I often think that I was born too late or at least in the wrong time period. I love watching or reading about epic adventures and time periods. My new guilty pleasure is the BBC version of Robin Hood (it’s streaming on Netflix right now). There’s something chivalrous in the show – something adventurous that connects with me. Of course, I also know that if I lived “back in those days” I wouldn’t have my favorite toys and gadgets. Shortly after I watch Robin embarrass the heinous Sheriff of Nottingham, I become very aware that I’m in the 21st century for a reason (I mean can you imagine me without my Mac? Seriously?!).
The last several months, I’ve been living in the 80 days of post-resurrection. I’ve been reading about the first encounters Jesus had post-Easer sunday, and then after ascension I started focusing on Pentecost, and then the early church. As I’ve read the stories and I’ve engaged all the years I’ve spent studying the first century and ancient Rome and the overall pieces of the book of Acts, I’ve realized that this book captures me like very few things do.
As I read it, I’m aware that it’s about the move of God on a people hungry for something more. I see people radically transformed from religiously pious bags of wind to fired and filled up men and women willing to stare death straight in the face so that the Good News could be experienced by even more. I see a lot of growing pains, but I see a people with a deep self-less kind of love – the community of faith was about being shared! I see a group of people willing to not “go the extra mile” but compelled to go to the whole world with their message of hope and healing.
So, when I read Acts I sense all these messages (plus about a million others) and, if I’m honest, a little bit of me is saddened. I’m not saddened because it’s there, but because I feel like I’m missing it. I mean I don’t know very many people who wouldn’t want that kind of adventure. Who wouldn’t want to live in that kind of passion and devotion? I read Acts and I feel a sense of homesickness that gnaws at my insides. I want that hunger and that adventure too. I want what my friend Will Mancini calls a “redemptive passion” to soak me and compel me and change me and…well you get the point.
One of the joys of being able to study the book of Acts, at least as I’ve been able to, is that I get to see the beautiful similarities between the first century and our day – right now in the 21st century. We live in a time that’s not much different than the first century. We have political issues, disunity, technological advances, healthcare concerns, violence, sexual confusion, a void in the overall sense of right and wrong (or as my philosopher friends would say – a misplaced sense of authority and absolutes).
What’s exciting about this is that the same God who empowered people to change the world in the first century is still willing to use His people to do it again. The same life giving Spirit of power and holiness is just as willing to empower faithful willing vessels to once again “turn the world upside down.” The same God has the same desire to come and fill us with that Redemptive Passion that was birthed within the very God-head we claim to worship.
I guess this is the reason you and I were saved for the 21st century! We have an adventure in front of us – an epic journey that will demand and one that will be written down and remembered. It’ll be shared around campfires and coffee shops. “Those folks were a people who allowed the Holy Spirit to transform them and use them to bring wholeness to others. They chose to live in wide open spaces and to let the redemptive passion of God change everything – all over again!” That’s a story I hope you and I can live and one that will be read by our kids and grandkids. The book of Acts doesn’t have an ending for a reason – the story of the church and God’s passion and the Holy Spirit’s move on us as a people is still being told in you and me. May we have the courage to let it be!
Let the Adventure Begin!
