Baptized into Community -- Acts 2:42-47; 9:36-4;16:11-15 (6th Sunday of Easter)

Photo credit: Vonecia Carswell, used with permission via Unsplash

The month of May has given us this amazing opportunity to celebrate two baptisms, and to spend some good and spacious time thinking about baptism. Two weeks ago, we baptized Rylee Perez, and today we will baptize Lindsey Huebner – welcoming them both into the embrace of community. When we baptized Rylee, we considered the expansive grace of baptism – how God’s love is for everybody and for all creation, no exceptions.  Last Sunday, we thought some about the steady work that flows out of our baptism – how we find ways to live lives that lift up those who have been held low, and that build a world filled with justice, love, and tender mercy.

Today, we’re going to think about how we are “baptized into community.” And to do that, we’re going to look at 3 glimpses of community from those very first days when folks were trying to follow the Way of Jesus just after Resurrection and Pentecost – when everything was bewildering, and fresh, and full of more life than we had ever imagined. We’ll turn to the Book of Acts to find those stories, and I’m going to invite us to think of the Book of Acts as a family photo album – with snapshots of what life was like in those early days.[1]

The first snapshot of community, from Acts 2:42-47, comes right after Pentecost, when the Spirit was on the move:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And God added to their number daily those who were being saved. 

When I first encountered this glimpse of community, I thought it was too good to be true. I mean, it feels a little too lovely to be real – especially that part about where they owned everything together, and sold what they had to give those in need. But now – a couple decades older – I read that, and think, “Why not?” For folks who have experienced something like Resurrection – life beyond what we had ever imagined – love more powerful than any power even death – couldn’t it be that their overwhelming instinct was to share... everything... every bit of life.

And so they were all together, living life together – sharing prayer, and worship, and meals – everyone with enough bread to eat – no one going hungry. They saw things differently – they saw things as a good gift to be shared – so that everyone might have enough. That’s the way it works, if I’m sharing with you, and you’re sharing with me, and we’re all sharing with each other. I mean, that is what we teach our children.  And they gather in their homes together, with glad and sincere hearts.

What we glimpse here is a community that embodies mutuality and sharing. It’s not like the world of empire – that sees everything as scarce – and so we gobble up and hoard what we can. Life is abundant – a gift to be shared and celebrated. And folks kept coming – wave upon wave – to be baptized... into community like that.

Our second glimpse of community comes a little later in the Book of Acts, as we come upon a community of widows that is grieving the illness and then death of someone they love – Tabitha, who has been living out this life of mutuality and sharing.

The second snapshot comes from Acts 9:36-42:

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Tabitha had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.           

In this second snapshot, we meet Tabitha – one of the only women in Scripture called a “disciple” and this community of widows she serves –it’s a snapshot and a story with Resurrection in the room. Now the most obvious Resurrection in the room is that Peter raises Tabitha from death to life. But I think that Resurrection life is there in that room even before that. It’s there in that moment when the widows crowd around Peter with all the clothes that Tabitha has made for them: “See these clothes she made for us.” That’s where Tabitha and these widows come to life – in the experience of caring for each other – tending to human need. What we see is a community embodying and overflowing with tender mercy.

Our next snapshot of community comes from Acts 16:11-15 – The Apostle Paul is on the road, and hears a call to go into a new continent and meet the community he finds there:

11 From Troas we put out to sea and ... traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. God opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she prevailed upon us.     

Do you notice anything about the communities that we glimpsed in those second and third snapshots – Tabitha’s and Lydia’s communities?

That’s right. They are communities of women. And that’s important to say because, remember, theirs is a patriarchal world. In a world of patriarchy, and power-over, we (with Paul) find a community peopled by and led by women – led by Lydia, this dealer in purple cloth. Lydia is forMIdable. Lydia is a business woman in her own right. She is a wealthy woman. She is the head of her own household.

