From a different planet?

Homily Easter 4 Year A May 15, 2011

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. All who believed were together and held all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

This description of the early followers of Jesus at the time of the apostolic mission sounds like something from a different planet to 21st century ears.

Here we have a group of people who share their faith and their life in community, in a way which was totally contrary to the agrarian economy of the first centuries communities clustered around the Mediterranean.

Not only were those communities governed by the stern hand of Rome, they had a rigid class system with Romans, landowners, and local authorities at the top, merchants and small farmers in the middle and peasants and slaves at the bottom.

So when the early Christian communities described in Acts were forming, they faced formidable obstacles.

And that’s where the teaching of Jesus from John’s Gospel, of the psalms, and of Peter, come in.

Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd, and the gate for salvation for all. He comes that we may have life, and live it abundantly.

But that doesn’t mean things will be easy. As Peter reminds us, being faithful to Jesus, to God, can sometimes mean suffering unjustly. Christ himself suffered unjustly. And so Christians throughout the ages have often suffered unjustly.

But as an Easter people we believe Christ conquered sin and death, and gives us new life through his Resurrection.

One of the greatest images of consolation in our scriptures is provided by the 23rd psalm. We are both humbled in awe of these words:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.

He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his names sake. Though I walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me. You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

What strikes me about these words is how much they comfort us at many times in our lives, not just when approaching death.

Our souls long for peace, in our relationships, in our jobs, in our homes and communities. God desires that we find that peace, which passes understanding.

As Christians we believe we can find that peace in Jesus, and in community with other followers of Christ.

When we gather to worship each week in this parish church, as we have for the past 85 years we are doing the same thing those early Christians did—devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and prayers.