I am posting this sermon a week late after having spent much of last week in Oxford, MS celebrating my daughter's graduation from Ole Miss (one year later).
This sermon is another in the post-Easter series, "“Journey from the Empty Tomb into the World” As I worked on the sermon, I realized how fortunate I have been in my life to be in communities of faith that nurtured me and shaped me in my faith life. University Presbyterian Church in San Antonio was one of those churches. I can look back to University Presbyterian Church, El Paso, TX (where I have my first memories of church); St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton, TX (where I grew up and have returned as one of its ministers); Westminster Presbyterian Church, Corsicana, TX (where I joined after college and was my home church for seminary); FPC, Pasadena, TX (where I did a two-year internship); St. John's Presbyterian, Austin (where I did some worship leadership and pastoral care during seminary); FPC, Mt. Sterling, KY (my first call); and FPC, Troy, OH (my second call and the place I raised my kids for 17 years) and tell stories from each church about how they impacted my life of faith and my work in ministry. I have been blessed by wonderful, supportive congregations, which no doubt shapes and informs how I view church and ministry.
“Sharing Possessions” May 2, 2021; 5th Sunday of Easter; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp; Acts 4: 32-35; Easter 2021 series “Journey from the Empty Tomb into the World”
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Introduction: The first sermon I ever preached was on this text. The occasion was one of the final Sundays I, along with six or seven other college seniors, was going to be in attendance at University Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, TX.
For four years, a small group of college students had been the College group at the church and interacted in a variety of ways with the congregation. they asked us if we would lead worship one Sunday, including preaching the sermon.
I think they were between ministers, so they were looking for anyone to fill the pulpit.
The theme of the worship service was community and this text seemed like a good one when preaching about community.
Since that Sunday morning long ago, I have mostly avoided preaching on this text.
Probably because it seems to unrealistic to our world experience:
no one claiming private ownership;
everything held in common
I could preach the most compelling sermon ever, and I suspect we are all going to leave here still owning our own things.
But this week, as we reflect on how we move from the empty tomb into the world, this text speaks to us about what community is like for followers of the resurrected one.
A couple of thoughts on community
Move 1: These first followers of Christ felt a compelling need to be together, to be in community.
a. Laying claim to hope in the resurrection set them apart from others.
1. Imagine what is must have been like for the early Christians to boldly claim that Christ was raised from the dead.
2. It set them apart from nearly everyone else in their world.
3. even in their minority group, the Jewish tradition, they were separating themselves because they claimed that Jesus was not only the resurrected on, but he was the Son of God, the Messiah, who had been sent to save them.
4. They had no common ground with most of the world.
b. They turned to community to hold themselves together.
1. A group of people with whom they could share their lives.
2. A group of people with whom they shared a common belief.
3. a group of people who shared a common worldview.
b. But it was more than just a group of people with things in common.
1. At the center of their community was Jesus Christ, the resurrected one.
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together (29): “True Christian community is that we are bound despite ourselves by Christ,”
3. In fact, Bonhoeffer goes on to write that if believers are only seeking a community with “some pleasant camaraderie or glow of fellowship” they will “be deceived.”
5. The early church community was not simply a feel-good social club, but a place where the resurrected Christ was at work,
a place where the challenge of living like people of the resurrection was their daily task
a community called into place by Christ himself.
c. in the passage we read this morning from the Gospel of John, Jesus talks about how he is the vine and his followers are the branches.
1. He is describing the his relationship, but it also points out the way his followers are connected by him.
2. The branches are connected by the vine.
3. They are held together by Christ.
4. They are given life by Christ.
5. They are bound together in community by Christ.
Move 2: A community shaped by Christ was very different than what was the norm in the world around them.
a. Ben Witherington, in his study of Acts, notes that the early Christian groups were described in ways that made them sound like other types of groups already known.
1. For example, in Jewish circles there were groups like the Essenes, who “practiced a community of goods.”
2. he also points out that the description in Acts feels a bit like the Greek ideal of how friends should act. For example, “Aristotle said that true friends held everything in common and were of one mind,”
b. But, there were two significant differences between the community of believers described in Acts and the Greek understanding of community.
1. The norm for community as the world understood was that social groups were between “social equals.
2. Your community was made up of people who were in the same social and economic class as you were.
3. Reciprocity was also the societal norm at the time. relationships were marked by giving and receiving in equal value.
c. But these early Christians came from different social and economic classes.
1. because the disciples meet on Mt. Zion, it is thought that some of the “early Christians were of relatively high social status, for the upper class lived in the Upper City including especially on out Zion. the farther one was from the centre socially and economically, the farther one lived also from the centre geographically.” (Ben Witherington, III, the Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, 212)…
2. But, the description of having needy people in the community indicates many were not in this upper class of society.
3. The early Christian community was not defined by equal social or economic status.
4. The early Christians also formed communities marked by giving with no exception of a reciprocal return.
5. the members of the community who had many possessions would sell some of their possessions and provide funds for those who were needy, with no thought for being paid back.” (Ben Witherington, III, the Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, 205)….
5. The societal distinctions of class were blurred or made non-existent; the desire to care for others with no expectation of return becomes the norm.
d. A radically different concept of community-based on one thing - their belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the resurrected one.
Move 3: One of the ongoing symbols of this different kind of community was the Lord’s Table.
a. As Witherington notes, “Early Christian meetings and meals seem to have moved things in a more equitable and egalitarian direction by means of sharing, and perhaps also by the avoidance of pecking orders and differences in food among the participants (unlike the case in Corinth - cf I Corinthians 11)(Ben Witherington, III, the Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, 213)….
1. Gathering around the Lord’s Table represented the new life in Christ where Christians come to the table together as partners, where divisions did not matter.
2. All that mattered was that Christ had invited them to the Table.
that the Risen Christ met them at the Table.
that they went from the Table into the world together to live out God’s power to resurrect.
b. As we come to our Lord’s Table today, I invite you to consider what it means to be part of the community of believers.
1. A community where the boundaries of social class do not matter.
2. A community where those who have given of their possessions for those in need, with no expected of receiving back in equal measure.
3. that is the community to which Christ calls us.
Conclusion: When I look back at the first time I preached this text at University Presbyterian Church, I remember not the words of the sermon, but the interactions of the church community.
they saw college students arrive in their pews and immediately brought us in; it didn’t seem like a big deal to me then, but now that I am on the leadership side of things, I marvel that in a week or two they created a College group when none exited.
they gave to us and fed us, literally a meal each Sunday night,
but also fed us love and nurture, with no expectation of reciprocity. We took a lot from them - all the food and care we needed.
As it turns out, the college students did become part of the community for a brief time and did give something back - a Sunday school teacher here or there; a youth leader for a trip to Mo- ranch; and, of course, a sermon on the final Sunday we were in worship.
Now I’m not saying University Presbyterian Church was the perfect example the early church described in Acts, but I saw a glimpse of it in how they extended themselves.
Now I’m not saying St. Andrew is the perfect example of the early church described in Acts, but I am asking, how do we live our life together in community so others get a glimpse of the body of Christ in us?
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