Monday, April 6, 2015 (Easter Monday)

Monday, April 6, 2015 (Easter Monday)

Acts 2:14, 22-32

We join the program in progress, after the Pentecost miracle that has Jesus’s followers speaking in many languages, allowing the people assembled from all over the world to hear their message. In verses 22 to 32 we hear words from Peter, as he gives a summary of the kerygma, the basic Christian proclamation. What is this message? That Jesus was more than just an ordinary person, as evidenced by his might acts (2:22); Jesus was killed, both by human complicity and, in some way, in accordance with God’s plan (2:23); and most importantly, the Easter message: God raised Jesus from the dead (2:24). 

In Biblical studies one of the questions that one asks of a text is ‘what was its initial Sitz im Leben,’ its ‘setting in life?’ This is grounded in the belief that many of the New Testament texts weren’t simply written down like a reporter writes a story for the newspaper, or like a police detective who goes around asking for “just the facts, ma’am.” The early followers of Jesus met, worshipped together, and supported one another, and in that context they would have discussed and pondered what they had experienced in being with Jesus. What was important? What was unique? What had to be passed on to future generations and to newcomers to the community? What is that kerygma? From early on, as we see today, the kerygma has something to do with Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. And it wasn't a lifeless proclamation that just sat there as if they had become self-satisfied in what they had received. It coloured their reading of the Hebrew Scriptures, as we see in the treatment of Psalm 16 in verses 29-31, and strengthened them when they faced persecution. 

I get a bit of a thrill when I consider the Sitz im Leben of Peter’s words in today’s passage. Imagine the early Christians joining together on Saturday evenings to sing Psalms and share what they knew of the story of Jesus, perhaps saying together words similar to Peter’s in verses 23-24. When we say the Creed each week we are aligning ourselves with Christians from ages past, in affirming our trust in the Christian kerygma, that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. They aren't words that we're supposed to say by rote, or words that we need to say, like a test. They're much more than that. Just as Peter and the early Christian community found themselves reading their Scriptures with fresh eyes, so too might the kerygma inspire us to see the world around us with new eyes, bathed in the light of the resurrection.

- Matthew Kieswetter