A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 13, 2008

Scripture Lesson: Acts 2:42-47
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I don’t know if you have been following the recent news about Starbucks Coffee Company. Admittedly, it’s not among the most important stories on the daily news. But as someone who enjoys the taste of freshly brewed, fine coffee and who occasionally stops for a cup on North Center St. in Hickory, I’ve been interested in what’s happening of late to this international seller of coffee products.

In response to falling sales nationwide due to the economic slow-down and also to rising competition from companies like McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks recently shut the doors of its 7,000 plus stores in the U.S. for 3 hours – the purpose of which was to re-educate and re-invigorate its more than 135,000 employees.

In a memo directed to his employees and the public, the company’s CEO, Howard Schulz, said this, “We are passionate about our coffee. And we will revisit our standards of quality that are the foundation for the trust that our customers have in our coffee and in all of us.” In other words, the Starbucks Coffee Company paused to evaluate its operation and make changes in its business based on what made the company so wildly successful in the first place - in short, a return to basics.
 
What a novel idea! I would think every organization ought to take a page from Starbuck’s playbook and pause from time to time to revisit the principles on which it was founded and made it successful, in order for the organization to move forward with renewed purpose, vitality, and success.

Now, it is this very thing which our first reading from Acts invites us to do this morning, a reading which begins at chapter 2, verse 42, “They (meaning the early church) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” I want to give close attention to this one verse which reveals four “marks of the church” by which we can evaluate our life together – a sort of “Starbucks moment” in the life of the church. You will notice that this verse is printed in the worship bulletin beneath the “Sermon” line. Take a look…and keep it handy for later reference.

First a little background. The Christian Church was born in Jerusalem on the Jewish day of Pentecost in about the year 30, when, in the days following Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, the apostles were gathered in a room where a series of remarkable events took place. This is how Luke describes the scene, “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

What followed was equally amazing. These Spirit-filled apostles spilled out into the streets which were filled with visitors who had come to the Holy City for the festival.  These un-educated men from the backwoods of Galilee began to speak about Jesus in the various languages of their hearers. Then Peter stood up before a crowd of the curious and passers-by, and gave a sermon, at the end of which many of his listeners were moved to commit their lives to following Jesus as the crucified and risen Messiah who was now Lord of heaven and earth! They were baptized and thereby became part of the Christian movement, the church.

At this point in the story, Luke provides us with an idealized summary of church life, the church on its best behavior, but still a summary of how the church functioned at its very beginning, a description of its defining marks. He says that the early church’s life was characterized by four key aspects. In particular, Luke says these earliest Christians were devoted to them. Notice the intensity of the word Luke chose – they were devoted, that is, committed to, passionate about, seriously focused upon four things. Refer please to the quotation in your bulletin, and say them with me: the apostles’ teaching, and fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers.

Now, I want you to be sure to notice that these early Christians were not perfect people. They were forgiven sinners like you and me. Nor did they function perfectly as a church. To free yourself from that false picture, all you have to do is read some of Paul’s letters, which make us aware of the deeply flawed nature of their life together. But what these earliest believers in Christ did get right was focusing on the most important matters. Let’s look at them together one by one.

The first is what(?)…the apostles’ teaching. Imagine what it must have been like to be in a room face-to-face with Peter, James, John, and the others who had first-hand experience with Jesus from his early days in Galilee to his last days in Jerusalem. How thrilling it must have been to hear them tell the stories of what Jesus did and said. Imagine searching the Hebrew Scriptures with those men in order to see Jesus’ life and ministry in Biblical perspective. What would it have been like to discuss with them over supper what it means to follow Jesus in all the aspects of life?

Only those first believers had this awesome, immediate, first-hand experience. But, you know, even many centuries later we can come pretty close. We have available to us what the apostles said and wrote down about their experience with and their reflections upon Jesus. We have a written record of how some of them applied Jesus’ words and deeds to the everyday life. What I’m referring to, of course, is the Bible.

With that in mind, the question becomes, Are you devoted to the apostles’ teaching? This question applied to us as individuals can be asked in a variety of ways. For example: Do you attend Sunday School? Do you participate in mid-week Bible studies? Do you read the Bible regularly? Do you take advantage of other opportunities to grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ and of being his disciple? If not, why not?

And then there’s the question addressed to the church about devotion to the apostles’ teaching. It might be asked this way: What are we doing to provide the best, most up-to-date curriculum resources for our children, youth, and adults?  To recruit, train and support Sunday School teachers? To offer short courses in discipleship growth? To provide a church library stocked with current, relevant, accessible resources on living the Christian life? The Bible says, “They were devoted to the apostles’ teaching….” What about us?

The cost of not being similarly devoted is very high. You see, Christians who are not involved in lifelong Christian learning quickly revert to the mindset and the values of our surrounding culture, and they end up with minds shaped by whichever social pressures are most persuasive, with Jesus reduced to the status of a pale influence or a distant memory.

Second, these early Christians were devoted to what(?)…Fellowship. Now this is a slippery word – “fellowship” - because we have so watered down its rich and full meaning in the church that we are likely to miss out on what is says about that early community of believers in Christ. “Fellowship” in the contemporary church is often little more than what we do over a glass of sweet tea in the Fellowship Hall, or on a trip somewhere, or when working on a committee or a project. It has to do with enjoying the pleasure of being with other Christians. Now these are good things, of course, but they fail to tell us accurately what Christian fellowship is about.

So maybe it is better that we use the word Luke does in verse 42, the Greek word which is translated “fellowship.” That word is koinonia. Say it with me: koinonia. You see, before koinonia was used to describe a defining mark of the Christian community, koinonia meant “partnership,” often used in a business sense: people using their time, resources and energy, blending their lives, to work toward a common goal, to engage in a common mission. Koinonia meant “partnership.”

