Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
As we gather to continue to celebrate
Jesus’ resurrection and defeat of death and the grave
we’re gathered together
in fulfillment of our baptismal promises
just as the first Christians
about whom we hear in Acts today
were.
“Those who had been baptized
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread
and the prayers.”
As we are here to celebrate
the baptisms of Aydin and Arya
we’re here to celebrate the reality
that Christ is risen from the dead
trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life.
The good news of our texts today
isn’t just for our baptismal candidates.
The good news of Jesus’ resurrection
as we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching
and fellowship
to the breaking of the bread
and the prayers
is for all of us
for all of creation.
Our passage from Acts today
is just after Pentecost.
The Spirit has come down
and the new, fledgling church
is figuring out what it means
to live without Jesus around bodily
but present in his gift of the Spirit.
Willie James Jennings writes
“Life with Jesus
must give shape to life in the Spirit.
The Apostles were yet caught in the echo
of a life fully dependent on God,
a life yielded to the Spirit,
and one that did not reject the weakness of flesh.
As such they carried forward
the reality of divine power
clothed in the common and the miraculous
flowing through weathered hands.”
He continues,
“The divine One wants people
and draws us into that wanting. …
A new kind of giving is exposed at this moment,
one that binds bodies together
as the first reciprocal donation
where the followers will give themselves to one another.
The possessions will follow.
What was at stake here
was not the giving up of all possessions
but the giving up of each one,
one by one as the Spirit gave direction,
and as the ministry of Jesus made demand.
Thus anything they had
that might be used to bring people
into sight and sound of the incarnate life,
anything they had that might be used to draw people
to life together and life itself
and away from death
and end the reign of poverty, hunger, and despair—
such things were subject
to being given up to God.
The giving
is for the sole purpose of announcing
the reign of the Father’s love
through the Son
in the bonds of communion
together with the Spirit.”
As we hear this story
of the new church
newly gifted with the Holy Spirit
having all things in common
we don’t hear about anyone being forced to share.
We also don’t hear,
beloved,
about how hard life in community
truly can be.
Those are not Luke’s points
as he writes to us,
the community of the baptized
and soon-to-be baptized.
Rather Luke’s point
is that in life in Jesus we are drawn
to care for one another
to care for all of our neighbors
and the whole of creation
and that the Spirit empowers us
and draws us
into that care.
This is the life,
Jesus’ defeat of death,
to which we have been
and will be
baptized.
This is the life Jesus promises us
at the end of our passage from John today.
“The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life,
and have it abundantly.”
In Jesus’ defeat of death,
in the sending of the Spirit
and in our gathering together
to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship
in the breaking of the bread
and in the prayers
abundant life has been made available to us.
This is not a life without sadness,
heartbreak,
or even sometimes despair.
I’ll spare you the litany
of reasons people have died this week
as we our country continues
to bow to the idolatry
of unregulated gun rights.
This week that litany includes
two mothers who gave up their lives
to keep their children alive.
That grief and sadness are with us
as part of our broken, sinful
human condition.
This is not God’s plan for us
God’s call for our lives
having defeated death
in Jesus’ resurrection.
As Jennings says about
the early church’s communalism
“Thus anything they had
that might be used to bring people
into sight and sound of the incarnate life,
anything they had that might be used to draw people
to life together and life itself
and away from death
and end the reign of poverty, hunger, and despair—
such things were subject
to being given up to God.”
“anything they had that might be used to draw people
to life together and life itself
and away from death
and end the reign of poverty, hunger, and despair—
such things were subject
to being given up to God.”
Even as we walk this human life
this Christian journey
with our heartbreaks and disappointments
when our friends and family fail us
when strangers perpetuate cycles of death and violence
when we learn the sins of our forebears
we are not alone.
We’re gathered together
to continue in the apostles’ teachings and fellowship
in the breaking of the bread
and the prayers.
The psalmist tells us
that even in the darkest parts of our lives
in the darkest nights of our souls
God is with us offering comfort
and standing beside us.
This is the life into which we have been
and will be baptized.
This is the abundant life
that Jesus came to give
and that God brought
through Jesus’ defeat of death and the grave.
It’s not an easy life.
It’s not a life of luxury
but giving and sharing.
It’s not the posh life
of never worrying about anything
but rather showing God’s concern for the world
and seeking to draw people into
the abundant life
made available to us at the font
and in the breaking of the bread.
Arya, Aydin, people of God:
continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship
in the breaking of the bread
and in the prayers.
When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death
turn to Jesus who is walking beside you.
When you face the troubles of life
walk with these people who love you
in the life of the Spirit and Resurrected Christ. Amen.