Superhero Acts

Deacon G. read the book of Acts almost as many times as he read the War Chapters.

Peter and the boys are heroes. They have dramatic confrontations where they drop one-liners, mass conversions . . .

. . . heck, they’re superheroes. Fire comes down from heaven. Angels waltz them out of jail.

Peter  in Acts is more of a dramatic star than Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus has great lines, but they are also more enigmatic. The zing tends to hit everyone, not just the enemies of Team Christian.  His message is more complicated than Peter’s. His great miracles don’t self-aggrandize.

(Some people condemn the Peters and claim that they are trying to be more like Christ when in reality they aren’t even close to Peter’s level.)

What is humbling is that Peter became what he was because Jesus made him that way. We have in Christ something beyond a hero or beyond a superhero. He proliferates heroes.

Many years ago I twice dreamed I was reading a comic book about a super hero called the Cross. At a scene of distress, the Cross would appear hovering over it in the air, arms extended like a man on a cross, and blazing with light like a human torch. Some tithe of the passersby and bystanders would then be transformed. Stronger, braver, tougher, quicker than their normal selves, they would leap into action and solve the problem. The Cross himself did nothing.

My daughter says, “Acts is about how to be, the Gospels are about how to become what we should be.”

Update: I felt like this post was missing something.  The Spirit suggested an addition.

I bear witness that Jesus is the Christ.