Fourth Sunday of Easter A 2011

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

           Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.  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.  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.

Acts 2:42-27

       How many of us have a picture in our minds of the “Good Ole’ Days”?   I suspect nearly all but the very youngest among us have some idea in our mind of a golden age.  What is your idea of the “Golden Age” of the church?  A time when things were better?  Was it a time when there were more people attending worship?  When there were more children in Sunday School?  When most women didn’t work outside of the home and so were available to serve at funerals?  For some of us it was a time when people respected the church and church leaders.  Or maybe it was a time when people got along better in church.  Or maybe the hymns and liturgy was better.

       Well, our lesson from Acts describes a “Golden Age” in the church.  We all have our own ideas of what the perfect church should be and memories of a time when the church was closer to that ideal.  But let’s consider what Scripture says about the church when it was at its best:

       They (the Baptized)  devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
        Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 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. 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.

      
       The first believers are describes as being continually at worship.  They pooled their resources.  And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.  These verses describe a devotion to a life of faith, awe over signs and wonders, generosity with regard to material possessions, worship, fellowship and growth.

       Luke presents us with an idealized moment in early Christian history, focusing on all that was good among those first believers.   This is an image of the true “Golden Era” of the life of the church.  Alas as the story continues we learn that this moment was all too brief.  Soon the apostles will be jailed for their preaching, soon Ananias and Saphria will lie about their possessions and hold back, soon Jewish and Gentile Christians will be in conflict with one another and soon Stephen will be the first Christian murdered for his faith.  But before all of this, we see a moment in time when all was the way it should be in the church.

       Can we go back to that time?  No,  of course not. We cannot recapture that time anymore than we can go back to the garden of Eden.  But certainly we can learn from this time.  And if we are going to focus on a “Golden Era” of the church as our model to look back to, then let us turn our minds to what Scripture says the ideal church should look like, rather than depend upon our own faded and distorted memories and often conflicting ideas of what the church should be.

       They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers… 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.
      

       Now that last line – having the goodwill of all the people is a bad translation because what the Greek really says is that THEY had goodwill towards all the people.  So it’s not about how everyone else had good feelings towards Christians –the Christians had a good a gracious spirit towards all people.  Luke calls us to remember a time when the church had good will toward the world.  There was no sense of “us and them” or “We are saved and you are not” in this passages.

       You get a sense of joy and generosity of spirit when you read about the early church.  The first believers put others ahead of themselves so that they became truly Christ-like in selfless and sacrificial giving.  And it was that attitude of generosity and gratitude and goodwill towards the community that appealed to others so that “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

       From Luke we learn that the Golden Age of the church had very little to do with what we may remember about other golden ages.  Many of us may remember a time when the culture was more sympathetic to the church but Act’s Golden Age takes place in a time when culture is hostile to the church.  And in that hostile environment you do not read of Christians demanding their rights, or insisting that Wal-Mart say “Merry Christmas” instead of Happy Holidays.  No the church had good will toward other people, regardless of how other people treated them.

       For many people a church’s golden age may recall favorite pastors or leaders but Luke says nothing about any particular leader.  We may remember favorite hymns or hymnbooks but Luke says nothing of this other than “They devoted themselves” It wasn’t the hymns or the liturgies – it was the devoting of themselves to the teaching, the fellowship, the prayers, the breaking of the bread.  It wasn’t important what they sang, but that they sang praises to Christ together.

       What does it mean to devote yourself to something?  When you are devoted to something or someone that person or thing becomes the center of your life and everything else comes second.   Now we may remember a time when it seemed that people were more devoted to the church, but is that really true or was it just that there was nothing else to do?  Did the youth come because they were more devoted then than today to Christ?  Or was it because there were no other activities?  

       .  We may think we are busier and more constrained and stressed with demands on our time than our imagined Golden age, but in the true Golden Age of the church, there were slaves devoted to the gathering of the saints.  They certainly had more constraints on their time than we do, even in this busy culture.

       The early church was devoted to learning more about their faith from the apostles and to worshipping together.  That was the center of their lives.  Their worship was not just one of many activities, something that could be set aside if there was something more interesting that came up.  There was nothing more important to them than this new life devoted to God, growing in faith and worshipping together.

       And then they did something else together.  Something quite shocking—especially for those of us who treasure private property rights.

       They sold all their belongings, pooled their money and took care of each other.  You want to restore a Golden Age of the church?  There’s your biblical golden age.

       Remember that this life of faith was the passion of the Christian community.  It was everything to them.  It was more important than their farms and businesses.  It was more important to them than their hobbies or their sports.  

       It was because of this devotion that they were able to let go of selfishness and be generous.  Freely.  This is NOT like communism or some other cults where people are forced to give up their property for the sake of the party or the cult.   Nobody had to do that.  They CHOSE to do so.  When Ananias and Saphira  sell their land and keep some of the proceeds, Peter scolds them for the lie.  “It was your land and your money to do with as you wish?  Why did you lie about it?”

       Ananias and Saphira were so busy trying to look good they missed the freedom that comes from doing something because you want to, not because you have to.   And that’s another way the True Golden Age differs from some of our memories of other Golden Ages.  We may remember packed churches, but was that out of devotion or obligation, because it was expected?  There was a time when to be considered a good and respectable citizen, you were expected to belong to a church somewhere.

       In the true Golden Age of the church you were seen as a disrespectable person if you went to church.  You were not a good citizen if upi acknowledged Christ, rather than Caesar as your Lord and Master.

       It is, of course, impossible to be the “perfect church” or go back to a “Golden Era”.  And as we read Acts, we know that even the early church of the Golden Era was far from perfect and had it’s own troubles. 

       But there is no reason why we cannot have devotion to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers that led to awe at the many wonders God still does today among us.  There is no reason why we cannot have an attitude of love and good will towards others that leads to the Lord adding to our numbers.

       Wherever believers devoted themselves to God and god’s love and Good will, there will be a golden age. And when the difficulties come, it will be that devotion and good will that gives us strength and endurance.  Whatever the era, Golden or Tarnished, Christ is with us. Amen.