Embracing the Common
Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.
Well, baptism is always a special moment in the life of the church. And baptism, what we've just done here today, it ties so beautifully into what we're talking about today. We're having a discussion this morning on community and what it looks like to live that out in the church today. We stand in a long tradition, a long tradition of faithful witness to God's ever-failing love. And the waters of baptism remind us of that. It's a love that goes with us in our new life as we live in community together and try to follow and practice the ways of Jesus. And that water unites us as a family as well. And so we could hear those echoes of community as Mitch and Madeline reaffirmed their faith. And then all of us had the opportunity to reaffirm our faith as well and commit to walking with them on this journey as Lou grows up in the faith. Baptism is a reminder of love and forgiveness and new life, all of those things that we traditionally associate with baptism, but it's also a representation of community. We don't do baptism in isolation because it's a welcome into a community, into a family of faith.
And that's where we find ourselves in our scripture passage for this morning. The Holy Spirit had descended upon the disciples and they were trying to figure out for the first time what it looked like to live as a community, to live out a shared faith. And so this morning, I'll be reading from Acts 2:42-47, and it says this:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. All 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 good will of all the people. And day by day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
This passage of scripture is pretty straightforward. It's a picture, a depiction of what the early stages of life in the church looked like. These devoted disciples came together to share their faith and the resources that they had. The problem is trying to figure out how we bring that into the present. How do we live out this idea of community? And different people have different ideas about how to live this out well.
A few years ago, I learned of a community about 30 minutes away from where I lived in North Carolina at the time. And they took it literally to live out Acts 2. And I learned this because a lady from my church came up to me and she said, "Honey, I want to take you to lunch one day to the Yellow Deli." And I said, "That sounds great. I would love to go to lunch with you, but I'm not familiar with the Yellow Deli." And she said, "Well, it's in the middle of nowhere and it is run by a cult, but they make a delicious turkey club." And I said, "Say more about that."
And it turns out that there's this group called the 12 tribes. And they believe that in order for Jesus to return, they need to live out Acts 2 and Acts 4 perfectly as a community. So they live in communal housing together. And they started a restaurant called the Yellow Deli so that they could all go work at it together. And that's how they make money to support their community.
I'm not convinced that we need to live our lives that way. But what I am convinced of is the necessity of community. And while it may not make sense to mimic Acts 2 perfectly today, there is still so much value in looking at this text together and figuring out what we can bring into the present. And so this morning, I want to focus on three words that we find in this text. And we'll flesh those out together and try to come to a place where we can understand better what it looks like for us to live in community today. And so the first word that we're going to talk about is the word "devoted."
And I'm not even going to attempt to say that Greek word. When they start to look like a Harry Potter spell, I just don't even try. But in the Greek, it carries the meaning of holding fast to something. So there is an intentionality in this community. The life of faith that we live together doesn't just fall into place. It doesn't just happen. There is a devoted intentionality and effort. Luke tells us that what the early disciples devoted themselves to was the apostles' teaching to fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.
In other words, what they devoted themselves to was spiritual formation in the context of community. And I think what we get wrong sometimes as modern Christians is that we've convinced ourselves that we don't need community in order to be spiritually formed. I can go listen to that preacher on that podcast. I can go listen to this worship music. I can donate to that charity. And all of those things are great. They're perfectly fine to do. But the transformation that comes through faith doesn't happen well in the absence of community.
These early disciples, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching partly because they understood that they were standing in such a long tradition of the community that came before them. The faith community in generations past had gathered stories of the ancient Israelites, stories of serpents and gardens, and liberation from Egyptian slavery, stories of prophets who spoke power and spoke truth to kings.
And the community argued and wrestled with these stories so that they could understand God better. And the community created rituals and liturgies as a reminder of what it looked like to live in faith together.
And then the community chose to reimagine what all of that looked like in light of what the apostles had taught them about Jesus.
What they were learning and practicing was due to the community that had come before them.
