Happy Easter! Throughout the season of resurrection we’re invited to remember the angel’s words from Mark’s gospel: Jesus was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. Go and see.
We begin a new worship series this Sunday in which we will explore faith and finances. The series will be rooted in Acts and in a sermon called “The Use of Money” by John Wesley. Wesley writes, Having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then give all you can. Here is a link to the full text of his sermon.
For the early church depicted in the book of Acts, the resurrection of Christ is less a creedal article of individual faith and hope than a creative force of community formation and fellowship. We’ll focus this series on Acts 4.32.-35 each week along with other selections from scripture and Wesley’s sermon. We’ll ask: How did Christ’s resurrection motivate such a unified, generous community in Acts? Or, conversely, how did the practice of communal goods inform the early church’s understanding of the living Christ? What might the Acts community have to teach us today about faith & finances?
We have complicated relationships to money. It’s hard for most folks to talk about money. How were you taught to view money by your family? What experiences have been most formative in shaping your own relationship to money?
What might it have meant for the people living in the community described in Acts to gain all they could?
John Wesley encouraged his followers to: Gain all you can. What feelings come up for you when you hear this? What concerns? What hopes?
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