ALL THINGS IN COMMON
Acts 2:42-47
Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Analysis by Shaun O’Reilly
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
From Wikimedia Commons
“Christ’s body and blood are our ‘commons.’”
DIAGNOSIS: Scarcity All the Way Down
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Let’s Compare
Comparatively speaking, my regular Christian community might well pale to this magnificent account of the early church in Acts. Aside from the difference in numbers of those gathered in fellowship (v. 41), there are also the more obvious signs in the contemporary church that suggest we have a weaker sense of “awe” as well as fewer signs and wonders. We live in isolated, transactional communities where “having things in common” tends to feel threatening rather than liberating, because people feeling unsafe and insecure regard resources as scarce. This articulation of comparative difference between religious communities then and now might actually seem frightening. It points to how far we all fall short of being an idyllic community.
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – I’m not like them
“They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (v. 42). If we are honest with ourselves, we may find that we are not that committed to such things. Is it because the faith of these first century dedicated ones is greater than ours? Or is it that we, even like them, can be turned-in-on-ourselves? Even if we could share and care and have things in common, our faith weakens because we have not devoted ourselves to study and prayer. Our lack of proper catechesis leaves us as the awe-less hoarders we have become.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – All Out of Gifts
Our Easter bubble bursts. Easter just isn’t the same. As much as we play trumpets and sing “this is the feast,” the truth is things are different now. God, we have spent time in our churches (the temple) and you haven’t rained down generosity of spirit. Why are you more distant to us than you were to these early believers? Did you have more to prove then, and you’re bored with us now? But, if we are honest, there is something beneath the accusations. We are not entirely sure we want what we’re asking. Because the signs and wonders of Act 2 have the shape of open-handedness and power being redistributed, like private holdings becoming common ground. We accuse God of withholding. We are also quietly relieved that God has. But that does not set us free.
PROGNOSIS: Christ as Our Commons
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – Christ has Already Given Everything
God did not withhold, and God does not withhold, the Gift. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32). The “all things in common” of the early church was never a human achievement. It is given in the life of Christ, and the community is an echo of that prior divine self-giving. On the cross, God in Christ practiced radical egalitarianism first and foremost for us all – taking on all our poverty, our isolation, our death, so that we might share in the fullness of God’s life. This has become the giving of “all things” for us. Christ’s body and blood are our “commons.” Love poured out and proclaimed is the way. The scarcity that seemed absolute has been broken at its root by the Eternal Gift of the Son.
Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – Invited, Again
We are welcome to devote ourselves, now, to the teaching and fellowship and prayers like the common believers that have gone before us. Here is the surprising thing: when I show up to the teaching, the fellowship, the bread, the prayers, I don’t find emptiness waiting to be filled by my devotion. I find the Christ already there. The awe I thought I had to generate has arrived before me. This is what it means to be made new: not that I have finally gotten serious enough about my faith, but that the risen One keeps meeting me in the ordinary places I keep returning to. I am found. Again. The wonder and sign of God’s presence continually meets us as we return to Christian community, practicing the gift.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – The Lord’s Arithmetic
What is God’s gift becoming, daily, in us? May God add to the number as we get to live this out in our time and place. We are not in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, but we are in our neighborhoods and homes and Christian communities, called like ever before to be saturated in the gift that has given us all things. With Christ as our center, we care and love and share and call the world to this communal Way of Christ. The Acts story has become good news we celebrate as we go to keep on breaking bread together, praying, listening for the word of promise, giving the Gift.
