May 7, 2017 is Easter 4A

Acts 2:42-47 – Description of the early church. 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 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.

Psalm 23 – The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

1 Peter 2:19-25 – He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

John 10:1-10 – I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The Beloved Community

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 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.

I cannot think of a better text from which to preach a vision for the whole church and the local congregation. This text and embodies many of the deep yearnings we heard when we were doing our deep listening as a part of our synod’s strategic planning process, in particular spirituality and hospitality. People are hungry for spirituality and community.

These are the ancient ministries of the church.

Koininia: Community
Martyria: Witness
Diakonia: Service

I avoid the word fellowship for koinonia. The word fellowship is passé. No one knows what it means anymore. It gets interpreted as punch and cookies in the fellowship hall. For the early church koininia [community] meant devotion, sharing a weekly holy meal together, sharing each other’s lives, in each other’s homes, sharing possessions, and giving to those in need. This is not punch and cookies.

Surveys reveal the number one reason people join a church: to make friends. In this digital age, we are desperately hungry for community. Newcomers do not come for friendly people with a handshake at the door. They come looking for enduring friendships. And they come hoping to drink deeply of life, as well as Jesus’ vision for a new world.

Spirituality and hospitality.

We say passionate spirituality. We got a little pushback on the word passionate. We use this word because We are not talking about a dry doctrinal assent to a credal formula. We are talking about a living, breathing relationship with God and others in the world that changes lives and even societies. Not the dead faith of the living, but the living faith of the dead.

We say radical hospitality. We got a little pushback on the word radical. We use this word because we we are not talking about a handshake at the door. We are not talking about coffee and donuts. We are talking about a lavish, over-the-top, prodigal hospitality to our neighbor, the stranger, the foreigner, the oppressed, the economically disadvantaged, and even our enemies – that’s radical. We are talking about the lavish, excessive, overflowing welcome of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. We are talking about the kind of hospitality the Good Samaritan showed to the man in the ditch. The hospitality Jesus showed the woman at the well. This is not punch and cookies.

In today’s gospel reading, John 10:10 Jesus says, “I came that they [presumably, the sheep] might have life and have it abundantly.” The Greek word περισσον literally means “excessively.” Think overflowing life. That will preach, as they say. Acts 2 gives us one of the earliest and most hopeful pictures of the abundant-life, post-Easter church community. It is a moment in time.

Luke’s description in Volume II of his “orderly account,” which we call Acts, is at times an idyllic look at the early church. Other times it is a scathing appraisal. Yet, even if we are getting a rosy picture, would we have it any other way? Does a lover not gaze upon the beloved and see stars? For Luke this new community in Christ, flawed but empowered by the Spirit, is a sign of the reign of God breaking in, the continuing hands and feet of Jesus in the world. And so we should sit up and take copious notes. The Evangelist speaks, for those who have ears to hear.

Here then is the beloved community. Let the church leader feel a yearning for this kind of community, and a desire to allow the Spirit to shape us into something similar.

There are five sentences in this reading.

1. Acts 2:42 – They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

And there we have it. They devoted themselves to four things: teaching, community, commensality and prayer.

The dictionary defines devotion as “great love or loyalty,” and also as “profound dedication,” among other things. They were profoundly dedicated to teaching, community, meal, and prayer – Word and Sacrament, community and prayer, sacramental, spiritual community.

προσκαρτεροuντες (proskarterountes) occurs only five times in the New Testament, two of them in this week’s passage. Some versions translate προσκαρτεροuντες consistently as “continued steadfastly.” The NRSV tries to nuance the word to the context, rendering it as “devoting,” “persevering,” “spending time with,” and “being busy with.”

The object of your devotion is what you’re committed to spending time doing. What are you spending your time doing? Your life?

Here are all five occurrences:

Acts 1:14
οuτοι πάντες nσαν προσκαρτεροuντες ὁμοθυμαδὸν τn προσευχn σὺν γυναιξὶν καὶ Μαριὰμ τn μητρὶ τοu Ἰησοu καὶ (συν) τοiς ἀδελφοiς αὐτοu.

All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.