Easter 2
Devotional
Streams of Living Water
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle B
Object:
Acts 4:32-35
No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
-- Acts 4:32b
The very fact that this passage is so disturbing to many is evidence of the powerful hold our possessions have on us. We have been so educated to believe in private ownership and possession of wealth that to suggest that what we have is not ours is almost unbelievable. Most of us understand the effect of greed, envy, and covetousness is to create distrust, suspicion, and protectiveness. When we look at the Ten Commandments, 20% deal with overcoming our desire for what our neighbor has. "You shall not steal" and "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:15, 17). Acts claims that the power of the resurrection can be seen in its ability to break the power of things and possessions in our life. Consider the impact of only loosely holding on to our possessions. Such a move requires an act of trust. Note that the distribution was through the apostles (or church leadership), so the first risk you have to take is whether you trust the body of Christ as it is manifested in the church.
In this passage, such an act of trust results in their lives becoming centered on God rather than themselves. It also lessens interpersonal rivalry because they become focused on the good of all. Because Jesus commanded us to hold love of neighbor as a primary command and defined our neighbor as anyone in need, so now the power of the resurrected Christ enables a Christian community to say, "There was not a needy person among them" (v. 34). By the power of the resurrection, these believers knew that things could not ultimately harm them and that life was discovered in meeting the needs of others. It begins with trusting God who has proved his love for us.
Psalm 133
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
-- Psalm 133:1
Psalm 133 is a celebration of the blessing of community. In Genesis there is a statement of God's conclusion that it is not good for a human to be alone (Genesis 2:18). In the dry climate of the Middle East, it was a sign of hospitality to anoint a guest's head with olive oil that could refresh the skin dried by the weather. Human community (v. 1) is refreshing like the generous oil put on Aaron's head (v. 2). Aaron, Moses' brother, became the head of the priesthood in Israel and Moses' interpreter for God's word. God's will was for a generous hospitality among God's people. The dew of Hermon was the life-giving water that enabled the plants to bloom. Life together is like that precious water that enables life to flower (v. 3). It flowers in Zion, the place where God has chosen to make his presence visible.
God's presence becomes visible and productive where people dwell together enriching and refreshing each other under God's guidance. All attempts to demonstrate our goodness that results in division of community are a failure to discover the blessing of God that produces the fullness of life (v. 3b). We cannot love God and hate our neighbor. To hate our neighbor becomes a failure to receive God's precious gift of community.
1 John 1:1--2:2
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
-- 1 John 2:2
Try to conceive of the implications of Christ's having atoned for the sins of the whole world. We are not talking about a conditional atonement, which will come about once people in the world have confessed their sins. This is a much more radical claim for Christ than the fact that in Christ Christians can find forgiveness. This atonement also severely affects how we relate to others in the world. If Christ atones for the sins of the world, what becomes of our power to judge others? If I am angry and I condemn another for what that person has done, I am condemning a person for whom Christ has already atoned. If sin is any act, attitude, or failure to act that rebels against God's purpose that we love one another and atonement is God's effort to reconcile that which has been separated, then in my judging another I am judging one who has been reconciled to God.
By Christ's atonement, we are set free of the necessity to look for darkness in a person's life. Now we are asked to look for light because God is light. "If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" (1:7). The unity of the human family, or even the body of Christ, is not based on our strength of character but rather on our discovery of a reflection of God in each of us. Our task is to become reflectors of that light so that the world might discover the truth about itself. The truth is that the world also is in the light.
John 20:19-31
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
-- John 20:23
If one is to take this statement as a statement of truth about the church, it suggests that we have a frightening responsibility. You may recall the story in Mark 2 where a paralytic is brought to Jesus and Jesus tells the young man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." The reaction of some of the scribes was to accuse him of blasphemy because forgiveness of sins can only be done by God alone. How comfortable would you be in accepting your responsibility as part of the church to forgive people's sins? Could you accept God saying to you, "The responsibility is yours? If you do not forgive a person's sins, then his or her sins are not forgiven. He remains paralyzed by his sins." Would you consider it bordering on blasphemy, and certainly self-righteousness, for the church to withhold forgiveness?
Yet this is what Jesus declares to his disciples. Jesus, who was sent by God to proclaim God's forgiveness, turns to the disciples and says, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (v. 21). When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (v. 22). Protestants have been quick to criticize the Roman Catholic church for assuming the power to forgive sins. But all of us must consider the other side of this question. What if the reason that the world is so mired in guilt and the bizarre actions that result from that guilt is because as a church we have not been willing to proclaim the forgiveness that they need? What if the world awaits the church's accepting Christ's mandate for the world, and we have been too frightened to engage in the task?
