(sorry for all the caps and underlines, this is a copy of my presentation version.)
In
the early church, as is true now, nothing is more important than what Jesus
taught.
Yet, The Church of
the Brethren patterns our faith practices after the early church. There is a reason: We not only want to
do what Jesus did and follow his teaching; we take the simple style of the
early church as our own.
Scripture:
You
heard Sue read a modern interpretation of today’s scripture from Acts 2. It was
from Eugene Peterson’s The Message, and It tells the story of church life in
the early days. Peter is speaking to the people who will be known as
Christianity’s first converts: Their practices of meeting in homes, sharing
meals, and teaching & remembering Jesus’ last supper, form the traditions
we follow today.
Listen again to a few verses from, the
new translation called the Common English Bible.
42 The believers devoted themselves
to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to
their prayers. 43 A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed
many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44 All the believers
were united and shared everything. 45 They would sell pieces of
property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed
them. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their
homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47 They
praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily
to the community - those who were being saved.
Living together,
really together is the primary definition of the early church. They lived so connected to each other
that they held things in common, and distributed food and items as each had
need. And they spent regular time praising God.
This
may sound like an idealistic “faith community”. Yet, I suggest that it IS the community we
live in today, however close we come to the ideal, and it is a way of living
which we are challenged to offer others.
Everyone wants to
be part of an energizing and vibrant community. We want to find one and join “one.” Yet we
can’t always make one.
We carefully tend
the dynamics of church groups to encourage growth and health. And yet, as you
know if you have ever been part of a group that just couldn’t stay together,
TRUE ‘community’ can be elusive.
So elusive that we have no clue what went wrong when it does NOT form,
in spite of valiant efforts.
Community has
an interesting organic quality that lives or dies depending on the strength of the
relationships within.
The early church had no trouble creating
community.
·
They
were vibrant and dynamic people, and very alive, even when individuals
were being killed by the government.
·
They
grew from a small band of disciples to a movement that spread the ‘good news’
around their part of the world.
·
They
practiced their faith by teaching, praying and regular worship and when they
did, amazing things happened.
The infusion of
the Holy Spirit gave them power to speak boldly about their experience and to
enact signs and wonders.
I believe they had the one-sure-fire dynamic that is known to
foster community. - A -
LIFE-BOAT.
You’ve
heard the expression “a life-boat experience” which refers to a group that goes
thru a trial or crisis of some sort.
I think this describes the early church.
Often the crisis
is a life-threatening. If you are
in a life-boat, rations are
limited,
water is scarce, and
rescue is uncertain.
Some Christian
commentators say today’s church is in a life-threatening situation, now. With the declining numbers in ALL
churches, (Mainline AND Evangelical) some writers say we are in NEED of a
lifeboat.
Perhaps they are
right yet I am sure that God is not finished with us yet.
We already have
strong relationships that support community, right here here, available to
anyone who will
grab
a paddle and get in the water. (Paddle)
Now I’ve not been
in a life-boat, but I’ve been in many a CANOE. And on canoe trips, I’ve been
part of a dynamic community.
I saw groups of strangers develop into vibrant Christian community every
summer and it all began on the Shenandoah River.
When
I was in Outdoor Ministry, I had several roles to play in staff training at the
beginning of each summer. Weeks of
training concluded with a two-day trip to the valley for a long and beautiful
float down the South Fork of the Shenandoah River.
Teaching: Before even thinking about a River
Canoe trip we – (the staff of
summer camp, including =counselors, nurse/medics, and directors) would get out on
the lake and practice paddling.
This first attempt
on the lake was usually hysterical.
To watch 30 people standing on land with paddles practicing a J-stroke
and a C-stroke is funny enough.
When we anxiously climbed into canoes, and pushed out into the water, it
got even funnier.
The days were hot
and no one minded the ‘accidental’ splashes or even an ‘accidental’
“Man-Overboard.” Splashing turned into frayed tempers when we tried to paddle
out of the cove into the larger lake and instead kept going in circles.
Energetic paddling without having mastered
steering skills creates – havoc.
But
the experienced canoeists patiently taught us. They taught us how to steer. AND
We learned:
how to wear a life-jacket AT ALL TIMES,
that gloves can help minimize blisters and
that paddles hurt when you get smacked in
the back of the head.
Some of these things we had to learn by
experience.
Eventually we
learned that communication between front and back of the canoe is vital and
that the person in the rear- really does command the boat.
We learned a lot
in those lessons on the lake and we became FIRM believers - - - in sunscreen and bug repellent!
As we packed for
the river trip the night before departure, we constantly reminded each other of
ALL we had been TAUGHT. Can you imagine the first Christians encouraging each
other in the same way?
Fellowship: Paddling together in a canoe with someone makes you instant
friends, or instant enemies. In
our cases, partnerships formed during the lake practice that we wanted to
continue on the river. But the
director was a wise woman and created new pairings which
intentionally placed strong paddlers with weaker ones so that “no canoe
would be left behind”.
Canoe trips are
designed with some smooth water at the start. So we had another chance to practice our paddling skills as
the leaders took us under low-hanging branches and around a sunken tree. We learned to steer for the V in the
river, which indicates the narrow path between rocks that lie hidden
just under the water’s surface.
