Tomorrow (Acts 2:42-47)
The following is my manuscript for the sermon that I preached on Sunday, July 11 at Woodmont Christian Church’s Bridge service. As you can see above, I streamlined the fool out of this on the fly, but below is what was in front of me as I preached.
Today is Birthday Sunday at Woodmont. This church is celebrating 78 years, but from where I stand it looks no older than 7 or 8 months. In all seriousness, a group of individuals came together with the dream of forming a church and they laid out this covenant:
We do hereby solemnly covenant with God and one another to bond ourselves together to establish a Christian Church in this community for ourselves and posterity.
We pledge our time, substance, talents and prayers to the end that His Church shall be a house of prayer for all people, a fellowship of those who believe in Christ and strive to follow his teachings, and a part of the Church Universal.
We aim to erect a suitable edifice for divine worship, for Christian education, for stewardship, for world missions, and to minister to the spiritual needs of the community.
All this we covenant to be and do under the guidance of God and the leadership of Jesus Christ our Lord.
That is legitimately something to celebrate and those words are a good summation of what we at Woodmont Christian Church ought to be about. It is a day to celebrate.
So with it being our birthday, it is time to make a wish and blow out the proverbial candles. Let me ask you: What is your wish for Woodmont going into the future? What do you hope and pray that the church looks like tomorrow? And really we would do well to expand that question; not just what we hope Woodmont looks like tomorrow but, as the covenant puts it, the Church Universal. Because it’s bigger than us. To tweak a quote from the cinematic masterpiece Thor: Ragnarok, the church is not a place, it’s a people. Woodmont is not this building but the people of this community and our community exists within the larger body of Christ.
As we think about where we are all going, it would do us well to reflect on where we came from. Not in a way where we idolize the past. Too often we put the golden age on a pedestal, remembering only the good and not grappling with the difficulties. Yet there is a spirit that is present in the scripture passage that we read today that I truly hope will animate us as a church—both Woodmont and the Church Universal—tomorrow, the next day, 78 years from now, and beyond.
A little context as we look at this passage today: Acts 2:42-47 is Luke’s description of the early church in the aftermath of Pentecost; the birthday of the Church Universal.. Jesus has resurrected. Before ascending to heaven, he tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit or Paraclete or Comforter. During the Feast of Pentecost, thousands of Jewish people flock to Jerusalem from all over; a plethora of nationalities, languages, and ethnicities converging for this important day. The Spirit comes upon the disciples and they are able to talk to all of these people from a variety of cultures.
Led by Peter, the disciples tell the crowds about Jesus and thousands of people decide to join up and follow Christ. In the story of Pentecost, there is this incredible coming together of cultures and Peter’s sermon has these callouts to the old and the young, to sons and daughters. A diversity is baked into the story and from that story comes the early church which takes us to this passage. What I am going to do is spend a little bit of time with each part of this description of the early church. Imagine Acts 2:42-47 as a house and we’re going to spend a little time in each room getting to know it.
We’ll start with Acts 2:42: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. The word that jumps out to me in that sentence is devoted. Devotion does not come from a place of indifference or even mild like. One does not devote themselves to something to which they are on the fence. We are passionate about the things to which we are devoted. I’m from South Carolina and when Clemson University started making runs at the National Championship in college football, their big rallying cry was “All In.” Like every other person I knew on Facebook was putting an “All In” graphic on their profile picture. “All In.” “All In.” Everyone wanted you to know that they were All In for the Tigers. “All In.” “All In.”
I was brought up with the understanding that we only pulled for Clemson if they played the Russians and so when they made the National Championship, I made myself a graphic that said “9% In (Maybe as low as 5%, definitely no higher than 15%)” and Clemson fans were not amused. But if you are devoted, you are all in, not 9% in or even 75% in. You are 100% in and you want everyone to know about it. To be devoted to something or someone is to love it deeply. It requires time, commitment, intentionality. Luke tells us that the people in the early church were devoted. They loved.
Now to what was the early church devoted? The actions Luke lists here shows us that they were devoted to teachings of the apostles and fellowship, to the breaking of break and prayer. To simplify things even more, they were devoted to God and one another. Their devotion to God was expressed through dedicating themselves to the apostles’ teaching and prayer. These women and men wanted to know more about Jesus, about God and thus they wanted to learn all they could. The apostles’ teaching would have primarily been centered on two things: first the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible which we also call the Old Testament and the apostles’ encounters and teachings that came from Jesus.
How does that translate for us today as we live out our devotion to God? We ought to have that hunger for learning and its lifelong journey. I majored in religion, I have my Masters of Divinity, and the more I have learned the more I have realized I will always be learning. We learn through studying scripture on our own, in small group settings, and within worship services like this one. You do not just need to learn about God from someone who is standing up here on a stage or in a pulpit.
