The first reading today comes from the Book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles. This is Part 2 of Luke's Gospel. In Part 1, the Gospel of Luke, the author told us all about the life of Jesus from his birth to his death and resurrection. Now in Part 2 he tells us about the Body of Christ, the life of the Church. You could argue it goes through its life and resurrection, too. It is the only account we have of the early days of the Church. We have some other documents. We have primary sources in the letters of Paul and others. We can infer some things from the Gospels because they were written by the earliest Christians, but this is the only account that we have. It is unfortunate--we have four accounts of Jesus and his life, and it would be nice if we had a few other accounts of these early years. But this is the one we get.
In this account we can learn a lot about what the early church was like. One of the things we see in the Book of Acts is that the church changed. Things that happened at the beginning of the Book are not necessarily how they did things at the end of the Book. For instance, at the beginning of the Book, every member of the Body of Christ had to give all of their possessions to the Apostles, and the Apostles gave it back as it was needed. This procedure did not survive until the end of the Book, and don't worry, it is not coming back. We won't make you hand everything over. Another thing that changed is the leadership and who could be in positions of leadership. They were very concerned early on about making it similar to the time before Jesus died. They wanted to have twelve because there were twelve that Jesus picked, so they felt the need to replace Judas. Part of the criteria was that the person had to be there at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry. Both of these are things they let go of by the end of the Book. New Apostles are not necessarily there from the beginning of Jesus's ministry, as evidenced by Paul who never met Jesus during his earthly ministry. The Apostles also didn't care about the number twelve anymore. As some of the original twelve die off during the course of the Book, they don't replace them. Apostles come up in new and different ways. The Church is dynamic. It is not static. It is changing, as it has always done. If you look at the history of the Church you see a Church that has changed over time as we've continued to work through and understand what it is God wants us to do and what God wants us to be. The Church is not a static institution. It is a dynamic one that is shifting and changing as we see in the Book of Acts.
Another thing we see in the Book of Acts is that the Church is not of one mind. It never has been. The Book of Acts goes through all the differences of opinion. Some of them are sharp and some aren't. These disagreements are confirmed in Paul's letters and other Epistles. Sometimes they are major disagreements, sometimes they are minor ones. Sometimes Paul takes a strong stand on them, and sometimes he just says it's OK. The important thing is that we keep together. This is Paul's Body of Christ image. During those moments of conflict and disagreements within the Church, we must stay together.
Many of the disagreements are about who we are and what we need to do. Today's reading comes from the section in the Book of Acts where they are trying to figure out who is part of the community, and what they need to do to be part of the community. This is a sharp disagreement. We see that in the reading when some of the followers of Jesus criticize Peter for eating with the Gentiles. They do not think it is appropriate. They think he needs to remain pure and separate from those who are not willing to follow the Law.
Peter was once part of that critical group, but had a conversion on this issue. He has two reasons why he shifted his view. One, he has a vision that he describes, and the other is that he sees the work of the Holy Spirit in these people. As the Book goes on, it is the second reason that really matters, the vision, while it might have been important to Peter, doesn't really convince other people. What convinces other people is that they, too, see the work of the Holy Spirit in this group of people. They see a people who are trying to love God, who are trying to love their neighbor, and who are trying to follow Jesus. That is what matters. The Holy Spirit shows all the wonderful fruits of the spirit, gentleness, kindness, love, compassion, care, generosity. It is all there in those people, and because of that, why would we not want them to be part of this community?
It is a question of our identity, and our identity as followers of Jesus. We can disagree on whether all must follow certain Laws, because the center of our faith is the issue of love, desiring to love God, desiring to love our neighbor, trying to follow Jesus who is the Incarnation of love in this world. We are meant to be a community that centers on that love, as our offertory hymn is going to put it in a moment, and the fellowship of love that our recessional hymn is going to put it a little while later. We are to be a community of love.
Whatever metaphor you want to use for the Church, for example, the Church is like the solar system and the star we orbit around is love. Or the Church is a building being constructed and the plumb line of our life is love. Or you can say that we are a symphony and the tuning note of the orchestra is love. We are meant to focus on love. We can disagree on all the other stuff; we can work through it, but love is the center. That is what we are tying to do today in this community. We are tying to be that community of love.
Today is Giving Day, a day for us to offer gratitude to God for the community of love, to celebrate the community of love, and to support the community of love. Your gift will allow us to keep being that community, offering love to a world that so desperately needs love.
It is no secret there are a lot of disagreements in this world today. Some of them are right here in the pews. Some of them are sharp and it feels that they are becoming sharper with time. In the midst of that, we are called, we are sent forth to remind ourselves and this community and the world to act in love. We might not get it all right, and that's OK. But we need to stick together in love, trying to understand how we can live more deeply into that love. The love we are focused on, the love that is the center of our faith, is the same love that is God. As First John says, God is love. The love that is the center of our faith is the love that was Incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. That love is the same love that Jesus taught us in our Gospel today where he says I give you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. That is the love that went to the cross, and the love that was raised on the third day that we celebrate during this Easter season. It is all part of the same thing. We are to see that love, to embrace that love, and try to share that love with others.
AMEN.
