In Common
How old are we when we learn that something belongs to us? That’s mine! When a playmate picks up a toy in which we had momentarily lost interest, all of the sudden that becomes the thing we most want to play with. That’s mine! When an older sibling sees us wearing a favorite shirt that he grew out of years ago, he can’t help but remind us whose shirt it was first. That’s mine! When parent gets caught sneaking a piece of Halloween candy out of her child’s stash, the reaction is swift and furious. That’s mine!
On Sunday mornings during the Easter season, we hear stories from the Acts of the Apostles. A few weeks ago, we heard a passage from Acts 4, in which Luke, the author of Acts, expresses the fervent faith of the early church by describing their economic situation. In verse 32, he writes, “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.” Throughout the book, one of Luke’s strategies is to show that the conviction of the believers was strong enough to overcome the adversity they faced. When persecuted, they remained strong. When arrested, they remained hopeful. Even when martyred, they remained faithful. But all things in common? Really?
Notice how Luke depicts the impetus for that economic arrangement. So important was their unity of heart and soul that the members of the Christian community voluntarily gave up their claim on their own possessions. Although he does not explain which is the cause and which is the effect, the author implies that the ability to share their possessions was a fruit of their shared faith. More than a symbol of unity, however, those shared possessions began to shape the way members of the community cared for one another: “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (4:34-35).
As the community of faith was learning how they would live together as the church, the faith that held them together enabled them to overcome even their most basic instincts for ownership. They understood that anyone’s needs were everyone’s needs and that the best way to live out their faith was to share their resources freely with each other. Although it is omitted from the lectionary, the beginning of the next chapter shows what happens when the community was threatened by those who would hold back from the common purse. When confronted with their faithlessness, Ananias and Sapphira met a ghastly end. The point Luke makes, of course, is not that people who hold back should be killed or even expelled from the community but that the unity of the early church was so important and powerful that there was no room for selfishness or greed. They were all of one heart and mind.
Can you imagine being part of a community that was knit together so closely that no one ever thought to say, “That’s mine?” Actually, that reality may not be as far away as you think. Consider the milk in your fridge or the bread in your cupboard. Whose is it? Unless you live alone, I bet that you share ownership of most of the items in your pantry with the other people in your home. Certain things may belong to one person or another because they are the only one who drinks coffee or because they really like that kind of cereal, but most of us experience within our families a unity that transcends individual ownership. While there are still shouts of “That’s mine!” among siblings (and occasionally parents), we belong to a community where our collective identity defines us more substantially than our individual possessions. What happens when that kind of identity is found not only in our homes but in our church?
The kind of unity expressed in Acts 4 is both descriptive and prescriptive, and it helps us to identify both elements in the passage. While having all possessions in common strengthens the bonds of concern and love between the members of the community, they cannot attain that unity simply by pooling their resources together. That makes sense. If the members of our parish signed over all of their property to the church, we would be drawn closer together, but the ripples of disagreement that inevitably exist in a human institution, elevated and exacerbated by complete economic interdependence, would quickly pull us apart. Such unity of possessions is only possible when something even more powerful than money and best intentions holds us together. In the church—both the institution depicted in Acts and the parish we love—our unity is a product of our faith.
We believe in a God whose indiscriminate, unconditional love has no limit. We are held together by our belief that God’s love transcends any forces that would pull us apart. The church that is described in Acts 4 is idyllic, but it is not artificial. We strive for that kind of community, but we pursue it not simply by telling people what to think or how to spend their money. We pursue it by exploring and celebrating the deep unity of identity that is the fruit of our faith in God—the identity God has given us in Jesus Christ. The faith we share is strong enough to overcome anything that would separate us from one another. To be a Christian is to believe that. To be a part of the Christian community is to pursue the identity that we share before claiming the ones that keep us apart.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan