Some years ago, I read about a group of Christians who chose to live in the same neighborhood of a major city.  They got together regularly for fellowship, for Bible study and meals, for parties and celebrations.  They lived close so they could spend time together.  They shared children’s clothes and toys.  They also shared expenses for big things like lawn mowers.  They thought it was better stewardship if they shared one lawn mower and spent the money that they saved on ministry. 

 

And then there was the church which learned that one of its members, a mother of young childen, had cancer.  All the available treatments had been tried, but nothing had worked and the mother was dying.  The church decided to offer tangible care for this family by providing dinner.  They set up a schedule and at the agreed-upon times,  someone from the church delivered a meal to the family.  The woman was stronger than expected.  She lived for two more years, but the church never wavered in its commitment.  For two years,  they continued to share the life of that family, lifting their spirits and keeping them from isolation, by providing those regular meals. 

 

I think of these faith communities as contemporary examples of the church described in our reading from the book of Acts.  These verses provide a quick snapshot of life in the Jerusalem church in the early days of Christianity.  In this snapshot, we see a pattern of worship at the Temple, table fellowship in homes, teaching and learning, prayer and meeting of physical needs.  Baptist scholar Frank Stagg says that “It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of koinonia – [which means] community or fellowship – as it appears here in Acts. . . . These early Christians were not a mere society of co-operating people, but a community in the deepest sense. [1]   Someone has described an important distinction in the ways that people associate with each other.  Sometimes they come together because of one shared interest – a hobby or political goal or support of the same sports team.  That association is based on a common purpose or interest.  Another sort of association comes about because of something deeper, the sharing of a common life.  It is this second kind of association that these early Christians shared, a joyful, vigorous common life based on following Jesus. 

 

So this community in Jerusalem, shared their lives with each other – they worshipped and prayed and ate together; they made their needs known to one another;  and those who had the means to meet the needs did so by offering their resources for the good of the group. I hope that you can hear some similarities between that community and the two modern day ones I described earlier. 

 

This is a summary of the church in Jerusalem and it is probably a bit idealized.  If we read other details in the book of Acts, we know that there were natural human arguments about whose needs were being met, and who might have shared more.  I point this out because no Christian community is perfect and if we expect that, we set ourselves up for disappointment. 

 

Another thing that this snapshot tells us is that in its early days, Christianity was a movement within Judaism.  These folks were worshipping in the Jewish Temple, not separating themselves from it.  But something happened so that by the end of the first century, Christianity became a Gentile phenomenon and lost appeal for Jewish people. 

 

Our second reading, from 2 Corinthians is part of a story that runs throughout Paul’s letters, but doesn’t get told very often.  Paul has gone out from Jerusalem to tell the story of Jesus and to start churches across the Roman world. His missionary enterprise is a controversial thing.  There was intense debate in Jerusalem about how Gentiles should be allowed into the Christian community, the common life.  Some believed that in order to become Christians, converts would have to first become Jewish, undergoing circumcision and fulfilling the dietary restrictions.  Others, like Paul, had a Big Tent theology which saw the love of Christ bringing all people into the fold. 

 

One of the ways that Paul seeks to bring reconciliation between these Gentile and Jewish Christians is by asking them to do something together.  Well, to be more clear, he asks the Gentile Christians to pool their resources to help the poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.  We might think of it as something like the first One Great Hour of Sharing offering.  It is intended to relieve physical need as well as to help unify these early Christians. 

 

Paul knew the Scriptures.  He was aware of the words of the prophets, like Isaiah who said, “In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:2-4)

 

Paul lived in a time when people of all nations were coming to Jerusalem.  Remember the story of Pentecost when people from all over the world heard Peter speak in their own language?  And here he was going out into the world to share his faith, which flowed out of Judaism.  His mission was to be part of God’s great gathering of all peoples – Jewish and Gentile – for the purpose of reconciliation and justice and peace.  This collection was a significant part of that mission.  He refers to it in every one of his major letters. 

 

It seems that a year earlier, Paul had told the church in Corinth about this collection and they had made a large pledge, but now that he was coming to collect it, they didn’t seem to be ready or willing to pay it.  And so, in chapters 8 and 9, Paul is using his best strategies to persuade them to give. 

 

He is writing to people in Corinth, but he mentions Macedonia. Macedonia was the Roman province in the north of Greece and included the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica where Paul founded churches.  This was a largely rural area.  It suffered a number of invasions and battles that took many lives and could be classified as a place of “rock-bottom poverty.”[2]

 

Corinth was in Achaia, the Roman province in the south of Greece.  Achaia also suffered from poverty and depopulation like Macedonia, but the city of Corinth had been rebuilt, and in Paul’s time, it was a place of prosperity and wealth.[3]

 

There was some North-South rivalry between these two provinces.  Paul seems to be encouraging the Corinthians to compete with their Christian brothers and sisters in Macedonia when he says, “We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints.”  His not-so-subtle message is that if the poor Macedonians can give, then surely the Corinthians can give even more.

 

He also appeals to a sense of equality or fairness in vs. 13-14  when he says, “I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.”

 

He might be saying “what goes around, comes around.” Give to the Jerusalem Christians now when they have need, and someday when you’re in need, they will help you.   Or he might be talking about a balance between physical and spiritual needs, which he does more clearly when he speaks of this collection in the letter to the Romans.  He may be suggesting that Corinth has benefitted spiritually because of the gospel coming out from Jerusalem and that one way to share their common life in Christ is to help Jerusalem benefit physically.

 

Sometimes we get a glimpse of something like this when someone from the U.S. returns from being with Christians in the developing world.  The Americans, who went to help with a physical need, come back with testimony about the amazing joy and faith they witnessed on the part of these Christians who are suffering from natural disaster or systemic poverty. 

 

Paul uses many rhetorical tools to attempt to persuade the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge, but he backs away from making it a command.  He wants them to experience the joy of giving.  He wants it to be their gift and if someone makes you do something, then it is not a gift any more.

 

This collection is a very profound part of Paul’s ministry.  When he finally delivers it to Jerusalem, he does so knowing that he is risking arrest.   And in Jerusalem, he is arrested which begins his long trip back to Rome and his eventual death.  He gives his own life in this attempt to bring the whole church to share a common life in Christ Jesus. 

 

If you are interested in early church history or church politics, there are more fascinating pieces to this story.   However, today I want us to simply name some of its implications for us:

 

1)     The idea of community as a common life is as important to our church as it was to the one in Jerusalem.  We don’t share our resources because we want this building to keep standing or because God has to have a Baptist presence on State Street..  We share our resources and our passions and our concerns for each other because we share a common purpose in being the Body of Christ. 

 

2)     Community extends beyond our doors.  Our resources are used to meet needs within these walls and out into our neighborhood and beyond that into all the places where God is gathering people together for reconciliation and justice and peace.

 

3)     Living in community is a spiritual practice.  Sharing a common life takes practice and work.  There will be conflict and complaints and misunderstandings, but God calls us to do it anyway   Giving is also a spiritual practice.  Paul was trying to teach that to the Corinthians.  I think that one of the implications is that we learn generosity from our community.  If our community is open-handed in sharing time and energy and compassion and money, we learn to be generous.  And if not, maybe we don’t?

 

At our best, Emmanuel is community in the deepest sense of that word.  We are still practicing to be community, to share a common life and we aren’t perfect.  But I hope that in our worship and prayers and sharing of meals and teaching Sunday School and building a budget, we are also being and becoming a community of generosity. Amen.