Presence Weekly 8/26/2024 - Maintaining Unity Through Service

Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Acts 6:1-7

Unity is hard to maintain. Speaking more culturally, as James Davison Hunter points out in his latest book, “Democracy and Solidarity,” keeping the Unum in E Pluribus Unum is not easy. The increased growth and diversity of the United States in the past 250 years has undoubtedly placed increased pressure on unity. Many factors are working against it: socio-economic, ideological, racial, cultural, and personality differences are just a few factors driving disunity. 

The increasing disunity in our country is palpable and concerning. However, there are other places where growth and diversity have a negative impact. The church’s disunity affects our ability to carry out our mission (evangelism) – to spread the Word of God, make disciples of all nations, and proclaim the gospel to all peoples. To remain an evangelical church, we must maintain unity. In this passage, we see the church facing a test of unity. 

The Book of Acts starts with the church, which is still very young. Christ, their leader, has been crucified, risen, and then ascended to the Father’s right hand, leaving the church to the hands of the Apostles. In John 20, the followers of Christ had been together, locked in a room, when Jesus appeared to them. Later, we read in Acts 1 that the church in Jerusalem had about 120 people. On the day of Pentecost, the church there had exploded to over 3,000. At the end of Acts 2, we are told that “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” After the healing of the beggar and Peter's speech in Solomon’s portico, the Lord added another 5,000 men – so the church in Jerusalem, in a short period of time, had blossomed to over 10,000. And in 5:18, we are told that “more than ever the believers were to the Lord, multitudes of men and women.” This was all before the Gentiles started converting! 

So, the church is doing what the Lord had called them to do, to “be sent as He was sent.” to “preach the gospel, baptize in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The church was growing, and as it grew, it faced obstacles: persecution from the Jews, selfishness and lying from within, and now it would face its biggest challenge: maintaining its unity in the face of its growth and diversity.

We know that unity is essential because Luke has repeatedly stressed it. In Acts 2:44, scripture says, “they had all things in common,” and in Acts 4:32, Luke records that “the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.” Then, we come to the passage at hand. A passage in which we see the opportunity for the church to fracture amid its growth, and we ask ourselves, “Will the church be able to maintain its unity?” 

Over the next few weeks, we will focus on three keys to maintaining that unity, which allows the church to fulfill its missional purpose: first, the church must practice service; second, the church must display character; and third, the church must embrace diversity.

Practicing Service

Verse 1 reveals that there is a complaint in the church regarding the daily distribution: there is a group of widows who are not getting their food. This is a problem! The care of widows had a central place in the ethics of the Jews. If the “new” religion cannot meet the needs of the widows, it will discredit itself before it even gets off the ground. So what are they to do?

Imagine the situation - the twelve are preaching constantly in the temple and from house to house (Acts 5:42). They have a church that is probably approaching 20,000. They realize they must devote themselves to the ministry of the Word – “it is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables.” This point is stressed again in verse 4, “but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” Scripture says, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The church has to be fed, but the church also has to eat. The church requires two types of service: the Service of the Word and the service of tables. In other words, acts of spiritual service and acts of physical service. 

There is no doubt that the Apostles are meeting the spiritual needs of the church. But the physical needs of the “most needy” are not being met. The tension in the church builds. The word in Greek for complaint in verse 1 has a sense of murmuring or grumbling. Everybody loves a church with excellent preaching and teaching; subsequent growth is usually a sign of health. But, according to Luke, one of the corollary missions of the church is to meet the needs of the needy. And so here is the rub. As the church grows, it must fully accomplish its mission of evangelism - proclaiming the fullness of the good news. But, to do that, it must stay united. Therefore, it must meet not only the spiritual needs of the body but the physical needs as well.

Truncated Views of Physical Service

In an age where many of the social and economic justice concerns of the general public have been primarily surrendered to the agencies of government, the role of the church in acts of physical service has been culturally redefined as only including care of the homeless, poor, immigrants, or recently incarcerated. That is a grossly truncated view. 

This incomplete view of physical service also comes from those inside the church. Those who stand regularly in the pulpit are commonly called ministers. But that is not the most helpful designation. In this passage, the word for ministry is used for both the Service of the Word and the service of tables. Some of you may not see yourselves as valuable to the church (or its mission) because you only “work in the nursery,” “help out in worship,” or “in a mercy ministry.” Outside the church, all you do is “manage an office,” “lobby for legislation,” or “code software.” 

But the full mission of the church in evangelism fails without you and your acts of physical service. God has gifted you to serve the body and to help keep the body united. Without your acts of physical service, the church cannot move forward, and we cannot accomplish our mission, which is supposed to unite us. 

The New Testament provides three major lists of gifts: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. Each of these passages speaks of acts of service or mercy, and each of them also talks about the unity of the church. Regardless of what your gifts are, you are essential to the church. I am not just talking about serving the needs of the local church because the church is just the mini-macro picture of unity. The church is the means through which God blesses the world. 

