Women and men, together in prayer

Have you ever had a remembrance of how something happened and then a much more capable witness tells you the truth and you have trouble believing it? A couple of examples from my childhood: After my parents divorced, we moved to subsidized housing in town and were poor. My mom would sneak me down to the basement of the library for what I remember to be Head Start. In college, a classroom full of us were asked one J-term, "Did any of you attend Head Start?" I was the only one to admit to it. I mentioned this to my mom and she set me straight, "That was story time."

In elementary school, we needed to find out our heritage (i.e. what percentage of everything we are). My mom is 100% German. My dad is everything else...he claims Swedish, Norwegian, English, Scottish, Pawnee Indian, and Irish in descending order. I even had it written down somewhere for the assignment. This is one of the things I still have after living in my car for three months. Someone asked me this question once in my mom's presence. She said, "You're not Irish." There goes St. Patty's Day. I still don't believe her on this one.

From our Gospels, I have always gotten the impression that during the 10 days between Christ's ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit in power the disciples were huddled together in the upper room for fear of the Jews. I have re-read the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts and I can't find that anywhere! So much of our media is fear-driven, but not with Luke. After Jesus goes up into the heavens, "They were on their knees, worshiping him. They returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy. They spent all their time in the Temple praising God."

There is a little overlap in the story, so in Acts two men in white robes appear and assure them that Jesus is coming back, "So they left the mountain called Olives and returned to Jerusalem." They went to the upper room to pick a 12th and, this is my favorite line, "They agreed they were in this for good, completely together in prayer, the women included." If we did just this one thing, Faith would take a giant leap forward in health...the focus on prayer, not equality for women (we're doing fairly well with that, right Kelly? please correct me if I'm wrong).

After Peter lets everyone know that it was the Spirit, not spirits that caused Pentecost to get so out of control, we hear more about the disciples' life together (the 12 become know as apostles at this point, because they are sent out in pairs, hence the need for an even number...everyone else who follows Jesus is called a disciple--that's why I go by Matthew, instead of Matt...I want to be reminded that I'm a disciple every time someone uses my name): "They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. All the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration (i.e. the common meal--the Lord's Supper), exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. "

My hope for Faith is that we could live like that, knowing one another intimately, reading the Bible and praying together, so that we will have the wherewithal to make a difference in our community and the world.