“Oh, how good and pleasant it is,” the psalmist says (Psalm 133:1, NRSV), “when brethren live together in unity!”
Today we are not so likely to follow that proclamation with a metaphor of oil on our heads and running down onto the collars of our robes! I’m not sure what our equivalent image of well-being and contentment might be. Perhaps merely an easily tapped supply of clean water for our morning shower—a blessing much of the world does not, in fact, enjoy.
Moving from the Psalm to this morning’s scene from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4:32-35, NRSV), we find another image of peace and harmony. The Lukan playwright describes the community of early Christians as being “of one heart and soul.”
What is interesting to me about this story is what the author focuses on as evidence and illustration of the early church’s unity. Notice that it has little to do with doctrine or beliefs—other than that the apostles were testifying to the resurrection.
We know, historically speaking, that many great controversies about doctrine were yet to come. We know that the councils of the church that resolved those controversies did not happen until many years after this scene from Acts.
Rather, the evidence and illustration of unity among early believers laid out in this story is that they had eliminated economic inequality—at least within the Christian community—by sharing everything they had.
This is surely a more startling image for us today than oil running down our chin onto our shirt collar!
The online publication “Business Insider” recently published charts illustrating what they label “15 mind-blowing facts” about economic inequality in the U.S. But the data that stuck with me comes from a couple of economists, one at Harvard Business School and the other at Duke University, who studied what people think the wealth gap in the U.S. is, what they think it should be, and what it actually is.
I was not surprised to learn that we think the gap should be smaller than it actually is. What was rather surprising is that people in general apparently are pretty ignorant of how big the wealth gap in the U.S. is.
In other words, a large random sample of people from a wide spectrum of demographic groups estimated the wealth gap in the U.S. to be 25% narrower than it actually is. That’s a hugely significant error in perception according to all statistical measures of significance.
And the gap between what people hold as ideal versus what actually is? A little over 50%. In other words, to achieve the wealth distribution we say we hold ideal according to this study, a bit more than half of the wealth of our society needs to shift from the top 20% of people to the bottom 60% of people.
Stunning indeed. But I don’t think this story from the Acts of the Apostles is meant to endorse any one economic system over another. I don’t think Holy Scripture in general should be taken as endorsing particular political or economic systems.
Rather, I believe the stories of Jesus and his early followers teach us what to value. They teach us how we ought to relate to God and each other. They teach us what our priorities ought to be. And they leave the details of how up to us.
Maybe that’s where the expression, “the devil is in the details” comes from, because we humans sure know how to fight and fuss over the details of how to get something done!
But you know what? I’m okay with that. I’m okay that we humans must debate and disagree and question politicians and question each other and accept some plans and reject others and change our minds… and all of that. I’m okay with it because it is how we learn and grow and overcome our own inherent self-centeredness.
Show me a person who cannot change his mind, a person who cannot modify her position in light of new data, a person who cannot even hear and consider an alternative point of view, and I’ll show you a small, anxious mind trapped in its own fears and limitations.
I have a friend who decided a few years ago that her inherited religion was not serving her contemporary needs. And so she did what so many do today, she went “church shopping.”
One of the first churches she visited piqued her interest and so she joined the adult Christian education class. The third or fourth Sunday she attended the class she was becoming comfortable enough to ask a question. The topic was something that she had often wondered about and so she posed her question. Without missing a beat, the Sunday School teacher turned to her and said, “We’re not here to argue.”
My friend shut her mouth, sat respectfully through the remainder of the class, then got up and walked out, never to return. Today she’s an Episcopalian!
Today’s Gospel lesson is offered to us as evidence of the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. The author himself is explicit about his purpose: “These [things] are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah” (John 20:19-31, NRSV).
We could talk about many aspects of this passage. Indeed, we could debate a number of things, like what kind of body Jesus had post resurrection, such that it still bore the wounds of crucifixion yet he could pass through locked doors.
Instead, let us simply observe that Thomas the questioner, Thomas who rejects the perception of the other disciples, is present the second time Jesus appears. That means he was not thrown out of the group for questioning and challenging and rejecting what had quickly become the dominant view among the disciples.
Moreover, Jesus himself does not rebuke Thomas, but patiently invites him to check out the evidence. And not just to check it out visually.., but to touch it!
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| The Increduility of St. Thomas, by Caravaggio |
What a totally loving and accepting invitation! We humans tend to protect our wounds, to “nurse our wounds” we say, even to hide them from each other. Yet here is Jesus saying to Thomas the doubter, “Put your finger here.. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.”
How will we define Christian unity today? Is the resurrection of Jesus the Christ still powerful enough to overcome disagreements about doctrine, and to enable us to lovingly engage each other’s questions and challenges? Will future generations see evidence of our testimony to the resurrection in our ministry to a broken society and world?
AMEN
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