Acts 4:32-35
Easter 2 - Year B
Friends are private places safe from harm where privacy of self is not a main value. Friends are in life with us, heart and soul. Friendship is the oneness promised in the Shema – Hear this, God is a Friend – and affirmed by Jesus – I call you Friends, not servants.
Where do you travel when there is amazing news to tell? A sorrow too deep for the keeping? To someone, somewhere, where sharing is honorable! where mutual sharing is a joy!
When who-bodies and where-places give evidence of this sort of welcome and hospitality we might say a resurrection has occurred. Hie thee hence!
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
There are those who consider the journey toward divinization beyond human capability. Though I am uncertain where else a journey toward "perfection" might lead. If you are one who is not out to outdo what Jesus did (a limitation on the WWJD approach that tends to keep us repeating good things without going on to better things) it might still be possible to model yourself after Barnabas and model what it really means to commit yourself, heart and body and soul, to the community. What won't you give to make your congregation better? What will you reserve for yourself?
This has tremendous ramifications not only for going beyond tithing but for paying more taxes than you need to. When we were war tax resisters we basically double tithed as we gave away a percentage of our taxes that were unbalanced toward common defense issues and away from general welfare issues. The tax penalties meant we also gave more to our local community. And yet we thrived because it brought meaning to our life far beyond the loss of financial resources.
What would it mean for you to so much a part of your various communities that the issue was not what was an equitable amount to give, but how can I keep from committing everything to the community and those live in joyful freedom from the minimal greed built into our excuses for survival?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html
The shared wealth (commonwealth) was distributed to each as any had need.
What a hoot! In our current state of capitalism this is the greatest of laughers. What could possibly be any more laughable a concept?
Even though it can make a lot of sense it isn't within the arena of conversation. Taxes and tithes must be lowered (its a meme, a mantra). What we consider our part of the commonwealth must become smaller and smaller. Any surprise that our commonwealth of politeness, of mutual care, of inclusion of the weakest and the strangest is correspondingly smaller? Nope.
Some economy jokes: Remember, they reveal something about ourselves and are not just about others.
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"Democrats were quick to point out that President Bush's budget creates a 1 trillion dollar deficit. The White House quickly responded with 'Hey, look over there, it's Saddam Hussein.'" —Craig Kilborn
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"President Bush says he has just one question for the American voters, 'Is the rich person you're working for better off now than they were four years ago?'" —Jay Leno
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"President Bush unveiled his new economic stimulus plan this week. It was reported that if the plan passes the president himself would save $44,000 in taxes, Dick Cheney would save $327,000, and you could afford to take the whole family down to Burger King to pick up job applications." —Tina Fey, on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update"
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"Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he is going to ask President Bush for help with the budget. What better way to deal with a $38 billion deficit than get advice from a guy that created a $450 billion deficit." —Jay Leno
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"President Bush's economic plan will create 2.5 million new jobs. The bad news, they are all for Iraqi soldiers." —Craig Kilborn
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A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.
The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly."
Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."
Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?"
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TOP 10 REASONS TO STUDY ECONOMICS
- Economists are armed and dangerous: "Watch out for our invisible hands."
- Economists can supply it on demand.
- You can talk about money without every having to make any.\
- You get to say "trickle down" with a straight face.
- Mick Jagger and Arnold Schwarzenegger both studied economics and look how they turned out.
- When you are in the unemployment line, at least you will know why you are there.
- If you rearrange the letters in "ECONOMICS", you get "COMIC NOSE".
- Although ethics teaches that virtue is its own reward, in economics we get taught that reward is its own virtue.
- When you get drunk, you can tell everyone that you are just researching the law of diminishing marginal utility.
- When you call 1-900-LUV-ECON and get Kandi Keynes, you will have something to talk about.
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An economist is a trained professional paid to guess wrong about the economy. An econometrician is a trained professional paid to use computers to guess wrong about the economy.
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Talk is cheap. Supply exceeds Demand.
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I asked an economist for her phone number....and she gave me an estimate.
