There was a tailor named Mendel who was worried about his business and family/work balance. You see, Mendel was down to his last $50 and was torn between buying a sign for the business and getting food for his family. Rather than continuing to agonize over such an important decision, Mendel decided to pray.
“Dear God,” he said, “I do not know what to do. If I buy a sign, it may bring in business, but I need to buy groceries for my family…and if the sign does not bring in sales, we will starve.
God replied, “Mendel, buy the sign. Do not worry, your family will not starve.”
So, Mendel the tailor bought the sign, and business took off. He fed his family, and all was well.
However, as time passed, Mendel could not keep up with all the orders flooding in just by himself. He contemplated hiring a helper but wondered if he could afford it. So, he turned to God again and asked God if getting help would be a prudent move.
“Go ahead,” God told the tailor. “Hire some help; you will do okay.”
And so Mendel did. And his business took off beyond his wildest dreams. In fact, after a time, the tailor decided to move to a larger site that would accommodate the growing demands of his business. As he surveyed various locations, he found a perfect storefront, but the rental price was really steep.
“God” Mendel prayed once more, “I found the perfect place to relocate my tailoring business. But the cost of the lease worries me. I certainly do not want to get in over my head.”
“Go ahead and a get a lease on the store, Mendel,” said God. “Trust me, you will be okay. I haven’t steered you wrong yet, have I?”
So Mendel the tailor signed a lease on an expensive 5th Avenue storefront in the heart of the high tone shopping district in Manhattan. The move was a smashing success for the tailor, and he was deeply thankful to God. And so, out of heartfelt gratitude, Mendel the tailor proposed that he dedicate the store to the Almighty.
“How do you like the name “Yahweh and Mendel,” the tailor asked.
“Nah,” God said. “Let’s go with ‘Lord and Taylor.'”
Just like last Sunday, that was a joke to get us in the mood to talk about money – and to remind us in a backhanded sort of way that money is no laughing matter in the church nowadays. In fact, it is a most uncomfortable theme for worship. However, as we noted a week ago, autumn is stewardship season here and in many churches - and, just as hunters this time of year go after deer, we in the church go after money.
However, last week, I as your pastor did not try to pick your pockets or guilt-trip you into making a financial pledge to our church. Rather, I talked about your spiritual commitment to the courageous vision that is emerging.
Do you remember what that vision is? That we will maintain a building that is accessible to all and so can welcome all people. That we will both encourage the arts and feed the hungry. That we will enhance communication and programming among community groups. That we will support the aging and elderly. That we will worship a God that is still speaking in our world today.
Similarly, this morning, I promise not to overtly persuade you to empty your wallets. Trust me: it will not be like the two men who were marooned on an island in the middle of nowhere. One man paced back and forth terribly worried while the other man sat back sunning himself as if he did not have a care in the world.
Finally, the first man said to his companion, “Aren’t you afraid that we will never be rescued? Aren’t you afraid that we could die out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“No, not at all” said the second man confidently. “You see, I make $10,000 a week and tithe faithfully to my church. It’s Stewardship Month there. My Pastor will find me.”
That too is a joke to keep our spirits up as we look closely at the significance of those most uncomfortable verses we just read. Share everything? Hold all things in common? Give until it may hurt but then keep giving?
As Methodist pastor John Holbrook queries: Is this ”a rich call to Christianity or a dangerous call to the life of socialism? Christianity at its most demanding or Karl Marx on steroids? Or neither? Or both?”
Before we make any rash judgments, let’s take a look at the origin of this passage. Put bluntly, these verses describe what it was like to be part of the early Christian church.
Now understand that the word “church” is probably a misnomer – or at least could be confusing for us 2000+ years later. The early church was not a sacred building, nor was it professional pastors bedecked in robes and colorful stoles. It was also neither boards and committees nor five year growth plans. The early church was a loose association of small communities, house churches we frequently call them, that were scattered around the eastern Mediterranean.
What made these newly born faith families so remarkable was that everyone who joined them did so because they had experienced something amazing, and their lives had been transformed. Something had given them a joy and a hope they had never imagined possible.
Those newfound emotions had become the central focus of their lives – even more important than material possessions and worldly success and wealth. Because of this remarkable change each of them had experienced, they were exceedingly grateful to the God who had made it so. In short, these were truly grace-filled communities, defined by three characteristics.
The first was unity of purpose. A courageous vision for God’s dream for a world grounded in compassion and justice held them together in spite of a complicated culture that was often difficult to navigate. Though they certainly did not agree on everything, they focused on the vision they held in common rather than on what divided them.
As one blogger I read this week observed, “We know from earlier in (the Book of) Acts that they were very different in many ways – there were rich and poor, locals and foreigners, men and women, old and young, religious and not-so-religious, privileged and oppressed. And this wildly different, weird, unlikely group came together with “one heart and soul.” That is unity for you!
The second characteristic was, as another blogger I read described it, “incredible, selfless, foolish generosity… Luke writes: ‘There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.’”
