This Sunday, we'll continue our exploration of the early church as described in the Acts of the Apostles. Last Sunday, we explored what a church should look like -- not a description of any building, but of a faith community and how they live, gathering together to eat and pray and then going out to live their faith openly (but not always together). This week, we'll consider how they pooled their resources to do both of these things.
In the final verses of Acts 2, we see a Utopian description of the church as a community where everything was equally shared, with no individual possessions. Today, at best, this seems like a fantasy; at worst, it reminds us of Communism. Rest assured, while I think we can learn from this example of the early Christians, I have no interest in the church taking control of everyone's bank accounts, real estate, or anything else. Still, if we can shift our minds away from the parallel with Communism, which limits our thinking, I believe there is something we can learn from this example about how we should share resources -- money, yes, but also time, talents, attention, presence -- for ministry, which is to say, to reach out to serve others.
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