spes clara

whack   \ˈhwak, ˈwak\

– adjective: appalling in nature, unconventional. 

According to the folks at urbandictionary.com, that’s one way to define the word “whack”. It can be used to describe something that’s strange and out of the ordinary. Though it’s not a theological term, in some ways it describes the book of Acts. Since Acts contains information that is important when thinking about baptism (one of my favourite topics), I want to briefly think about it – especially with respect to some of its more unusual features.

I think too many people throughout history have misapplied what Acts teaches to their own church contexts. Some people read it and come away expecting tongue-speaking from every Christian. Some expect spectacular miracles to be the normal, everyday experience of the local church. Others use it as a kind of multi-purpose ‘how-to’ guide for a range of church practices.

I want to point out some of the interesting features of Acts, which should tell us that we are reading about an extraordinary time in the schema of redemptive history.

The Bible makes it clear that when God moves in history, either in creating, judging, or saving, extraordinary things happen which you probably shouldn’t normally expect to see. Think of God’s act of creation – that’s pretty amazing; Noah’s flood; Sodom and Gomorrah; the plagues in Egypt; the Exodus; the destruction of Jericho; the building of the temple; Elijah on Mount Carmel; the Babylonian exile; a virgin birth; the savage death of the sinless Son of God; his resurrection; Pentecost. Whenever you read about these things, you don’t presume, “this is normally how things work in the world.” At key junctures in salvation-history, big things happen that don’t normally happen. In many ways, this is what we see when we read Acts. We can’t assume that just because it appears in Acts, it should automatically be taken as prescriptive for the church down through the ages.

The diverse and unusual features suggest that Acts is every bit as extraordinary as the Exodus or Elijah on Mount Carmel. It is not to be considered the normative model for every church, in every age, in every way. Consider some of these events:

• Philip vanishes into thin air after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch and reappears elsewhere instantaneously
• magic, divination and sorcery are considered to be powerful and real
• the Holy Spirit appears like tongues of fire – a lot of churches claim the Spirit is at work in the room, but no one is reaching for the fire extinguishers
• people are raised from the dead
• people are healed by coming into contact with Paul’s shadow
• the handkerchiefs of the Apostles heal people (Acts 19:12)
• an angel wakes up Peter in prison and says “quick, get up!”  (Acts 12:7)
• people are delivered from demonic possession
• the Apostles are persecuted for disturbing the economic prosperity of an entire class of business owners
• people see visions
• people are made blind
• people sell all that they have and give it to the church
• in Jerusalem the believers share everything, and have every possession in common (I bet your church doesn’t!)
• people are stoned to death because of their faith in Jesus
• Gentile believers are commanded that they can’t eat the meat of animals that have been strangled
• in seeking the guidance of the Lord in choosing a replacement for Judas, the disciples pray and then ‘cast lots’ to decide who will get the job
• Paul survives a deadly snake bite
• Barnabas is mistaken for the Greek God Zeus (Acts 14:12)

All I want to point out is that we need to be very cautious when we read Acts because it was written in a world foreign to ours, at a key juncture in God’s interactions with the world. Moreover, it’s clear that Luke isn’t writing this book with Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology open in front of him. Acts records an incredible series of events at a key time in salvation-history when Jesus is working through the word preached by his people. As the word spreads, the life-giving Spirit begins to create a whole new kind of society in the midst of the watching world.

Acts is a complicated and selective showcase of amazing historical events. If we see it for how unusual it is, we’ll be careful when applying it to how we “do church” in our particular historical context. But of course, we’ll also remember that God still works powerfully through his word and through the community of those who cherish his promises.