Woke this morning thinking about the scripture that says the early Christians liquidated all they had and used it to serve God and one another.
44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47)
I wonder how much that happens today? I know that there are pockets of it – in the monastery or among the new monastics. And most churches have some kind of a deacon’s fund that is available to people when they have nowhere else to turn.
But I’m not asking about those kinds of structured arrangements.
I’m wondering if the average person on an average day, when they see that their neighbor needs a hand, a word of encouragement, or a few dollars to make it to their next paycheck, feels drawn to offer support. I am not talking about close friends, or even the amorphous, nameless “poor” who are served from a distance through checks, canned food and used clothes from our closets. I am talking about people in our communities that we encounter every day. If Christian faith is, in fact, a transforming faith. If acceptance of a journey away from a life of self-service and toward Christ is actually a radical shift that is incomparable to other journeys one might choose, is there evidence of that transformation in the day to day lives of most people who claim to be Christian?
Is there evidence of it in mine?
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