What’s Happening in Church Land? Lectionary Reflection for Easter 4A (Acts 2)
Acts 2:42-47 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 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, 47 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.
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Down through the years, in my family, the location of my vocation was known as “church-land.”
I would be asked by Cheryl or Brett about what was happening in church-land.
That question doesn’t get raised as much as I’m now retired. As we continue our
journey through Eastertide, the first reading, as stipulated by the Revised
Common Lectionary, takes us back to the second chapter of the Book of Acts. In
the previous week’s reading, we reflected on the aftermath of Peter’s Pentecost
sermon. After Peter concluded his sermon, Luke records that the people asked
what they should do in response. Peter told them to “Repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven,
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts
2:38). According to Luke, three thousand people took Peter up on the
invitation and were baptized. So, what’s next? That question is answered, or so
it would seem, in our reading for the fourth Sunday of Easter. This is what
happened in church-land following Pentecost, or so we’re told.
Now, as
we attend to this reading from Acts 2, we need to be cautious in our
application. I’ve spent most of my life in movements that have restorationist
tendencies. I am a minister in the Disciples of Christ denomination, which is a
branch of the Stone Campbell Movement, a movement that sought to restore New
Testament Christianity, especially the church as described in the Book of Acts.
I also spent a portion of my life in Pentecostal churches, which are also
restorationists in their orientation. [I address the restorationist dimensions
of my denomination in my book Freedom in Covenant, (Wipf & Stock,
2015). I share more about both traditions in my book Called to Bless, which
is a theological memoir]. The danger that can attend to restorationism is that
they can create the idea of a golden age that must be perfectly restored to
truly be church. Reality, however, means adapting to new realities.
Nevertheless, we can learn and benefit from the experiences of these early Christians
who sought to build true community as followers of Jesus.
Luke
opens our reading for the fourth Sunday of Easter by mentioning four actions that
defined church life in the earliest moments of the life of the Christian movement.
It is reported here, by Luke, that the earliest Christian community, gathered
in Jerusalem, now with a membership of a bit over 3,000 persons, spent their
days attending to the Apostles' teaching, experiencing fellowship (koinonia),
the breaking of bread (Eucharist?), and prayer. As we consider this passage, it’s
important to note that Luke isn’t describing a group of individuals doing their
own thing as followers of Jesus, but a true community, where the people
gathered in the name of Jesus and were committed to each other’s welfare.
Regarding
the four actions described here in verse 42, we could think in terms of four individual
actions or perhaps two. If the latter is true, then perhaps Apostles’ teaching
and fellowship might be one action, while the breaking of bread and prayers
could be a second action. If so, might we think here in terms of Word and Sacrament
(yes, I know these words aren’t present in the text, but might they speak to
the way we understand our worship life?). If we think in terms of Word and
Sacrament, might we conceive of the life of the church as a community flowing
out of Word (preaching/teaching) and Sacrament (breaking of bread and prayers)?
If so, then should not our eucharistic fellowship be as frequent as attending
to the teaching of the Word? Weekly communion anyone?
We’re told
by Luke that as this community of Jesus' followers gathered together to hear
the Word of God taught/proclaimed and share a meal at the Table, powerful
things occurred. He reports that “awe came upon everyone, because many signs
and wonders were done by the Apostles.” We’re not talking here about smoke
machines and strobe lights during “worship.” Stuff was happening—probably acts of
healing. Not only did signs and wonders take place, but the people shared everything
in common so that no one in the community was in need. As this community
gathered together in this way, they offered a witness to the larger community
that God was at work amongst them. Willie Jennings catches the power of this
moment, writing:
The space of this common was where life stories, life projects, plans, and purposes were being intercepted by a new orientation. This common is created by the Spirit. How could the things they held dear not be drawn toward the common, this new gathering, this ekklēsia? Time, talent, and treasures, the trinity of possessions we know so well, would feel the pull of this holy vortex. [Acts: Belief, p. 39].
Whether this vision was practical or could be implemented
then or now is not the point. Jennings muses on this report, wondering what it
might “have felt to feel the powerful pull of the life of our savior, and what
energy did it take to resist the Holy Spirit, to slow down this pull enough to
withhold themselves and their possessions from divine desire” [Acts, p.
