Pythagoras – 6th Century B.C.E. “Friends share all things.”
Jean Vanier, 10th Century “Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world
where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don’t need a lot of
money to be happy—in fact the opposite.”
Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles this morning is a description of the earliest Christian
communities and their inner workings or ministry and spiritual practices if you will. Some
commentators see this passage in terms of people coming together to share all they had as a
tad bit idealistic. Some commentators don’t see it that way. But does it really matter? Putting
on our critical thinking caps we realize that in some ways the cultural and lived reality of those
days the earliest disciples were living were quite different …an in some ways not so much
different. Obviously living today we have much more modern conveniences and technology to
add comfort and ease to our lives…whereas back then in the days of Jesus there was next to
none in terms of creaturely comforts. It was truly a live each day the best you can trying to
survive at times the brutal elements and realities in which they encountered. But when you
really think about it that is the reality for many people in our world today…living each day as
best they can trying to survive and maneuver about the organizations that provide assistance
today for people. And the reality is that people do fall through the cracks. But let’s go back to
the Reading from Acts and see what the earliest disciples lives were about.
Long ago—in a far off land, our ancestors in faith did the same things we do today as Christians
and communities of faith. They bore witness by doing the things that we are called to do and
be about. These practices identify us as distinctly Christian: devoting ourselves to the teaching
of the Gospel, devoting ourselves to fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, e.g. the
celebration of the Lord’s Supper…and to prayer. It would not be difficult to draw parallels
between then and now. Sunday morning service…our celebration of the Eucharist…our Bible
studies…potlucks…meetings…the prayer and visits to our shut-ins…these are the embodiments
and expressions of our own, idealized, shared journey of faith.
What may be missing in terms of our own faith community in the midst of similar activities
compared to those earliest disciples? We have prayer, worship, teaching, and learning,
communion…but where is the awe? Are the “signs and wonders” passing us by without us
taking notice?
I think to myself what would have inspired these earliest communities of faith filled
disciples…both women and men…children and old to come together and truly share what they
had…the very basics of life that they needed to survive. People shared in common their
blessings…food, shelter, companionship, work, taking care of each other’s ailing family
members and one another. What actually inspired them to radically heroic manifestations of
loving kindness?
Every church whether small or large, multicultural or not, young with families or not…Open and
Affirming or not experiences wonders…both large and small which merit our time and
attention. But so often, the many activities of our congregation get added to our busy
calendars as more and more stress, rather than as something different, something qualitatively
different from “ordinary daily acitivites”…they are ministries which bring others including
ourselves the awareness of where life and blessings and Jesus can be found.
Do they feed or drain us? And if they are draining us we have to be honest and vulnerable
enough to ask the question…Why?
These early Christians, clearly, were fed by the things they did and the way they lived…without
the conveniences and comforts and security in which we live today. It might be helpful –and
challenging for us to imagine how a visitor experiences a church, that is, its people and its
ministries/activities…rather than its building or style of worship, the two things we probably
focus most of our attention on. Do you think visitors to our church perceive what we are doing
as a witness? If so what are we witnessing to? Are our visitors drawn into the life of our
church, or do they remain merely observers? Is the spirit of our church contagious…whether
others might be willing and wanting to learn more about the life and ministries of our
church…do they want to break bread with us and pray and worship with us…certainly questions
at times each of us must ask.
And then there is the implications and indications of this shared life outside the church: at the
end of worship…or at the end of a church supper and fundraiser…or even when we have
gathered in the market place to give witness to our shared lived values according to the
Gospel…certainly our hope is that lives are affected, changed in ways that may be imperceptibly
small and yet quite powerful. Maybe it’s only incremental, but none the less important in
terms of leading ourselves and others to the birthing of everyday grace and faithfulness in
which to live our lives.
Our reading from Acts is so short, and yet so poignant and important. If we sit with it for a
while, and if we’re brave enough to share it with others… we might as many come away with a
level of discomfort in terms of what this reading is implying. How ironic it is that this
discomfiting text is read on Good Shepherd Sunday, when we hear the beloved and most
comforting Psalm 23. Surely goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. Do
we begin to seriously think about sharing those things and resources with people around us so
that everyone has enough? It isn’t just individual lives that need to be transformed, we hear in
this text, but the life of the community…the way we share. Maybe this is the piece of the puzzle
that restrains us from living out of a sense of awe and wonder. Maybe we are truly too
concerned about our own welfare and security which would naturally inhibit us from
embracing the spirit and reality of the earliest disciples’ manner of living and sharing.
In a very different time and place where private property is actually called “sacred,” the
challenge is to imagine how we can remain true to the heart of the ideal presented in Acts.
Indeed, it will require the power of the Spirit to transform the way we live together, to make us
more and more generous and less and less focused on our own security. Courage will be
required of us, and creativity and a lively religious imagination just as much as a passionate
commitment to justice. And of course the sharing of our possessions, including the generous
support of God’s mission through the church, isn’t limited to church: we can hold up the ideal
of sharing as found in this passage each time we vote or consider school levies, poverty
programs, and issues of economic justice. After all, our lives reach and impact others, even
beyond our sight, in ways never imagined when this account was written down from Acts.
Just as awe seems to be in short supply…so are “glad and generous hearts” rare in our time.
The rise in the number of people diagnosed with depression, for example, and the number of
medications brought onto the market to treat it, are puzzling in a time when the standard of
living, and the possibilities for “happiness” are so much higher than ancient times…and yet they
were the ones filled with awe and wonder. How might we imagine our lives re-shaped and redirected, significantly to the point that we might begin to experience a bit of awe and wonder
as to what is capable through generous, glad, and loving hearts. People’s lives depend upon
this just as in the ancient times.