The Gospel on the Move: Common
The Spirit Brings Love
Acts 4:32-35
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. April 11th, 2021
My seminary had a Field Education program that sent us out to serve rural United Methodist Churches. You might think of it as a paid internship. One of the Churches I had the privilege of serving back then is called Cedar Grove UMC. Cedar Grove is a small rural church in a farming community about a half hour outside of Durham. The community used to run on tobacco, but as the tobacco giants shrank tobacco became much less of a cash crop. As Cedar Grove the town has disappeared, Cedar Grove the United Methodist Church has remained.
But Cedar Grove is also an astonishing community that listens very carefully and faithfully to the word of God. In 2005 a man was killed outside of his bait and tackle shop just down the road from the church. As you might imagine, the community was shocked, because that sort of thing just didn’t happen in Cedar Grove. The murder also brought to the fore many racial and class tensions that are always under the surface down South. Cedar Grove held a prayer vigil outside the bait and tackle shop as a way to give people an outlet for their grief and draw people together.
One of the people at the prayer vigil was an African American woman who did not attend the United Methodist Church. But she felt called by God to donate 5 acres of land to them. She hoped, in some way, her gift might help heal rifts in the community. The pastor at Cedar Grove at the time was also thinking and praying about ways people might reconcile over literal common ground: tending the soil together.
Anathoth Community Garden was born from that gift. The garden holds classes for at risk youth and anyone else interested in learning how to grow and prepare their own food. Whatever workers do not take home is donated. They also host bible studies and prayer services on their grounds. Perhaps the best part, in my mind, is a large brick oven they use to cook their own pizzas.
I tell this story because it is an example of how I have seen our Scripture today in action. Luke gives a brief account of what life was like among the earliest Christians those first days in Jerusalem. He says they were of one heart and mind. None of them would say of anything “this is mine!” Instead they held everything in common. Their property was freely shared, freely given. Living in this way they gave powerful witness to Jesus Christ and his resurrection.
Luke wants us to see the connection between their way of life and the life of Jesus. In one of the more perplexing gospel accounts a Rich Young Ruler approaches Jesus asking what he must do to be saved. Jesus tells him he knows the commandments, and ought to follow them. When the Young Man tells Jesus he has kept them from his youth Jesus tells him there is still one thing he is lacking, he might sell all he has and give it to the poor. Then he will have treasure in heaven. The Rich Young Man walks away saddened, we are told, because he had many possessions. Lest we think Jesus was counseling the man to lead a life with no resources Luke tells us about the communion of the early Church. All they possessed was freely shared. They could freely share all they had because they were of single mind and heart. By the Spirit of God they were made one.
Jesus in his ministry cultivates this unity and communion. That is why he reaches out to the sick and heals. That is why he reaches out to the outcast. That is why he eats with the tax collectors and sinners. He seeks communion and reconciliation. He wants to make the many one.
Jesus’ ministry of communion extends even to his death. He gives up his life that we might have life. He dies outside the city walls for all who die outside of the city. He is risen from the dead for all who were left for dead. As Jesus donated his life for us and our sake, that we might know the forgiveness of sins and his resurrection, so too the early Church donated their lives for each other’s sake. They lead the a common life. They loved each other.
The Spirit wishes to foster this same common life and love today.
That common patch of land, Anathoth Community Garden, is just one example of how common life and love might be known. It is just one example of a gift given, and multiplied. How possessions might be shared, and life might be known in that sharing.
The Spirit still calls us to a common life. The Spirit still calls us to share our resources, and our lives, among each other. The Gospel of Jesus’ own self donation and our salvation beckons us to give of ourselves for each other. And when a Church shows such love among themselves, we witness God’s love to the world.