Every Day

“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:46, 47

I am about to go home and sit down to a marvelous Thanksgiving feast prepared by my wife and daughter. The last few years it has been just “we three” for the November holiday. We have two grown sons; one lives with his wife in Minneapolis along with our 4 year old granddaughter, and the other is in Guatemala finishing his last year with the Peace Corps. Normally we would invite a handful of people who have nowhere else to go, but my headaches are only exacerbated by adding more people to the mix.

Our daughter is going to volunteer at the Portland Rescue Mission at least once over the holidays. Our younger son has made volunteering and giving himself to the poor a habit as well during the same time. Our church, small as it is, delivered 10 – 12 food boxes to the less fortunate in our community.

But these bits of sharing are a far cry from how the early church is described in the first few chapters of Acts. They met daily in the temple courts. They couldn’t even consider letting a day go by without being with fellow followers of the Way. Why, in our present western culture, is trying to persuade people to come together at least once a week such a struggle? From the early days when I started following Jesus (1972), I couldn’t wait to get to the Thursday night bible study held by adults in Walnut Creek, CA, and a Saturday gathering at the Youth for Christ building on Saturday Mornings. We also gathered at a dear Scottish woman’s home where, without our knowledge, once met us all with towel and basin to wash our feet. We went out to eat together, drove to concerts in Oakland together, and formed impromptu bands to sing the songs we felt God was giving us. There was nothing better than hanging out with each other. It makes me weep when people “have no time” to meet with other believers more than once a week.

But it wasn’t just about the number of times they met. They “broke bread”, or had meals together. In that time, to break bread with someone was the same as calling them your best friend. Notice how Luke describes them, eating with “glad and sincere hearts.” When I found Christ I was born into a time when people were saying “yes” to Jesus all over the country. Some of us needed to find other believers to hang out with; we were so hungry to understand more about Jesus. Others found the hunger for sincere relationships filled by the sincere love shown by those we related to. If we were going to a concert and someone couldn’t afford a ticket, it didn’t matter, somehow the ticket got bought!

It says they “enjoyed the favor of God.” I believe the things they were doing were the very reason God favored them. They weren’t keeping this new-found faith to themselves. They were humble and loving. They didn’t try to open up big-name ministries to pad their pockets with the spare change of the naïve believers. (Although, that would begin, not many years later.) At least, for the group I was thrust into, it was more about loving each other, being true to each other, and helping every time we had a chance. We were young men and women (18-30), and young in the faith (many of us having come to Christ within the previous 2-10 years. We couldn’t afford any pride.

But somehow, like the gravity from a stronger planet, I got towed into the mainstream of Christianity. (This is not meant to find fault; I hope, anyway). I got credentials with a denomination, tithed to my district, filled out forms annually, and occasionally met with other men and women within my denomination. But, it all felt different than those first few years when I started following Jesus.

I have a last chance. I now sere a small church in Southwestern Washington. We are settled right up to the banks of the Columbia River and about 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. I’m not sure all the mechanics that will help bring the change, but I would like to have an atmosphere that is conducive to what I experienced then.

And, yes, I understand the dangers of nostalgia. I’ve gone over that in my mind, over and over it; but this is not simply nostalgia. This is the cry of my heart for a group of people so in love with Christ and with each other that getting together is not a struggle, it is a delight.

One year ago I started a group called “Pop with Pastor.” I show up and our local restaurant, Sharon’s, and any young people (7 – 12^th grade) who want to join me are welcome. I buy pop for anyone who shows up. At first we had four or five, and they were pretty unruly, to tell you the truth. I found myself wanting to call it off more times than not.

But recently something has changed. If I’m just a tiny bit late, Mariah, an eighth grader, runs up the street to the church to drag me to Sharon’s. We have had 7 to 10 young people, and, though they aren’t delving into the depths of theology, they are willing to discuss some “Jesus-style” issues. Last week one of our kids suffered some bullying and we talked about how to handle it the way Jesus asks us to.

I do want the sort of relationships that are just like Luke described in this verse; loving to get together (and, yes, they had difficult work schedules), sharing meals together (my guess it, without microwaves, that was quite a commitment), having glad and sincere hearts (the human heart has not changed, though we Americans have become a great bit shallow), learning to praise God together and having the grace of God’s people. Pop with Pastor is being talked about by adults who are entirely unrelated to either our church or the students who attend. They just think it’s unbelievable that teenagers would want to hang with a pastor every week (and so do I!).

The last portion of Luke’s scripture says that the Lord added daily the number who were being saved. Why not? Here were people who were loving each other, who couldn’t help wanting to hang out with each other, and praised God all the time. I think He felt He could trust them with an influx of new believers.

I don’t know what it would look like in your situation. But I am starved for the “day to day” getting together this describes. I am so weary of shallow talk that is limited to what pains we have or how school or work was this week. I want to be able to say, “I’m having a terrible time really understanding these headaches.” And, I want to share it without anyone offering an instant cure, a story about their uncle who ate garlic for a year, or any other goofy cure. I want God’s people who have learned to be empathetic with each other, and have learned to pray from exactly that point of compassion.

Maybe, on this Thanksgiving, this will encourage you to think about ways to increase the commitment to regularly meet with God’s people. It can only do us good!