Community of Faith, April 19, 2009

John 20:19-31
Acts 4:32-35
There is a radical polarity between the circumstance of Early the Morning of the First Day of the Week, and those of that Same Evening and a week later.

Mary had witnessed the empty tomb, she had the testimony of angels, but she stood weeping until he called her by name, in the same way Peter and John raced to the tomb and finding the grave empty - believed for they did not yet understand. A week ago, early in the morning prior to worship, each of the Deacons and several of the Elders asked, “Shall we gather folding chairs?” despite my own doubts and hesitation, they did, and every pew and seat in the aisle ways were filled. There is a power to the hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today!”

Today, one week later, we share different stories of Easter's Resurrection... and we share different music like “I Come to the Garden in Prayer when the dew is still on the roses”.
No longer, individuals witnessing the void - and wondering, but of the whole company gathered together - in fear, with the door closed, of Thomas and all the others demanding a tangible sign to believe, and a forecasting of the Acts of the Apostles of the COMMUNITY OF FAITH to come.

Martin Luther declared that SECURITY is Humanity's Greatest Idol. In the name of National Security wars have been fought, walls of defense bulwarked, fortunes and lives wasted, all because when gathered together in fear of those outside – our comfort is the door being closed. We desire wealth and fame, possessions and accomplishments, children and satisfaction, but psychologically, we are mortal creatures isolated and divided by our fears. Our doubts and anxieties limit us, weaken us into so many helpless individuals.

One of the most inspiring occasions of our lifetime, was that when we were most vulnerable, on the evening of September 11th, 2001 when that very morning our Nation had been attacked, when people had greater reason for fear than we had known in a generation, possibly greater reason to fear than any people ever because the attacks came without warning when we were not at war, THIS COMMUNITY gathered, Catholic and Protestant, Jewish and Muslim, those uncertain what they believe, all united as one community of faith to pray and sing. As a pastor, that was a unique moment in history, when it did not matter what church you were a member of, when for weeks after, the Dentist prior to examining your teeth would sit and talk with you... when people would stop at the Transfer Station not to comment about the weather, or how many bottles you were throwing away, but SHARING honestly, sharing concerns and doubts. Would that as a Nation, as a culture we could have maintained and built upon that COMMUNITY OF FAITH. Looking at the statistics of churches, someone asked why it was that the numbers attending swelled in 2000 and 2001, then markedly fell off in 2002 and 3? The difficulty was how to maintain that COMMUNITY OF FAITH when the news cycles moved on, when people wanted to put their loss behind them, when people demanded tangible security.

The recollections of Easter evening and a week later ARE different from those of early in the morning of the first day of the week. The dawn of the first day, allows us to consider life created NEW as if the resurrection were a new day of Genesis and as God breathed life into the first Adam, Jesus breathed upon the disciples saying PEACE. In the morning, every individual comes to faith in their own circumstance. The void that is left when someone you loved has died. The fears that we have when disease is diagnosed. The searching for meaning and understanding when we have lost our job or our investments for our security. The tales of that evening and a week hence cannot focus on Thomas as doubting, because all the disciples were disbelieving, each felt his side where the spear had pierced. NO, the point of the description of later that day, later that week, is JESUS, that rather than a VOID, rather than leaving them weeping, each is able to examine his wounds, his suffering and resurrection for us.

I have a good friend, whose father was a POW in WWII. He describes that for their entire interment they were kept separated, isolated, to try to breed their fears. Once each week they were allowed out of their confinement to gather together, so as to share their fears. In those few brief moments each week, they decided that rather than discussing the weather, or sharing their fears, they would sing a hymn, and the song they sang was “I Come to The Garden In Prayer”. That is a COMMUNITY OF FAITH, with power that carried them through.

What concerns me, about our time and place, about the culture that effects us, is that different from that POW COMMUNITY, different from THIS COMMUNITY 9/11, is that in the current crisis we have not chosen to gather together in faith. Instead, individually, we have each opened letters personally addressed to us every three months, we have sat in silent pain listening to forecasts of losses, helpless to do anything except turn off the television and hope recovery will eventually come. Recovery will come, like Spring budding around us, there are sure and certain indications, but in the interim, What Cost? What happens to our faith, to our community, when we sit alone at the dining room table with our fears?

Ernest Becker was a Pulitzer Prize Winner from Syracuse University, who wrote extensively about Western Culture. Becker's essay “DENIAL OF DEATH” critiques that as humanity relies less and less upon faith in an Eternal God, we develop greater and greater dependency on MONEY. We make of wealth an Immortal Idol. We cannot take our wealth with us, but we can create ways we will be remembered, by including and excluding family in our Wills, by endowing a Faculty Chair, or a gift to our own Cause.

What is striking is the description of the Early COMMUNITY OF FAITH in the Book of ACTS. The Community were of ONE Heart, One Soul, One Mind and openly shared with one another as any had need. This was not COMMUNISM, no one was required to sell to give to the community, but rather they provided for those in need. Years ago, in the Midwest, I witnessed a Community of Faith comprised of DAKOTA INDIANS, the roof of the Church building had been destroyed by a Tornado, instead of Bake sales or a Capital Campaign, someone stepped forward and gave a piece of land that would be sold to pay for the community's need. I find it intriguing, that this is the first occasion in the entire collection of LUKE and ACTS, where the Evangelist uses the description that this COMMUNITY OF FAITH were The CHURCH.

Among their company was a certain believer named BARNABAS, which means SON OF ENCOURAGEMENT, what a marvelous identity! Barnabas inherited a piece of land, and when it sold, laid the price at the disciples' feet that they should feed the poor. In our Church's history, there is a similar example. There was a woman, who realized given her age and her health she was not going to recover from this recurrence of cancer. Both of her granddaughters had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and she realized that while the Sanctuary was now fully accessible, her own granddaughters would be unable to join together at the reception following her death because of the stairs to the Fellowship Hall. She decided to write a Pledge into her Will, that as a woman of very modest means her only real asset was her home. Upon her death, her house was to be sold and from among the proceeds first would be repayment for the cost of installing the elevator.

In contrast, there was also a man named ANNANIAS and his Spouse SAPHIRA, they inherited a small fortune, and behind closed doors they conspired that when asked they would instead claim the value far less, lying to themselves, lying to the community, lying to God, about what they had received and what they had shared with the body. When confronting ANANIAS about this, the disciples asked what he had received and what he had shared, and lying, he was struck down dead. The men of that place carried off the body, and when his partner was brought forward, she too was asked what they had received and what they had chosen to share. Ironically, the fortune was theirs, they could have told the truth that they were not sharing, or not sharing as much as others might have expected. Instead, she too lied to herself, lied to the community, lied to God about what they had and what they shared, and she fell dead.
There are some passages that simply need to be read, without elaboration.