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You may not think of it in this way, but I suspect that you have been doing a few things in your life that are part of a tradition that began in the lives of the first people who knew and followed Jesus. In fact, there are many aspects of modern Christian life that can be described in this way, but what I’m thinking of in particular has to do with what I summarize as “taking care of others.”
Some of you bring food to church to share with hungry folks. Some of you help serve lunch to homeless folks once a month down at Mission Bay. Some of you serve on boards of organizations that help refugees, or unwed mothers, or those suffering from PTSD. Some of you write checks to groups that search for cures for blindness or provide legal advice for folks who cannot afford lawyers. And some of you study some of the persistent issues in our society such as poverty or the sex trade and you work in various ways to alleviate the suffering and eliminate the sources of such issues.
All of these activities—and many thousands more—are related to reports of what the first Christians did after Easter. Not only did they share news about Jesus, and not only did they worship and pray and study, they also offered tangible care and support for folks like orphans and widows. It is what Jesus’ followers do.
There is much more to tell, of course, and come Sunday morning, I’ll do a bit of that. You might want to listen in, either in person here at the intersection of Via de la Valle and Paseo Delicias in Rancho Santa Fe, or online, from wherever you happen to be. Read Acts 2:43-47, Acts 20:17-18, 25-27, 34-35 and James 1:22 & 27, and then prepare to hear this message: “The Early Church’s Embodiment of a Righteous Society.”
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