Traveling Mercies for August 4-10

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers… Day by day they broke bread at home… 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, 46-47

Just prior to these verses, the disciples received the power of the Spirit, after being released from their fear and confusion. They bore witness to the crowd that gathered to witness the spectacle of God’s Spirit breaking down every language barrier there was. They heard the story of Jesus, the leader of their movement that was now breaking into the world. And they found out from Peter how to become part of the movement. Change the direction of your lives, Peter said, from a self-referenced life to a God-referenced life – a Jesus-referenced life.

Then this story provided a simple blueprint in a single verse for how to maintain the movement of being the church. “Devote ourselves to teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.”

Often, the teaching part is one of the most misused and misunderstood aspects of being the church. In some places it’s all about learning the right words to say, and the right things to believe, in a way that makes faith a test to be passed. But that’s not what it’s about. Teaching in the church is more about helping each other figure out what life with faith is like, and how to live with faith out in the world.

Fellowship is certainly about gathering together to support and encourage each other. It’s also about the ways that we visibly and stridently demonstrate the unity that embraces our diversity. It’s about all the ways that we are traveling companions together, following Christ’s spirit, and doing God’s will together. That is demonstrated most symbolically, and powerfully whenever we gather at the Lord’s table. In communion, we demonstrate our love and respect, and pledge our solidarity with one another, with all of the social, economic, religious, political, or any other differences we might have. We do so because we believe that God’s love has broken down all barriers.

And we pray. This may be the most important part of the blueprint – because we believe that we need a power greater than our own to accomplish all the rest. So we pray, alone and together, to connect ourselves to the source of strength and guidance that makes it all work. The promise is, that however we follow the blueprint God provides for each of us, in our own contexts, salvation happens.

Prayer:
We thank you for the wholeness of life together, that you have created. From that gracious place, renew today, our vision of who we are created to be and what you call us to do, so that others might experience the healing that is, salvation, Amen.

Peace, Pastor Ed