Acts 2:42-47 for Sunday, February 24, 2008

Translation:
(42)And they were devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. (43)And everybody continually was awestruck, there were continually many wonders and signs through the apostles. (44)And all the believers were together and they possessed all things in common. (45)And the possessions and the property they sold and they distributed it all according to anyone who needed. (46)Every day they devoted themselves together in the temple, breaking bread at home, they shared food in extreme joy and humility of heart (47)praising God and having goodwill to all the people. And every day the Lord increased the number of those being saved among them.

We are fortunate that Luke (who most scholars believe wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts, sometimes called Luke-Acts) gives us descriptions of what the first communities of Jesus-followers were like. I don't think we can call them Christians as such, because I doubt they would have called themselves that. They are a distinct group of believers, though.

What is remarkable to me is how we can see just how these believers are creating their own culture. For as much heat as "culture" takes these days, it can be a good and necessary thing. Without a culture, this group of believers would be hard to distinguish from their Jewish counterparts, or maybe even from their pagan counterparts. Several things were very important to them: devoting themselves to the apostle's teachings, eating together, having fellowship together and praying. They even share their possessions together, fulfilling each other's material needs.

From the very beginning, followers of Jesus have found it necessary to gather together, eat together and share teachings together. Though some Christian mystics managed a solitary lifestyle, this is clearly not the historic norm. It's incredibly difficult to be a Christian in isolation. I think Luke demonstrates this as he describes how the earliest believers forged a community.

I also notice that this community of believers did a lot of things together, but worship is only one (v.46), in the list of many others. The way Luke describes it, most of the community's time was spent in fellowship, receiving teachings, and breaking bread together. If we were to model this in our own communities, we would spend maybe twice as much time in fellowship and study together than we would worship.

This is a difficult model to hold up today, as our hours are quickly filled with so many things. Sometimes it is a challenge just to get to worship weekly; it would be difficult to find another two hours for group study and fellowship. I think the challenge is for each of us to find ways to be in Christian community so that we can grow in our faith.