Of One Heart and Soul

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. (Acts 4:32-37)

We've experienced 40 days of waiting, a day of celebrating, a day of mourning, and a day of resurrection. Like a good season finale or season premiere of your favorite show, the question asked is, what now? Where do we go from here? The grave has been open, the body has been risen, the Lord Jesus walks among the living, we cannot go back so where do we go from here? What now?

The simplest answer is we become of one heart and soul. We become a church of those who believe of one heart and soul. Much has been said about the unity of the church. The scriptures stress that unity is a gift of Christ to his church. He provides it, and so the Bible speaks of the unity of the church as something that is. In John's gospel Christ prays, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that they world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” In Ephesians Paul writes, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and in all.” Seven times Paul uses the word one in one sentences. Likewise, in his letter to the Corinthians Paul explains that the unity of the church is characterized by wide diversity, “For just as the body is one, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Similarly Paul says in Romans, “We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another” (Vanderwell, pg 19).

The unique character of this unity is found in the fact that the members of this unified body were so different. Some are Jews with a long history with God; some are Gentiles who were once seen on the outside of God's love. Some serve in major roles, others serve in minor roles. Some are strong; some are weak. Some are slaves; some are free. Some are children; some are adults. The scriptures teaches us what unity is. It exists because Christ has bound us all together. Christ in the unifier of the church. Yet the scriptures also teach us that this unity must be preserved because it is fragile and easily lost; which is why Paul stresses we are to make “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Therefore we cannot answer, “what now?” without addressing the need for unity and how to maintain unity.

In the Acts of the Apostles we are told that this early church movement were of one heart and one soul. Luke takes time to tell us early on this important detail because there are stories in Acts of great highs: “And great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 3:33b-34a). “Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women” (Acts 5:14). And there were times of great lows: “But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him (Stephen). Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him” (Acts 7:57-58).

I believe Luke tells “they were of one heart and soul” because he wants to know the importance of unity within the church. Luke tells us in Acts 5 that those who seek to wrong the community or use the community for selfish gain will be removed from the community because he wants us to know that this church survived because they cared for one another deeply and gave deeply so that none were ever without. Great conflict will bring people together or it will tear people apart. The conflict that takes place in Acts and in the epistles, the early church could have fallen apart and the faith could have died out. Luke is providing us an insight to how this group of people cared for another and the importance of being of one heart and one soul.

One day, a little boy received an invitation to his friend's fourth birthday party. Bursting with anticipation, he was most excited about finding his friend a birthday present. Finally the great day arrived. His parents drove him over to the little boy's house, took him to the door, met the hosts, and then said good-bye with assurances that they would return to pick him up right after the party was over.

They arrived back a few hours later and quickly saw a much less enthusiastic boy get into the car. They could tell right away that something was up. They asked, “How was the party, son?”

“Oh, all right, I guess.” the little boy answered.

“Why? What's the matter? Didn't you have a good time?” they asked.

“Yes...but I didn't get any presents!”

“But...er, son, it wasn't your party.”

Unconvinced and unconsoled, he sat for the rest of the ride home generally depressed by the seeming injustice of it all.¹

Church is not about what we receive but what we give. It is not about the gifts we receive in worship, from the music or out of the sermon; instead it is about the gifts we give of our time, our energy, our prayer, our faithfulness, and yes our money too. Being of one heart and soul is the willingness of the community, of the church to set aside it's individual wants and take on the community's, the church's needs. Being of heart and soul is the willingness to let go of ourselves, to deny ourselves and follow Christ. Meaning, the people in the pews around us are not just a church family, they are our family. For many of you that is literally true; yet because of Christ we move past a primitive understanding of family (immediate and extended) to a cosmic understanding of family that includes everyone who is a child of God.

Like the early church, we function best as a body of believers, as a family being of one heart and soul. This does not mean that we will always agree and not argue. Anyone who says they attend a church where there is never any disagreement is trying to sell something. It does not mean that we are of one heart and soul on the issues. It means we are not divided because of our differences. It means we are a family doing its best to live faithfully with one another and caring deeply about another so that none may go without.

The beauty of the Baptist faith is that we uphold the uniqueness of the local church and the uniqueness of those who attend. Each Baptist church is supposed to be allowed to unique and different. Baptist, at one time, celebrated their uniqueness and were honored by local, state, and national conventions. Unlike other denominations Baptist believe that the local church should have the power to govern themselves because each one was different. Of course that soon changed with the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 80s and 90s and even up to today. Each convention or fellowship that has been birthed out of the controversy has struggled to maintain this Baptist freedom of autonomy and uniqueness. Baptist were once united not in theology or politics or controversial issues but in the understanding that we were not a creedal people but a missional people.

I speak of this part of our history because it showcases the fragile state of a faith community. Our ancestors of our faith understood the fragility of this new faith. They understood being of one heart and one mind did not mean to be united in our similarities but in our differences. Today church is divided up on similarities. If you are black there is a church for you. If you are white there is a church for you. If you believe in a literal reading of the scriptures there is a church for you. If you are open and affirming there is a church for you. If you like rock n roll worship there is a church for you. If you prefer liturgical worship there is a church for you. I think you get my point. We are no longer united in our differences and a faith community based on caring. We are a faith divided into like groups of like minded people caring for only the people who are just like us. We are not of one heart and one soul.

You and I are unique people. We're different in someways and in someways not. We may have voted differently, hold to different theological viewpoints, dress differently, have different hair, be of a different race or of a different age; but you are my brother and my sister and my duty is to care for you. We are not united because our similarities but through the belief of the resurrection. If we are to live faithfully into this new act God is writing then we are to live it being of one heart and of mind.

Friday I was helping my friend Ben work on his garden. At lunch we started talking about we each were preaching on Sunday and he said, “I'm preaching the Thomas passage and the Acts passage. I mean we look at the Thomas story and get on to him for not believing and we believe in this resurrection but we can't believe in this Acts' story? We think God can resurrect the dead but we can't believe that the church was once of one heart and one soul and gave deeply so that none went without?”

He's right. We do not struggle believing God is powerful enough to raise the dead but when it comes to being of one heart and soul we do not believe it to be possible. We start to think that if we are not around people who like us and allow the right people in the story will cease to continue, the church will no longer be. God is powerful enough to raise Christ from the dead but not powerful enough to keep this story going? If the scriptures teach us anything, it teaches us that God is more than powerful enough to keep the story going because of God's faithfulness to the church to God's people. The church will survive even the harshest trials because God is faithful. That is what Easter teaches us. That is what Luke teaches us with the stories of the early church. That is what the Apostles remind us of in the letters. We have nothing to lose and nothing to fear of being one heart and one soul and giving so that none go without because we serve a faithful God. If we are not of one heart and one soul and united in our differences and giving so that none go without we tell the world our gospel isn't true.

If we are to continue on with the story then being of one heart and soul and giving so none go without is essential to the what now.

1Nordling, Robert. “Whose Party Is This Anyway?” The Church of All Ages. Howard Vanderwell, ed. 2008