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„41Those who accepted his message were baptised, and … 42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their posses-sions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favour of all the peo-ple. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. “
On the first time, I was hearing this description of the first Christian Congregation I was filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand I felt marvelling admiration; on the other hand it left me frustrated. For ever since I have participated actively in the life of the church, I have dreamed of such an ideal church; and I am defi-nitely not the only one who feels like this. Seeing this ideal of the church in the first congregation in Jerusalem however also confronted me with the reality of the church that I am part of; which is a church that seems to be so far from this ideal. It is a disenchanting effect that Ideals often have; eventually they leave one frustrated rather than with happy admiration. However as I looked a bit closer at this bible word I realised that I would misunderstand this text, if I were to leave it like that; I mean just with this mixed feeling of admiration and frustration. I wouldn‘t take Luke serious in what he tried to tell us when he wrote down this account of the first Christian congregation. Because: Even if Luke wanted to emphasise the distinguishing mark of the first Christian congregation in Jerusalem; and even if he describes the abundant blessing that was upon the first congregation of believers, he actually points out something totally different and more fundamental than that; namely what constituted church right from the very beginning.
Doing this Luke emphasises four details of the Jerusalem congregation: Firstly the teaching of the Apostles, which is nothing else but the Gospel of Jesus Christ; secondly Luke talks about fellowship. Thirdly he mentions the breaking of bread, which is the New Testament term for Holy Communion. And last, but not least, Luke points out to prayer. These are the things to which the members of the first Christian congregation already devoted themselves to. Miracles happened in addition to these things. Joint property, or the so called Christian Communism as well as communes were fruits of these fundamental things rather than anything else. They were ‘bonus’ gifts of the Holy Spirit, who enabled the Christians in Jerusalem to share all their belongings, and thus to live literally as brothers and sisters. One can find such spiritual effects and ‘bonus’ gifts until to-day; maybe not always quite so evident, but more rudimental. But one can find them, even in our congregation: beneficent donations for needy people outside our congregation; maybe unnoticed prayers of congregants for the protection and healing of others, which are miraculously heard; brothers and sisters who talk about their faith and thus get strengthened in their faith and the knowledge of the truth. All this, one can defi-nitely find in our congregation. But all this is a bonus gift of the Holy Spirit. One cannot determine if an assembly of people are a church or congregation by means of these things. They aren‘t attributes of the church. Because the only true attributes of Christ‘s church are those four things: the preached Gospel of Jesus Christ; the fellowship of believers; the Lord‘s Supper and prayer. Only through these four things church can be what she truly is: the fellowship of baptised believers, the communion of saints with God. And why is this so? Firstly, because we can only be sure that God is really talking to us, if we listen to His word, especially the message of His Son Jesus Christ. Dreams or visions or other spiritual revelations are so uncertain that one can‘t rely on them 100%. Secondly, because only in an evangelical life we experience what it means when God‘s word and God‘s love are put into practice in a mutual understanding and acceptance, a mutual forgiving and helping in Jesus’ name. Most evident it happens however in the participation in the Lord‘s given body and blood, for whenever we come to His table, He unites as those who eat and drink. Last but not least is prayer the most consequential response to such a living relationship with our Lord and one another. Christ‘s church has much freedom and scope of development; also our congregation. But no matter how the church exploits this freedom, it must remain faithful to these attributes, if she wants to call herself church of Christ rightfully. We as a Lutheran congregation do this by making these four attributes a fundamental a part of our confession. The Augs-burg Confession for instance, which is an explanation of our faith and part of the Book of Concord; it says about the church that it is „the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.”
If we understand Luke‘s account this way, it won‘t result in dreams of a better church or in frustration, but will rather do us good. Because: Then Luke encourages us with his account to look at our congregation over and again on the basis of these four attributes. And thus it will firstly be a warning for us. For if we don’t listen to God’s word anymore – be it as a church or as single Christian –, and if we do not try to deal with each other in His love anymore, or avoid His Holy Communion and prayer, something is severely wrong with our faith. At the same time Luke’s account encourages us to use all the ‘bonus’ gifts of his Spirit, in order to support His Church. How do we want the church to look like? How can it look like? There is no actual ideal of church, but based on the foundation of these four attributes, described by Luke, many different ideals are possible. May we therefore use, what God has given unto us on the foundation of His word, his fellowship, His sac-raments and prayer, through Jesus Christ, our Lord! |
