Jesus-Bandits

Early Church

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had…There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”
Acts 4:32, 34-35

The early church was dispersed. Each of the Apostles had a following, and all of it was clandestine. They met in houses marked with the sign of the fish. They hid from the Romans and the Jews because their very lives were in danger. Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin and commanded not to preach or teach under penalty of death. It was a community under siege.

The response of the church was not what one would expect, however. Instead of running away, instead of hoarding their goods, they met together and shared what they had. They sold land and homes, and pooled their assets so that no one did without. They practiced distributive wealth—giving to each as he had need. They continued Jesus’ ministry of teaching, preaching, healing, feeding and caring for ‘the least of these.’

Something they had seen in Jesus, in his powerful love and courage, gave this little band of subversives the strength and determination to carry on in spite of the odds. They were a small, persecuted band of believers, with no foothold in a society that despised them. They had no unifying creed; no established dogma, no ordained leadership. But they had something more potent than these; something more compelling than fear. They had spirit. They had soul. And, they had each other. Is your community of faith like that?

In the spirit,
Jane