39]. Living as we do in a modern, mobile, rather individualistic society, what
we read here in Acts 2 might seem both alluring and impractical. We might not
have the wherewithal to live like this, though it has been tried here and there
on a small scale in monastic and semi-monastic communities. But what might church
life entail if we truly embraced the call of Jesus to live in such a way that
none was in need?
As a
result of gathering together as a community of learning and Table-centered
worship, a community emerged that gathered daily in the Temple for worship and
in homes to break bread. Therefore, we’re told that they “ate their food with
glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the
people.” We don’t know if this experiment in common life was long-lasting or
practiced elsewhere. But even if this was an idealized vision of the earliest
moments of the church’s life, it does offer us a vision of what could be. In
other words, why is it so easy to dismiss what we read here as being
impractical? Karoline Lewis raises this
point in her commentary on the passage. She writes:
The practicalities are apparent, and the challenges are most certainly evident. However, as soon as we let the practicalities and challenges excuse actual wrestling with the vision of Christian community exemplified in this passage, we should pause and ask ourselves, Why? Why do we so quickly dismiss these demands? Why do we so immediately eschew this community’s response as something beyond our reach? Have we relegated the sharing of possessions to first-century ideals? Might we imagine that something different might be observable in how we are community? [Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle Locations 7995-7999).]
Lewis asks good questions that invite us to wrestle anew
with the question of what it means to be part of a Christian community. I will
confess that I’m not generally a communalist. Yet here we have a witness to the
power of true Christian community.
Acts 2
begins in the Upper Room, where the community has gathered to await the coming
of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does come, like a mighty wind, and the people
are transformed. Not only that but that small community began to grow. Yes, as
a result of the wind of the Spirit moving through this community, it witnessed
how daily the “Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” It's
important that we take note of this final verse in our reading. It was the Lord
who added to their community those being saved. Yes, they proclaimed the
message of Jesus, but it was the Spirit who drew the people in. It’s not the
result of some kind of hard-sell evangelism or the use of marketing schemes.
Sometimes church growth and leadership experts suggest we look to Starbucks or
other businesses to provide the proper business model for the church. But at
least in this moment, it was the Spirit-filled lives of the community that drew
people in. That is, as they went about their lives, gathering in the Temple
(remember these early Christians were Jews who continued to center their lives
in the Temple). As they lived together in community, sharing life together,
they gave evidence that the realm of God was present in their midst.
The
question this reading asks of us concerns how we (and those outside the
community as well) perceive the Spirit moving in our midst. Not just in the
first century but here in the twenty-first century. As you ponder this message,
do you sense that there is value in creating a robust ecclesiology where God builds
the church and not us? I ask this question as one who has spent a lot of time
contemplating and writing about ecclesiology. I’m deeply enmeshed in institutional
Christianity. I’ve been a local church pastor. I have served on boards and
committees of the Regions in which I’ve served. Now, even in retirement, I
remain active in the institutional life of the denomination, even at what we
call in my denomination the “General Expression” of the church. In these spaces,
we often talk about the sustainability of our institutions. We worry the future
won’t be kind to us. But here in Acts 2, we’re reminded that as Christians we
are a Resurrection people that gather as a community to which God adds the
folks, not us. As a result, this fledging community that followed a crucified,
but resurrected Lord, had the goodwill of the people. It’s easy to get caught
up in declining numbers and influence, and yet this passage asks us to consider
a different vision, one that asks us to ponder what is awe-inspiring about our
life as followers of Jesus.
As we
ponder this message that speaks to what might be happening in church-land, I
find the second and fourth verses of Brian Wren’s hymn “I Come with Joy”
especially meaningful when it comes to what we read here, as it is connected to
our gathering at the Table.
I
come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love . . ., in Christ’s communion bread.
We’ll go with joy, to give the world . . ., the love that
makes us one.
—Brian Wren “I
Come with Joy, Chalice Hymnal, 420
| Image attribution: JESUS MAFA. The poor invited to the feast, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48397 [retrieved April 21, 2023]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact). |
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