What I’m Reading Today: Acts 1-2
During the recent debate on the health care, I found it fascinating how quickly some opponents of the bill were to throw around the word “socialism”. They acted as if that word represented everything that was opposed to what we as a people stood for. There were many folks in this camp who publically identified themselves as Christians.
Whenever that happened, I found myself smiling and wondering, “Do those people REALLY understand the values the early Christian community stood for?”
And what were some of those values?
Well, today’s reading gives us a great picture of some of those values. “And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony,” the author(s) wrote, “holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned,” the author(s) continued, “and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.”
Doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement of the values we would associate with capitalism.
Reading those words reminds me just how counter-cultural our Christian faith really is! The vision embraced by those early followers of Jesus was egalitarian in ways that many of us modern folks can’t even begin to understand.
Today I would invite you to explore your perceptions of the world Jesus calls us to create. As you flesh out those perceptions, I would encourage you to begin to take small steps that might move the world – or at least your corner of the world - in that direction.
Til next time…
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