Even the devotion to prayer is a great example of what it looks like of those who came before. I mean, I find it so reassuring that I could open the Psalms and I could read a prayer written by a shepherd in a field thousands of years ago, and I can claim those words in that prayer as my own because it speaks to my present circumstance.
That's what the Jews were doing, the Israelites were doing, when it came to the prayers. They were reciting words from Deuteronomy and from the Psalms.
And the devotion to the breaking of bread was a commitment to remember the body broken in the bloodshed. And so when you and I come forward every Sunday to take communion, we're doing so after millions and millions of other Christians have practiced this.
So many people have come before us, and it unites us as one body.
You're sitting here today as the person that you are with your thoughts and your beliefs and your practices because of the community that came before.
A few years ago, and I know that you remember this, Kamala Harris went viral on the internet because she was speaking to the Hispanic Excellence Initiative, and as she was speaking to the commissioners, she said, "You think you fell out of a coconut tree?
You exist in the context of all in which you live and all that came before."
Now, I don't know what your politics are. I don't know if you agree with Kamala Harris, but her mom was right about that.
You did not fall out of a coconut tree.
That devotion to formation is not done in isolation.
It encompasses not only all that came before, but also our current fellowship that we share. Because we don't simply reside in the past. We know that there are things in the past that need to stay there.
We can't bring every ritual, every practice, every belief into the present. And we figure out how to do that work well in the context of community. If there's no community, then there's no one to question you. There's no one to ask you to think about something differently from a different perspective or a different angle.
If there's no community, then the only place you have to base your faith is your own experience and your own story. If there's no community, then you won't experience the transformative power of love that presents itself in the form of a casserole or a hot dish or a hospital visit
or a tight hug that reminds you that you're not in this thing alone by yourself.
So at the end of the day, what forms us is love.
Whether it's a ritual that was developed to remind you of the love of God or whether it's a text message from a church member, just checking in to see how you're doing, it's love that shapes and forms us.
Love of God and love of neighbor. That's what we devote ourselves to. The second word that we're going to talk about today is the word common.
It's the word koinos. I can't say that one.
And this word is actually used in the same way that we use the English word. So we could say, "You and I have something that we share in common," or we could call something common, and by that we mean something typical, something ordinary. Both of those things hold weight in this text. I'm a part of a clergy circle through 40 orchards, which is led by Stephanie. She's here, Stephanie Spencer and Lisa Adams. And clergy get together. I do it once a month. And we wrestle with the passage of Scripture. And a few weeks ago, we were discussing community, and the idea of the three sisters came up. And if you've read "Brading Sweetgrass," then you know about the idea of the three sisters. Indigenous communities have used this method of planting for centuries, not only because it yields a 20% higher crop, but also because it reminds the people of the value of community.
The three sisters are corn, squash, and beans.
And they plant these three crops together because the corn grows into a sturdy stalk, and it attracts the sunlight. And then the beans grow up around the stalk, and it puts nutrients back into the ground, and it acts as like a natural fertilizer. And then as the squash grows, it creates these big leaves that provide shade and covering so that weeds don't grow, and it focuses on water retention.
All three of these plants are very different, and yet they come together for the flourishing of the entire garden. That's the same commonality that we see in Acts 2 amongst these believers. They shared everything in common so that none would go without.
And the resources that they shared were the ordinary things of life.
If someone had money, they shared it. If someone had a special skill or time to give, they shared it. I think about the mills that they ate together, that the text says that they ate together with glad and sincere hearts. I mean, someone had to have a house large enough to accommodate a large group of people. Someone was a carpenter who created a table to sit all of the food on. Someone was a potter who crafted the bowls and the plates. Someone picked the berries, pressed the wine, baked the bread, caught the fish.
All of those things are the ordinary things of life. It's just a meal, and yet it was holy.
God was present in the common things,
in the breaking of bread and the laughter that would have erupted around that common table. And what made it so holy was the reason that all of those people were gathered together in the first place. Those people were together because something about Jesus resonated with all of them. Some of these people had been strangers just a few days before, and yet now they all have come together to declare the same thing in the waters of baptism, that Jesus is Lord, that grace has gone before me, that new life is always ahead of me, and the Holy Spirit is working to sustain and grow me.
