One and only
- Gary Fritsch
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
I literally could not get past the first line of the first reading today: "The community of believers was of one heart and mind..." Can you imagine it? We do still see it today, but it requires an immense amount of effort.
This is what Jesus fervently prayed to the Father for: "That they be one as we are one." And so here it happens, in the Acts of the Apostles. But I think that most would agree that we are not one in this way any longer. How did the early Christians do it? What can we do to recapture this? If we pay attention to the reading today, we can start to get a good idea.
There are three things mentioned in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that show us what they were focused on that allowed them to remain of one heart and mind. The first is that they were focused on bearing witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. How many Christians in the pews on a given Sunday have never, in their entire life, bore witness to their personal heart-felt belief in the Resurrection? Far too many. Why? Because it is not easy and it creates conflict with many other things in our lives, it might cause some social discomfort, it might make us less popular and then there's this: many people don't know how to. How do you work it into conversation, etc.? More on that in a moment.
The second thing that they did is they focused on caring for the needs of those in their community. For us, this can be praying for, spending time with those who are in need, and certainly providing food, shelter, clothing and even financial assistance to those in our community. Most of us are willing and able to do these things. Here's the hard part: we have to be observant and listening for the opportunities. People don't always shout from the mountain tops when they have a need. We have to be in the habit of truly caring for and listening to others to even discover the needs among us.
Lastly, they were not worried about their possessions. Yikes, America - this is a hard one. In order to have the time and resources to care for others, we might have to give up our pursuit of some other things in our lives. This certainly can be challenging, but we can also start in small ways and make progress.
What was so obvious to me in all of this is that doing these three things demands a lot from us. We will all be imperfect in attempting it. So, a community focused on these will be working hard on something together and having to be forgiving and encouraging when we fall short (which we will all identify with). This is different than focusing on a checklist of devotions, which some will do perfectly, or becoming so absorbed in liturgy that perfection in it sought (and expected) or spending time on endeavors that are the creation of individuals (although not a bad thing) that lean upon the preference of the individual - which not everyone will agree with. These things separate us - the perfect from the imperfect and one preference stacked against another.
Our humanity, our imperfection in the pursuit of the greatest goals (the ones Jesus prayed for) will bind us together as we walk in the power of the Spirit, humility and forgiveness.
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