Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Many an earnest Christian over time has realized that the Church (in whatever iteration) was compromised or corrupted or commercialized or otherwise bound to the contingencies of the present more than the commitments of the faith. In response, many of these Christians have sought to make a return to the early Church—that is, to a Church that is simpler, purer, and not focused on fitting into the world and its logics. Returning to the early Church, for these Christians, is about living out a true Christian faith rooted in the Bible. Such efforts are noble, to be sure. But do they make sense?
Putting aside the obvious point that, of course, no one can really return to the actual early Church, Acts reminds us that the early Church might not have been that purer, simpler, and truer Church that we like to imagine. Indeed, the scene described in our reading from Acts today suggests that the early days of the Church were rather chaotic and confusing. Nothing was settled, The Church didn’t really have an organizational structure or leader. Doctrines were not yet set. And there were lots of competing voices, all claiming to know the truth about Jesus and to represent the one true faith.
In a setting like that, the questions proliferated. Who was Jesus, exactly? Was he really the Messiah? Was he a demi-god? A prophet? Who were the people of God after Jesus? Were the Jews still the people of God? Did the Gentiles fit in here somewhere? Were they a people of God? How was one to know? Moreover, what were earnest Christians to make of all those competing voices, each asserting that they had the truth? Which one was right? And who could be trusted with getting the word out about the Good News? Who would reliably spread that word as a matter of faith, and not for profit or power?
This scene in Acts reminds me of our own time. These days, voices constantly compete with one another to claim that they have the truth, they know the mind of God, they are the true church. And just like the disciples in Jesus’s day, we want to know how we are to know. How are we to ferret out which voices are truly speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ? How can we tell them apart from charlatans who pretend to speak on behalf of the Gospel but, in fact, draw on the name of Jesus only to benefit themselves?
Well, it turns out that the disciples had similar questions. When we encounter them today in John, they are pressing Jesus about God. They want assurances about who and what God is. They also want to know that they know the truth about God. In short, they want to have certainty that they have all this right, just like so many of us today.
It seems unlikely that the answer that Jesus gave them was the one they were hoping for. What did he say? He told them that they already knew God because they knew Jesus. Put another way, Jesus said that they didn’t need something more or something else. Jesus was it. He was all there was and all they needed to know.
To be God’s people, then, was pretty straight forward. All they had to do was remember what Jesus did and do likewise. Feed the hungry. Take care of the widows and orphans. Welcome the stranger. Visit the incarcerated. Heal the sick. And they were to do it, not because it would save their eternal souls but because they wanted to know God.
I guess, in the end, it’s all pretty simple. If you want to know God, follow Jesus. If you want to know the truth, follow Jesus. Follow Jesus to the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the incarcerated, the sick and be the people of God. Moreover, if you think someone might be feeding you some hullabaloo instead of the Good News, watch what they do. Listen to what they say. If it doesn’t look or sound like Jesus, shake the dust from your feet and move on.
—Susan Trollinger