“There was not a needy person among them…”
(Acts 4:34)
It’s pretty amazing what a group of folks led by the Holy Spirit can do. When I read the First Lesson assigned for Easter 2 in the RCL (Acts 4:32-35), I’m always blown away by the selflessness of those early Christians. In our current climate, however, I imagine there might be some who would view this passage with alarm and think the Bible is preaching socialism. To my way of thinking, the Bible is preaching the power of faith in the resurrected Lord.
If ever an Easter message were needed, this would be the one, I think. Haven’t you noticed how the church was always full on Easter with folks you hadn’t seen since Christmas showing off their finery? Then, the very next Sunday—as if the story of the resurrection was no more impacting than an installment of Game of Thrones,—the church emptied out again. What a shame that so many people don’t come back to hear what faith in the resurrection is capable of doing.
We’ve all heard of the faith of the early Christian martyrs who were willing to become lion chow in the Roman arena rather than forsake their belief in Jesus Christ. I don’t know if we concentrate enough on the other sacrifice these nascent believers made—the sacrifice of their possessions, status, privilege, and security. If you ask me, I think it’s one heck of a testimony to the power of Jesus’ influence on them that they were willing conform their lives so closely to his. You have to admit, it was a pretty big ask. I mean, would you be willing to do it? To give up all you had and trust yourself to a sharing community in the hope that no one would ever go without?
In case you haven’t noticed, sacrifice has been a big part of our American national conversation this past year. Since March of 2020 we’ve been asked to do things and go without things we’d rather not do or rather not sacrifice. Many of us have done it in the spirit of supporting others and the society as a whole. Often, our better nature wins out.
Here’s an example: A few years back my old buddy from the Midwest, Rich, was working in the media department of a community college. He was chosen to be something of a shop steward for his public employees union. When the college had to make some cutbacks, they asked the union members to take a voluntary pay cut. This proposal was about as popular with the workers as passing gas in church; nevertheless, Rich encouraged the union members to accept the cut. How? He pointed out that, should the college not reduce its payroll, some employees would have to be let go. “How’d you like it,” Rich asked, “if you ran into one of your former co-workers at the grocery store and he was paying for his stuff with food stamps? How good would you feel about your decision then?” The image of a co-worker reduced to public assistance made the situation real for union members, and they voted that each should sacrifice some so that some didn’t have to lose all.
I’m not proposing that we should all sell our possessions and create a commune. But I am asking us to consider what a resurrection faith really means, and how such a faith should play out in our world. Thomas, in our Gospel lesson (John 20:19-31), demanded proof before he was willing to commit himself to believing. Are we asking for proof that our sacrifices in Christ’s name will accomplish what we want them to accomplish? Do we doubt the God who raised Jesus from the dead is capable of caring for us should we risk a bit of what we have in order to aid others?
The story we read in Acts should make us look with awe at the Early Church and yearn for the kind of zeal which created a community dedicated to compassion, a community that desired service to other human beings more than it feared privation, a community which could step out of the constraints of its culture and create a new way of seeing the world.
Of course, many in that community of disciples saw the resurrected Jesus in the flesh. Blessed are we who have not seen, and yet have come to believe the awesome things our God is capable of doing through us.
Christ is risen. Alleluia!
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