From the Early Church to Today’s Cathedral

One custom of the Church during Easter has been to replace the OT lessons with readings from Acts. Why? Easter celebrates not only the Resurrection of Jesus, but the early happenings of the Jesus Movement covering about 30-35 years or so. Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus, 40 days after his resurrection according to Acts. Other accounts vary from one day to eight days, but that’s for another day. The book concludes with Paul under arrest in Rome around 62 CE.

Clearly Acts makes no attempt to cover in any real detail those three decades. Instead, Luke [the purported author] focuses on events he deems significant, especially the work of Peter and Paul.

Peter is the central figure in the first half of Acts, roughly the first twelve chapters. The stories offer details of his leadership role in the Jerusalem Community, his missionary activity among the Jews, and his role in the so-called Jerusalem Council, which was a significant meeting with Paul.

Paul is introduced in chapter 9 but only become prominent in the latter half of the book, roughly chapters 13-28. The stories trace his missionary journeys throughout the Empire, an in particular his mission to share his gospel regarding Jesus’ death, Resurrection, and promised return to largely Gentile audiences.

Dean Gary and I are going to be offering a study of the six Easter Season readings from Acts. I’ll take the first three weeks and he’ll do the rest. Our plan is to do far more than make this a history lesson, though because of my graduate focus I feel duty bound to do some. Instead, we want to explore what these stories say to us in our time.

— The Rev. Jerry Harber