And suddenly, that stranger sitting across from the table is no longer a stranger, but family.
And that fresh loaf of bread starts to look an awful lot like love.
Just for a second, I want everyone to close your eyes.
And I want you to imagine what it would look like for you to radically share all things in common.
So with your eyes closed, as you do that, I want you to be really honest with yourself about what emotions come up.
Does this radical way of sharing make you feel excited about the possibilities of what we could maybe do together?
Do you feel anxious that sharing like this would mean you lose something? Maybe you have feelings of unfairness. I worked hard, so I should have more.
Maybe you feel comforted. I have these resources, and I'm so glad that I get to share them with others.
I just want you to sit with those emotions for just a moment.
All right, you can open your eyes.
I imagine that a lot of different emotions come up when we think about that. On the one hand, we obviously can see the beauty of shared community, but on the other hand, it kind of pushes against the individualism and the me and mine mentality that we're often taught here in the United States. I think back to the early days of COVID when everyone, for whatever reason, was stockpiling toilet paper. I went to the grocery store and bought just enough for me, and I went home, and as the lockdown extended further and further, I started to think, "Oh, no, I am running low on supplies."
And I just happened to go to the grocery store the right day at the right time, and they were stocking the shelves with Charmin. And so I grabbed a pack of Charmin, and I took a selfie with it, and I posted it on Instagram because I was so happy.
But that is the mindset our culture teaches us to walk with in life. It's about me and what I need and not anybody else.
But for the early church, they figured out, what they decided was that it was about Jesus,
and He gave them a new way to live out love that valued shared community and life together. And that's how we turn the ordinary things into the holy things. We may not live exactly the way that the early church did, but we can uphold the common
because someone has a long table at their house to gather people around. Someone has money to give. Someone has wisdom to share.
Someone has time.
And once all of those gifts start to come together, and we become intertwined through our conversations, and our shared meals, and our prayers, and selflessly loving one another, we start to experience the love of God, and we are changed.
And the last word that I want to talk about briefly this morning is the word "added."
According to Luke and throughout the Bible, this word "added" means a joining together that's done at the hand of God. This is God at work.
And so when the Spirit is working, the borders are always being expanded. There are more tables and chairs being added to the community.
But making room for the people that God is adding has not traditionally been the church's strong suit.
And oftentimes, it's not even that we're trying to keep the doors closed, but we just kind of forget to keep them open.
And we can't do that. We can't shut the door because God is always at work. And I hope you believe that.
I hope you believe that God is always at work growing community. And I wonder what it can mean for the church, our church and the church at large, if we let God continue to expand our borders. How could the perspectives of people of color contribute God's truth in ways that white perspectives have not even thought to consider? How could the testimony and the witness of women transform theology that's been handed to us mostly throughout history by men? And even when it wasn't, men took credit for it.
What might the refugee have to reveal to us about who God is and how the church should function and operate? What about the voices of children? We just said during the baptism that it was Jesus who said, "Let the children come to me." What would it look like if we listened to them? How could their imaginations influence the work of the church?
Just this week, Emma Beyers-Carlson sent me a text message and it was a video of Soren. And he was singing "Christ is Risen." It's his favorite song. And he requested that we sing it at church sometime. And so that's exactly what we're going to do because he requested it. And I think it's such a fitting song for the season of ministry that we're in and what we're celebrating today. Because here are the words that we're going to stand and sing in just a few minutes: "Christ is risen from the dead. We are one with him again. Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the grave." So may those be the words that we proclaim together as a community, as we are devoted to one another, to our faith, and we always create more room for those at the table. Let's pray together.
Lord, what a blessing to be together, not only on Sunday mornings, but also in community through the ways that we show up for each other and our neighbors. The ways that we learn and are formed together, the prayers that we pray for each other. We thank you for the gifts that you've given us to strengthen our community when we come together. You've designed us for life together, so may we continue to become who you're shaping us to be. A sacred community for all of us that's grounded in your love and your faithfulness. Christ's name, amen.