Acts 4:32-35 (New International Version)
32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
This Easter we respond to the shock, the enormity of what God has done in Jesus. We are on a journey of discovery. What does this all mean, how can we be different as a result?
Thus I finished my sermon for Easter Sunday, and thus I start this morning. In our Encounter Groups last week, many of us then discussed passionately what it means or might mean to have a personal encounter with the living God, and also what will happen to us after we die. Will we have resurrection bodies?
Each week we are presented with a portion from the Acts of the Apostles and from the Gospels. Last week my theme was that personal encounter that Jesus has with each of us, and of the varied stories that were told then, and that we might tell now.
This week, we see evidences of Christ alive and in his church. He appears among his disciples and breaths upon them. Thomas is not present, and finds this difficult to believe; Jesus returns a week later and invites Thomas to put this to the practical test. “Put your finger here …”
More astoundingly, we see evidences in the new quality of life lived by the first disciples. In Acts 4 we read of a praying church that is united. Very much in the spirit of the 40 Days of Relationship, we read that “All the believers were one in heart and mind.” There is something about a shared experience that binds people together. We can imagine that to experience the death and resurrection of Jesus would put everything else into perspective.
“No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” This sounds a little more incredible. Instead of hearing that the disciples touched the raised Jesus, it sounds to us as if they themselves were a little ‘touched’. Is this not the kind of over-the-top, kooky thinking that gives respectable Christians a bad name? How dangerous. How this might disturb the status quo.
And yet the status quo is what Jesus came to destroy. The status quo is that we live hard, unhappy lives, chasing our tails and afraid of death and afraid of each other. Jesus came preaching a message of love that they thought was unrealistic. He said that we are all equal, which upset those who thought that they were superior. He said we should favour the poor, which upset those with money and property. He said that we were born to have a personal relationship of love, forgiveness and trust with our Father God, which upset those who used religion as a means to control our minds and aspirations. Worst of all, he came back from the dead, demonstrating that he had the power to do all this, and that he was right!
This is the revolution. This has been God’s new status quo for the past 2000 years. We have found it hard, and have harked back to the old way of doing things. Even now, the very fabric of our society is under threat, and we do not know whether to rejoice or despair. When the Berlin Wall was torn down, there were many socialists who did not know how to adapt. Now that Wall Street and the City of London are shaking, it is a good time for us to stop and take stock. There have been voices which sounded unpopular notes before: Oliver Jones wrote in 2007 about Affluenza, his term for the chronic desire for security through material possessions that afflicted and continues to afflict so many of us in our comfortable western societies, but which gives rise to so much insecurity and depression.
Of course, 2000 years ago a wise man said “31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6).
So how do we respond to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection? The disciples did it by a concept of koinonia, a Greek word that we translate as fellowship or sharing or communion. So in a little while we will take part in the Holy Koinonia, the Holy Communion or Sharing. The bread and wine symbolise Christ’s presence among us, and that we are united in him. The early church seem to have understood this to mean the whole of their lives. They did not just share an hour on Sunday, or even a Wednesday evening or Thursday lunchtime together. Jesus had given all of his life for them, and so now they loved him with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, and they loved their neighbour as themselves.
Much our thinking about what we call stewardship comes from a theology of creation. God is the Creator and we are the creatures; he has entrusted this earth and its resources to us, he has loaned them to us, and we manage them on his behalf; part of this is the portion we place in envelopes or give by standing order.
The early church seems to have operated also from a theology of redemption. God has given up his only Son for us, and therefore we joyfully give up everything for him. Everything we have and everything we are is his. It is right and proper that we use a proportion for our personal needs, but everything is his; not just the income but the capital as well. We have seen a glorious outworking of this already in the way that some have felt able to become angels to help the current stage of the Renewal Project.
In his Easter sermon, Archbishop Rowan Williams issued a new call to learn from the monastic movement. St Francis first issued the Evangelical Counsels in the 1200’s: poverty, chastity and obedience. In his day these were revolutionary and counter-cultural. To many people today, they sound plain loopy. To think of a way of life characterised by simplicity, purity and freedom from the desire to be in charge seems as absurd as someone as far from the ideal appearance of a superstar as Susan Boyle winning Britain’s Got Talent.
What difference does it make that Jesus rose from the dead? A new race of people has been brought into existence, those who have received Jesus’ love and find themselves in fellowship, in koinonia, with all those who are his. We have the glorious opportunity before us to live this life of openness, sharing, fellowship. Amen. Let’s do it.
Discussion starters
1. What do you find to be the most exciting aspect of the resurrection of Jesus?
2. What are the practical ways that we can live that New Testament quality of Resurrection Life in 2009?
3. What are the aspects of this that we question or find difficult?
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