Of One Heart and Soul

The Famous Flower of Manhattan. It’s one of my favorite songs by a band called the Avett Brothers. I love this song because it’s pure poetry and it tells a story. It’s the story of a person walking through the fields of Manhattan, the fields of cars and people, rows of concrete, paint, and steel and this person comes upon a flower growing up through it all.

After spotting this seemingly misplaced flower, this person’s first thought is “to cut it from its stem and take it from the cracks between bricks that it lay in and save it from city strife.” But, before such a travesty could happen, someone whispers in this person’s ear, “Don't touch it, it loves you not.”

The lyrics of the song go on to say, “Cause blue birds, Don't fly without their wings, And when we put them in a cage, The world can't hear them sing, So selfish when greed sets in, Possession, the king of sin” So this person leaves this flower be, and then sees the flower on cable TV and this person says, “Much prettier than here with me. For all of the world to see.”

This song’s story is so compelling to me because it is even more than a song or a story, it's an allegory for life.

It speaks to a more eternal truth, that the more we try and possess something just for ourselves, removing it from the public to enjoy, we end up caging it, stifling it’s full potential for beauty by holding it back from being whole and free.

But we justify why we should possess things, like the person in the song says, I can save it, or we tell ourselves that private property is necessary because we innately take better care of our things when we privately own them. And maybe there is some truth to that. But, then again there’s also evidence that when we take private possession of things, we desecrate them.

I think about this any time a new area of public land is purchased and developed. Sure, it’s legal, and private property in our legal system is often regarded more highly than human life, but our own St. Paul in First Corinthians tells us, ““All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.”

In our first reading today from Acts 4 we have a vision of one of the first Christian communities. It says, “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”

This is a model of what it looks like to build one another up, but I feel a knee jerk reaction in myself to just disregard this as an unrealistic utopia that would never actually work in the real world. Like Thomas, I hear my inner monologue saying, “Yeah right, I’ll believe it when I see it. Like, I’ll sell all my possessions and give the proceeds to the community, but you first.”

But I think we shouldn’t be so quick to write this community off as though it were just an anomaly. In our very own city, we have a community of folks who strive to live this scripture out in the 21st century. They’re called Jesus People USA, or JPUSA as their also known, and they’re a community of 200 people living together in intentional community, sharing a 10-story building in Uptown. What makes their community radically different is that they practice what is called a common purse. Under this model, no one in their community gets paid directly for their work. Instead, the money earned from their mission businesses goes into a common purse from which their communal needs are covered. This ranges from toiletries and food to mortgage payments and utilities. On their website it says, “By combining our monetary resources into a common fund we are able to free individuals to give themselves wholly to the work of ministry and family life.”

This kind of model is amazing to consider. It simultaneously fills my mind with possibility, but I also feel the doubt in my mind grow. I almost feel like it’s easier to trust the resurrection of Jesus than my neighbor who might abuse or exploit a common purse to their own individual gain at the expense of the larger community. JPUSA recognizes the faith and trust that this model of community requires. They go on to say on their website, “In this act of trust and faith, Jesus People is able to take the resources we have and together do so much more for God than we could ever do alone.”

In our Psalm today it says, “How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.” First John appeals to the joy of the intimate fellowship we have in Christ writing, “We declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with Jesus Christ, the Son. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

Unity is good and pleasant, and in fellowship with one another and the triune God our joy may be complete. These scriptures support Acts 4. Specifically, that wholeness and freedom is achieved through a shared common good that builds up, not a fractured, competitive, everyone for themself system that breaks down.

These scriptures and even our Gospel reading today call into question whether or not we can or should even possess that what we can touch and hold in our hands. When Jesus appears to the disciples and Thomas is somehow not there, Jesus ends up coming back a week later and Thomas is then invited by Jesus to put his finger inside the wounds on Jesus’ hands and side. But even though Thomas is invited to experience this intimate moment with Jesus, Thomas does not somehow privately possess Jesus.

Jesus cannot be personally commodified and possessed. Jesus died and rose again to free us all and to make the whole world whole again. Try as we may to keep Jesus in our pocket for our own personal use, Jesus’s peace and breath of the Holy Spirit rests on us all equally and abundantly.

Like Thomas we may have our doubts about whether or not we can actually trust our neighbors enough to hold our possessions in common, but this whole world is created by God and we are simply stewards of it, so can we even claim private ownership of property knowing who the source of all things is and who our things actually belong to?

I preach this sermon knowing that it’s likely none of us will leave service today and start selling off our stuff. But maybe today’s scriptures challenged you as they did me. In our hymn of the day that we are about to sing, we will proclaim the words, “Christ has risen and forever lives to challenge and to change all whose lives are messed or mangled.”

Looking around, it's easy to see where our personal and communal lives are messed and mangled, and that might cause us to fear and to double down on our self-preserving ways, but the challenge of the risen Christ today is to consider what is even ours to possess and steward and what is best held in common. Like the Famous Flower of Manhattan, some things are best left untouched, undisturbed for all the world to see. The same is true of Jesus’ resurrected body, it is something we are invited, like Thomas, to touch, see, and experience, but never to privately possess. For as Jesus was sent to us to share his peace and Holy Spirit with us, we too are sent to share ourselves and the spirit of the living God with others. That is to live as the people of Easter. To trust, to share, and to experience the good, pleasant, and complete joy that is built up when we are of one heart and soul. Alleluia! Amen