And yet, Paul finds Lydia and her household – this community of women praying – out on the margins – outside the city, outside the circles of power. Notice this conversation and how it transcends every boundary that should keep Paul and Lydia apart. He is a man; she is a woman. They wouldn’t have conversed like this in public. She is a Gentile; he is Jewish. She is wealthy; he is... not.

And yet here they are, each in their own way seeking, and they talk. The Apostle shares the good news. Lydia and her household are baptized. And Lydia invites Paul and his companions into her home. She prevails upon him. Lydia’s in charge; she is the head of the household; she is the host, Paul is her guest. No boundaries, no separation – one community gathered in one household, at one table – everyone welcome.

We may be drawn to these snapshots at first by their warmth and hospitality. They are lovely. But look more closely. Listen to the liveliness of the conversation. Watch how folks are coming to life.

These snapshots remind us that we are baptized into community – but not only that – they show us that we are baptized into counter-cultural community. Radically counter-cultural community.

We know what dominant culture looks like. We know it in our world– a dominant culture driven by scarcity where folks feel compelled to gather and hoard all that they can – because we convince ourselves there is not enough. And so some will win, and some will lose. Some will prosper, while others suffer. The rich will get richer and the poor and everyone else will hurt even more. We know and see dominant culture where Congress passes a Bill that gives even more tax cuts to the rich – giving them more wealth – by cutting healthcare to the poor and the most vulnerable – all in a Bill that dominant culture dares to call “Beautiful.”

We are baptized into a community whose values are radically different from that.

We are baptized into a community grounded in the values of mutuality and sharing – Acts 2 – where folks share what they have, and tend to those in need. Where we gather at table, working to make sure that no one goes hungry. Where we have a community fridge where 24/7 folks leave what they can, so that others can come and find what they need.

Dominant culture is defined by dominance – by power-over. We see that in our day, lived out in bullying, and fear-mongering, and violence.

We are baptized into counter-cultural community shaped by care for the vulnerable – by power-with and power-for – Tabitha making clothes for her widows. Here, maybe it looks more like prayer shawls and quilts – or meals for those who are ill – community characterized not by domination, but by deacon-ing. Speaking up not only for those suffering nearby, but those around the world – speaking up and out for the people of Gaza as they are being starved, cut off from food and medical supplies.

Dominant culture creates an isolating world that fears the stranger. The stranger in our midst is driven out – deported to countries not their own – sent to distant prisons, perhaps for life, without due process. The dominant culture thrives on radical inhospitality – takes pleasure in it.

We are baptized into a community committed to radical hospitality – where there is no boundary or separation. No us or them. Where God’s love is for everyone – God’s justice and abundance as well.

Dominant culture demonizes values like that – inclusion, equity. Dominant culture seeks to erase all that – including its own history of wrongdoing.

We are baptized into a community where everyone belongs -- where we are committed to telling truth about systems that oppress – including our own participation – so that we and the world – by God’s grace – might change.

We are baptized into community, but not just that, we are baptized into counter-cultural community shaped by the values we experience in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ – into community embodying God’s love for all the world in... the Body of Christ. And in the Body of Christ, God is bringing the world to life – creating a radically different, counter-cultural community. We don’t need to look far to see it.

Look around for just a moment. This is the Body of Christ.

Take a moment and breathe, as we do here. Breathe in. Breathe out. This is the breath of the Body of Christ.

If you want, listen for your own heartbeat. That is the pulse of the Body of Christ, coming to life right here and right now – God, in Christ, in us, and all creation – turning the world rightside up.

© 2025 Scott Clark

[1] For background on the Book of Acts and these “snapshot” Scriptures, see Marianne Blickenstaff, Commentary in Connections, Year C, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), pp.235-36, 268-70; Gary W. Charles, Commentary in Connections, Year C, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), pp.233-35, 266-68; Justo L. González, Acts (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001); Robert W. Wall, “The Acts of the Apostles,” New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary, vol. x (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002).