Acts 2:42-47
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 through 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 and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to eating and praying together”. That’s how our first reading begins. Who is the “they”? They are the crowd of people gathered around the disciple because of a violent wind, flaming tongues, and hearing different languages spoken on Pentecost. Peter stood up to address the crowd and gave his first sermon, which must have been pretty good because, as our reading from Acts last week noted, three thousand people were baptized and added to the community. If that happened today, we’d say that’s pretty miraculous.
However, it’s what happens next that's really impressive; these three thousand people committed themselves to doing life together. They learned, ate, and prayed together. They shared all their possessions. They sold whatever they owned and gave the money to anyone who had a need. Daily they shared meals together and celebrated all that God was doing. And they had compassion and kindness toward one another.
And remember this wasn’t 3000 people from the same place with the same background who thought the same or had the same cultural practices or anything like that. They were strangers from over 14 different countries. Undoubtedly some were old, some young. Some wealthy, some not. The real miracle isn’t that 3,000 people were baptized. It’s that 3,000 people responded to the gift of grace by doing life together despite all their differences, that’s the miracle. With all our divisions, divides, and individualism of today, something like that is unfathomable for 30 people, let alone 3,000.
It’s fair to wonder, are we given this description of the early disciples as a command, as instructions on how we ought to live? If so, this picture painted of life together repels us more than does compel us… for lots of reasons. Maybe when we were young and idealistic we thought living such a way was possible, maybe even desirable. But now we have families or we’re set in our ways. We are comfortable with our routines, our privacy, our preferences. And we recognize all the sacrifices and accommodations and demands it would place on us.
I mean, if we're honest, We can’t even imagine living this way with our own families in our own homes. We're far too busy with work, and practices, lessons, games, recitals, more work, etc.
Who has time for daily meals together, let alone prayers and teachings and fellowship.
Moreover, we don’t trust other people enough to live like this. Just a couple weeks ago, Tom Orr and the Wired Word class discussed a Wall Street Journal poll that found communal values like religion, community involvement, or having children have all significantly trended downward in the last 20 years. Reflecting on why, David Brooks of the NYT wrote
“My fear is that we’ve entered a distrust doom loop: People are so untrusting of their institutions and their neighbors that they are unwilling to reach out, to actively renew their communities, and so the dysfunction will continue, and the distrust will increase, and so on and so on.”
But perhaps most of all this picture of life together repels us because we feel convicted by it, or at least I do. Deep down, I know I should live more like this, that I should share more meals, open my home, give money to meet the needs of my neighbors, share what's mine with an open hand, and have goodwill toward all people. Maybe i’m not the only one…
However, I don’t believe these verses are rules or specific instructions that Christians must follow. It’s not, if we live this way, Jesus will love us. Notice that all these people were baptized first, then they lived this way. They received God’s grace and love and acceptance first and then because of what they experienced, they committed themselves to doing life together in this way so others may experience what they did.
This way of living shows us what life through the power of the Spirit could be like. It represents the best of what God’s people are capable of. But it doesn’t last long. Soon people in the community will defraud one another, they’ll hold back their resources, they will treat each other unfairly, and after Acts 5, the church is never described with such rosy language.
These verses, this idealized picture, is not meant to be a discouragement, but rather an inspiration: look at what life together could be like, a life full of welcome and hospitality, justice and mutuality, of service and community. Some intentional communities take these verses very seriously and try to follow them to the letter, like the bruderhof communities or houses of hospitality from the Catholic Worker movement.And while not the same, but at our best, we experience some of that life together here: We break bread together, we learn and celebrate together. We provide for each other's needs and the needs of our neighbors: whether that's through our monthly mission focus, our food pantry, or our support to Fondwa, Haiti. We pray, we worship, and we tell others about the God whom we confess.
And it’s no accident that you are a part of this community, at this time and place. In fact, you didn’t choose to be a part of this church. But you’ll say, “Cogan I tried a lot of places before coming here and intentionally chose this place.” To which I would respond, it was the Holy Spirit at work in you that led you to say, “this is where I want to be a part of the Body of Christ.
This is where I heard and still hear the good news of the Gospel: that I am forgiven and loved and grace is mine no matter who I am or who I love or what I’ve done. This is where I am called to do life together with others who have experienced the grace of Jesus, too.
Now to be sure this isn't the only place where this sort of stuff happens. And Life together here isn’t always ideal. Like those early followers, we mess up, we make mistakes, we don’t always agree. But like Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his book, Life Together,
“even when sin and misunderstanding burden our life together, is not the sinning sibling still a sibling…? Will not their sin (or mine) be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us live in the forgiving love of God? Thus the moment of disappointment with my brother becomes incomparably beneficial, because it teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.”
What's so powerful about these disciples’ life together was their desire to give of themselves so that others might experience grace just as they did. And what else does the love of Jesus feel like than a good meal with even better company? A celebration full of joy and festivity? Or having your needs met or debt paid by someone else’s sacrifice? That’s the call we have as a community, as a church. To give of ourselves and do life live together in such a way that draws others in so that they too experience grace, no strings attached.
As we approach commitment Sunday, more than any dollar amount you commit to, or any role you volunteer for, or any talent you share, commit to doing Life Together. As one writer puts it, “God does not need possessions and has never been impressed by their donation. God wants people and draws us into that wanting.”
Commit to showing up, to doing meals together, to trusting each other, to praying for and with one another, to meeting the needs of your neighbors, to drawing other people in
because you want them to experience the grace of Jesus just as you have.