Most Biblical scholars agree that throwing all of one’s possessions into a common pot was not a requirement in this new faith community. Rather, it was a grateful response to God for Jesus, who, as we know, embodied in his own person God’s dream for the world.
Sharing on that scale was joyfully and courageously living out the early church’s calling to care for the poor, which, as we know, was paramount in Jesus’ ministry.
The early church was not at all like the tiny elderly lady watching a circus side show. Central to the show was a strongman who demonstrated his power before large audiences every night. Toward the end of one performance, he pick up a turnip with his bare hands and squeezed from it a few drops of juice. He proudly and confidently said to the onlookers, “I will offer $1000 to anyone here who can squeeze a single drop from this turnip.”
The wizzled old lady hobbled up onto the stage. She picked up the turnip and clamped it between her two frail, bony hands. She squeezed – and out came a whole teaspoon of juice.
The strongman was amazed. He paid the woman $1000, but privately asked her, “What is the secret of your strength?”
“Practice,” the woman answered. “I have been treasurer of my church for forty-two years!”
Sharing one’s wealth in order to lift the needy out of their downward spiral was a communal attitude of gratitude in the early church. An atmosphere of thanksgiving and personal responsibility demonstrated that the community was living out its call to be all that Jesus stood for.
The third characteristic of the early church was its proclamation. Our blogger continues, “They are proclaiming Jesus’ death and resurrection, but not just that! They are proclaiming the good news that through Jesus’ resurrection life abounds, spills out and over into our own hope for the future AND into the way we live and are brought to life by God NOW.”
In the end, then, it all goes back to Easter. Interestingly enough, these verses we read from Acts is a lectionary passage assigned to the Sunday after Easter, also known in unofficial circles as Holy Humor Sunday, perhaps because of the outrageous claim it makes on us as followers of Jesus.
Baptist pastor F. Scott Spencer writes that “as in our own day, the early church worked out its resurrection faith through regular communal practices, such as baptism, the Eucharist, scripture study, and prayer.” In addition, the early church engaged in the radical resurrection practice of grand scale sharing we have focused on this morning.
Spencer goes on to say, “Of course, however much we might admire this radical…practice of the early Jerusalem church, we may also pity, even decry, their shortsighted, impractical economic vision.. (After all, they believed that they would live to see the end times and the consummation of God’s promises.)…Turns out they were in it for the long haul, or at least a longer haul than they expected. And the clock is now ticking well past the 2000-year mark. It is all too easy, then, for us not simply to pity the early church's practice, but to dismiss it altogether.”
However, I think these verses are significant as we reflect on our church. Could the same three signs of grace that characterized the early church (unity of purpose, foolish generosity, and bold proclamation) define us too?
I think so. Look around, and you will see tiny glimmers of such grace: a bit of unity of purpose, a tad of foolish generosity, a whisper of a bold proclamation.
The siding project is our unified commitment to our town to maintain the biggest community space outside of the schools. Hopefully, we will soon embrace handicapped accessibility, so that everyone feels welcome here.
We encourage the arts through our partnership with the Raymond Arts Alliance, and we fill hungry stomachs with our Thanksgiving baskets and at the Table of Plenty at Maine Seacoast Mission. In addition, we fill the hearts of those hungry for neighbors and friends at our community friendship meals. We bring community groups closer as we work with Fire and Rescue to install smoke alarms and to initiate a new program to fund carbon monoxide detectors. We support the aging through Age Friendly Raymond. And each Sunday, we continue to worship, not a God who has given us all the answers, but a God who embraces us as peace-makers and justice-seekers, a God who is still speaking in our world today. All that is unity of purpose!
A tad of incredible, selfless, foolish generosity characterizes us as well when you support our ministries and when you dream of expanding them as I do. It characterizes us when you give to this church in a way that people around you think you are a bit crazy, but you know you are not crazy, but simply filled with early church hope and joy and promise for the future, simply filled with gratitude for Jesus and all that he stood for. All that is incredible, selfless, foolish generosity!
And finally, if you listen carefully, you might even hear a certain boldness in our proclamation of who we are as 21st century Christians. You might hear in a whisper that we are not simply good doobies or model citizens. We are reminders even now in this jaded cynical world we live in, we are reminders of the promise of the resurrection and the hope of transformation.
We are reminders that what is dead and dying all around us - in this church and in this world - really can take on new forms of life. We are the promise of the resurrection and the hope of transformation in fearful and doubt-filled times. That is bold proclamation!
Even though the world as we know it teaches us to hold on tight to what we have, God says to us as God said to Mendel the tailor, do not be afraid. Take unified, generous, and bold risks. Open your hands and hearts – and, dare I say it, your wallets - in order to take care of one another – in order to be unified in purpose, foolish in generosity, and bold in our proclamation that we are the hope of the resurrection in fearful times. Open your hands and hearts – and, dare I say it, your wallets – in order to be the church.
Each one of us is part of the promise, is part of the hope – and that is no joke. So – let us thank God – not just using words but also by sharing what we have – thank the Holy One for the wonder-filled life that this church can offer to us and to it touches.
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