They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. - Acts 2:42-47
The word com-panion means “one with whom I share bread.”
The companionship that is shared
between disciples and their Messiah runs deep
because the bread that they share
is not just bread.
The bread that they share
is hope,
hunger,
homesickness:
longing
for a world that is well-fed
and happy
and at-ease.
When Jesus re-entered the scene after his resurrection,
appearing to his friends on their Way,
this is the hungry hope that he resurrected in them,
and, indeed, this is the hope
that brought them to new and life-giving life-together.
It’s a hope that would unite them,
and bind them,
and (on their better days) make them one
as Jesus,
once again,
prepared to depart.
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Today we pick up the same story--the story of Jesus and his friends.
But today it’s something like a month later.
Almost two.
We’ve jumped ahead to the Book of Acts
which is actually the sequel to Luke’s Gospel
(Luke’s Gospel being the Gospel
that contains the story
about Jesus and his companions
on the Emmaus Road).
And at this point in the story,
in the second chapter of Acts,
a lot has already happened:
Christ has ascended to the skies
(leaving his companions again),
and the Holy Spirit
(who he had promised them in his place)
has descended
and filled
the bodies of these disciples,
possessing their hearts,
sparking their imaginations,
and igniting all sorts of prophecies
and dreams
and visions,
which now had begun to spill out of them
in all kinds of languages
and songs
and aspirations.
We will actually commemorate these events--the Ascension and the Pentecost just a little bit later in this month.
But in our text today,
in the second chapter of Acts,
these have all (already) taken place. They’ve already happened.
And so now…
The disciples are suddenly left, filled with the Spirit,
filled with visions of God’s Reign,
filled with that hungry hope
which is the bread that made them companions with Jesus in the first place,
And Yet also asking:
What does it mean to be companions with a Messiah who is gone?
What does it mean to be companions with a Messiah who is gone?
What do we do to remember him? How should we call him to mind?
How do we maintain a relationship with an ascended person?
How do we keep that relationship going
so that we might keep him--and his hungry hope--at the center of our mission and our ministry and our life together?
How will we make sure that this hope, that this hunger, that this homesickness doesn’t fade (doesn’t get buried) as it did before-- before he appeared to us and ate with us again on that Emmaus Road?
How will we keep Jesus with us?
and:
How will we keep his hope alive?
These are the questions that these first disciples asked.
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And this is what they decided.
Each week, and sometimes every day,
These companions of a physically absent Messiah
would gather.
They would tell stories about Jesus - like the story of the women at the tomb, and the story about the feeding of the 5,000.
They would tell the story of Jesus’ healing of the lepers, and the story about Jesus’ apparition to them on the Emmaus road.
They would tell stories.
And they would remember Jesus.
Every week.
And sometimes every day.
And when they did this--every time--they would also pray for God’s Reign to come.
“Thy kingdom come on earth…” they would pray,
day by day a
and week by week.
And they would sing.
And they would eat.
And, in the beginning, they would even live together,
sharing all things in common,
and giving to each according to each one’s needs!
That is:
although the world itself remained hostile and unsafe,
this community,
a community which they would come to call the Body of Christ,
was a respite.
It was a sanctuary
and a home.
A safe place,
and a place where they could all come and belong.
And it was also a place
where everyone who showed up
was able to eat!
Said differently,
day by day, week by week, these early Christians
created a foretaste of the great Banquet
for which they hungered and longed.
It was not here yet, but certainly this community made them hunger for it even more.
This community became for them Jesus’ Body, the Body of Christ.
It became a taste of the world as it should be--
of God’s reign where the last become first
and all are well
and all are well fed.
And, as such, this community instilled in them, day by day, the Messiah’s hungry hopes and dreams.
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The word com-panion means “one with whom I share bread.”
The companionship that is shared
between disciples and their Messiah runs deep
because the bread that they share
is not just bread.
The bread that they share
is hope,
hunger,
homesickness:
longing
for a world that is well-fed
and happy
and at-ease.
It was this community of companions (the church before it was called a church) that ensured that this hungry hope would never again fade.
They would eat this hope together each week.
It was their bread.
And in doing so, they would become hungrier and hungrier for the Feast that they swore was very, very soon to come.
Amen.
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How has this community been a foretaste of God’s Reign for you?
How has it brought you joy?
How has it given you visions and dreams?
What kind of community do you think God is calling us to create or recreate together in this historical moment?
What do you think is God’s hope for us?
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