ONE HEART ONE MIND!
(Preached on Sunday, April 19, 2009)
The whole congregation of believers was united as one -- one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. -Acts 4:32
What an amazing description of life in the early church! Even allowing for the probability that Luke was idealizing those early followers of Jesus, it is still an amazing picture. And probably not all that idealized. In 1899 archeologists unearthed a piece of writing describing life among the believers in the early church. Addressed to the Roman Emperor Hadrian (CE 76 - 138), it read as follows: “They walk in all humility and kindness and falsehood is not found among them. They love one another. They do not refuse to help widows. They rescue the orphans from violence. He who gives, gives ungrudgingly to him who lacks. When one of their poor passes from this world, any one of them who sees it provides for his burial. And if they hear that one of their members is in prison or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs... Thus they labor to become righteous, as those who expect to see their Messiah and to receive from him the glorious fulfillment of the promises made to them. Truly, this is a new people, and there is something divine in them.” This was not written by an early Christian, but by one of the Roman governors, reporting back to his emperor.
This is a powerful picture which both excites and frightens us. It is exciting because it is a beautiful picture of community, of a life lived in common and with support so that no one had to struggle alone. It is frightening because we fear what it demands of us and what we might have to give up to achieve such a life, and whether it is even possible.
That is the purpose of the Book of Acts, to illustrate for us and teach us that such a life, resurrected life, new life in Christ, is possible. It is possible because of Easter. “The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus...” This common life was grounded in the resurrection. Those early followers knew all about death, just like us. It was just as fantastical to them as to us that someone could rise to new life after being dead for three days. We are tempted by our modern, scientific-based skepticism to exalt the teachings and ethics of Jesus while turning away from this central claim of the gospel. But that truth is central. It is the crucial demonstration that God is more powerful than death and is bringing newness to the world.
The truth of the resurrection of Jesus is that in some powerful, amazing way, his early followers came to understand that his death on the cross on Friday was not the end of him. They came to understand, in an experiential way, that he still lived, that the power of his life and teachings continued on, and God was not done with what was begun in Jesus. God’s new project for transforming the world was not halted by death, but God overcame the death of Jesus and thus they had faith that God would overcome all manner of death which confronted them.
This belief, this knowledge, this trust, was amazingly powerful and brought tremendous freedom. That is clear from the statements about how they handled their possessions and money. Jesus understood that the primary stumbling block to a faithful, trusting God-filled life was our fear about the future, death, and our security. That is why money and possessions is such a powerful idol, a competing god for our devotion and trust. The appearance of life in the world is that our security for the future, and the best hope for overcoming death we have, is to devote our lives, our energy, and our time to securing as much money and possessions (stored wealth) as we possibly can. With money we can buy health care; we can buy food and shelter and security; we can maybe even buy a postponement of death.
But that is a false promise which is why money is a false god, an idol. It never delivers on those promises and it always leads us into lives of isolation, fear, and insecurity. The only way to live a life of true freedom and joy is to fully and completely trust God with our lives — for our security and our resurrection, our new life overcoming death. And the only way to completely trust God with our lives is to completely trust God with our possessions and wealth.
This frightens us to no end, because it means a dramatic change in the way we live our lives and the way we have been taught by our culture to live our lives. In fact our culture has words to heighten our fear of this life of trusting God with our possessions: communism, socialism. The great evils and sins of our modern world. But neither of the descriptions of the early church, the one in Acts or the one to Hadrian, are describing communism or socialism. For neither description is of a compulsory sharing of possessions. What is described is the attitude toward possessions and wealth once one realizes that death is no longer a threat to one’s security, because God truly overcomes death. Once possessions and wealth are no longer a competing god in our lives, they instantly become secondary to caring for people. What is described is not a compulsory sharing but a heightened sense of responsibility for one another and a rich generosity in response.
The result is a tremendous amount of energy released from this community. People now mattered more than anything else. People were cared for and received attention. This is the power of unity. “One heart, one mind!” This unity manifests itself in a community where all feel valued, where all feel welcome, where all can trust. This thinking also is a great challenge to us; we cherish individualism and being right. The price paid for insisting on “my way” is loneliness and a lack of community, the very opposite of the description of the early followers of Jesus. Jesus did not go it alone. He gathered people to be in ministry with him. He did not send his followers out alone. He sent them out two by two and he gathered them into a community. The power of the resurrection was not seen in individual lives, so much as it was seen in the way they lived together in community, caring for one another, loving one another. Care, compassion, love cannot be practiced alone.
There was a comfortable, suburban church which decided they wanted to be more involved in local mission. This was a big step for this church, whose focus always seemed to be inward — on themselves. The announcement was made that the church was looking for some good used cares to help people with transportation. Before too long, the church had several used cars. A member of the church with mechanical know-how volunteered to check out the cars and make any necessary repairs before the cars were given away. The cars were given to low-income people who could not afford a car but needed transportation for employment. A worthy mission project.
But it grew beyond the cars. People in the church soon discovered that the people they were trying to help frequently needed someone to babysit their children when they went for job interviews as well as work. People from the church volunteered their time. Someone else offered to help write resumes, while another person offered ways to improve job skills. The congregation began to rally behind and support the people they met through the car project. The people being helped were surprised that a church would help them in such practical ways. The more people in the church became involved in mission the more they wanted to do. A powerful witness and dynamic energy were released in that church and in the community as they became united “one heart, one mind” in mission.
This is the power of Easter. When the risen Christ gets hold of us, when we embrace the possibility of resurrection life, that God is stronger than death, and trust that possibility with all our heart, our mind, our soul and our wealth, then amazing new life will begin to happen here in our lives and our community will become a powerful witness to the resurrection of Jesus and the new life possible by trusting God.