First Reading: Acts 2:42-47
42{The believers} devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Psalm 23
1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. 3He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his name’s sake. 4Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. 6Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:19-25
19For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Gospel: John 10:1-10
1{Jesus said to the Jews,} “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Leaving an Empty Chair
Have you ever been part of a team-building exercise? Do an internet search for the term “team building” or “teamwork,” and you’ll find that thousands of studies have been done on the subject, and millions of articles have been written about it. A lot of businesses have invested in team-building exercises as a way to encourage cooperation and problem-solving skills among their employees. However, the team-building exercises can be a problem in themselves. According to one study done by a multinational firm, 1/3 of U.S. employees surveyed dislike team-building exercises. Yet companies still spend an estimated $46 billion per year on these types of activities.
Journalist Zachary Crockett put out a request for the worst team-building exercises, and he got some surprising stories. A creative director at a South Carolina PR firm spent a lot of time and money organizing a company kickball game as a team-building exercise for his employees. But on the final play of the game, the creative director broke his leg. He filed a worker’s compensation lawsuit against his own firm. The whole mess ended with the creative director losing his job.
Another man, who worked for a media company, shared that his employer sponsored a paintball competition as a team-building exercise. As the two teams of employees attempted to capture the opposing team’s flag, a new player suddenly emerged. This player, who was not affiliated with either team, was dressed in fake military fatigues and armed with an automatic paintball rifle. They began shooting paintballs at members of both teams, causing instant chaos. The mysterious paintball player turned out to be the head of human resources. She thought this was the best way to test how the employees handled conflict as a team. The truth is, it’s hard to find a magic formula that will cause a diverse group of strangers to become a cohesive, productive team.
As a retired member of the military, I can attest to the cohesiveness of work groups, of the understood need to work together as a unified team. Career fields and work sections overall can be fiercely loyal and cohesive. However, I also know that people, deep down, are self-centered and competitive, and will primarily look out for número uno. So even in a highly team inner dependent occupations like law enforcement, fire protection, or the military, no one has quite got a lock on how to gain complete cooperation. There is with one exception, God. God has this one figured out.
Our epistle lesson for today is from Acts 2. This passage is a continuation of the same text we heard last week. In today’s reading we see the beginnings of the Christian church. They were an incredibly diverse group of people–men, women, enslaved people and free people, rich and poor, Jewish people from every nation—all were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, more than 3,000 of them were baptized in the name of our Triune God and joined this new community of Jesus-followers. But I think it’s important to note that God never intended for this new community to be a team. God intended them, and us, to be more than a team, we’re to become a body, one body—the Body of Christ active and working in the world. And the key to becoming a part of Christ’s body is found in our reading for today.
St. Luke writes, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who 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.”
This new body, the church, devoted themselves first to teaching, to fellowship, and celebrating the Lord’s supper. Next, they did what was needed to support each other physically and spiritually. They met daily to study God’s word, to teach and be taught, they shared their food and did everything with “glad and sincere hearts” all to the glory of God. This is God’s original plan for the Church. This is what it looks like to be the body of Christ in our daily lives and in our communities. This was their goal, and it should be our goal as well.
We’ve heard this passage read many times in the past, and it’s easy to get hung up on one or two of the statements made here. So let’s take a few minutes to see if there is more here than people selling everything and sharing everything in common. What can we learn from these early believers that could transform us into a community like this? First, it means they committed themselves fully to the church community, even when it was challenging.
The Greek word used for “devoted” in verse 42 can be translated “to endure” or “to continue to do something with effort.” If something is easy or trivial in value, it doesn’t require devotion or effort. Nobody, for example says, “I devoted myself to eating that plate of nachos” or “It’s amazing how he devotes himself to binge-watching TV shows like The Last Man Standing.” Those things are pleasurable and easy. They don’t require discipline or sacrifice, and they don’t yield any great rewards. Instead, we devote ourselves to things that are challenging and carry high value in our lives.
We devote ourselves to our relationships. We devote ourselves to achievements like completing a project, or to a personal development goal, like learning a new skill. We devote ourselves to the most important things in life, to the things with lasting value. Devotion requires commitment, humility, and self-sacrifice. And that’s what these early Christians did to create a healthy Church, a healthy community that reflected the spirit of Jesus Christ. They devoted themselves to the most important priorities that Jesus had taught them: prayer, praising God, learning, sharing meals together, sacrificial generosity and caring relationships. This new community, gathered by the Holy Spirit, was so radically inviting that our final verse reads, “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
I read an interview with author Gwen Strauss, who wrote a book about her great aunt Helene Podliasky and her female colleagues who worked for the French Resistance during World War II. These women were captured and sent to one of the most brutal Nazi concentration camps in Germany. There, the women were starved and tortured and forced into heavy labor. Their suffering only strengthened their compassion and care for one another.
Every day they would pass around an empty bowl at mealtime. The women would each take a spoonful of soup and add it to the bowl. Then they would give the extra bowl of soup to whichever woman was most in need that day. Each woman sacrificed some of her food to ensure that the weakest members of the group were cared for. Sacrificial generosity and community could only come from the Spirit of God living in us. Notice that verse 27 doesn’t read, “. . . the Lord added to their number daily those who liked their worship style, or their family-friendly activities, or their cool coffee shop or bookstore.” Our Acts passage reads “. . . the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Outsiders saw this diverse group of people living in radical and joyful devotion to God and one another. Men and women, rich and poor, Jews from every nation, language and culture living in a community committed to justice, equality, and mercy. Only God could create a community like that. And those who witnessed it believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior because of it. What do people see when they look at our church?
