Meditation 263
Acts 4: 32-35
“What does the resurrection of Jesus make possible?” is a question that preachers are invited to bring forward for consideration. This passage in Acts has a concrete description of how the resurrection of Jesus impacted the lives of the early believers in Jerusalem.
The first thing that grabs my attention in this story is the sharing of possessions. We may wonder how it would be if, in our congregation where we worship and fellowship, all things were held in common. We can get caught up in the logistics of such a lifestyle. We can point out that we support a system of government that does provide for people, and then move on the argument that believers should not rely on secular agencies to do God’s work, to which someone will reply that all of the world is God’s and people operate within God’s plan…… I am confident that this story was not shared to give believers another point of debate, but to encourage us to live like those who know the power of the resurrection of Jesus.
One thing I learned this week is that the community described in Acts 4 is the ideal to which Greek philosophy and politics was pointing. In the Christian community in Jerusalem there was a lived out spirit of co-operation and interdependent identity. The ancient Greeks had hoped that one day such a community would be created by their mighty emperors and wise philosophers. To this hope in human planning the writer of Acts says, “Look at the believers.” In the Christian community in Jerusalem, we see a just and caring society made possible by the Spirit, which has given life to people in the name of Jesus. A group of people, which includes both the mighty and the weak, has turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). In the early church described in Acts the whole group were of one heart and soul. It would seem that all of the believers were united by the Spirt poured out upon them, so that they could share in the ministry of giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Each contributed as he or she was able, and each one was a part of the whole group.
There are stories shared, some from real experience and some written as we would like them to be, in which a person who shares the love of Jesus is able to help another make a significant change. A hopeless person has hope, a cynic becomes an optimist, a street person learns to budget, and so on. My experience has been that being part of a group that is “of one heart and soul” means that some both in the group, and outside of it, will always need to be encouraged. Being of one heart and soul is an ongoing process. Those of us who know the life changing presence of the Spirit know that there are always ways to share that presence, and that we are the means whereby God touches others. Unlike the Greek philosophers and rulers described above; we do not take credit for a community which is “of one heart and soul” but we may be part of the way that God brings such a thing about. This is part of what the resurrection of Jesus makes possible.