One In Heart And Mind

A while back there was a fellow who regularly came to our church. He went through a number of legal and then medical problems, and then 2 people from this church were preparing to go to see him at home to provide moral support, prayer, and other help from the church as needed.

Then we learned that this fellow had to go to the hospital and so he couldn’t receive us at that time.

But he said something interesting to me when he learned that 2 members of the congregation were planning to see him.

He said: “You know what? You don’t have a church; you don’t have parishioners – not in the usual sense. You have a family that takes care of each other; that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

Scripture Readings: All Stand

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as they had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved". Acts 2:42-47

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as they had need". Acts 4:32-35

How do those passages make you feel? I’m asking.

Do they warm you because they speak of the unity of the early followers of Christ? One in heart and mind, breaking bread together, praising God and enjoying the favour of everyone?

Do they intimidate you because it sounds strange, somehow far too communal? Come on, selling everything?!? Having everything in common?!? No possessions of my own?!? Giving to anyone as they had need?

Does it mystify you because when you think of the church universal as a whole and you think of our church here, there’s nothing like what is described in this passage?

Does it encourage you because you perhaps see the same spirit at work in the church today?

Or at least you’ve talked to enough people to get a sense that there are many who value Christian community and deeply appreciate its potential, even if we fall far short of the mark?

Today we’re going to look at the idea of worship as an act of community. An act of community. A communal thing we do together.

Now that might strike you as a bit of an odd thing. Isn’t WORSHIP something that you and I do on our own?

Isn’t it your decision to come to church? Your decision to enter into worship or to keep your distance from God?

Your decision to offer yourself to God as an individual choice? What does your worship have to do with the community around you?

We kind of think this way…don’t we? We tend to think of ourselves first as individuals, as separate persons. Distinct from everyone around us.

That kind of thinking is very normal in the western world. We are not often challenged when we talk this way.

When everybody thinks the same way, it’s pretty easy just to go along for the ride.

And some Christians are content to allow norms of society, “the way things are done” to be defined by the culture around them.

I’ve noticed some Christians work very hard to keep up with the culture around them.

But if we take the Bible as more important than the surrounding culture; if we believe that the Word of God has more authority in our lives than the prevailing culture, we need to be open to what it says.

Do you do that? Do you think about what voices you listen to and choose to prioritise the Word of God in your life over the culture around us.

I hope we don’t sacrifice the truth of God’s Word on the altar of what the world around us thinks and supports.

I hope we are learning to care less about what our society calls us to than what God calls us to.

What does God call us to? Are the Scriptures that we just read that give descriptions of the church that we’ve heard just pie-in-the-sky?