Just 14 months ago, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, kicking off a bloody war. Ukrainian citizens who weren’t able to join the army and fight were urged to flee to neighboring countries to protect themselves. Journalists with The Christian Chronicle newspaper interviewed 50 Ukrainian refugees who had fled to Warsaw, Poland, for safety. This group of refugees was learning how to create a life for themselves in a new country, and how to build a church community together.
Polish Christians and churches in the U.S. pooled their resources to rent a small apartment block for the refugees, and to provide them with working vehicles. The Ukrainian refugees also joined a small Polish congregation for worship. Their presence there has brought new life to the Polish church. But the integration hasn’t been easy. The members of the congregation speak different languages and follow different customs. It’s been difficult at times to move past these differences.
Yura Taran, one of the Ukrainian pastors, says that previously “church” consisted of “sitting for two hours, singing songs, and then going home.” But now, this combined congregation of Poles and Ukrainians have created a whole new type of church. As Yura Taran says, “We’re not doing that here . . .Here, we’re in each other’s faces, at each other’s throats! We’re loving each other, respecting each other, trying to bless each other. And inside of us everything is calm and peaceful.” This certainly sounds to me like a diverse group of people who are radically devoted to being the Body of Christ, even when it’s challenging. That’s the first example the early Christians gave us in this passage, to commit ourselves fully to the church community, even when it’s challenging. The second insight we get from these verses is to remove all prejudices and barriers that divide us from one another.
There’s a fascinating Greek word buried in verse 46 of this passage, which reads, “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.” That little word “sincere” in this verse is actually a compound word in Greek. It’s made up of the words “a,” which means not, and “phel-o-tes,” which means rocky ground.
A-phel-ó-tēs refers to removing obstacles or complications from someone’s path. This word is only used once in the entire New Testament, and it’s not found in any other ancient writings of the time except for writings referring to the early church. It appears to be a brand-new word made up just to describe this early group of Jesus-followers. Based on the reading and the evidence we see from this early gathering, a-phel-ó-tēs means that they worked to remove prejudices, barriers, and divisions that would keep them from complete unity in Jesus Christ. And what stones did they remove from their path?
The stumbling blocks of religious squabbles and fruitless debates, the barriers of prejudice, superiority, greed, self-centeredness, and status. In doing so, outsiders were able to see the awesome truth and presence of the Living God in their midst. In closing let me share a story that illustrates one man’s determination to remove the stones of discrimination from the paths of future generations. Daniel Gill worked as a Civics teacher in the public school system in Montclair, New Jersey for 53 years.
For many of those 53 years, Daniel Gill kept an empty chair near the front of his room. Part of the Civics curriculum includes teaching about the civil rights movement and the history of discrimination in the U.S. This is a subject close to Gill’s heart, and he wanted to ensure his students understood the pain and injustice of racism. So, he told them a story from his own personal perspective.
In 1956, when Gill was just nine years old, he and his friend Archie went to a friend’s birthday party. On the elevator ride up to their friend’s apartment, they dreamed of cake and ice cream and party games. But when their friend’s mother answered the door, she invited Daniel in and told Archie, who was black, to go home. As she said, “. . . Archie, you’re going to have to go home, because there aren’t enough chairs.” Daniel protested.
Daniel had been a guest in their house before and knew they had plenty of chairs. He even offered to sit on the floor, or to go home and bring back an extra chair. She still refused. And that’s when the boys realized what she was really saying: Archie wasn’t allowed to come to the party because of his skin color. Archie and Daniel left. Daniel recalls the ride down the elevator and the walk home in this way: “We cried. The both of us. A lot.” The boys stayed friends through elementary school, but lost touch when they went to separate schools in their teen years.
When Daniel Gill got a teaching job in Montclair years later, he was part of the planning process for the magnet school system that allowed children to attend schools outside their neighborhoods. It helped to integrate the school faster and give students in poorer neighborhoods a shot at a better education. And when he taught the Civics unit on the civil rights movement, he told the children about his friend Archie and the birthday party. One year, when he was telling the story, he pulled an empty chair to the front of the classroom to illustrate the pain of that rejection. And from that day on, Gill left the empty chair at the front of the class to remind his students to always invite everyone into the party, to never leave anyone out.
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, they were a diverse group of men and women who wanted nothing more than to follow Jesus Christ and proclaim Him as Lord. After the blessing of the Holy Spirit, they were no longer a group; they became one Body. They became unified in prayer and praising God, in radical generosity and sacrificial love. The Spirit of God had broken down the human barriers between them. Their unity became a powerful witness to the presence of God in their lives that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. If we want our church to have that kind of life-changing effect in our community, then we must commit ourselves fully to God and to being a part of the body of Christ, even when the inevitable challenges arise. We must actively remove the barriers that divide us from one another. If we do, God will transform us into the body of Christ in our community. Amen
Your sermon was powerful today. The last of it was a challenge for us at Bethel Lutheran Church. The story at the last really tugged on my heart. I want us to truly be the body of Christ.
I’m glad you preached on the first lesson.