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Scripture for Sunday, November 12, 2017: Acts 2:29-47
Heidelberg Catechism Question & Answer 53
Additional Scripture: Ephesians 2:4-10
John 7:38-39
Last week in our Words on the Wall series, Reverend Boven preached from Romans 6:1-11. She addressed "imposter syndrome"--the sense of inadequacy many of us have. And she considered how, in Christ, we all have new identities in a new world order because of His resurrection. The deepest, most powerful truth about our identity is that we are children of God.
This week, Rev. Jonker will preach from Acts 2:29-47, considering how Christ's outpoured Spirit fills us to the brim for continued outpouring.
Counter-Cultural Giving
We enter the second chapter of Acts this week--a book filled to the brim with adventure and dramatic evidence of God's work. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost happens here. Stories of persecution, martyrdom, and blinding conversion happen here. Paul's missionary exploits are here. It's a very exciting read, seeing just how God got this fledgling movement called the Way off the ground.
Yet I have to confess that Acts 2:42-47 challenges my middle-class, Western way of following Jesus. Sell my stuff to give to those who are in need? Hold everything in common with fellow Christians? That's quite a change to my way of life.
Let's assume I could get my mind and heart around the financial aspects of life together in the early church. But then, could I get behind all the togetherness? Meet together in the temple courts every day? (What's an introvert to do?) Break bread together with a glad and sincere heart? (Could we make at least some of it gluten-free?)
The community described in Acts 2:42 and following is a community of counter-cultural giving, empowered by something outside itself for this kind of life. That something is God's Spirit, as Peter says in Acts 2:32-33:
"32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
The ascended, exalted Jesus receives the Holy Spirit from the Father and pours out the Spirit to fill up the believers. And the Spirit pours out of his followers in radical generosity, radical fellowship, radical witness. The community testifies to amazing evidences of God's Spirit among them and demonstrates to all the watching world that God is doing a new thing.
Many of us seek to follow Jesus in counter-cultural ways in our North American context. We give beyond what's expected--time, talent, money. We serve in an area of Holy-Spirited gift, experiencing both the joy and the challenge of undertaking something beyond us with God. We take discerning relational risks, letting other people into our lives in anticipation of a community where loving and trustworthy feedback have a shaping influence on our lives--so that others may witness Christ's Spirit among us.
This kind of communal give-and-take can be scary. It can be exhausting. We know from personal experience, or from someone close to us, stories of trusting relationships gone awry. We also know stories of compassion fatigue and donor burnout. What happens if we get on the treadmill of giving and we can't get off?
Henry Nouwen writes about giving that leads to burnout rather than life. He says this:
"When you get exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, or run down, your body is saying that you are doing things that are none of your business. God does not require of you what is beyond your ability, what leads you away from God, or what makes you depressed or sad. God wants you to live for others and to live that presence well. Doing so might include suffering, fatigue, and even moments of great physical or emotional pain, but none of this must ever pull you away from your deepest self and God" (The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom, Image Doubleday Books, 1996, 67).
God's Spirit, outpoured on believers, invites us into lives of trust in his goodness and his power. He invites us to prayerfully wrestle with where we are called to serve, give, and love; when and how to reallocate our energy (not an easy task!); and whether and how we are dwelling with him in the deepest parts of who we are.
Then our lives offer transparent evidence of Christ in us, not through "the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives" (Colossians 1:9-12, MSG).
Questions for Reflection or Discussion:
1) From the Sermon: Rev. Jonker describes a pattern of outpouring in Christ's life that the gift of the Spirit equips us to imitate. Where have you seen God's Spirit deposit strength or faith in you and ask you to re-invest it in the life of someone else?
2) From the Sermon: Where are you in the lifting up-filling-outpouring cycle? (Acts 2:33) In a season of needing to be refilled? In a season of readiness to pour out? In what ways does God seem to fill you up to prepare you to pour out (time alone with him; time with others; time in creation; time imitating God by being creative, etc)?
3) From the Sermon: How do you "keep in step with the Spirit," cultivating a life in which the deposits made into your soul by God's Spirit keep pace with the outpouring to which he calls you?
4) Related to Stewardship Sunday: What recent decisions have you struggled over related to following Christ through the use of time, talents, or finances? What did you decide, and what was the outcome of your decision? Was coming to a decision difficult or straightforward?
5) If the use of wealth interests you, read David Bentley Hart's recent op-ed about Christians and shared ownership of property. How have you understood a Christian approach to wealth? How does Hart's article come into dialogue with your convictions? What is good about communal ownership of property? What is good about private ownership?
