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I've been preaching, over the last four weeks, from the second chapter of Acts, the story of the first Christian Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church and filled it with power and passion. 

Living With Spirit: SHARING - Exodus 12: 1-7; Acts 2: 43-47 - June 28, 2009 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            I've been preaching, over the last four weeks, from the second chapter of Acts, the story of the first Christian Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church and filled it with power and passion. I've been talking about things the disciples did that we might imitate as we pursue a life of power and passion -living with spirit, the way God intended. The four things we've talked about are these: gathering - staying connected in a community of encouragement and accountability; proclaiming - having a life that represents something meaningful in the world for our faith; remembering ­keeping the foundation of our roots strong; and welcoming - being open to the new possibilities that God is sending our way.

            Today's scripture lesson shows those four principles at work in the life of the church after Pentecost. Verse 46 says, "Day by day, as they spent much time together ... " So they continued to gather. Verse 47 says that they spent their time "praising God and having the goodwill of all the people." So they continued to proclaim the love of Christ. Verse 46 places them in the temple, so they continued to remember their Jewish roots. And verse 47 says that they "continued to add to their number those who were being saved," so the ministry of welcoming continued.

            But verses 44 and 45 introduce another element to the story. And this fifth one takes us, in a way, in a different direction; it slams on the brakes. For me it is a reminder that while we are getting this invitation to live with spirit we are never far from the reality that billions of people in this world live in dispiriting circumstances. I can only imagine that this invitation from God to live with spirit might sound different to people who have little to hope for - for example, people who live in bitter poverty - watching children go hungry, or scratching and begging every day for something to live on. Living with spirit might sound like a ridiculously tall order to someone whose life is scarred by tragedy or abuse or oppression. Where there are no groceries on the shelf, no dreams of better days.

            Too often Christian programs look like self-help programs for upper-middle class Americans. Ideas like The Power of Positive Thinking or Your Best Life Now have helped millions and millions of people - I would never put them down. But even Norman Vincent Peale or Joel Osteen, I imagine, would agree that they apply to a particular audience - and we are in that audience - middle to upper class Americans who can aspire to improved situations. Much of what I've said these last few weeks about Living With Spirit could fall into that same category. Living with spirit or passion probably doesn't even make sense if your goal each day is just to find a scrap of food, or to survive the neighborhood gangs, or find a reason to get out of bed. Literally billions of people in this world are living in those kinds of hopeless circumstances. Christian people in better circumstances can never stray far from that truth. I saw a TV movie once where a young man struggling to climb out of destitution and getting knocked back again and again finally asked in utter frustration, "When is it my turn?" More people than we can count are wondering just that. And Jesus cared intensely about them.

            So what comes next in the story of the disciples in Acts is critical. The party winds down. The wild first response to the coming of the Holy Spirit is over. The passionate sermon by Peter is now an echo. The eager response of three thousand new converts is still strong, but what now? And as the challenge of bringing all of this new passion into the long-term of real life confronted those disciples, it's so significant to see what they did next - they shared. And that's the fifth piece of our puzzle - sharing. And the way they did it has been one of the most challenging ideas in the Bible, especially for capitalist, individualistic Americans. If we're honest, we cringe a little as we read it:

            "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." In other words, when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, and those earliest Christians had to figure out how to live together, they chose communism - and I don't mean Communism the political ideology that was represented by the Soviet Union in the 20th century. I mean the simple act of living in a commune - a sharing community, where all things are held in common, and distributed according to need. Those first Christians didn't invent this - they were copying something that would be very familiar to them. One of the most influential examples was probably Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, which was a very active and well-known Jewish commune at the time of Jesus. It may have been the most natural thing in the world for the new Church to follow that model. And it is a model that has inspired many movements, in and out of the Christian faith ­from monasteries and convents in many religions, to the Jewish kibbutz movement, to hippie communes in the '60s, just to name a few of the hundreds of examples.

            But what do we do with it? This is one of the thorniest questions in Christian life. Do we take it literally? Should we all go out and sell all we own and pool the money? That would be pretty a radical departure from everything we know. And there are people who believe that the communal life is the only true Christian community. Now most people would say we shouldn't take it so literally. And it's one of the oddities of the Church to me that the people who insist that we must take the Bible literally in every way are some of the most capitalistic people ever born. They find ways around these verses in Acts 2. If you want to soft-pedal the communal aspect of Acts 2, you say something like, "Well, that was just an experiment." Or, "It was a temporary necessity." But you better read the beginning of Acts, chapter 5, and the fate of a couple that held back, before you try to claim that this wasn't deadly serious to both those people and to God.

            So again, what do we do with it? I believe that it may very well be impossible to apply the economics of Acts 2 completely in our current situation - but we have to apply the principle. We could debate the particulars of that for a long time - how exactly do the principles of Acts 2 apply to our current life? What does it say, to bring it into a modern debate, about health care? Certainly health care in Acts 2 was universal. Does that mean ours has to be, in order to be Christian? What would Acts 2 say about welfare, or work-fare, or laissez-faire? Those are tough questions, with no easy answers.

            But we must claim at least this: Christian people are people who share. 1'd even go a step further than that. If we set about - anyone of us, or any church of us - to design a

life based on following Christ, and sharing -sharing sacrificially - is not at the forefront, then we have missed the boat. What else can you say about a faith where every practice, every belief, every aspect eventually traces back to the old rugged cross where the One we profess gave up His life? How can we be followers of that and not do exactly what Jesus said - take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow him into a life of sacrifice? There is a great truth hidden ·there, a truth that is so counterintuitive to us who have been taught that the real success in life is how high you can climb and much you can accumulate. That hidden truth is that when you share sacrificially in the service of the Lord, you haven't lost a thing. You've gained everything.

            The thing is, if you want to live with spirit and joy and passion, among the things that will make it impossible are selfishness, greed, jealousy of what others have, material desires. And among the things that will open up the door wide to deeper joy than you've ever experienced is the free and loving sharing of what you've been given. Especially in a nation where over 36 million people live in food-insecure households, and over 45 million people under the age of 65 walk the line of no health insurance.

            Once again, as in just about everything, Jesus gives us a perfect example. No one was ever more constantly aware of the needs of this world, near and far. He had compassion for those he met, and he preached compassion for those he would never meet. He expended great energy and much time to reaching out to those who were hurting. And, he gave his life for all of us.

            But still that didn't stop him from enjoying his blessings. He could sit down and enjoy a good meal; he could play with children; he could celebrate at a wedding. And, in probably the most pertinent moment, he allowed a woman to break a vase of expensive ointment and bathe his feet. And someone, maybe Judas, pointed out that this ointment could have raised money to feed a lot of people. And Jesus said, "The poor will still be there, always. But this is a moment of devotion and blessing." And Jesus lived in that moment, seeing a much bigger picture, living with spirit.

            Somewhere in that balance between enjoying the blessings we've been given, and willfully sharing them with others, is a wonderful, abundant life that God wants to give to every person ever born in this world. God created it for us, Jesus purchased it with His own blood on the cross, the Holy Spirit bathed us in it. But there are components that are up to us as well- we must continue to gather together; we must proclaim it in our lives before others; we must remember and hold the heritage of the past; we must welcome new people and possibilities, and we must live lives of profound sharing - sharing our time, our attention, our material means, our prayers. Because if we want to live in a spirit of joy, we have to know that the greatest joy is witnessing the blessing of others.

            This is, I believe, a great formula Acts 2 places before us. It is a checklist for a life of joy. How does your life check out?