"Be Water" Christians Become Bridging Agents—Reading Gathering and Scattering Narratives in the Book of Acts

“Be Water” Christians Become Bridging Agents – Reading Gathering and Scattering Narratives in the Book of Acts

Sin Pan HO

Because of persecution from fellow civic groups in their cities, Christians were scattered to different places but they would gather again and live out their Christian lives. The Book of Acts testifies to the gathering and scattering of Jesus' groups. Some scholars seek to explain the narrative purpose in Acts in the light of prophecies in Jewish scriptures, particularly the Book of Isaiah. Some scholars explain it from missiological insights and interpret the expansion of Jesus' groups in terms of cultural distance.
This article selects three narratives about gathering and scattering in Acts and does biblical exegesis mainly from the perspective of narrative criticism: figuring out the narrator's messages from his storytelling methods, including the plot's design and the story's character development. As a result, I propose some reflections on the narrative messages and their relevance to the present Christian communities in Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora communities worldwide.