Yes, we learn from ministers, Sunday school teachers, and small group leaders, but we also learn from reading the Bible or from others around us. J. Bradley Chance said that “we listen to the voices of God’s people, past and present, their hopes and hurts, celebrations and concerns, praises and pains.” Truthfully, some of the times I have best learned about God of late has been right down the hall when one of our students starts talking about how they see faith. If we are to be a church devoted to God, we must be a church devoted to learning about God.
The early church was also devoted to God by devoting themselves to prayer. In prayer we talk with God, we lift up our hopes and hurts to God, we praise God, and sometimes even get angry with God. To be devoted to someone means that you are in regular communication with them. Any relationship whether it be marriage or a friendship, is sustained by good communication. One of my most treasured parts of each day is eating dinner outside with E.A. and just talking: about our days, about what made us laugh, about what’s ticking us off, about our hopes. Our devotion to one another is strengthened as we share life together. The same goes for our devotion to God.
These Jesus followers was also devoted to one another through fellowship and breaking bread. These people loved each other and so they wanted to get to know one another. They hung out. They worshiped together. They ate together. The people of the early church were devoted to one another through learning about each other and talking to each other at the table. You and I were not meant to walk in faith alone. We need each other. We learn from each other. We lean on each other in hard times. We rejoice with each other in moments of celebration. That does not happen magically no matter how much my introverted self wishes it to be true. We have to put in the work. Let us be devoted to one another and find fellow followers of Jesus who can help us on this journey. My prayer for the church tomorrow is that we devote ourselves to God and to one another.
Alright, my next wish for the church. Acts 2:43: Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. It would be really cool if I could do a magic trick right here. Alas, I can’t produce that kind of wonder. Awe. When was the last time that you experienced awe in the context of your faith? Like when did something of God stir something deep within you? Maybe it moved you to profound stillness. Or maybe it made you want to burst out into song. One night, we were looking at a gorgeous night sky and I, being of very mediocre voice, started singing to our kids: “Look at the stars / Look how they shine for you…” And our boys, annoyed, said, “Daaaaaaaaaaad,” because I also sing that song anytime someone mentions the color yellow.
One of my hopes for the church tomorrow is that we experience and celebrate awe. Now we might think that we are at a distinct disadvantage compared to the early church in this category. Because the signs and wonders that we see within Acts and the Gospels are indeed awe-inspiring: blind people seeing, the paralyzed walking, prison doors being flung open. We typically do not see those kind of signs today. Yet we need to keep in mind that every good thing comes from God. If you see beauty, if you see truth, that comes from God.
So maybe we too narrowly define “signs and wonders.” Love being shared among people is a sign. People experiencing wholeness and healing is a wonder. When individuals give of themselves, that is amazing. Look at the work that some of our members have done at Fall Hamilton Elementary. Witness the community of love that has sprung up between our church and children in Guatemala through Unbound. Watch a friend give comfort to someone who is hurting. These are signs and wonders and God is the source of all that is good within them. In the midst of our trials and the ordinary grinds of our days, we sometimes forget that. Yet we are witnesses to some amazing things and my prayer is that the church’s eyes are opened to those signs and wonders and that they fill us with awe and gratitude.
Up next is Acts 2:44-45: 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. This might be the part where I lose some of you. Before we get to the part that sounds kind of like socialism, a word about commonality. When Luke says that the early church had all things in common, he is not saying that they were all alike. As I alluded to when I spoke of Pentecost earlier, one of the marks of the early church was its diversity. And if you have read any of the later letters and epistles of the New Testament, you’ll know that this diversity caused some headaches. The church had to work through those disagreements. They had to talk about them and figure something out. It was not all rainbows and unicorns even back then. So how did they find this commonality in the midst of diversity? Well, let’s learn some Greek.
When Luke uses the word fellowship in this passage, the word that he uses is κοινωνία (koinonia). When he writes that all who believe had all things in common, the word common comes from the same root. So what is koinonia? Well, it was the name of a Christian group that a professor and a friend of mine tried to start in college. It did not last a year, but we had some really funny fliers. But New Testament scholar Raymond E. Brown says that while koinonia is translated as fellowship, it can more literally mean communion—the spirit that binds people together—or community—the grouping produced by that spirit. So in the midst of their diversity, they had this north star of their devotion towards God and one another that forged this koinonia.
