Bold Community- Beatitudes Intro

In today’s world, everything is about personal ownership. We each have our own stuff and our own space. I think of the birds from the movie Finding Nemo years ago and how they would fly through the air saying “mine, mine, mine.” Everything is “mine.”

But the early church was more about yours, mine, and ours .How did it get that way? What happened after God breathed God’s breath on God’s people?

Well Peter and John were so excited they began preaching about the resurrection of Jesus wherever they went, much to the dismay of the high priests and scribes. Peter and John were arrested. The next day the high priests forbids them to talk of all this resurrection business, but the disciples continue to proclaim Christ boldly. Peter says “whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John are released and everyone meets up together again and the community begins praying together. And what do they pray for? That they would continue to speak God’s word with all boldness.” More than that, it says that after they prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with boldness. They prayed and the building shook. They prayed, and they spoke with boldness. Have you ever prayed so hard that the building shook? They were praying, and suddenly there was a whole lotta shaking going on.

Here comes that holy breath breathing out some holy boldness upon them. This boldness was more than gospel proclamation, it was living the gospel out in community. Their prayer life united them in the Spirit.

It says that they “were of one heart and soul.” It says no one claimed private ownership of anything. What once was individual was now collective. What once was mine was now also yours. The phrase here is the word that means charity and generosity. Quite literally, great generosity was poured upon them all. In essence, sharing truly is caring. When the Spirit pours out, it leaves little room for selfishness.

Charles Moore says “Superficiality and rootlessness are diseases of our time. Shallow friendships and fragile relationships mark not only our society but also the church. By contrast, we read that the early Christians did not just occasionally fellowship (verb); they were a fellowship (noun). They didn’t go to church; they were the church.”

These weren’t once-a-week relationships or hi, how are you doing I’m fine conversations. These were people who entered into a new kind of community forged by the Spirit.

Maybe this kind of communal life weirds you out a little. Maybe you really like your own personal space and stuff. I remember how lucky I thought I was when I went to college that I was in a new dorm in which we had our own bathroom. I had thought my roommate and I would be good friends. After all, we saw each other every day…but you can share space with someone and still not be sharing your life with them. As a church, we are meant to do more than share space. We are meant to share life together.

Charles Moore continues in saying “Virtually none of this makes sense unless we share life together and are committed to one another. How are we to bear another person’s burden unless the burden is known and we are actually willing to carry it? How are we to put up with each other unless we relate closely enough to get on each other’s nerves? How are we to forgive one another unless we are in each other’s lives enough to hurt and to let one another down? How can we learn to submit to one another unless we struggle with differences? In other words, if we are to connect our lives with one another, it will demand much more of us than we normally give. It demands that we become a church community, not just occasionally go to church or have community with others.”

Oh but friends it is hard to hold together when we are too busy walking away from the table that God invites us all to. It is hard to hold together when we let the letter of the law outweigh the letter of love. It is hard to hold together when we fail to truly realize that we need each other. I have had friends say after the General Conference decisions, “I wonder if there is still space for me here.” I have had friends celebrate. I have had friends angry and confused and weary and over it. Please hear me when I say, “whether you are traditional, moderate, progressive, unsure, undecided, or unchurched, we want and need you here. There will always be space for you here, but even more than space I pray that there is real community here for you always.

What are the signs of bold and authentic community for you? I have witnessed church families collect funds for members who were battling cancer, who arranged ridiculous birthday parties, who went and bathed members who weren’t being cared for and dress them and bring them to church. I have watched churches open their doors to storm victims and homeless and preschoolers and civic clubs. I have watched them sacrifice classroom space so they could store more food to give to the community. I have seen them exercise endless patience with friends who had early onset Alzheimer’s. My, my, what the Holy Spirit can do.

I said to a friend this week, “I know differences of heart can be strong, but I believe the Holy Spirit is stronger.”

In other words, the early Christian community is more than pie-in-the-sky mentality. It is the dream of God. Next week, we will begin exploring Jesus’ sermon on the mount by digging into the Beatitudes. The beatitudes are blessings that Jesus gave in the form of poetry, except he didn’t bless all the people and circumstances that we would consider blessed. Instead, some say that we can see this blessing almost as God’s dream, a dream for the upside-down ways of God’s kingdom that blesses life from the outside in and the bottom up.

So when we see glimpses of this radical generosity and sharing in the early church, we begin to see the unfolding of this God-breathed dream of God. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York said “we are the ones who are being transformed by Christ in order to transform the world. We are this motley band of muddled humanity whose lives have been so impacted by what God has shown us and done for us in Jesus Christ that we have formed a community that is centred on Christ: and shaped by his teaching and his presence; and resourced and sustained by that continuing ever present presence that we called the Holy Spirit; and nourished each day by the iron rations of scripture and sacrament.”

Years ago, a French Roman Catholic poet Charles Peguy must have been thinking about this kind of God-sized dream when he wrote this poem. He called it God’s Dream.

I myself will dream a dream within you -

Good dreams come from me, you know -

My dreams seem impossible,

not too practical,

not for the cautious man or woman -

a little risky sometimes,

a trifle brash perhaps -

Some of my friends prefer

to rest more comfortably,

in sound asleep,

with visionless eyes -

But, from those who share my dreams

I ask a little patience,

a little humour,

some small courage,

and a listening heart -

I will do the rest -

Then they will risk

and wonder at their daring -

Run - and marvel at this speed -

Build – and stand in awe at the beauty of their building -

You will meet me often as you work -

in your companions, who share the risk

in your friends, who believe in you enough

to lend their own dreams

their own hands

their own hearts

to your building -

In the people who will stand in your doorway,

stay awhile,

and walk away knowing that they, too, can find a dream.

There will be sun-filled days,

and sometimes it will rain -

a little variety -

both come from me.

So come now, be content

It is my dream you dream -

my house you build -

my caring you witness -

my love you share,

and this is the heart of the matter.