The notion of a generous community (found in Acts 2-6) is intriquing. This utopian picture of a community found in Acts, doesn’t stand alone. It is seen in other parts of God’s community. A good example of this is found in Deuteronomy 15. But furthermore, we see this type of generosity, extravagant giving, taught all through the Gospels and the letters to the early churches. They can not be ignored. The only difference about Acts is that we see it being lived out in reality, while in the other letters is given as a command or principle to base a community on. What a dangerous combination. Today, we read stuff in the letters to the church and say, “That’s impossible. Nobody does that. What is generous to me may not be the same to them. Plus, this is just the way it is.” It grabs us by the throat and that is not a good feeling.
I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about how lately I feel like I don’t want to let go of idealism when I look at planting a church. I personally feel like if I were to surrender my idealistic notions, I would be giving in to trend that the church has been in for some time, compromise & comfort. I also am not usually an idealistic person. I like to walk in the world of the norm. It is much easier to live in and doesn’t push me further to risk more for the kingdom. It doesn’t call for me to stick my neck out on the line. I wanted to make sure that idealism was the correct word that I wanted to us so I looked it up and found an accurate description: “tendency to represent things in an ideal form, or as they might or should be rather than as they are, with emphasis on values.”
Those of us in ministry should take a very close look at that description and then assess our work. The Kingdom of God is idealistic to rest of the world, even to us who follow Jesus. He speaks of a way of life that is gripping, real, and dangerous. When we read it, we can imagine what a life like that would be like, and even at times conclude that there is no way a community like that could ever exist until we all reach heaven. Sounds negative, I know, but lets assess ourselves just to be safe. But, out of all the things that seem to be the most idealistic (even possible) is this observation of a generous community. The blending of the rich and poor so that no one lacked anything, they were all of the same heart and mind, they communed together, they ate together, and they worshipped together. This is part of the Kingdom of God. This generous community does a few things. One, it fights greed. Two, it unites. It does other things, but in this portion I want to look at those two.
Back to my friend. We were talking about this generous community found in Acts, and he proceeded to ask me this question: “What if to people in your community both have SUV’s, one that is brand new and the other 10 years old. At what point do you sell things when people have all sorts of stuff that range in value and age. How does it become fair? Or what standard is used?” I laughed a little bit under my breath, because I just realized something that was glorious! An answer that wasn’t profound and it shut both us up (well for a little bit for me…heaven knows). I answered, “why don’t they have a conversation in their community about what to give in up?” Of course you have to be in community to know the needs of others, but then that community should discover the standard. But, should there really be a strict standard? I can hang on to this toy but not this one. I have the new SUV you don’t. This generous community fights greed. If we start to wrestle with this idea, we find ourselves struggling a little bit. We even find ourselves wanting to be defensive and find logical reasons as to why it shouldn’t be this way. The point is, as it says in Acts, that none of these possessions are our own. If we give them up, or downgrad to meet the needs of those in our community, wouldn’t God also provide for us?
But what if our community is huge (hundreds), how does this happen? What if in our community there is no community and people don’t really care? I would say (as little as my expertise goes) start conversing about it, start praying about it. This Generous community is God’s development. It is a natural one because of the generosity given by God to us.
In a few days, I will discuss how it promotes unity…
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