"Love Bursting Forth"
Sermon Presented April 13, 2008
Acts 2:42-47
In the sixties, a church in Kansas City, MO decided to follow the pattern of the New Testament Church as spoken of in Acts. Each church member had to belong to at least one koinonia group as a means of spiritual growth and accountability. These groups met at least once a week and group members became very close. Many church members purchased land in a developing area of Raytown and built homes in that neighborhood. They purchased food and other necessities in bulk and distributed the goods among themselves. They ate together, worshiped together, raised their children together, prayed together, and had fun together. They cared for one another deeply.
I don't know what happened to split that community, but I understand it had to do with a sense of spiritual superiority by some. One of the ministers left the church and took many families with him. Members, who formerly were good friends, now couldn't bear to see one another. Drapes were pulled! Homes went on the market. This church that began by modeling the New Testament Church has split time and time again - the last time was over power. I was in seminary with four associate pastors of the church and three years after I graduated, three of them had left the church and weren't speaking to the other. There was no love - not even tolerance for one another. What went wrong? Because the essential mark of a New Testament Church is love for one another, when love dies, a church dies. When love died, they went their separate ways.
Our text this morning tells of the beginning of the New Testament Church according to Acts. As you may recall, the author of Luke wrote Acts and Acts is a continuation of Luke's gospel. The verse preceding our text tells of the conversion and baptism of 3000 people as a result of Peter's sermon at Pentecost. After baptism, they don't go back to life as usual, but they devote themselves to study, worship and support of one another. Luke's account is a sketch of life within the new Christian community and is probably a highly idealized remembrance because it was written about 50 years after the fact. I'm reading Acts 2:42-47.
These newly baptized Christians know they need the support of one another. Their faith is being revolutionized and they know they can't do it alone. For those of us who have been reared in Christian homes, we may not feel the need for the support of other Christians as much as those who are new to the Christian faith do. Because we've studied the Bible and fellowshipped and worshiped with Christians most of our lives; the Christian faith is nothing new to us. But just as people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, sex, over-eating and over-spending need support groups to help them stay on track, so do Christians - no matter how long we have followed Jesus.
The blossoming Christian church Luke refers to is devoted to study, worship, prayer and fellowship with one another. They eat together, sell their possessions, and share from their abundance with one another. These new Christians - who are Jews - continue to worship in the temple daily, but they also worship in one another's homes. Because of their joy and generosity, neighbors notice, and the text says that each day the Lord adds to their number. They aren't out evangelizing; they are showing love and support for one another and this is what people notice. There is mutuality here - not co-dependence. The faith and love that they have in common overpowers their differences.
Some things are almost impossible to do without the support of a community. This explains the success of Weight Watchers, addiction groups, survival groups, health clubs, churches, mosques and synagogues. I had a virus last week and had no energy to exercise. Because I don't have the support of Weight Watchers or a health club, it's going to be difficult to begin again this week because I am accountable to no one but myself for sticking with my exercise. Through their support of one another and accountability to one another, these new Christians achieved a spirit of oneness - even though they probably had little in common except their faith. Their oneness caused others to take notice and want to be a part of the movement.
We have only to look at the Church today to see the fractured nature of Christianity, denominations, and individual congregations. We fail to live up to the New Testament model for the Church. We also see loving congregations that do pray, teach, worship and share fail to grow numerically as the early church grew. Should this text be used to chastise them? Should we bow to the idol of numerical growth and assume that if the numbers are there, we are faithful? I don't think so! I know of too many large churches under tyrannical pastors to say that.
I believe we should use this text as Luke intended - as a broad sketch of the church at its beginning: faithful in teaching; active in sharing; devoted in eating, praying and worshiping together; fearful before God; and exuberant in praise of God. They accepted the old - reaffirming their sense of continuity with God's saving role in the life of Israel - and they also embraced the new as their lives were being transformed. It's a picture of the church on its best behavior.
It's the mutuality of their love for God, for Jesus and for one another that couldn't be contained within the bounds of their fellowship, and the church grew because of their love. The Spirit of God spilled out and love into the community.
Sharing between neighbors was a cornerstone of Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom of God. The term koinonia is used in the New Testament to describe both fellowship and a deep communion with Christ. It embraces everything from Eucharistic communion at the Lord's Table to sharing one another's suffering.
What does a vibrant Christian community look like today, and how can congregations embody such biblical abundance and sharing? A true Christian community is an experience that shapes people in profound and life-changing ways. It's not ever easy - as it couldn't have been easy for the first century Christians - but it is vital to an abundant life.
Sharing goods was the most distinctive practice of the community's common life. In an economic culture shaped by individual acquisitiveness, this seems incomprehensible to us. As proof, recent articles in the Journal Sentinel related the increasing gap between the poor and the wealthy here in Milwaukee. And this isn't just a phenomenon in Milwaukee; it's of nation wide concern. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Economic practices that undermine the well-being of the neighbor - especially the most vulnerable - must be rejected and replaced with alternatives. Until Christians get serious about the plight of the poor, we are shirking our duty to humanity. We can't depend on the politicians to eventually get it right, because their major donors represent the wealthy.
I have lived a long time as a Christian, and I see a lack of love as the problem in the Church universal, in denominations and in individual congregations. We don't love as Jesus taught us to love. I meet regularly with clergy from many denominations and the same problem fracturing the American Baptists is also fracturing their denominations. When people don't show love and respect for one another and instead point the finger proclaiming spiritual and theological superiority, love vanishes. No Christian body will be composed exclusively of Christians who believe the same thing, so we shouldn't keep looking for one. We need to look for ways we can bring the love of Christ to our faith community. It is love that brings people to faith in Jesus and it is a lack of love that sends them away. When love is present, the needs of people are met.
This past week we have seen many references to the raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint commune in Eldorado, Texas. This commune claims to be a Christian community where everything is shared - including the young girls who are taken as wives by older men when they reach puberty. They live together and are taught - or brain washed as most would call it, to fear the outside world and trust only their leader. This unhealthy community teaches the women and girls to be submissive to the men in all manner of life. Abuse is rampant, and yet those who live there don't see it as abuse. This community isn't based on love but on power and abuse of its women and children.
The Christian community is the main focus of Acts. As we can see from the previous example, a community can model negative virtues as well as positive ones. A negative community is shaped by intolerance, selfishness, jealousy, and the power of one person or group over another. Some Christian communities err and become negative because they fail to love.
Our task this morning is not to judge churches and individuals who fail to show love. Our task is to look closely at ourselves to see how we can better illuminate love to those around us. As we know, it is a lack of love that splits families, neighborhoods, businesses, governments, denominations and churches. Let's see what we can do to better radiate love to those around us. Let's see what we can do to let love burst forth so that the community sees love shining forth from Roundy Church.
