Possible! All in Common

 

The biggest bruise I ever had was the size of a small dinner plate. I was the extra set of hands needed to make an outside shelter. My main job was to simultaneously hold the ladder and pick up metal roofing nails that were dropped. This was very important as the sheep, for whom the shelter was being built, like to eat shiny things. Holding the ladder – well more like protecting the ladder- was important because sheep like to throw their weight around and would purposefully take the ladder down. Most of the time I was able to get my steel toed boot up to meet the alpha male’s head butt. His name was Simon.

I slipped while picking up a nail, Simon took a run for it, and his head rammed my lower thigh. Thus the story of the biggest bruise I have ever had.

I have had experience shepherding real sheep. Since then, Good Shepherd Sunday has changed for me. I no longer hear an idyllic image that has a shepherd who is warm and fuzzy tending cute little sheep; all standing serenely in a field with the shepherd cuddling one in their arms.

 

Sheep are trouble. They are enticed by shiny things. They take and eat shiny things even though it is bad for them. They wander off to what looks like greener pastures than the one they are in. They are easily distracted and go to investigate. They escape and get into serious situations. They do runaway. They are stubborn. They head butt those trying to help them. They can be brought back home with a pail of oats; their tummies do the talking.

Jesus being considered the Good Shepherd has Jesus’ followers in the role of sheep. This is not a compliment!

Rather it is a pithy comment on human behaviour.

 

Keep this in your mind as we turn our attention to the post-resurrection story from Acts. The resurrection of Jesus, and the proclamation of the story, so enthralls listeners that the story is embodied. People are changed by the hearing of the story.  There is no sign of people being like sheep. Jesus’ followers have gathered in a ‘Fellowship of the Believers,’ as one Bible titles the text.

A reminder of the behaviour of the fellowship of believers:

 

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.

 

For me, this is one of the most beautiful and encouraging passages in the whole Bible. I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ when proclaimed and embodied has the power to change human beings. It certainly changed the large groups of listeners we hear of in Acts. I am encouraged and have hope that this kind of fellowship and community is 100% possible. Today.

But… we have to be willing to drop our sheepskins.

That is dropping our proclivity to acquire shiny things – voraciously consuming natural resources and material goods; to drop the need to continually search for something better; to let go of stubbornness and that which distracts us; to loss the blinders and notice those helping and supporting; to stop running away;

 to drop being controlled by our stomachs and appetites to lean into living from our hearts.

 

This passage from Acts, is one that illustrates how much we are like sheep. If I had a loonie for every time someone has told me that it is impossible to live the way the text describes, I would be a millionaire. It is absolutely possible! We just don’t want to do it.

We don’t have the will – the heart- to do it.

 

I think it is helpful to take the points presented in the text from Acts and change their order around to get fuller understanding of how hearts lived into the embodiment of Christ’s resurrection. With each point we can assess how our hearts lean into the embodiment of resurrection.

 

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple – this is dedicating time to pray together, worship, sing, study, preach, teach, learn, converse, fellowship, in their holy place, like church is to us. How much time does your heart lean into being present and participating in togetherness in this holy place? Like a distracted sheep do you wander off after Sunday worship, get lost, spend the week chasing shiny things?

they broke bread at home – remembering in the night Jesus was betrayed. Our hearts lean into communion here, but do we take it home? Do we share the story of Jesus’ breaking bread with those who share our dining room tables?

and [they] ate their food with glad and generous hearts, - does your heart lean into saying a table blessing, being glad for the food, having a generous heart to share your table? Or are you sheeplike, eating to eat, overindulging, eating your emotions, eating because you have to, eating what you know you should not?

praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. – does your heart proclaim praise or does it sheepishly grumble and complain? Does your way of living return to you the goodwill and blessing of others? Or like sheep do you forget those around you, hurting those who are in your space?

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. – because of the fellowship of believers – their time in the temple, breaking bread at home, eating with glad and generous hearts, praising God, having the good will of the people – this part of the passage is possible. The sharing of all in common, the selling of possessions, and distributing to any as they have need. This is possible because all the other points directly speak of how to embody that resurrection and in community become Christ resurrected.

 

For the sceptical, the adamant, please don’t come and tell me it is impossible, until you have sincerely put into practised and lived the first four points. They will change your life and your heart.

 

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. – I have always wondered why this sentence was not at the end. When hearts change, when resurrection is embodied, when fellowship and community abound … it is a state of awe. It is in this state that signs and wonders are manifest, embraced, and spill out into community.

 

The Apostles were a fellowship that lived Christ’s resurrection. In their living the resurrection additional fellowships of believers sprang up, from them additional fellowships of believers sprang up. Down to this very day.  And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.