April 19, 2009

Acts 4:32-35

They will know we are Christians by our    (fill it in)     

            How do you tell a Christian from a non-Christian? Well, it wasn’t hard during the years when the church was developing in the first centuries. This first Sunday after Easter our Lectionary reading takes us to the first church in Jerusalem just a few years after Jesus’ resurrection. The testimony that we have here is that they were of one heart and soul, and they shared everything that they owned with one another. Their spiritual unity was made visible in sharing their material possessions with others in need. It was a concrete expression of a loving concern for their neighbor. This generosity was so evident and unexpected in this culture that anyone could tell they were followers of Jesus. These first believers knew from the bottom of their hearts that God’s love for them was real and it conquered even death.  They were compelled by their joy to share that love with others so that they might also know God’s love and the blessings of life lived as a child of God.  

Now, as far as we can tell, this church in Jerusalem was the only one that structured itself in this kind of economic com-unity stewardship. We read later on in the writings of the Apostle Paul that he had some of the churches he founded give money to the home church in Jerusalem that had fallen on hard times. I think perhaps that first church thought Jesus was going to be returning quite soon, and they did not prepare for a long haul.   

Much later on in the 4^th Century, a Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, is quoted as saying about the Christians he persecuted that “The godless Galileans fed not only their poor but ours also. Those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we could render them.” So an observed generosity lived on for several centuries in the early church, and it was a way that non-Christians could tell who Christians were. They also broke down social barriers and developed an egalitarian community where wealth, gender, and class were not used as social norms for relationships.   

The world has changed much since this time period, and the Christian faith has taken root in many cultures and nations. Western civilization, and in particular this country’s government and way of life, has been greatly influenced by, let’s say, Christian principles. And so both Christians and non-Christians today have benefited from this Christian influence on our culture. But the Christian church is no longer a community of “one heart and soul.”  It is fragmented into hundreds of denominations with many claiming to be the one true faith and some even warring with others as enemies of the true church. And mainline denominations themselves are divided into liberal and conservative sides with issues literally tearing them apart.  The battles are fought in the press and on TV for all to see. They will know we are Christians by our hypocrisy and our name calling. Oh, don’t you long for the good ol’ days when the church was of “one heart and soul” and were compelled by their joy to share God’s love with others? I would think that people from the outside looking at the church today might want to stay as far away as possible from us Christians.  

Leonard Pitts, the Chronicle columnist, said in his article entitled, “Religion is driving people away from God,” that the American Religious Identification Survey found that the number of people calling themselves Christian declined by 10% since 1990. He said this should be a wake up call to organized religion. “If all I knew of God were what I had seen in the headlines, I would not be eager to make his acquaintance. I am thankful I know more.”  

David Kinnaman of the Barna Group engaged in a three-year study of how 16 to 29 year olds outside the church view Christianity. The results were overwhelmingly with hostility, resentment, and disdain. They will know we are Christians by our what?:  91% said anti-homosexual; 87%, judgmental; 85%, hypocritical; 72%, out of touch with reality; 70%, insensitive to others. Nothing is rated high about generosity, service, sacrifice, love and hope. Does the church today resemble anything of the churches in the first centuries?  

What God did for Jesus that Easter morning his followers knew that He would do for His whole creation. We live in the time between Jesus’ Resurrection and the final transformation of the whole world. We are called to be witnesses to this here and now. Easter is not a Disney happy ending to Jesus’ death. Easter is not about going to heaven. Easter is about Jesus being physically dead and being physically alive again. No one had any idea that a person in the middle of history could be raised from the dead. Everybody knew that a dead messiah was worthless and it was time to find a new one unless…unless… 

An encounter with the Risen Jesus empowered his followers to joyfully share this reality of God’s love and transformative power with others. The first witnesses and preachers were powerless women, poor fishermen, and others who lived on the margins of society – not the powerful and rich and the morally upright. This first Christian community was so energetic, so loving, and so sharing because they lived 100% for the resurrected Jesus.  

God was victorious over sin and death and it is for all people – not just our choice of sins. The church is a missional movement whereby we give people an experience of God’s love and grace that we have received. And we do it selflessly, generously, sacrificially, and without judgment. We bring God’s love and beauty and trustworthiness to others by blessing, teaching, sharing, liberating, forgiving, and serving. And it starts with you and me. It starts with the First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Texas. We must be a com-unity that joyfully shares the good news in the way and manner of our Lord Jesus Christ. God will take care of the rest. May it be with you. May it be so with me. 

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