Creating Sacred Community

Acts 2:41-47, John 10:1-10

April 13, 2008

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

“They ate their food with glad and generous hearts.”

The overwhelming sense one gets in reading this short passage with the first description of a Christian community is of joy, gladness, and unity. It is, of course, an idyllic portrait, written by Luke in hindsight with, perhaps, a bit of nostalgia for the old days, before persecution, before internal conflict set in (which it did amazingly rapidly as you discover if you keep reading the book of Acts), before the leadership of the church spread far and wide. It was the beginning of a new movement, which always carries with it an amount of excitement.

These first Christians are, in so many ways, very far removed from us. But as we read about those early, halcyon days, we remember that they gave us this most precious gift: joy. It is like a family heirloom, carefully protected from all that the world might throw at it, protected from all that might destroy or tarnish it, passed on to each new generation. Joy. The joy of forgiveness, the joy of knowing that in God we are not alone. The joy of knowing that in community with other believers, we are never alone. The joy being empowered to see our giftedness and to live into using those gifts. The joy of sharing with one another, everything! The joy of praise and singing together – where else in our lives do we do that on a weekly basis? The joys of eating together, laughing together, watching the children in our midst grow and blossom; watching each other grow and blossom. The joy of carrying God’s love outside the community, like those happy, intrepid women from our congregation who set out this morning for Mississippi.

Over the centuries, the church has nurtured, shared and celebrated this gift of joy in so many different ways, and it still does. Sometimes we hear our neighbors in their worship expressing their joy with drums and guitars. During my life in several different countries I have heard the joy expressed on more instruments than I can count and in more musical styles than I thought existed! And second only to music has been food. “They ate together with glad and generous hearts.” I’ve had tea and chocolates with the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church in Istanbul and tortillas and fresh mangoes with farmers in El Salvador and an unforgettable hot pepper washed down with beer with the Armenian bishop of Amman, Jordan, and my reaction to this culinary event had a whole restaurant laughing. I’ve eaten at more church potlucks, progressive dinners, wedding receptions, coffee hours and yes, even funeral luncheons where I saw such joy and love expressed that it sometimes leaves me speechless (and that’s saying something!).

They also prayed those days in Jerusalem. Some Christians pray loudly and vigorously, hands in the air, bodies swaying. Some sit and bow their heads in silence. Some use incense to imagine their prayers going up to God like a sweet smell. Some pray with tears, some with laughter, some with their own words and some with words so ancient no one remembers who spoke them first. For all the joy of praying alone in our rooms, there is also great joy in praying together. When we gather our prayer requests here, you look at each other with such love; you listen to each others’ worries and happiness with such care, it gives me hope. There is power in bringing our prayers together, can you feel it sometimes?

They also devoted themselves to learning! Devoted! They discovered the wonder of those joyous, “Aha!” moments, when someone hears the words of scripture or sings a hymn and God or the faith or their mission in life becomes clear to them and the excitement and relief are palpable. Sometimes we hear those stories here, when people make testimony to those moments. Sometimes it happens in Bible study or Sunday School or youth group or at a book group or on a retreat. There is joy in learning, in discovering something new, or something old in a new way.

Above all, we hold this joy; we nurture it and grow it here, in order to share it with others, just as those first disciples did. I suspect those women in Mississippi are going to laugh a lot over the next few days. How many of you have smiled and rejoiced in serving dinner at Columbus House or teaching Sunday School or welcoming visitors or taking supper to a sick friend or flowers to a shut in? Did you ever notice that the part of weekly worship which gets the most pomp, ceremony and music around here is the offering? A procession, an anthem, a special piece of music all its own? We rejoice to share what we can with God’s people who need what we have. My grandmother used to have a saying she taught us that went like this, “A song is no song till you sing it; a bell is no bell till you ring it; the love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay; love isn’t love till you give it away.” A bit simple, perhaps, but so true I have never forgotten it. And I think our Christian ancestors in Jerusalem just after Pentecost would resonate with that thought as well.

Jesus, the good shepherd, said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The first Christians ate together with “glad and generous hearts.” At the heart of the Christian faith is the deep magic of joy. It is not a joy dependent on good things always happening, because they don’t. It is a joy based on knowing we are loved by God and by one another. It is not happiness, which may be fleeting and easily lost, but joy as a light which shines in the darkness and, though surrounded by shadows, cannot be extinguished. And it is a joy that pulls us to share it, first with each other, and then with the world. When we have trouble remembering joy in our lives, if we are part of a joyful congregation, and if we can hear how others are joyful, we might remember where to look within for the source of joy so that we can find it again and be whole.

So here is what I would like us to do this morning. I would like us to spend a few moments nurturing each others’ joy. We have already done it in song and scripture, and we will do it in prayer and offering in a little while, after which we will eat together with, I hope, glad and generous hearts. But now, I want to ask even the shy people among us to turn to someone sitting near you and spend a few minutes telling each other what in your faith, in the church, in your life brings you joy now. If you are in a place in your life where you have trouble knowing joy, then remember where you have known joy in the past and share that story. Perhaps in remembering, you will find grace. Talk to each other.

Whether you knew or know joy in the presence of other Christians or far from church, that joy is a gift of God. Remember it. Nurture it. Celebrate it. Share it. God came that you might have life, life abundant. Amen