Thomas J Parlette
“Life after Easter”
Acts 4: 32-35
4/7/24
In these post-COVID days, there has been a great deal written about finding ways to entice people back to church. So, here’s a question for you: If you were called upon to design a bumper-sticker slogan to get people to take a good look at coming to this church, what would you write?
A few years back, the United Church of Christ came out with a marketing campaign that many of their churches used, built around the slogan, “God is still speaking.” I like that. It’s short, catchy, easy to remember - and I think it’s Oh so true.
For many years, the United Methodist Church got a lot of mileage out of their slogan – “Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.” I like that one too.
There was a Baptist group a while back that tried “Be kind, be merry, be Baptist.” Good – but the word “merry” might not be the first one to pop in your mind when it comes to Baptists – but, it’s worth a try I suppose.
You could also go with the old standby – “CH, blank, blank, CH: What’s missing UR.” Well besides the fact that lots of people have heard that one for a long time, it really doesn’t tell a prospective churchgoer anything about your church – it just uses the guilt angle. (1)
Our own denomination – the PCUSA – doesn’t really have a slogan. The closest thing might be “Reformed and always reforming”, although that’s more a slogan for the Protestant Reformation in general, rather than the Presbyterian Church in particular.
We might look to today’s scripture passage from Acts for a worthwhile slogan, right there in verse 33, which says, “Great grace was upon them all.” It’s kinda catchy – but I’m not sure how well it would work, because it uses a loaded theological term in there. Grace.
Grace is one of those words we say a lot in church, but it is perhaps not widely known beyond our own doors. There are lots of meanings of the English word “grace.” It may suggest a graceful ballet dancer, effortlessly gliding across the floor. The term “social graces” might pop into your head. Or maybe you think of the “grace period” you might get before being assessed a late fee or have to begin paying off a loan. All good things.
Our English word “grace” comes from the Latin “gratia”, which means “something pleasing.” In classical Greek and Roman mythology, there are three sister-goddesses, known as “the three graces.” They’re identified with charm, beauty, and creativity. Again, all good.
The dictionary gives another meaning – favor. Now that gets us closer to the theological meaning of grace. If parents have a favored son or daughter – it usually means that they put that child on a pedestal. It’s the proverbial child-who-can-do-no-wrong.
So too with the grace of God. God’s favored Son, of course, is Jesus, who is without sin – meaning he does no wrong. But God doesn’t put Jesus on a pedestal. Instead, Jesus ends up on a cross. The beneficiary of God’s favor that dreadful day is not actually God’s Son Jesus, but us. We are God’s favored one because we are the beneficiaries of God’s grace.
In our passage from Acts for today, or we could call it Luke, Part 2, we get a glimpse of what life was like in the early Christian community after that first Easter.
I wonder how many of you recall the opening scenes from the 1970’s sitcom “All in the Family.” As the show opened, the viewer was in a car driving slowly through a neighborhood of neat, bungalow houses. In the background, a man and woman, Archie and Edith Bunker, belt a song around an upright piano – “Boy, the way Glenn Miller played. Songs that made the hot parade. Guys like us we had it made. Those were the days!” That theme song set the stage for the show, in which Archie Bunker struggled with all the changes in modern society, while longing for a world in which things were clearer, simpler and easier to understand – the good old days, as they say. (2)
There is a bit of that kind of nostalgia at play in this passage, as Luke recalls that the Christian community were of “one heart and soul and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.”
I remember a time when I was leading a bible study on Acts, and when we came to this passage, a couple of people got pretty irate, because they thought this passage made it sound like Christianity was like communism, or at the very least socialism. And they stormed out, saying, “That’s not the Bible I know.”
I admit, they had a good point – it does sound that way – especially when we read the NRSV.
But in other translations, like the New International Version or the New American Standard Bible, the aspect of sharing is what is emphasized. The notion of “no private property allowed”, changes into the early Christian community willing to share their individual resources to provide for those in need.
That isn’t communism or socialism – it’s showing love for your neighbor, which is exactly what Jesus told us to do. So it’s reasonable to conclude that the early church aspired to the practice of generously sharing resources rather than a hard and fast communal ownership of property.
This portrayal of life after Easter shows the Christian community doing their best to live out their resurrection hope. The grace that has been extended to them through Jesus death and resurrection allows them to approach others with a sense of grace – and they begin with those closest to them, their fellow believers.
Our human nature tells us that people ought to get what they deserve – “if you do the crime, you do the time” sort of thinking. That’s the way we think life works. The Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr calls this approach the “economy of merit.” (3) Those who have merit can expect good things in life, and those who don’t can expect punishment. That’s only fair right?
But life after Easter can be lived a different way, with a different attitude. After Easter, we can make a switch from the economy of merit to the economy of grace.
Granted, that switch does not come naturally, it’s a hard thing to do – especially for those of those who tend to be our own harshest critics. We don’t need people judging us or telling us we’re bad people – we’re already convinced of that. At times we are so busy judging ourselves, it can be impossible to extend grace to others.
Here’s how Richard Rohr describes the revolutionary power of grace:
“It is God’s magnificent jailbreak from our self-made prisons, the only way that God’s economy can triumph over our strongly internalized merit badge system. Grace is the secret, undeserved key, by which God sets us free.” (4)
Living the way Luke portrays these early disciples was a radical witness and a challenge to the society of that time. After Easter, they had a new perspective on the meaning and purpose of worldly possessions: in the light of the resurrection life “things” were for meeting needs. Need trumped greed. Grace trumped merit.
The image of a community so at one in heart and mind that not even physical possessions would be spared in the face of need, shows us an absurd picture of a people whom many might accuse of being naïve, maybe communist, or even socialist, or just plain dumb with poor judgment. But that is how resurrection words and lives will always look to a world that lives in fear, isolation and individualism.
We don’t really have a good analogy for resurrection in our life experience. We preachers point to examples like the return of spring, or butterflies emerging from the cocoons, or baby chicks that crack open their shells to explain resurrection and new life.
But today, we have a different image to draw upon, from a people willing to live as a resurrection community, displaying the grace they have received through Jesus death and resurrection. We would do well to risk becoming a resurrection community, as well. I think the poet Wendell Berry got it right in his “Mad Farmer’s Manifesto”:
So, friends, every day do something
That won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the World. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
The flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all who cannot
Understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
Has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers…
Practice resurrection. (5)
That is life after Easter. We are called to practice resurrection.
We are called to live out the grace we have received, displaying our unity as Christians, and demonstrating generosity to those in need.
So, as we gather at the table with our risen Lord – let us practice resurrection.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 3/5/24.
2. Cynthia M. Campbell, Feasting on the Word, Year B, vol.2, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, p382.
3. Homileticsonline, retrieved 3/5/24.
4. Ibid…
5. Andre Resner, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 2, Westminster John Knox Press, p393.
