Sunday
04/12/15 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s
Sermon Title: “There were no
needy persons among them”
Old Testament
Lesson: Psalm 133
New Testament
Scripture: Acts 4:32-35
Gospel Lesson:
John 20:19-31
My
friends, my brothers and sisters, welcome again on this our Second Sunday of
the Easter Season. This season that is post, or after the resurrection of Jesus
Christ! For He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! The grave has been overcome, and
through Christ we can have our own spiritual resurrections. Through Jesus
Christ, our hearts and our souls can be mended, can be filled, and we can be
spiritually restored. While some of us might mourn a loss or a hardship, we are
reminded in this Easter season that God gets the final word in everything. For
death does not get the final word, but instead God gets the final word. For “Death has been swallowed up in
victory” (1 Cor. 15:54, NRSV). For the grave could not hold the king!
While our salvation and our spiritual renewals are closely
tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and while through Christ we have the newness
of life, freedom, and eternal life, we also have much work to do here on earth,
until the day comes when we go to be with the Lord.
We
are first and foremost called, as Jesus said in the gospel according to Mark
16:15, to “Go into
all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15, NRSV). In
addition to bringing people to Jesus Christ, we are also called to build the
kingdom of God in the here and the now, as we await the kingdom to come. By
this I mean, Jesus calls us to love each other, to have compassion for one
another, and to remake the world in His image.
Some
people might say, “Well pastor, this is all well and good, but exactly how are
we supposed to remake the world in Christ’s image?” This is certainly a good
question. To me, I say this is accomplished by preaching the life giving gospel
of Jesus Christ, by loving our neighbors, by pursuing justice, and by doing
everything that we can do to make sure that everyone on earth has enough.
For we
are called by Christ to care for the poor, the hungry, the widows, and to
clothe the naked. In addition then, to a transformation in Jesus Christ, in
addition to salvation in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we need to build
His kingdom in the here and the now, as we await the kingdom to come. For as it
says in the Book of James 2:14-16, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims
to have faith but has no deeds? Can
such faith save them? Suppose
a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well
fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it” (James
2:14-16, NRSV)?
Due
to this, I am saying that we who are Christians, that we who follow and have
faith and trust in the risen Christ, must seek to remake our communities and
the world as He has taught us to do. In this way, I am focusing this morning on
our reading from the Book of Acts. For those that don’t know, the Book of Acts
is the book of the New Testament that tells us the story of the very early Christian
Church. It is the book that give us the Pentecost story, the story of the
Apostle Paul’s conversion, and some of the activities of the early Christian
Church. In all of these ways then, the Book of Acts, plus the Apostle Paul’s letters
and others letters in the New Testament, are a major part of we know about the
early Christian Church. Further, we also have early church historians and early
church leaders that have writings that have given us at least some more of this
background.
Recently
in fact, the desire to know more about the early Christian Church, after Christ
rose from the grave and ascended to heaven, has come forth in shows like the one
on NBC called “AD.”
So
while the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the
resurrection of Christ, and etc. is important and vital, while it is central to
our Christian faith, many still say, “Well what happened after that?”
This
morning we have a small piece of scripture from the Book of Acts that helps us
to answer this very question. You can also watch the show “AD” on NBC to see
more of the story on the early Christian Church.
In this story, we find that after
Christ was resurrected and ascended into heaven that his disciples, who all but
one abandoned him on the day of his crucifixion, will soon turn into amazing
evangelists and pastors. They will soon begin preaching the gospel of Jesus of Christ
that has so transformed the world, that today Christianity makes up roughly one-third
of the world’s population.
In
fact, did you know that the mostly highly read book in human history is the
Christian Bible (James V Chapman,
10 Most Read Books In The World). That
in the last 50-years of human history, 3.9 billion copies of the Christian
Bible have been sold (James V Chapman, 10 Most Read Books In The
World). The Bible is the story of our
Jewish brothers and sisters, and the story of us as Christians. This is also
pretty impressive considering that Christianity began with Jesus Christ,
12-disciples, and the handful of other women and followers. From that, we have
the largest faith in the entire world.
In seeking to connect the Old Testament to the New
Testament, let us look first this morning look at the reading from Psalm 133.
In this Psalm, the Psalmist writes, “Look at how good and pleasing it is when
families live together as one” (Psalm 133:1, CEB). This scripture then give us
some context and basis for the Book of Acts reading for this morning.
In the Book of the Acts or actions of the Apostles, or just
the Book of Acts, it says in 4:32, “The community of believers was one in heart
and mind. None of them would day, “This is mine!” about any of their
possessions, but held everything in common” (Acts 4:32, CEB). This scripture
from the Book of Acts then says speaking of the apostles that followed Christ,
“The apostles continued to bear powerful witness to the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus, and an abundance of grace was at work among them all” (Acts 4:33,
CEB).
The next verse, which is very much my focus this morning
says, “There were no needy persons among them. Those who owned properties or
houses would sell them, and bring the proceeds from the sales, and place them
in the care and under the authority of the apostles” (Acts 4:34, CEB). This
scripture from the Book of Acts for this morning then concludes by saying in
4:35b of the money collected, “Then it was distributed to anyone who was in
need.”
