June 9 Worship: "Shared Resources for Ministry"

Summer worship began in earnest on Sunday, as our usual crowd was noticeably smaller -- probably owing to various summer travel and activities.  (It is good to hold these people in our prayers as they travel to visit family and enjoy some good old fashioned R & R.)  Still, we were a rambunctious group on Sunday morning, clearly happy to see each other and to worship together.

The sermon continued our study of the beginning chapters of Acts of the Apostles, describing the early church.  This week, we touched the slightly uncomfortable section at the end of the recounting of Pentecost, which says that the disciples pooled all of their resources and shared with those who had needs.  While I recognized that such utopianism (or Communism in other contexts) have been shown not to work in our world, I believe that we should claim the faith was behind this mutual sharing of resources.  The early disciples believed that God had provided them with more than they needed to live -- enough to meet their needs with some left over to help others outside of the church.  Compare this to how we normally live, assuming scarcity -- that there is not enough money, or time, energy, etc.

While I did not mention it in the sermon, I think that many African-American churches modeled this faith in the early 1900s.  With significant social obstacles that limited what jobs they could hold, where they could live, what schools they could attend, where they could shop, how they could travel, and much more, the churches frequently served as a place where resources were collected together to start banks, schools, and support organizations that would benefit and improve the lives of the wider African-American community.  Even with fewer resources and advantages than most other Americans at the time, they believed that they had enough to meet their immediate needs and build a stronger future.

How might our approach to money -- or time -- or energy -- be different if we lived out such faith?

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.