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În biserica Străjerul, predicile din cadrul slujbei de duminică au rolul de a întregi tabloul unei experienţe liturgice specifice zilei de duminică, ziua Domnului.

Predicile se realizează structurat, pe cărţi ale Scripturii. Alegerea carţilor se face în funcţie de dinamica şi de nevoile comunităţii.

Prezentăm aici câte un sumar al predicilor din duminicile anterioare, în ideea că vor fi folositoare pentru cei care le citesc, dar şi ca o expresie a viziunii şi specificului comunităţii noastre. See archive.

 

Book „Acts of the Apostles” (chap. 4:32 – 5:11 )

A remarkable event

The text of the Scripture highlights some ideas about the ethos of the Christian community in Jerusalem:

• The community numerically progressed rapidly. It is about a „multitude” of people who had thought to have the same belief.
• The Christian experience was profoundly community-based. The Christians were „all of one heart and soul", the unity was a reality created by the Holy Spirit not by human artifices. That is why, in this chapter, it is very important for us to understand the Christians' right to discover and emphasize the Church unity, permanently supported by the Spirit and not to built or develop it, following various methods. In addition, one should retain that the Spirit sets the bond, builds and the disunion and breaking come from the evil. Therefore, we should be careful about whom we hold „accountable” for the unity of the Christian communities and for the idea of forming a new community....
• The Christian parted their possessions, without being compelled to do so, to cover the needs of the people within the community. The most mature and eloquent model in this sense is that exerted by Barnabas, who sold a real estate and lay it to the apostles' feet. This model shows that in Jerusalem no form of communism and irresponsibility is practiced which might have brought serious social problems.
• The social involvement of the Church is strongly anchored in a missionary practice of proclaiming the Word. The community dynamics in Jerusalem was not given by a social project, but by a spiritual one, which considers the world redemption.
• The apostles were pathfinders. A new culture created around them. In the center of this manner of thinking and of life lays the concept of community, strongly anchored in the epiphaneia (appearance) and parousia (coming) of God (2 Tim. 4:8. I John 3:2-3, Evr. 9:28, 1 Tes 2:19). This belief explains the Christians' attitude not to be bond to their material possessions. Certainly the principle practiced by the community in Jerusalem was not the sale of property but helping each other and call to diligence, to work in order „to have and give the others".

In such an optimism, faith and dynamism context of the Church in Jerusalem, a completely special event occurred which even today is hard to understand. It is about the case of Ananias and Saphira. What determined the two spouses to do what they did? It is not easy to suspect. It is certain that the Scripture text draws our attention that Satan filled their heart with wickedness. The term „filled” (gr. pleroo) means to „fill up", to pour until something is filled. Highly likely that Ananias and Saphira were not authentic Christians (still there were pride, envy and ruling desire into their hearts) or that their Christian beginning changed rapidly in a lifestyle lacking the values of the Christian community. On such a background, the devil comes and „completes” the man's weakness, makes him more vulnerable and then subjects him completely. Ananias and Saphira can be understood as an example of people corresponding to the parable in the Gospel (chap. 12) they can be in the situation of whose house was unoccupied, swept clean and put in order, but as he did not cared to „fill it up” the final condition of that man is worse than the first, he becomes „full of” the evil and slavery spirits.

The condition of the two lying spouses contrasts with the apostles' spirit and with the Christian crowd in Jerusalem, with the unity and the communion spirit. Ananias and Saphira lacked this spirit, they were empty, and they lacked the Holy Spirit. And when they pretend and want to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, they do nothing else but sin against the Holy Spirit and such a sin has no forgiveness in this century or in the future (Matthew, chap. 12).

What is most shocking in this event is the death of the two, as punishment for their sin. They died instantly, without being able to repent. It is interesting to note that it was not Peter to pronounce the death sentence but the Holy Spirit „acted” instantaneously in order to punish the sin. Peter was an exponent of the Eschaton's presence in the world, endowed with the charisma of the spirits' finding and a man worker together with God. The event occurred brought repentance to the community, a fear of the Lord in which the respect and love for the Heavenly Father interweave. It is a healthy fear which leads to salvation and not to damnation (Isaiah 33:6).

Iassy, 18 February 2006

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