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Q: How many economists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Eight. One to screw it in and seven to hold everything else constant.
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An economist is someone who gets rich explaining others why they are poor.
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Economic forecasters assume everything, except responsibility.
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An economist returns to visit his old school. He's interested in the current exam questions and asks his old professor to show some. To his surprise they are exactly the same ones to which he had answered 10 years ago! When he asks about this the professor answers: "the questions are always the same - only the answers change!"
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An economist is someone who sees something working in practice and asks whether it would work in principle.
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Q: How many economists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Hell, you need a whole department of them just to prepare the research grant.
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They say that Christopher Columbus was the first economist. When he left to discover America, he didn't know where he was going. When he got there he didn't know where he was. And it was all done on a government grant.
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Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, a practical economist, and an old drunk are walking down the street together when they simultaneously spot a hundred dollar bill. Who gets it? The old drunk, of course, the other three are mythological creatures.
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A Harvard economist had a summer house in the Maine woods. Each summer he'd invite a different friend (no, that's not the punch line) to spend a week or two.
On one occasion, he invited a Czechoslovakian to stay with him. They had a splendid time in the country - rising early and living in the great outdoors. Early one morning they went out to pick berries for their morning breakfast.
As they went around the berry patch along came two huge bears. The economist dashed for cover. His friend wasn't so lucky and the male bear reached him and swallowed him whole.
The economist ran back to his car, drove to town as fast has he could, and got the sheriff. The sheriff grabbed his rifle and dashed back to the berry patch with the economist.
Sure enough, both bears were still there.
"He's in THAT one!" cried the economist, pointing to the male.
The sheriff looked at the bears, and without batting an eye, leveled his gun, took careful aim, and SHOT THE FEMALE.
"Whatd'ya do that for?!" exclaimed the economist, "I said he was in the other!"
"Yep," said the sheriff, "and would YOU believe a economist who told you that the Czech was in the Male?"
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
"Now the whole group" - "when kindred live together" - "that you also will have fellowship with us". These phrases set a tone of what it means to be joined in joy.
A test comes someone is not part of our gathering when a very specific and important event happens. Regardless of the reason they are not present, they are not present. In their absence comes a revelation that could very well drive a wedge between the true experiencers and those without that experience. And so Thomas' story is an important witness of continued openness. Thomas was still welcome even without a corroborating experience. Fortunately he received one. That helps a lot in binding a community together. But, and this is significant, unanimity is not foundational to community.
The downside is that there are expectations set up that folks will be required to come to believe in the same dramatic way as did those who experienced a risen Christ Jesus in this cell. We, to this day, separate folks out according to their experience of faith and their differences from the majority or the powerful. If they measure up, they're welcome. So Thomas' story is used to convince people that they cannot be different (doubt) because that would bar them from fellowship in an already together group.
Thomas is laughed at rather than revealing how laughable are our restrictive standards.
Remember that Thomas was with those who had already experienced a resurrection. Use this as an inclusive evangelistic witness for inviting "others" to be present. This will offset the temptation to have the un-experienced set aside until they measure up. If a community is not focused on key words in the opening phrases: "whole", "live", and "also" it has learned the smaller lesson and missed the larger.
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revelation is not theory
it is experience-able
with eye and hand
with kindred and enemies
with ancestors and descendants
with light and dark
with male and female
with all orientations
with slave and free
with all economies
with self and others
revelation is not unique
revelation is not eternal
revelation is not owned
revelation is invitational
revelation is expansive
revelation is prophetic
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
When we are together, but fearful, we are not together.
When we are together, under a word of “Peace”, we are of one heart and soul. Our possessions are each others. Common good means both “common” and “good”.
This is a sign of the resurrection - that the last word to the disciples has become real - “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Resurrection opens our eyes to need, beyond want, and addresses need directly. When resurrection is only a concept, but not a reality, we find all manner of means to cover “need” with “want” and it turns out that my want always trumps your need.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/04/acts-432-35.html