April 13, 2008

Scripture:         Acts 2:42-47

Sermon:           “A Church Where You Belong”

            We are going to continue this morning looking at stories in the Bible that follow Easter, the resurrection of Christ.  Two weeks ago we heard the Great Commission—“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations”.  And last week we caught up with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  Both of these stories are appearances of Jesus to his disciples after the resurrection.  Today we will move into the book of Acts to see how some of the first believers that were not Jesus’ disciples continued on.

            Jesus had died and risen from the grave.  The group of people following him became an energized team of folks bent on sharing what they had witnessed.  The author of the book of Acts was Luke, the same as the gospel of Luke.  And Luke attributes this newfound energy to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon those disciples.  We’ll look at all of this in more detail in a few weeks when we celebrate the day of Pentecost.

            But, there is something remarkable in all of this.  These followers, these disciples, would rightly have been shocked and disappointed at the crucifixion of their Lord.  And the evidence in the gospels indicates that they were.  Perhaps the greatest evidence of the resurrection is that they moved quickly beyond that and boldly proclaimed Jesus as Christ to anyone and everyone, even when it cost them their own lives.  You and I, because we are the church that continues on in this day, are actually a kind of evidence to the resurrection.  The first disciples did not disband, did not flee in fear, and did not give up on their faith in Jesus because he had died a failed messiah.

            Instead, they attracted an even greater following.

            Today’s text is something of a witness to how that looked.  Turn with me to the second chapter of Acts where we’ll read verses 42 through 47.  You can find that easily on page 160 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.

            Before we read, quickly let me put this in a little bit of context.  The disciples were all still gathered in Jerusalem following Christ’s death and resurrection.  And many pilgrims were in town for the Festival of Pentecost.  By the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, Peter preached one whale of a sermon—the kind of sermon Billy Graham would be envious of—because the text says that about three thousand people were added to the following of Jesus and they were baptized.

            So, this is the first church, the first gathering of believers in the risen Christ.  Listen for the word of the Lord…

            They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.  All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home at ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of the all the people.  And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

            Those were heady days weren’t they?

            When I was a young boy, 7 or 8 I guess, my family was part of a new church start down in Georgia.  And I remember those kind of heady days.  There was so much excitement to be doing something new.  Nobody was weighed down with memories of the church’s history and the kind of fights and hurt feelings that can come out of all that stuff.  It was like the Holy Spirit had blown through those folks and set them all on fire.

            People were joining the church.  Folks were inviting neighbors and friends.  And I heard some people saying things about how much they’d been looking for a church like the one we were putting together.

            And we were out in one of those fast growing suburban areas, too.  So we all quite imagined that this was going to be something really big.  Heady days.  I was baptized in the midst of all of that.  It’s where I discovered a man named Jesus that was somebody I wanted to know.

            By the way, I’ve mentioned this before, but I was baptized in a swimming pool behind the house of a family in the church.  We didn’t have a building, yet.  But, we didn’t care.

            That first church in Acts didn’t have a building yet, either.  They went to the temple.  But, that wasn’t strictly for followers of Jesus.  Our church met in a couple of schools, a movie theater, and even a fellowship room at a local bank.  Those aren’t strictly for followers of Jesus, either.  That first church needed their own time together so they gathered in the houses where folks lived.

            Now, I’ll tell you, a great deal has been extracted from these words that we’re studying this morning.  You’ll notice that these people all had a sense of deep belonging to one another and to Christ.  It says they held all things in common.  They’d sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to anybody who needed anything.

            Sounds like some kind of commune, doesn’t it?  I know of Christian thinkers and even large movements that read these words and find a sort of model for how the world ought to be.  Not just the church, but the world.  They see a kind of Christian socialism here.

            You probably had to read that awful, but important book called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.  It was a gruesome account of the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the lives of the poor.  Your literature teacher made you read all of those terrible things about meat processing and whatnot before the times when there were people to keep watch over things.  Well, Upton Sinclair concluded, largely based upon this very story in Acts, that the only way for the world to move forward was a form of socialism based upon Christian values.  Christian Socialism.  We’ll all take care of one another is the idea.

            And we could digress into the merits and pitfalls of such politics if you like.  But, I don’t think that Luke was proposing any sort of thing.  These folks weren’t interested in building a new government.  They were interested in knowing Jesus.