Now someone reading this scripture from the Book of Acts
from this morning, could say, “Oh, so we should all sell everything that we
have, and live in a big Christian commune together?” Well one, I am not
advocating that, as the early church did this for survival, as they were being
persecuted, oppressed, and killed, and secondly, I am not a socialist. I truly
believe that we will always have some with more wealth than others. We will
always have some with bigger houses, more assets, and etc. and etc. I am not
opposed to different amounts of wealth, as this has been the story of human
civilization from day one. I do struggle though, with a few people having so
much money, and the majority us have so little. So what I am talking about is
the reality that different jobs pay different amounts of money. Therefore,
there will always be a different distribution of wealth among people.
So I am not advocating that everyone has to be the same,
but I believe that as Christians we should take care of our people, and all
people. I am not advocating socialism, but I would hope as Christians we would
have a desire to make sure that all persons have food to eat, some sort of
clothing on their backs, and a place to lay there heads at night. To me, this
is reality is not socialism, it is fulfilling the gospel when Christ said, feed
the poor, clothe the naked.
The fact that we still have human starvation and
homelessness in the world today, is certainly a big concern for me. Imagine
knowing that even if you lost your home, that you would have a place to lay
your head at night? So when we strive as Christians to get people the basics of
food, clean water, clothing, and shelter, we better care for humanity. We do
more fully what Jesus Christ called us to do. When humans have all of their
basic needs met, then I think we are truly living the fullness of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. For as it says in the reading from the Book of Acts for this
morning, “There were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4:34a, CEB).
The
challenge for us then, is how do we conquer hunger, homeless, and nakedness?
Well, many of our Christian denomination are working around the clock to do just
this, but we could all always do more. For as it says in the Book of Genesis
4:9, “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your
brother Abel?” “I
don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper” (Gen. 4:9, NRSV). Brothers
and sisters, I don’t know about you, but I feel that I am my brother’s and my sister’s
keeper. That then health and the wellbeing of others matters to me.
Also, while I am not preaching about
the gospel according to John reading from this morning, I did want to mention
it briefly. In this reading, Jesus after his resurrection appears to the disciples
and says, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19b, CEB). Jesus then shows the
disciples his wounds on his hands and side, and them Jesus breathed on them the
Holy Spirit.
Now the Apostle Thomas was not
present for this appearance of Jesus, and Thomas did not believe that the
others had saw him. This is where we get the term “doubting Thomas” from.
Thomas said that, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in
the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe”
(John 20:25, CEB).
Jesus then appears to Thomas, and
Thomas believes, as this story connects with own periodic faith doubts, and our
own life struggles. As the faithfulness of Jesus Christ remains constant and
unwavering.
With that said, I want to tell you story
this morning that connects to my sermon title “There were no needing person among
them” (Acts
4:34a, CEB). It also addresses the scripture that I mentioned from Genesis 4:9b,
“Am I my brother’s keeper” (Gen.
4:9, NRSV).
So
here is the story: Last year I had the blessing as many of you know, to travel
to Israel and Palestine with my seminary, the United Theological Seminary. We
had a large group of students, pastors, and professors, and we got see many
amazing things. We got to see the commemorated place of Christ’s birth, at the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We got to see the commemorated place of
Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem, and etc., and etc.
I
also learned that the Israeli military doesn’t like it if you randomly take
pictures of them, there weapons, or there bases, but that is another story.
One
of the days of this trip, we went to Jerusalem, and while there, we visited the
“Yad Vashem,” which is the national
Holocaust history museum in Israel.
Now
for those who have been to our National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.,
you know that it is hard thing to go through, as was this museum in Jerusalem.
For I was in the Holy City, “Zion,” the city where Pontius Pilate allowed
Christ to be crucified, standing in the Israeli National Holocaust museum.
So
I shed some tears going through this walking history of World War II and the
Holocaust, yet the Rabbi that accompanied us on a portion of this trip, then
took us to another part of the museum. This part of the museum was specifically
dedicated to the children who died in the Holocaust. Among other outdoor
monuments was a large building. We were told by the Rabbi that accompanied us
for this part of our trip that this building commemorated the children who died
in the Holocaust. We were also told that the names of the children that we killed
are read one by one, over and over, twenty-four seven.
When
I went into the building with some of my classmates, there was circular walkway
around a centralized large glassed in area. It was also glassed in along the
outer perimeter of the walk way, as well. It was sort of dark, as I needed to
grip that hand rail carefully to walk around the circular walkway. As I made my
way slowly around this circular walkway, I heard one after the other, one
child’s name, their age, and their country of origin. The glassed in areas in
this building, were also filled with endless twinkles of light, as one light source
at the base of this room was reflected by multiple mirrors. This causes us to
see the room, as if we were looking at millions and millions of stars in the
sky.
After
being in this building for a while, I and other students exited this portion of
the museum. As we went outside, we saw the Rabbi weeping. We all gathered
around him, and then we was silent for a few seconds.
He
then asked us if we remembered a child’s name, age, and country of origin
spoken while were inside. He then asked us to make up a hobby for the child
that we remembered. This was done to make us connect with the child that we
remembered. He then said something that I will never forget. With tears in his
eyes, quoting Genesis 4:9 he said, “Am I my brother’s keeper” (Gen. 4:9, NRSV).
My
brothers and sisters, we read in the Book of Acts reading from this morning,
that “There were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4:34a, CEB). Do we as
Christians then, take human suffering, hunger, homelessness, and the oppression
of innocent people seriously here this morning? Christ calls us to love and
care for each other, and to transform the world in His image. So that one day
it can be say of us and all the world, “There we no needy persons among them”
(Acts 4:34a, CEB). Amen.
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