As I’ve blogged a couple times before, I’ve been slowly reading through Neither Poverty nor Riches by Craig Blomberg, as he walks through the Old and New Testaments, as well as inter-testamental literature, trying to put together a cohesive biblical perspective on the place of and posture to possessions for today’s follower of Jesus. Just the other night, I got to the section where Blomberg walks through Acts, and in particular the section on Acts 2:42-47, a very common passage used by churches today to examine what communal life looked like for the first-century church. As I read through his analysis, I was struck by a number of things:

1. The first-century church’s attitude toward possessions was an outflow of their relationship with the Holy Spirit. First, looking at Acts 2:42, Blomberg starts off with the statement, “What we do or do not do with our material possessions is an indicator of the Spirit’s presence or absence.” (Blomberg, 161) Our outward use or misuse of possessions (including money), I believe, reflects what our posture toward it is – is it something that is ultimately more important than our relationship with God, or something that holds it’s proper place as a blessing from God, in order to be a blessing to others?
2. The first-century church’s communal living was a continual activity. Acts 2:43-47 “is no once-for-all divestiture of property…but period acts of charity as needs arose.” I’ve always looked at this passage with the idea that once people came to faith in Jesus, they sold or gave away everything they had into the common pool of the church community. However, as Blomberg notes, there are even grammatical clues that suggest this isn’t a one-time act, but a repeated act of obedience to Jesus. In particular, this passage is littered with a string imperfect verbs (which suggest an ongoing, or even habitual action in past time, represented in bold here), as opposed to aorists (which usually accompany historical narratives as past-tense verbs portraying completed actions) – (1) they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and breaking bread, (2) awe came on every soul, (3) all who believed were together, (4) they were selling their possessions, (5) were distributing the proceeds to all, (6) they received their food with gladness and (7) the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. All the other verbs in this section are participles that are dependent on one of those seven imperfect (habitual or customary) verbs. Pretty cool.
3. The first-century church’s communal living is probably best understood as normative instead of merely descriptive. This one was possibly the most intriguing to me. I’ve heard a number of times that many of the narratives in Acts are meant to be taken as stories, descriptors of what happened in the early church, but not necessarily as prescriptive for the church today. However, Blomberg brings up a few interesting points. (1) While it is true that not all stories in the Bible are not necessarily timeless principles, “as part of inspired Scripture, narrative is as much a database for theology as any other genre.” (Blomberg, 163) For some reason, this struck a light bulb in me – my go-to sections of the Bible are always either the various epistles, or Jesus’ explicit teachings. But, since the whole Bible is the Word of God, the narratives are there not just for color, but to instruct and inform the people of God as well. To be sure, there are some not so pretty stories in the Bible, there are definitely some stories in there that exemplify right praxis. And in this case, Blomberg’s assertion is that it is meant to be taken normatively. Looking at Luke’s organization of the letter, and the juxtaposition of Acts 2:42-47 against the Ananias and Sapphira episode in Acts 5, you see a contrast of a good example and a bad example of right living in the first-century church.

So why did I begin with the story of the 70-something year old man in the beginning who had been effectively severed from his community? I venture to say, that had that person been a part of a vibrant church community living under the reign of God and following the patterns of Acts 2:42-47, that never would have happened. Not even close. Relationally, people in the church would have swept in and helped that guy get back on his feet, taken him in, participated in finding work training programs, financially supported him to tide him over through his turbulent life season. I do remember that guy saying he still trusted in God as the ultimate provider, but for him, I think that took on more of a “big-picture, in the grand scheme of things” perspective, rather than a tangible, “right now” perspective. The beauty of the gospel is that the promises that are alluded to in Revelation – such as the absence of poverty – are meant to be at least partially realized now as we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

• Daniel Kirk has an intriguing two-part (and possibly three) reflection on his house church experience in SF. Read and join in on the discussion in parts one and two.
• For you baseball sabermatricians out there, there’s a fascinating article over at The Hardball Times talking about how the White Sox failure to resign Jim Thome, and the subsequent waiver trade for Manny Ramirez ended up costing them more to get less. In other words, it’s not just what you did do, but also what you didn’t do that affects an outcome.
• Steve McCurry posted a beautiful two-part series portraying people from various cultures reading books, capturing people from many cultures engrossed in the printed word. One of my favorites, especially that we’re in Season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is Brent Spiner reading on a staircase in LA. See his posts, “Fusion: The Synergy of Images and Words”: parts one and two.
• I read this post, “A Man of No Reputation,” talking about 7 foot 7 former Warrior Manute Bol and his commitment to Christ, and how he did all these different things after his NBA career for the sake of his native Sudan. From the Wall Street Journal article after his death in June at the age of 47, “Yet as Bol reminds us, the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering and humbling oneself. It leads to suffering and even death.”

