Potluck Church

Acts 4:32-35

John 20:19-31

What does the word church make you think of?

Church.  What do we mean by church?

Is church the building we are in?

Is it the community we are sitting among?

Is it an event we come to for an hour once a week?

What do we mean by church?

We use the word in a lot of different ways.

Church has been a part of my life since before I can remember.

For some others here church is a very new thing.

For others still church was something they had once been a part of –

something they became unable to continue with

but something they have found again in the twists and turns of life.

Church has been a place of liberation for some.

Church has been a place of oppression for others.

Church is potluck suppers and the smell of old books.

Church is paper bulletins and grape juice in tiny plastic cups.

Church is a place of being with friends and neighbors – church is community.

Church is a place of fellowship – but also arguments and strong opinions.

Church is a life-line in difficult times.

Church reminds of loved ones lost. 
Church reminds of belonging found.

Church is a place of grace – where prayers and songs uplift and scripture inspires.

Church is a place one cannot return to – it contains memories of burnout, embarrassment, judgment.

Church is a word with so many different associations.

Church is an experience with so many different memories depending on the individual.

Memories that bring emotions of joy and sorrow – of discouragement but also of hope.

One of the great things about the gospels is that they give us a glimpse into the origins of this thing that we have come to call church.

The word church is used as the English translation in the New Testament of the Greek word ekklesia which was a gathering together, an assembly of people for a common purpose.

It was sort of ad hoc at first.

We see this in the story of the disciples gathered in the room

Where the risen Christ came among them.

They were together.  They were praying. Christ showed up.

What began ad hoc became the basic service order for the earliest gatherings.

And there was always food.  Breaking bread became essential.

I was reminded through reading the Slow Church book that it’s probable that when Jesus at the last supper said “do this” in remembrance of me,

That what he meant by “this” was eating together.

He wasn’t imagining the Lord’s Supper in the way that we have it now.

But rather that his disciples would eat together, share this basic event of life together in his memory.

Ad hoc gatherings around food.  And prayer.

In 1 Corinthians 14:26 we hear Paul describing the early Christian gatherings:

“When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.”

Let all things be done for building up.  The purpose of gathering was not just worshipping God, remembering Jesus, but building up one another.

A similar passage we find in Colossians:

“…Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” Colossians 3:12-16

The purpose of coming together as we now do for church is building up – is learning the way of community founded in grace.

And there’s something very “potluck” to this picture of church.

I was inspired by these descriptions of Christian community when I was living in Columbia, South Carolina and I planted a church.

I didn’t think about it like this at the time.

It’s only in retrospect that I realize what I was doing – I was trying to form a small house church.

It was because I had been without Christian community for a number of months on account of a weekend night shift I had taken on to help pay my student loans and my recently acquired moped lease.

I have no doubt that summers in Acworth were in my mind when I invited people to a “potluck”

It was to be a literal potluck – people were invited to bring food.

But it was more importantly to be a potluck in a spiritual sense.

Each person bringing a story, a song, an insight, a passage – something to share.  And no one would have to.

But that was the general idea.  For the building up of all.

I don’t remember all the reasons, but it fizzled out after three or four months.

But it was a profound experience of church in the sense of gathering together, life together.

People came and brought their guitars and songs.

People came and silently listened, giving of their presence.

People asked questions and gave challenging thoughts from their experiences.

People shared their burdens and others gathered around to pray for them.

All this from an invitation to a potluck.

We read in Acts this morning that people shared what they had – held their possessions in common and there were no needy among them --  

And this is connected with the testimony of the resurrection.

“With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”

A great grace follows from the resurrection – from seeing the rabbit beyond the duck (to use an image from last Sunday)

We reimagine the world, we reimagine ourselves, we reimagine our resources in light of God’s life.

For if we exist in God’s life, nothing not even death itself can separate us from God.

And that has profound implications for how we understand our possessions.

So much of property is owned as a hedge against poverty and death –

We curve in upon ourselves and carry our possessions with us in that posture of defense.

It is out of this defensive posture that hunger arises.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his classic, Life Together,

“Not until one person desires to keep his own bread for himself does hunger ensue.”

But this is not the way of Christ.

This is not the Easter faith.

What we see in the early Christian community is not only a sharing of themselves – a potluck of talents and insights and songs and encouraging words and deeds.

But we see a sharing of their goods.  An opening of their hearts and of their hands.

Defying the well-ingrained tendency of humans to horde and hold on for the sake of self preservation.

A great grace was upon them all.

And they shared what they had.  And no one wanted for anything.

This is a troubling vision for a world so bent on private accumulation.

If we are safe in God’s love.

If we are ultimately children of God, able to trust in God’s provision.

We can open our hands, even as God has opened his hands to all living things.

And we can gather in potluck fashion.

Sharing ourselves. Sharing our goods.

And I believe that as we live into that vision

We give testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,

and a great grace is upon us all.