So the early church saw themselves, and sought to behave, as a partnership in Christ, more pointedly and profoundly, as a family. Luke writes this, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Some see in this statement an early form of socialism or communism, but that misses the point. The point is that these earliest Christians lived as a family. “We are a family in Christ,” they said. “We are brothers and sisters, not by virtue of our blood, but by virtue of the blood of Christ! And we’ll do everything we can to see to it that the needs of our Christian sisters and brothers are met, even if it means selling off some of our possessions to do it. We’re in this family partnership of following Christ!”

It was not easy for them to do that, especially as the Christian movement grew, and widened to include not only Jewish but Gentile believers. But these believers in Christ were determined to function as a koinonia. Not to strive to do that would be to deny something very basic about what they were called to be as followers of Jesus Christ.

And it’s not easy for us to do this either. In fact, I think it’s a lot harder for us than it was for those early Christians. I say that because, unlike Christians in the first century, we are products of a culture of individualism, which inclines us to view the church as a place to come to in order to satisfy our spiritual needs. Our culture teaches us to view the church as an institution to plug in and out of according to our interests and needs, rather than as a koinonia, a family in which to enter, a partnership to devote time, resources, and energy in the communal and personal following of Jesus Christ.

So the question becomes, “Are you devoted to koinonia?” It’s not easy. It requires hard work. It demands honesty in dealing with our feelings, sacrifice in putting others’ needs before our own, willingness to compromise, learning how to forgive and move on together, making decisions openly, pulling in one direction - in short, learning how to be a family in Christ.

There’s no doubt about it – koinonia is difficult and costly! But the cost of not being passionate about koinonia is even higher. That cost is isolation, not to mention greater difficulty in maintaining a living, vital Christian faith for ourselves and our children. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and koinonia.”

What comes next(?)…The breaking of the bread. That’s a technical term for what we would call “Communion.” Their practice was quite different from ours. They gathered regularly in homes. There were no church buildings then! Every week (and sometimes more frequently) they came together in one of their homes to eat a common meal, each one bringing something to share – the beginning of the pot-luck supper!

Early in the course of the meal, they each took bread from a common loaf as they remembered Jesus’ words, “Take, eat, this is my body which is for you.” And later in the meal they drank wine, remembering Jesus’ words, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Eating bread, drinking wine, praying, singing, telling Jesus-stories, sharing their lives and the food they brought – taken all together, this was the breaking of the bread. It was the defining act that marked them out as followers of the crucified and risen Lord.

Of course, we no longer observe the ritual elements of eating bread and drinking wine in the context of a regular meal, but still this raises for us the question, Are you devoted to the breaking of the bread? When the sacrament is observed, do you make a special effort to be present? Do you come spiritually prepared for receiving what Christ gives? Do you receive the elements with appropriate reverence? Do you teach your children about the meaning of the sacrament as they are able to understand?

And what about the church’s devotion to the breaking of the bread? For centuries, the norm of Christian worship was Communion offered at least every week. Along with the preaching of the Word, it was a central act of Christian worship. Anything less frequent was viewed by our spiritual forebears as a withholding of spiritual blessing from God’s people, a denial of nourishment, an impoverishing of spirit.

As you know, during the course my interim ministry at St. Matthews, I have encouraged you to receive Holy Communion more frequently, almost monthly this year. Now, as my ministry with you nears an end, I challenge you to work with your new pastor to explore the historic shape and meaning of Christian worship, to think deeply about what is required for a vital, life-giving relationship with Christ Jesus, one that prepares you for and propels you into the world in his name. Friends, I urge you to find a way to provide the body and blood of Christ to this family of believers every Sunday, whether that is in the 11:00 service or at an additional early service, or whatever. Be devoted to the breaking of the bread, for it says uniquely, loud and clearly, that Jesus’ death and resurrection are the center of everything we are and do in Christ’s name.

Finally, the fourth mark of the church…the prayers. The early Christians were devoted to prayer. These first believers in Christ were Jews, of course, and they kept the discipline of going to the Jerusalem Temple together to pray - daily, weekly, as often as they could. Together they prayed the ancient prayers of Judaism, some of which we have in our Old Testament Book of Psalms. They prayed together when they sat at table for the breaking of the bread. They prayed in their homes. They prayed at their places of work. Praying kept them aware that they were living at the intersection of heaven and earth. Prayer made them the people through whom God was working to bring about his new creation.

And so the question: Are you devoted to the prayers? Is prayer a priority in your life? Is it a priority in this church’s life? Are you growing in the discipline of prayer? Are you maturing in the spiritual life? Is the church providing guidance in how to pray, offering opportunities for Christians to learn the ways of Christian prayer?

Sometimes organizations lose their way, and so must pause to look back and get in touch with the principles on which they were founded, the things that originally brought them success, like the Starbucks Coffee Company in recent days, for example. Doing so brings about changes in priority, gives renewed vitality, and leads on to further success.

In a similar way, many churches in the Western world are finding themselves becoming stagnant and humdrum. Many are shrinking in size and diminishing in influence. But it doesn’t have to be that way, you know. The Gospel hasn’t changed. God’s power hasn’t diminished. People still need rescuing. The creation is still groaning in travail for people to show God’s loving care and bring to it God’s restorative justice.

What’s needed is a “Starbucks moment”! What’s required, please God, is for the church to regain its original passion, return to basics, once again be “devoted to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.” By the power of the Holy Spirit, it can happen right here at St. Matthews!