The Church is Communal - Acts 4; 32-35

It has been a few weeks, but we are going to return today to our summer sermon series focusing on what the book of Acts has to teach us about being the church today, over 2000 years later. Its hard to believe that only four verses have so much to communicate to us. In only four verses Luke, the author of Acts, critiques the society in which he lived, lifted up how the resurrection of Jesus effected the early church, and spoke of the church’s vision and mission. 

These four simple verses are one of my favorite scripture passages. However, that does not make them easier to preach from. For studying this particular passage of scripture requires a lot from us. It requires us to set aside our cynicism that tells us that these verses describe an ideal, not a reality. They requires us to put away our rose colored glasses that tell us that everything is better in the past. They require us to be fully present to the teachings of Luke as we look for the movement of the Holy Spirit to capture us anew today. 

In these verses Luke is trying to communicate two things about the early church - they had unity in the midst of diversity and they were marked by generosity in the midst of poverty. If you notice today’s sermon title sums these two traits up into one word - communal. The church is communal. But what does that really look like in light of Luke’s teaching?

What are some of the words or images that come to you mind with the word ‘unified’? Luke describes it as being of one heart and soul. One of the pitfalls with the word unity is that we use it in contrast to diversity. In other words, if you are unified, you cannot be diverse. But I don’t think that is what Luke is trying to tell us about this group of believers. For surely amongst they five-thousand of them, they were diverse in their ages, ethnic backgrounds, genders, theological points of view, and ideologies. Luke is not trying to tell us that everyone in the early church looked the same, acted the same, or even believed the same things. What I believe that he is trying to communicate is that they found common ground on the “big things” - they believed and preached in Jesus’ resurrection and the transformation that brought to their lives. They put community above self. They loved all with the love of Christ Jesus. They things were central to their communal and personal identity as Christians. Lest we think that even agreeing on such foundational beliefs comes easily, scholar George Bryan Wirth reminds us that such authentic and deep unity can only come as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Are we asking for that same gift today? Are we asking for unity that lets us not sweat the small stuff so we can focus on the mission of the church in the world? Or do we simply just try to transport ourselves back to a time when we thought we were united, instead of praying that it comes today. The Lord calls on us to confess the times when we have let things that are not about the saving and transformational work of Jesus Christ become our focus and repent of them, and seek to be renewed in the unity of the Holy Spirit that Luke wants to capture in this scripture passage.

As astonishing as Luke’s description of Christian unity, perhaps even more difficult for us to comprehend is the idea of generosity in the midst of poverty. There are a slew of reasons why people choose not to give money to the work of the church. Some of them include, “I’m not really that well off”, “I have all I can do just to make ends meet”, and “I work hard so I deserve what I make.” (Willimon, 54). But Luke’s description of the early church flies in the face of all of this. Luke is describing a community who faced horrible economic circumstances. The majority of the people were in poverty, with large sums of what they made going towards Roman taxes imposed on them. Yet, in the midst of these economic difficulties, Luke tells of a community that claimed no private ownership of possessions, but held everything in common, and that there was not a needy person among them. 

This message may seem foreign to us today, because we live in such a materialistic society that tells us that each and every person need to own everything in order to be considered secure and successful. Yet, even in my life time I have caught glimpses of the life-giving freedom communities that choose to share can bring. One such instance was while I was in seminary. I lived in a large apartment building with other single graduate students. It was not uncommon to hear a nock on your door during the day asking to borrow a vacuum cleaner, pot, or spices. As graduate students we simply could not afford to own everything so we shared whatever we had with anyone who asked. But there was another group at my seminary who took this idea of sharing and community one step forward. Each year between five and eight individuals chose to live together, intentionally sharing all they had material in what they called the intentional community. They ate their meals together, worshiped together, and simply did life together. But I want to stress the word that stood out the most to me about how they described themselves, intentional. We need to be intentional about choosing to be part of the type of community that Luke describes - a community that puts doing life together above what we have been taught about the necessity of material goods and possessions. There are communities across the United States that are starting to live into this reality. Neighbors are finding that not everyone needs to own a deep freezer, washing machine and dryer, or lawn mower. So one neighbor has one appliance and another neighbor has a different one, and before you know it they are doing life together in a profound way and getting to know each other in a deep, new way. 

But sharing of material goods is not the only thing that Luke had to say about the economics of the early Christian community. He also said that no one was in need. In a world where the chasm between the rich and the poor is widening every day, it is hard to imagine a world that is free of poverty. Yet it happened. Amongst these five-thousand people, the Holy Spirit created a picture of what God hopes to be a reality for all people - a world that is not in need. They were not the only community to do so. Early Church historian, Justin Maryter described his own community where, in his words, “we who once coveted most greedily the wealth and fortune of others, now place in common the goods we possess, diving them with all the needy.” (Willimon, 53). And a community of scholars known for finding and studying the Dead Sea Scrolls. When they started working with the community they gave their possessions in trust to it, and when they became a full member they signed their material possessions away for good.

This idea of eliminating poverty and sharing with the community was part of the covenant God made with the people of Israel as they were preparing to enter the promised land. God instructed them in Jubilee - the concept that every seven years the land would lay fallow and there would be a remission of debt. Then every fiftieth year there would be a celebration when everyone would have their original property restored and slavery would be abolished. These years were to be reminders that it was the desire of God’s heart, “there will be no needy person among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord you God is giving you.” Only these years of Jubilee were never quite celebrated. The people of Israel never quite got it. But the early church did. They were practicing Jubilee amongst themselves, only they took it even further - not only would there be forgiveness of debts, but they would not keep their own property to themselves, they would share all they had. 

There is a story of a Christian Community in Philadelphia called the Simple Way. A few years ago they received 20,000$ in donations. They decided to use the money to celebrate the year of Jubilee of Wall Street. They broke the money down in 100$ bills and wrote the word “love” on each of them. At 8:20 in the morning, one of the community members blew a horn marking the beginning of the year of Jubilee and the rest of the community, scattered around Wall Street, began to throw money into the crowds. And  a funny thing happened. Those who were touched by this act, began giving away what they had to. People started sharing winter clothes and food. There truly was a moment of Jubilee even in the place marked the most by materialism. Community emerged out of a place of isolation. 

Once again, are we repenting for how we have hoarded money in the past or have not given it towards the mission and work of the church or the poor in our community? Do we confess our fears around money and material things? Are we fervently praying for the Holy Spirit to make the commonality in this passage a reality amongst us here, today?

Why was the early church marked by unity in the midst of diversity and generosity in the midst of poverty? For the same reason we should be marked by those traits today - because they were, and we are, a covenant people. The Holy Spirit lead them to live in such a distinct way as a response to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which should transform even our very way of living together. What does the resurrection mean to us today, here in this community? How has it transformed us and how is it leading us to live every day, on the ground, in practice? Are we simply a place where people leave satisfied or are we a place where people leave transformed, called into a new and distinct way of living? Are we slaves to material possessions or are we slaves to Jesus Christ? For God is calling us to a new thing, marked by abundance and unity, if only we will listen for the movement of the Holy Spirit amongst us. Amen.