“Jesus through his parables teaches that God’s dynamic reign has broken into human history through his person and ministry in a new and decisive way and that God intends to create a new community of his people who model, at least in part in the present, what God intends for all humanity and what he will one day perfectly create in a new age.”

Craig Blomberg, Neither Poverty Nor Riches, 113.

This sentence really struck me as I read it today, because I’ve always seen the parables as so counter-cultural, so upside-down, but the reality is that Jesus was talking about life as it’s supposed to be. God’s intended design.

I think there’s a lot of virtue in the “reuse” prong of the three R’s trio – reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s a value of mine that I think feeds directly into an ethos of sustainability and long-term viability. When there’s a chance to buy something used instead of new, I typically go for it. Here’s a couple shots from my test run yesterday. By the way, that shirt with the stripes on little m? Marcia made it, crafted from scraps harvested from a shirt purchased at our local Salvation Army Store. Used stuff is cool.

little m on a bench (San Francisco, CA). Nikon D200, 105mm f/2.5, 1/350s, f/2.5, ISO 200.

The 2 Clement (San Francisco, CA). Nikon D200, 105mm f/2.5, 1/2500s, f/2.5, ISO 100.

One of the key phrases that I dwelled on in my sermon was the section from Numbers 32:16-27. The tribes of Reuben and Gad saw some good land that fell short of the Promised Land, and decided it was sufficient for their people, and asked Moses if they could just chill east of the Jordan and be exempted from entering and conquering the land. Moses rebuked them, and they have a change of heart. In verse 17, they say, “we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place.” In that short sentence, there is a huge element of “taking a hit for the team.” First, when they say “ready to go before the people,” they are literally saying they are (1) eager and almost hurrying (“ready to go”), and (2) they are going to the front of the line (“before the people”), thus bearing the brunt of the casualties in battle. Second, they agree to go with every tribe “until we have brought them to their place,” meaning that they’ve changed their tune and instead of being the first to settle in, they’ll be the last of the twelve tribes to finally sit down. Another key component in Numbers 32 is the prevalence of the phrase before the Lord, meaning a holistic approach to life that submits everything to God. The question that I posed was this – What does it look like to go before the people and before the Lord?

I told one story of Maximilian Kolbe (that I heard about from a Michael Frost talk recently) as an example of someone who quite literally took a hit for the team, and in his case someone he didn’t even know. Paul in Philippians 2:3-4 says, “in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others,” and then gives the example of Jesus Christ as the pinnacle of he who truly and completely took a hit for the team of humanity on the cross. We were talking about a similar idea this last Sunday at our church in SF as we read through 1 Corinthians 4. There, Paul’s life as a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God formed the basis for a lifestyle that continually gave of himself for the benefit of those around him.

In the midst of such powerful, self-sacrificial examples, I think it’s also important for us also to think of examples that permeate our everyday life. In addition to “superman”-like examples, but ones that make an impact even in the seemingly mundane. As we walk into this posture of counting others more significant than ourselves in activities (usually involving a sacrifice of time or money) from big to small, I think there will be a cumulative, transformative effect on our lives. So here’s my first go at a list.

Simple ways to take a hit for the team in 2010

1. Providing a meal.
2. Giving someone a ride.
3. Recommending someone else for a paying gig.
4. Babysitting.
5. Fixing someone’s car.
6. Hosting.
7. Loaning stuff.

Feel free to add to the list.

• One: Baylight Church Community started a “Read the Bible in Two Years” thing over at the blog, and you can track the conversation in the comments or on the Facebook page. I think it’ll be a great season for the church.
• Two: Marcia wrote a great post about our journey to simplify. I’ll write more in the future too, but it’s been a great process for us.
• Three: Want some more free Kindle books? You can pick up some Devotions for Lent or a biography of John Newton for, that’s right, zero bucks. And remember, there’s a Kindle reader for Windows, the iPhone/iPod Touch, or the Blackberry, so you don’t even have to have a Kindle!
• Four: We now watch a fair bit of Sesame Street. Plus, Muppets are cool. So check out this awesome interactive page on the various Muppets over the years. I never knew Elmo was three and a half. So articulate!

Peace.

Another, perhaps more powerful, set of examples is this – Marcia and I were recently talking about examples of people who left behind their respected positions in their home countries to come to the United States in the hope of creating a better opportunity for the next generation. A doctor in her home country becoming a part-time language teacher here. A policeman in his home country becoming a custodian here. An engineer in his home country becoming a store operator here. In any of these cases, a certain amount of sacrifice happened with their arrival in the States. Years of training set aside. More years of experience (from a career perspective) placed down for the sake of the next generation. That takes courage and love.

