In my sermon prep I ran across an author who reminded me of a TV show from the 70s that was one of my favorites. It was set in Queens I think. Archie Bunker and his wife Edith lived a rather bleak life in which Edith was the much underappreciated and a little slow witted wife and Archie was the penultimate self-absorbed, racist, jerk who believed at his core that he was the leading expert on everything. When I read this lesson from Acts today what came to mind was the theme song for that show.
Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days.
And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man
Like Herbert Hoover again.
Didn't need no welfare state,
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days.
All in the Family was one of the first shows to portray the cultural challenges of racial inequities, poverty, consumerism, and the disconnect between the WWII generation and the Boomers. It was all portrayed through the eyes of Archie who would have preferred a world in which life was clearer, simpler, and easier to understand and one in which he was not confronted with difference or vulnerability. But Archie’s memories were imprecise at best and really held only the illusion of truth.
Like Archie we who populate the churches of today – especially those of us who have passed the half century mark - sometimes long for a time past – when the churches were all full, Sunday School programs were booming, youth activities were a major draw, and the tithe (10% of income) was the standard for giving to the church. But such nostalgia is really selective memory. We tend to forget that few people talked about or even acknowledged the abuse of power by clergy or lay leadership and the numbers of children who were hurt by that negligence – checks and balances were non-existent. Women were not considered worthy to read the lessons in church – we were told that the Bible said that women should not speak in church. Racism kept and in fact still does keep Sunday the most segregated day of the week. The gap between the haves and the have nots was growing quickly. Our cities were breeding grounds for poverty and violence and a growing drug problem – the churches did little to address such problems. And from our position some 50 years hence these were the beginnings of what has become a steady downward movement in church life, family life, world-wide economic security, and world peace. Longing for a better time gone by is rarely worth the time spent.
And so this morning we come to this passage from Acts that seems too good to be true. They were of one heart and soul, no one claimed private ownership, there was not a needy person among them. WOW! This passage from Acts is a sort of summary statement for what Luke sees as the post-resurrection story of the church. Those who believed in Jesus Christ and in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God were the embodiment of Jesus ministry. The signs of God’s Kingdom in Jesus were acts of healing and restoration and here in this post Resurrection time, the sign of the presence of God’s Kingdom is the coming together in unity of a fledgling Christian community and a just and equitable life for all within the community. But like our memories of the church of the 50s this is most likely not a totally accurate picture of the early church. In fact we know from scripture that members of the community did in fact own businesses and land and not all of them gave a fair share to the life of the community. But even if life in the early church was not as communal as this passage represents it is a wake-up call to us for what the church – or better – what Christian community should be like.
This story in Acts is set against the back-drop of a story of healing and witness. Peter and John had encountered a blind beggar on the way into the temple one day. Peter, instead of putting a coin in the beggars cup, ordered him in the name of Jesus to stand and walk and the man was miraculously healed. Because of the uproar that resulted from the healing, Peter and John had been arrested. The High council questioned Peter and John asking them by what power they had done this miracle. And, Luke tells us, Peter was filled with the Spirit and declared that it was through the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead. The boldness with which Peter spoke and the pressure from the community which numbered about five thousand by now was more than the High Council was willing to tackle so they released Peter and John ordering them not to do that any more. Clearly the line was being drawn in the sand. It was going to be at a great risk that the Christian community continued to preach openly. And so they did what Christian communities facing persecution have continued to do through the ages. They prayed together for the strength and courage to face the challenges before them. The result of this strong bonding in community was that the place was shaken to the core and the people filled even more with the passion of the Holy Spirit and they began to proclaim the healing, saving power of Jesus Christ even more than before.
And that brings us to the point of this story today,. Luke wants us to know that it is through the power of God working in us that unity and equity are realized. It is God who transforms both individuals and communities. “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.” The resurrection is the physical and spiritual evidence of God’s power to defeat the forces of evil and death in the world. The resurrection is the physical and spiritual evidence of God’s power to transform us and to lift us to a place where we can boldly proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and fashion our lives to be in unified harmony with creation and to be generous in the stewardship of our resources.
Much like Archie Bunker, we live in a world of painful transitions both in the life of the church and in the changing hegemonies of the nations of the world. We are a world growing smaller and smaller and more and more interdependent. There is no clear differentiation between who is right and who is wrong – who or what is evil and who or what is good. Today we need – perhaps more than ever before – the unifying power and reconciling Peace of the Spirit that was among these early Christians and which brought them to a place of being in one heart and soul. God calls us to reconciliation with not only our fellow Christians but with the whole human family.
And God calls us to a spirit of generosity in the midst of that human family. Yesterday I attended a workshop with Richard Johnson, Jan Boyd, and Nancy Morrissey that was led by The Rev’d Charles LaFond. Charles is a good friend who served with me in New Orleans after Katrina. He is the canon for stewardship in the Diocese of New Hampshire. We were there to begin to think about stewardship in our parish and what it means to the life of the Christian community to share the wealth that God has given to us individually in ways that contribute to the church’s mission. Charles said that even though many people are resistant to talking about stewardship and money - as human beings greed is not who we are. Greed is a manifestation of our fear – fear of scarcity, fear of weakness, fear of loss, fear of the unknown or unforeseen events. He said that in order to overcome our fear of scarcity he suggests that we pay attention in our lives to times of silent prayer, times of Sabbath, and a life of simplicity. Out of these three will come conversion of life and when that conversion of our life meets the mission of the church then stewardship will become a natural and fulfilling part of our parish life. I know that as the months go by we will talk more and more about this faithful way of life.
John tells us today that the disciples were also afraid. So afraid in fact that they huddled in a locked room in impotent silence. Jesus comes to them not once but twice, Jesus offers to Thomas the opportunity to reach out and to prove with touch that indeed God has overcome the power of death. The miracle of these Easter appearances is that Jesus comes again and again to the scared and confused disciples and Jesus does the exact same thing for us. Jesus comes again and again to us in the mystery of the Eucharist, in the beauty of the creation, in the love of a parent for a child, in the excitement of a child discovering the world. Barbara Brown Taylor says that she encounters altars everywhere she goes – meaning that she encounters the holy in all sorts of places and people. Me too. It is part of the mystery of Easter. The Easter Gospel turns the world upside down for us. It doesn’t matter that our lives are caught up in the right side up world of fear and despair - because of God’s action in the Easter miracle we are not trapped there. We as individuals and as a church are free to live in unity even in the midst of our differences and to strive for a spirit of generosity that will provide for all of God’s creation. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is made believable in the transformed life of the believing community. We live in the light of that early community in Acts. We who know ourselves as the church are called to proclaim in reconciling word and in deeds of generosity - the truth of Easter. Christ has risen. The Lord has risen indeed. Amen