Fortunately,
much of the Shenandoah River is relatively shallow so as we practiced Dealing
with CRISeS such as releasing a canoe that was wedged between two rocks or
RIGHTING a totally capsized canoe, we were not in deep water.
Soon
it became obvious who the strong paddlers were, AND IT also became obvious who
should be at the head of the group as natural leaders emerged from each
mini-crisis we faced.
We
learned how to rest together by pulling our canoes alongside each other
and laying paddles across the neighboring canoe. We formed a giant float in calm water in order to rest,
drink water, and reapply sunscreen.
In this giant
floating community, “all things were held in common”. Sunscreen
was a shared commodity, as was chapstick, water, bandanas, and
gum. “We distributed what we
had as any had need.”
-In the hot summer sun, with a long day still ahead, a single tube of
sunscreen that has not yet fallen to the bottom of the river - is precious! - AND so is extra water.
Already, early in the day,
deep caring relationships were forming as we learned to watch out for each
other.
Breaking Bread: This community also broke bread
together. A high point of River Trip is the stop for lunch. There were no fancy picnic grounds for
us. Sometimes it was a small
island, more likely just a very narrow shoreline where canoes were beached and
coolers retrieved. Out came the
simple lunch of
bread, peanut butter, apples
and GORP. (Granola, O-Cheerios,
Raisins, and peanuts, sometimes with some chocolate chips thrown in.)
The bread was
blessed, with a loud and favorite camp grace that was sung with gratitude and
reverence while we stood together by the side of the river. As the ‘amen’ echoed downstream, the
bread would be broken and shared.
There
was enough lunch for everyone, yet, like the later church, we needed reminding
to take turns to insure that EVERYONE got a fair share – especially of GORP.
The
most exciting part of each trip is the run thru Compton Rapids. The Class 2 Rapids are great fun but it
takes careful navigating and preparation to get the whole group thru safely.
We stationed a
certified lifeguard on the bank below the rapids with a rope throw and each
canoe would in turn negotiate around a rock hazard, most of which is
deceptively hidden just below the river surface. Then we would enter the chute
for a fast and exciting ride down to sharp turn into the safety of calm water
around the bend.
The ride is a
thrill -while being accomplishable for almost anyone who has had some basic
TEACHING.
By
the end of the day, we had seen nature at her best, a mother bear and cubs on
the side of the river, the beauty of Golden Rock Cliff just after Compton’s
rapids, and blue herons waiting patiently for canoers to pass so they could
catch their breakfast.
An occasional
snake swam alongside when we came near the bank, and turtles, with only their
head above water, floated along until they found the perfect sun-bathing rock.
The crystal clear
water of the Shenandoah is amazing. We could glimpse the bottom of the river
any time we chose to look over the side of the canoe.
We
were formed as a community on that trip. – a Christian Community.
Following this annual event, the camp
staff is a cohesive UNIT, ready for the give and take of summer camping.
The canoe trip was
a life-boat experience. The concentrated time and shared purpose
formed a community that relied on each other.
Thru-out the
summer EVERY camper reaped the benefits of joining such a faith community.
As long as the
counselors SHARED THEIR experience of community and didn’t become an ultra
exclusive group. New communities of faith formed each week as campers imitated
the example they saw in their counselors.
You need not go to
camp to experience life the way Jesus intended. It is found right here. Like the early church,
we are people
devoted to Christ’s teaching,
who meet regularly
for worship and prayer,
and who seek to
share as any has need. . .
And when we share OUR experience of
Community, we, like the early church, will have an IMPACT on THOSE AROUND US.
Did you notice that the Acts community
DEMONSTRATED love? Or as the NRSV puts it they had “the goodwill of
all the people. And day by day the
Lord added to their number those who were being saved” . . saved in THEIR LIFE
BOAT.
1. The early
Christians were closely Watched and people saw that they shared meals
equally without class distinction.
2. Regular worship
in the temple was a priority. Everyone saw them ‘at church.’
3. & They shared
their good AND the ‘good news’ of their lives with others—
Early Christians
were known by the ‘manner of their living’. It’s a phrase we like to use in
Brethren circles to remind us to live the words we speak.
Christian Community is not isolated
from the world. Our behavior, demonstrates our beliefs, and impacts
our community by calling us into relationship - with real people.
…When parents come
to pick up campers they are astonished at the children’s changed behavior at
the end of the week.
Friendships form across social divides. Caring attitudes and patterns
of sacrifice become part of campers’ ‘manner of living.’
Christian
community has such a powerful effect because it is fueled by Christ’s spirit
and lives in Jesus’ WAY. It is different than any other kind of life-boat
experience because God is guiding the boat.
. . .
Conclusion:
The truth is we DO
need a LIFEBOAT, but not because we are about to drown. We need a place to
bring on-board the people God sends. A place where relationships can form.
God still adds
numbers to Christian Community, but not by merely putting people with
checkbooks in the pews.
The life-boat
fills with those who NEED caring Christian community - and there
are always more (out there) waiting to climb in.
So, Grab a paddle
and take the hand of. . .opportunity.
As we paddle - TOGETHER towards The Goal
of sharing Christ’s Love in the world.