Reminds me of the ancient Israelites. Abraham lifted up his family to travel hundreds of miles to place he never knew on God’s Word that he would multiply his descendants like the stars. Moses, Aaron, and his generation did some heavy lifting getting the people out of slavery in Egypt, following that promise, only to get to the edge of the land God gave to them, never to enter it. It was Joshua’s generation that made it into the promised land, and even they didn’t see the full realization of what God had in store. Interestingly, the initial set of commands given to Joshua speak of legacy code, in a sense. Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Throughout the Old Testament, one of the repeated themes is that of remembering. These Israelites were never supposed to forget where they came from, what God did for them, and what God said to them. I can’t help but also think of them telling stories of past mistakes too. Legacy Code, B.C. style.

Just last month I finished an intensive study on 2 Timothy 2:1-13, looking in depth at the sense of legacy that Paul sought to pass on to the next generation of Christians in the first century. I’ll write more on it later, but one of the particularly interesting things about 2 Timothy is that it’s Paul’s last letter, and you catch a glimpse of what’s near and dear to his heart by examining it. He had many ambitions, some realized, many not. Yet his legacy lives on in his writings and teachings, carried along by the Spirit. I think I’m starting to get why history is so important. It’s not only the study of it and gleaning principles and lessons from the past, but the very fact that those that have gone before us have paved the way and opened up new opportunities for us that God is waiting for us to walk into. What will we leave for the next generation? We may never know, but I’d sure like to do whatever my part is to help create something better.

• One: Daniel Curran writes about end-vision, “Any church-planting or missions movement that does not begin and end with Jesus’ beautiful vision of truly ‘discipling all peoples’ (Matthew 28: 16-20) is not worthy of Jesus.” He’s got some really good thoughts in there, check it out.
• Two: Got a new year’s resolution to volunteer more?  My friends over at the Page Street Center could always use a hand.  They run a food pantry on Monday afternoons that I’ve gotten to be a part of, and some other programs throughout the week.
• Three: Digital trends for the future – Christmas Day marked the first time ever that digital books outsold printed books at amazon.com. While there’s some logic to that (i.e., someone getting a Kindle as a present), it is interesting to see how digital media shifts how people live. That said, sometimes it’s just nice to have a physical, printed book in your hands as you read.
• Four: Speaking of digital, I’ve been taking notes on a computer for quite some time now, and I’m giving Evernote a go again in an attempt to collect all these ideas in my head in one place.  Plus, it syncs with multiple computers and devices (and it’s accessible on the web).  It’s free, so give it a try if you’re in the same boat.
• Five: Finally, in the midst of uncertainty and a constantly changing environment, there’s a solid rock that never fails. God reminded me of that this week as I read through Luke 12. Jesus starts in Luke 12:22-23, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” The bookend in Luke 12:33-34 is this: “Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Blessings to you as you kick off the new year.

One of the interesting things about the first-century city of Corinth is that it was known for being a place where status mattered based on who people knew, not unlike the world we live in today. In fact, people were known for “buying” friends so that they could appear more important to the rest of society. Today, our world tells us that happiness can be bought, for the right price. I was particularly struck by this when a friend pointed us to The Story of Stuff, which is a clever video that demonstrates how consumerism has infested how we think about almost everything. Think about it:

• Black Friday is one of the most anticipated days of the fall.
• When a new _____ (fill in the blank) comes out, we’re convinced that our old _____ is obsolete.
• In Christian circles we have a term called “church-shopping.”

All of this drives us to believe that if we can just get the next thing that fits our perceived needs, we’ll be satisfied. I’m not immune to this. People in college used to connect me to the expressions, “I can’t stop eating,” and “Buy more, save more.” Now I would say things partially in jest, but I think part of it pointed to an inner reality that accumulation of things – objects, food, friends, or status symbols (think college degrees or that cool job) – would lead to an inner joy. But it never does.

The cross tells us a different story. Where consumerism asks the question what can I buy?, the cross gives the answer: you’ve been bought. A big part of what I’ve been learning is that spiritual vitality is deeply intertwined with sustainable living. That means physical, emotional, and spiritual sustainability. Now, consumerism constantly feeds our addiction to accumulate more for ourselves in order to fulfill our longing for satisfaction, propelling us into an unsustainable cycle – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – that will only leave us high and dry in the end. The gospel, on the other hand, points us to the sustainable source of unending joy – Jesus Christ himself. If our complete hope and identity is built on the cross, then what emerges out of that is sustainable living, and hence, spiritual vitality. It can’t be built in the other direction: seeking certain types of output and hoping that it fills our core need won’t work.

That’s what we want to be a part of building here in the city: sustainable life patterns that find their root in the gospel and sprout healthy, joy-filled, vibrant living. Everything that we do, all our decisions, all our spending patterns, are fed through the matrix of the gospel. I’m in. What do you say?

*Here’s a preview of that video, by the way. I’d highly recommend watching it.