Preparing pad and pencil, then, or more properly stylus and papyrus, we jot down our notes, take them home with us, and by dint of a little homework emerge with a rough outline of what the early Christians preached about:
What Then?
It was exciting. On any interpretation, these were not things that could be tossed off lightly. If they were true, they demanded the most radical reorganization of life. If God had in fact made himself known in a particular life on earth, then it was important to know as much about that life as possible. If the one who lived that life had not been held by the grave, then it would be necessary to adopt a wholly new attitude toward death as well as life. If this same Jesus was active in the Church right now, then the Church must be a particularly important part of God's whole concern for man. If the work of God in Christ was to be completed later on, then it would be important to be preparing for that event.
So every sermon led up to the question, What shall we do because of this? And it was in answer to this question that the concluding part of the sermon was always geared, the exhortation or "teaching" (point No. 6 in the notes above). "What are you to do? You are to repent," Peter would say. "That is, you are to turn about, shift the direction of your life -- for this is what 'repentance' means. Your life is now to have a new center: no longer yourself, but God, the God you have come to know in Jesus Christ."
A break with the past, a new beginning. That, in fact, is what had happened to Peter himself. Peter had repudiated Jesus publicly, and denied that he had ever known him. And then Jesus had been put to death. It was too late ever to make amends. But it was not too late, for the risen Christ appeared to Peter and forgave him. So Peter had a fresh start. His life was remade. No wonder he could talk this way!
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