Year A Readings
Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25
+ John 10:1-10

The Collect

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Homily

I love the book of the Acts of the Apostles: in it we get a glimpse of what life was like for the followers of Jesus in the very first months and years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. But as fascinating as this part of the Bible is, most of it feels out of reach for the people of Christ today. Take our reading from Acts this morning: It’s fascinating, and totally impractical.

Peter has gone from neglecting and betraying Jesus when it counted most to preaching a barn-burner of a sermon right out in the middle of the street in Jerusalem. And Peter’s sermon, recorded by Luke in chapter 2 of Acts, is so compelling, so full of conviction, that 3,000 people accept the message that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and has been raised from the dead. Oh! to be standing on that street corner on that day!

But then Luke tells us that the people who accepted the Gospel were further filled with awe and wonder, stayed together, and —as the New Revised Standard Version puts it—”had all things in common.” Now that doesn’t sound very practical for us, does it? I mean, can you even name 5 people you could stand to live with day in and day out? In a very short time, you all have become some of my favorite people, but I’m not sure all of us living together and sharing laundry and kitchen and bathroom facilities would go well. And finally, there’s this notion of our belongings where none of you would have to ask to borrow my books or laptop computer…at least that’s how the wording in our translation makes it seem: “had all things in common.”

Whenever there is a moment in the biblical text like this—a moment when I read a scripture and say to myself, “Well…there’s no application of that to our lives…” I’ve learned to stop and read it over several times, pray it through, and… that’s right:  check the Greek New Testament.

I find it strange, for instance, that saying “had all things in common” was not enough, and that Luke had to also add “they sold all their goods and distributed the proceeds to all.” Don’t these statements mean the same thing? And what about this financial word “proceeds”? That sounds more like Wall Street that 1^st Century Jerusalem. These little blips made me suspicious of the English, so I went to the Greek text of Luke’s gospel, and sure enough, the NRSV translating committee made some choices that are not strictly incorrect, but certainly debatable.

First, the phrase translated as “were together” ἦσαν ἐπὶ [esan epi], more simply means “to have charge of.” So what does it mean to have charge of each other? It means, beloved in Christ, that all who believed Peter’s message about Jesus became accountable to each other. The Greek text, in other words, has much clearer ethical implications than the English phrase “were together.” We might be together eating a sandwich on a Tuesday, but that doesn’t imply that I have charge of you or vice versa. Look at (or if you’re watching online, think of) the closest person to you right now: do you feel automatically responsible for and accountable to that person because of your belief in Jesus? I think, as Americans, we’re more likely to say “You’re not the boss of me!” And think of the strangers we pass by at the grocery store: do any of us, because of our faith in Jesus, feel any sense of obligation toward them at all?

But in the community of Christ, everyone is accountable to everyone else: this is what it means to be an Easter people.

Now, the other words I’d like you to notice in verse 44 of Acts chapter 2 form the phrases “all things” and “in common.”

The Greek word translated as “all things” ἅπαντα [hapanta], means either “all things” or “every one.” If we allow the notion of being accountable to one another to shape our interpretation, we lean towards translating [hapanta] as “everyone.”

Finally, when it comes to the phrase “in common” as in “had all things in common” – the preposition “in” happens to be absent in the Greek text, and the verb “had” is actually the verb “to hold”

So let’s review:

together becomes accountable to

all things becomes every one,

and

had…in common becomes held common

If we put all this mumbo-jumbo together we hear the ring of Luke’s gospel and discover a scripture both profound and accessible:

All who believed, those same people had the care of each other, and everyone was common.

Some may think the word “common” used to describe people has a negative connotation. And in our culture it does. When we want to be dismissive we might say “Don’t be so common,” meaning that someone is vulgar and lacking in refinement or taste.

But in the ethics of the New Testament, in the Jewish ethos of loving one’s neighbor as one’s self, that all people are common means “that God shows no partiality.” (Acts 10:34) All are equal under the Lordship and Sovereign Grace of Jesus, who is the Christ. The rich have no claim to fame, and those with civic power become the servants in the household of God.

So let’s get more specific again in our reading of verse 44:  All who believed in the Cross and Empty Tomb of Jesus, those same people had the care of each other, and everyone was equal.

And if we drill down deeper and actually say what the words imply, we can faithfully translate verse 44 this way:

All who believed in the Cross and Empty Tomb of Jesus, those same people were accountable to each other, and the dividing lines of class and social standing were dissolved.

All who believed in the Cross and Empty Tomb of Jesus, those same people accepted the obligation to care for each other, and everyone lived with great humility.

This accountability and care, this equanimity and humility, created a community in Jerusalem in which people felt called to sell possessions in order to relieve the material want of those in need. I think it’s clear that the material part of their ministry was absolutely secondary to their spiritual transformation.

And I think we can now turn to the Gospel according to John and make sense of the teaching of Jesus: that when human community is formed in response to his call, people go in and go out and find “pasture.” People find abundant life, because no one hoards resources or pretends to be more important than anyone else. And the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary continually reminds his Body, the Church, that all the goodness of grace and all the beauty of life have been bought at a price, so that no one has any cause for pride or prejudice. And the empty tomb of Jesus reminds us that our following in his way of life will always be vindicated by the One “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:17)

We want our congregation and ministry to thrive. Perhaps this more profound understanding of the first Christian community will help us understand that the flourishing we seek begins by living with each other in accountability and love, setting aside all claims to position and power.

If we will consent to this obligation, maybe ours will become the same kind of community we find in Acts: a community in which all who come are safe to admit the ways in which they are suffering, sure of receiving care from the Body of Christ. Amen.