In that commonality, the church was singularly committed to the well-being of everyone in their midst. They were so God-intoxicated that they would sell their own possessions to lift up their neighbors. They had the understanding that if one of them was hurting then all of them were hurting; if one of them was in need then all of them were in need. Commentators, scholars, and preachers for years have wrestled with what to do with such a radical practice. Can you imagine if someone suggested we do this today? Many have suggested that Luke was providing a fairy tale account of the early church. Which is why the following quote from United Methodist bishop William Willimon grabbed ahold of me:
Later commentators seem intent on showing such claims [of sharing] to be an idealized and romanticized creation of the later church. Their interpretations testify more to the loss of the church’s confidence in the ability of the resurrection faith to overturn all material and social arrangements….Yet the commonality of goods is set forth as concrete testimony that something unsettling, specific, and substantial has happened to these people.
That phrase—something unsettling, specific, and substantial has happened—is legitimately something I would love said about my faith and others who follow Christ. Awe at resurrected faith overtook them.
The early church had such a deep and unsettling encounter with the Christ who gave all out of love that when they saw their neighbor in need, they ran through every barricade that often holds us back. They asked, “Why don’t we just sell our stuff to help that person out?” My hope here is not so much that the church of tomorrow will become a commune. If you want to give that idea a go, you have my blessing for whatever that is worth.
My simple prayer is this: That we devote ourselves to God and one another and that those awe-filled interactions will so unsettle us that we will run through the barricades that often hold us back from sharing love with those around us. Maybe you or I cannot sell all we have and give it to someone in need. But we can give something, we can help somehow. It does not have to be big or dramatic. In fact, it will likely start small. A few weeks ago, we showed a video featuring photos from our youth group’s mission day camp Light Up Music City. That video featured a song by a band called Jars of Clay with the lyrics: “Give us days to be filled with small rebellions / Simple, brutal acts of kindness from us all.” My wish is that the church be known for small rebellions filled with love for all whom we encounter.
Last wish. Acts 2:46-47: 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. I will break this one down quickly because it is fairly straightforward. First, they were meeting day by day. The church was not restricted to a day or a couple of hours a week. The church was every day. Of course, we hear that and it’s like, “Whew, I don’t know, man. Getting through traffic to Green Hills seven days a week sounds like a stretch.” And it is, but the beauty that we seen in this passage is that the church is not just every day, it is everywhere.
They were going to the temple, they were meeting in their homes. They were eating together and praising God. They were discovering that the lines between the religious/spiritual and the rest of the world was a lot more blurry than they thought. Now what we’re seeing here is not this idea that pops up when people say, “The golf course is my church” or “Brunch is my church.” Rather we see these early followers of Jesus intentionally seeking out Christian fellowship each and every day. Seeking out ways to grow in their faith every single day. Again, they were so devoted to following God that there were not these church and non-church compartments in their lives. Everything was spiritual. It was all sacred. God help our faith to be vibrant wherever we go so that any interaction can evoke the spirit of church.
And the last bit in that verse: And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Other translations say, “added those who were being rescued” or “everyone who was experiencing liberation.” Saved from what? Well, there is a lot to be saved from. There is sin: the things that we say or do that hurt ourselves, others, and even God. There is being rescued from loneliness. There is being rescued from a self-centered life. There is liberation from a life where you are only around people who are like you. There is salvation in knowing that you are loved by God and others and you are invited to love in return. We all need to experience saving and Christ offers that to us. And it is my ultimate prayer that the church of tomorrow is a place where people experience God’s liberation day after day after day.
This verse—Acts 2:42-47—has fascinated and haunted me for pretty much all my adult life. In college, I really was intent on making the church look different than it did and I look back on myself with simultaneous love and embarrassment. Like I was the type of person who in all earnestness would say things like “Wouldn’t it be awesome if we, like, played U2 at church and also talked more about helping the poor?” Oh, you sweet, young dork. Although those are both great ideas. And this verse was something that captured my imagination: What if we were like this? What if we were devoted to God and each other? What if we were filled with awe and people knew us by the way that we took care of others?
Those questions still rattle around in my head. Because I know that a lot of people outside the church don’t see it as that kind of place. They don’t see it as a place of awe and wonder. They don’t see it as a place where all are welcome even when a church says all are welcome. My students tell me regularly that many of their peers don’t see the point to all of this. And given how the church is in the American popular imagination—what they see from a talking head on the news or when they’ve been told from a pulpit that they or a friend of theirs is going to hell—I get it. The church looks like something small and irrelevant and confining. That breaks my heart because I believe that Christ gives us something that is beautiful and vibrant and life-changing. When I see people make the church small, it makes me sad and it makes me angry. And I don’t know always know what to do.
It can be easy for us to look around and say that we are not those type of Christians but the truth of the matter is, the average person on the street doesn’t know the difference unless they see it. So I come back to this verse as a touchstone. This is how the church tomorrow can show the world just how amazing God’s love for all of us is: by devoting ourselves to God and to our neighbor, by inviting an unsettling awe into our lives, by recommitting ourselves to helping and loving each other in extravagant ways, by having church every day and everywhere, and by experiencing and sharing God’s liberation.
