Now Playing: Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack. Track 11, "Shelob's Lair".

Last night the Rachels, Alyson, and I had Bible study on Acts 3-4, focusing on 3:1-21 and 4:18-27. It was one of those times when the ability of the others to come up with ideas that hadn't even crossed my mind was pretty amazing (not that it would be hard to come up with ideas that are above and beyond me, but hey...).

The beggar sitting in front of the temple looked at Peter and John without knowing who they were or knowing Christ, 3:4-5. He wasn't seeking healing. In fact, the text says he was just expecting "something", whether that was money or whether it was the mockery that beggars sometimes get, it certainly wasn't what he actually received. By 3:9, he is walking and leaping and praising God, not only healed physically but completely renewed spiritually as well. His tiny expectation became eternal life.

Peter's sermon in Acts 3 is rather peculiar because in it he accuses the Jews directly of having murdered Christ. As someone pointed out, this accusation recurs again and again in Acts. It's not quite the evangelical m.o. that we would expect to be most effective. But the people responded in huge numbers.

Perhaps one reason for this is that Peter is preaching in this specific example in the temple, where people were coming to offer sacrifices. His preaching vividly demonstrates the fact that the sacrifice has already been offered--Christ Himself.

Also, for a devout group, this meditation on our need for forgiveness and the depth of our sin could be even more convicting. Usually we think of ourselves as "pretty good", or just repenting for daily sins of thought and word, and taking for granted the forgiveness that covers these offenses. When we stop to meditate that these offenses killed Christ, and that we are in effect the murderers of God, God's grace to us, the "times of refreshing" in 3:17-21, take on a whole new meaning.

And while realization of the depth of our sin is important, Peter doesn't let the gathering sink into the despair of that depth but instead points them directly to God who is miraculously and amazingly merciful.

The other part of this passage that we focused on was 4:18-37 and the picture of community it presents. Rachel jr. immediately asked after we'd read the passage if this is a picture of communism that we are meant to emulate. Rachel sr. answered that by saying that this "communism" is driven by love and trust in God, an understanding of His love that leads them to physical action. The pattern of prayer, the descent of the Spirit, and the communal life recurs in the text, which made us think that communism has a "Do Not Attempt This Without Divine Supervision" sign hung on it.

Even for believers, though, the notion of communism has to be tweaked if it is to be made into a fitting definition of the community described in this passage. The NIV translation has the phrase "From time to time..." to describe the selling of property, emphasizing the idea that as the church had a need, the members met the need. People realized that their goods were not their own, so they shared with one another.

Of course the question becomes whether this should translate into our church community, and how. We talked about how we need to be willing to give and not to let things have a hold on us. Particularly, though, someone brought up the idea not necessarily of financial giving but more generally of spiritual giving (and spiritual giving should probably come first anyway...). As university students, the giving of time and emotional energy may actually be more sacrificial in some ways than the giving of money (though we are called to that, too). Being willing to share spiritual encouragement, to invest in relationships with others, may be even more important than the question of actual tithing. We tossed around ideas about getting together, particularly for prayer, more frequently.