Alive

Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive.
-Mel Brooks

The book of Acts is sometimes called the Gospel of the church. It’s not a stand-alone thing of course, there’s no church without the story and person of Jesus. Maybe a better way to say it is that Acts is the story of what happens because of Christ’s resurrection. And at least one of the things that happens is a new kind of life. Acts tells the astounding stories of a new Way, a new community, and a new kind of people that rise in the wake of everything Jesus said and did and was and is.

Pay attention in the weeks to come. Some old characters come alive in new ways. Old Peter, whose faults and failings were so painfully apparent at the close of the gospels’ accounts, rises to claim his calling as a leader and a worker of wonders. His companions as well, so recently holed up and hurting behind locked doors, come alive as a public community of praise and welcoming worship, their fearlessness in the face of doubters and haters matched by their generosity and openness as more and more are added to their numbers each day.

In the scriptures, we’ll witness together how the church moves from hushed hesitancy to arm-flapping, noisy, and colorful vitality. As you share and celebrate those old stories, be sure to look for the signs of life budding and blooming where you are as well.          

So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
-Genesis 1:21