            You see here also that the very first patterns of worship were being established—patterns that we still follow today.  They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.  Unfortunately for you, that means the church has always had to endure sermons by somebody.  Fortunately for me, that means I have a job.

            But, there is the teaching, the fellowship, communion, and prayer.  That’s basically Christian worship.  We probably do it differently than they did.  But, the pattern is there.  And you go to one of those big churches with the video screens and the contemporary music and all of that, you’ll still find that basic pattern.  Of course as Disciples we insist on breaking the bread every time we get together.  Not everybody does that.

            What strikes me, though, is that these people were church in the very best sense of the word.  They understood something about belonging that we struggle with.  They held everything in common.  It’s like they saw themselves as a new family where it didn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from, what color your skin is.  They saw everyone as connected.  Mi casa su casa.  You need something, here it is.  What’s mine is yours.

            Actually, a couple of chapters down the road, we read about this married couple who didn’t quite go along with this.  Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property but held back some of the proceeds.  They didn’t give it all to the church.  This would make a great sermon for the time of year when we’re asking for pledges and tithes and offerings.  Ananias just fell down and died.   And then Sapphira fell down and died about three hours later!  Boy, I might have to remember that come November.

            The point for us this morning is that these folks now understood in a real sense that they needed one another so much that their lives became devoted to this new family.  And that is what the church of Jesus Christ is meant to be.

            What I’d like to point out is that all of this took place during the Festival of Pentecost.  The Hebrew religion had three festivals in the year when folks would travel to Jerusalem and worship at the temple.  Jews were then living in many different places.  Some would make pilgrimages every now and then when it was possible.  They’d go for Passover.  They’d go for Shavuot, which is what we call Pentecost.  They’d go for Sukkot or the Festival of Tabernacles.  And during those times the city would be filled with Jews from all over the place.

            Pentecost, actually, is a festival for giving offerings of the grain harvest.  And in that part of the world, the grain is ready come late Spring.  If you’re a farmer you know better than I how all of that works.

            Luke gives a list of the places where folks came from on this occasion.  There were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Lybia, Romans, Cretans and Arabs.  You might just say that they were from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and even as far away as modern day Iran.

            Maybe that’s why we teach our children to sing these words:  red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.

            These are the folks who heard Peter’s sermon that day and were so cut to the heart that they believed in the risen Lord.  That first church was just a hodgepodge of folks wasn’t it?  Can you imagine what it must have been like to pick the music in such a place?

            And, apparently these folks didn’t have a great deal of appreciation for who’s who.  I mean they had to take care of some people that didn’t have much to their name.  They weren’t looking for the most desirable, well-heeled as it were.  They weren’t saying behind closed doors that this one or that one, this family or that family would make good church members.  They weren’t directing their message based upon a carefully organized demographic study of the neighborhood.  They were just looking for anybody who’d come.  Sinners, too, I tell you.  And some folks that spent their entire lives looking down their religious noses at sinners.  They were all getting together in this new church.

            There is something about this Jesus that calls us to be a new kind of humanity, I think.  Like Paul, who at one point in his life was one of those snotty religious types that couldn’t tolerate sinners.  He eventually said that in Christ there was no longer Jew and Gentile, no longer slave to one man and owner of another, no longer men and women.  That’s what Jesus is doing to us here.  He’s making us into a new family where we belong to each other and to Him.

            So, I don’t know where you’re coming from.  You belong here.  I don’t know how folks have kept you out and pushed you aside.  You belong here.  I don’t know what it is that you’ve done to feel separated from God.  You belong here.  I don’t know exactly how you understand the scriptures, if much at all.  You belong here.  I don’t know if you’re voting for this woman or one of these two men come November.  You belong here.  I don’t know if you have anything to put in the offering plate today.  You belong here.

            I don’t know of any other place than Jesus’ church that will tell you those things.  And I regret that we don’t always say it well.  But, you belong here.

            And I want to invite you to do as those gathered in Jesus’ name have always done—break the bread.  As Disciples we set this table and give the invitation.  You don’t need to have it all figured out.  You don’t need to get yourself all washed up for this meal.  Breaking the bread will go a long way towards doing that.  You don’t have to be a member of this congregation, the denomination this congregation belongs to, or any other for that matter.  You just have to know that Jesus invites you to know him and that you belong here.

 Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)