world doesn’t always do what we want them to do. We may like to tell the world that we are persecuted, but we are not. And, to be blunt, if Christianity is not strong enough to withstand occasional movies which I will painstakingly remind people is a work of fiction, than Christianity is not built on the solid rock Jesus told us to build it on.

So there is the beginning of Acts. Luke reminds everyone that there will be suffering and the Christian Church has to get started. It has no tradition, no Bible, no hymns, no buildings, no rituals, etc.

It does have two things at this point.

It has the stories of Jesus.

It has resolve and courage.

The early church had the stories of Jesus.

They didn’t have the Bible, they had the stories which they told to one another.

I wonder what they would think of how we treat the stories of Jesus now.

I did some online research on sermons. A lot of the sermons of our nation’s most successful churches are like this.

How To Get Along with Difficult People.

Three Keys to a Successful Marriage.

Six Keys to a Better Sex Life with Your Spouse. I found it interesting that there were only three keys to a successful marriage and six keys to a better sex life.

A Guide to Being Happy.

How to be Successful.

The list can go on and on. In virtually every case, each key, or each guide is a random short scripture passage which seems to back up the preacher’s opinion. Often, if you do the research, you’ll find that the verse is taken out of context and ultimately not about what the preacher was talking about. But most preachers never let the Bible get in the way of a good sermon.

What’s telling is this. These sermons are preached in our countries most popular and ‘successful’ churches and they all claim to be “Biblical.” Biblical meaning that every key, and every point has a Scripture verse attached to it.

But the interesting thing is this. They really don’t tell the stories of Jesus. They never dive into one of the parables and really wrestle with it. Jesus always sounds good in these sermons, but they hardly ever talk about how difficult Jesus was. And Jesus was difficult.

Jesus was difficult because his priorities are not always palatable to us in our day and age.

If you focus on the stories of Jesus and who Jesus condemned the most it’s always the same two groups. Those who were self-righteous and those who were wealthy.

Frankly, Christianity is built, often on self-righteousness. We like to figure out who we can welcome and who we can leave out and so we all have some self-righteousness sewn into us.

And, secondly, we don’t like to preach against those who are wealthy and tell them that there is no hope for them. Frankly, in the church, we like wealthy people, most especially during stewardship campaigns and capital campaigns.

So, a lot of the really “Biblical” churches avoid Jesus because, frankly, his stories are inconvenient. Frankly, we often all do because the stories of Jesus aren’t always easy or comfortable.

The early church however, did tell the stories of Jesus. They didn’t worry about people having happy marriages, or being happy, or successful or having great sex lives. Or if they did worry about those things, they didn’t preach on them.

They, instead told the story of Jesus over and over again. They shared how wonderful and how difficult Jesus was. They told the story over and over and over. They talked about Jesus’ words. They told of his miracles. They told of his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. That’s it. That was all they had and it was all they needed.

The early church also had resolve and courage.

Resolve and courage is not fearlessness. Courage is often best defined as doing something despite being afraid.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. We honor those men and women who lost their lives in defense of our nation.

We have many veterans in this church, many of whom were in combat. We have lists of people who were members of this church who are remembered, nationwide, on Memorial Day. Those who died in defense of our nation.

Those who had resolve and courage. A resolve and courage shared by those who died and those who survived. We honor them.

The early church was marked with a resolve and courage we don’t often realize. The early Christians were despised by the Jewish community of that era. The Jewish community had their own rituals, their own traditions, and the Christians were sullying them and all of their traditions.

The early Christians were despised by the Romans as well. The Romans despised anyone who disrupted order in the Empire or who challenge the authority of Caesar in any way. The early Christians were disruptive and they claimed that they got their authority from Jesus Christ who was certainly not Caesar.