No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
-- Acts 4:32b
The very fact that this passage is so disturbing to many is evidence of the powerful hold our possessions have on us. We have been so educated to believe in private ownership and possession of wealth that to suggest that what we have is not ours is almost unbelievable. Most of us understand the effect of greed, envy, and covetousness is to create distrust, suspicion, and protectiveness. When we look at the Ten Commandments, 20% deal with overcoming our desire for what our neighbor has. "You shall not steal" and "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:15, 17). Acts claims that the power of the resurrection can be seen in its ability to break the power of things and possessions in our life. Consider the impact of only loosely holding on to our possessions. Such a move requires an act of trust. Note that the distribution was through the apostles (or church leadership), so the first risk you have to take is whether you trust the body of Christ as it is manifested in the church.
In this passage, such an act of trust results in their lives becoming centered on God rather than themselves. It also lessens interpersonal rivalry because they become focused on the good of all. Because Jesus commanded us to hold love of neighbor as a primary command and defined our neighbor as anyone in need, so now the power of the resurrected Christ enables a Christian community to say, "There was not a needy person among them" (v. 34). By the power of the resurrection, these believers knew that things could not ultimately harm them and that life was discovered in meeting the needs of others. It begins with trusting God who has proved his love for us.
Psalm 133
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
-- Psalm 133:1
Psalm 133 is a celebration of the blessing of community. In Genesis there is a statement of God's conclusion that it is not good for a human to be alone (Genesis 2:18). In the dry climate of the Middle East, it was a sign of hospitality to anoint a guest's head with olive oil that could refresh the skin dried by the weather. Human community (v. 1) is refreshing like the generous oil put on Aaron's head (v. 2). Aaron, Moses' brother, became the head of the priesthood in Israel and Moses' interpreter for God's word. God's will was for a generous hospitality among God's people. The dew of Hermon was the life-giving water that enabled the plants to bloom. Life together is like that precious water that enables life to flower (v. 3). It flowers in Zion, the place where God has chosen to make his presence visible.
God's presence becomes visible and productive where people dwell together enriching and refreshing each other under God's guidance. All attempts to demonstrate our goodness that results in division of community are a failure to discover the blessing of God that produces the fullness of life (v. 3b). We cannot love God and hate our neighbor. To hate our neighbor becomes a failure to receive God's precious gift of community.
1 John 1:1--2:2
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
-- 1 John 2:2
Try to conceive of the implications of Christ's having atoned for the sins of the whole world. We are not talking about a conditional atonement, which will come about once people in the world have confessed their sins. This is a much more radical claim for Christ than the fact that in Christ Christians can find forgiveness. This atonement also severely affects how we relate to others in the world. If Christ atones for the sins of the world, what becomes of our power to judge others? If I am angry and I condemn another for what that person has done, I am condemning a person for whom Christ has already atoned. If sin is any act, attitude, or failure to act that rebels against God's purpose that we love one another and atonement is God's effort to reconcile that which has been separated, then in my judging another I am judging one who has been reconciled to God.
By Christ's atonement, we are set free of the necessity to look for darkness in a person's life. Now we are asked to look for light because God is light. "If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" (1:7). The unity of the human family, or even the body of Christ, is not based on our strength of character but rather on our discovery of a reflection of God in each of us. Our task is to become reflectors of that light so that the world might discover the truth about itself. The truth is that the world also is in the light.
John 20:19-31
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
-- John 20:23
If one is to take this statement as a statement of truth about the church, it suggests that we have a frightening responsibility. You may recall the story in Mark 2 where a paralytic is brought to Jesus and Jesus tells the young man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." The reaction of some of the scribes was to accuse him of blasphemy because forgiveness of sins can only be done by God alone. How comfortable would you be in accepting your responsibility as part of the church to forgive people's sins? Could you accept God saying to you, "The responsibility is yours? If you do not forgive a person's sins, then his or her sins are not forgiven. He remains paralyzed by his sins." Would you consider it bordering on blasphemy, and certainly self-righteousness, for the church to withhold forgiveness?
Yet this is what Jesus declares to his disciples. Jesus, who was sent by God to proclaim God's forgiveness, turns to the disciples and says, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (v. 21). When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (v. 22). Protestants have been quick to criticize the Roman Catholic church for assuming the power to forgive sins. But all of us must consider the other side of this question. What if the reason that the world is so mired in guilt and the bizarre actions that result from that guilt is because as a church we have not been willing to proclaim the forgiveness that they need? What if the world awaits the church's accepting Christ's mandate for the world, and we have been too frightened to engage in the task?
