Quick Summary:

This Sunday we catch the aroma of early Christian community life in ACTS. How realistic is Luke's report? Without the letters of Paul, we might conclude that every early Christian community functioned with harmony and generosity abounding. But with the letters of Paul we know the situation on the ground in a number of the congregations he planted was much more complicated and conflicted.

We are prone to look at the past with a nostalgic eye. What we know from our individual experience as a congregation as we approach our 75th anniversary that things weren't always ideal. But even if Acts 2 represents more an ideal picture of the early church rather than the real church with all its messiness and complications, it still gives us a pattern that can sustain us, and a vision to aim for. The Good Shepherd continually calls us to step through the gate and to embrace the abundant life he offers.