When we fracture and fight amongst ourselves, that disunity plays out in the public square. Church splits, which Paul excoriated in 1 Corinthians 1, are simply an insight into the larger church’s witness embedded in Senate offices, Cabinet agencies, think tanks, policy centers, and lobby groups. How can we expect unity in the public square when the church’s primary offering is factions and infighting?

The Recipients of Physical Service

If the church is united through acts of physical service, we should ask, “Physical service towards whom?” On Sunday mornings, we direct our acts of service in the nursery, the coffee preparation, the set-up, and tear-down, playing in worship, or talking with visitors. 

What about the rest of the week? 

The rest of the week, the church is scattered across the public square. Here, we are united through acts of physical service primarily to those outside the visible church. Yet, that service matters just as much as it does to those inside the church. During his earthly ministry, Jesus served thousands without any type of faith commitment. We learn from John 20 that Jesus intends to send us as the Father sent Him. That means we, too, must serve those without a faith commitment. 

Christians serving and leading in the public square are supposed to experience a sense of unity through providing for the needs of their neighbor. As Moses in Leviticus 19 and Christ in the Gospel made extremely clear, our neighbor is not just those like us but those different from and outside of us. As Christians, we are knit tighter into Christ, who is the head (Eph 4:15), through acts of service to our nation. That happens when we develop and implement a housing policy and access to Section 8, a land-use policy regarding irrigation, an energy policy regarding nuclear and solar energy, enhancements to the SNAP program (food Stamps), securing funding for a study on smelling Parkinson's before diagnosis (see below), or implementing a policy for improved reimbursement for doctors and nurses serving our veterans.

This is what Jesus meant when he said that he came not to be served but to serve.

Application questions

What role are you playing in acts of spiritual service at your church? What roles of physical service are you participating in?

What role are you playing in acts of spiritual service to those in your workplace? What roles of physical service are you participating in?

How might focusing on the unifying intention of your service improve your disposition at work?

How might “offering foretastes of the kingdom” bring opportunities to talk about the full intention of Christ in making all things new?

• Monday: Morning: 2 Kings 22, Ephesians 2:11-22, Psalm 119:105-144 // Evening: 2 Kings 23:1-20, John 6:1-21, Psalm 119:105-144
• Tuesday: Morning: 2 Kings 23:21-35, Ephesians 3, Psalm 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 // Evening: 2 Kings 23:36-24:17, John 6:22-40, Psalm 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125
• Wednesday: Morning: 2 Kings 24:18-25:7, Ephesians 4: 1-16, Psalm 132, 133, 134, 135 // Evening:2 Kings 25: 8-30, John 6:41-71, Psalm 132, 133, 134, 135
• Thursday: Morning: Jeremiah 19, Ephesians 4:17-30, Psalm 139, 140// Evening: Jeremiah 21:1-14, John 7:1-24, Psalm 139, 140
• Friday: Morning: Jeremiah 22-23:8, Ephesians 4:31-5:21, Psalm 144, 145, 146// Evening: Jeremiah 24, John 7:25-53, Psalm 144, 145, 146
• Saturday: Morning: Jeremiah 25:1-38, Ephesians 5:22-33, Psalm 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134 // Evening: Jeremiah 27:2-22, John 8:1-30, Psalm 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134
• Sunday: Morning: Ezekiel 11:14-20, Luke 7:36-8:3, Psalm 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 // Evening: Daniel 5, Matthew 7:1-14, Psalm 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• Cabinet Agency: The staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency that “regulates commercial nuclear power plants and other uses of nuclear materials, such as in nuclear medicine, through licensing, inspection, and enforcement of its requirements.”
• Think Tank, Lobby group, NGO: The Nuclear Energy Institute, which lobbies on behalf of new clean energy based on nuclear power, and The Sierra Club, which advocates for clean-energy options other than nuclear power.
• Weekly delegation: For the Congressional delegation of Florida. 
• News: For Hill staff who are gearing up for the return of Congressional members next week. For Congressional members splitting time between their Washington responsibilities and campaigning (425 House Members/ 33 Senators). For staff at the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) which recently sanctioned several companies, individuals, and vessels for their involvement in the shipment of Iranian commodities, including oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on behalf of the network of Iran-based, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
• Personal requests: For a couple preparing to return to the U.S. after a month abroad. For a couple preparing to move overseas. For a couple trying to get sleep with a new baby. For two people finishing their final week of work in Washington. For a couple searching for a house.

• Read this first —> BioLogos has a must-read overview of Dr. Francis Collins’s (NIH) keynote speech at their recent annual gathering, “Francis Collins on Truth, Science, Trust, and Faith.” The article includes links to his entire address, which is worth the investment. 
• Listen to this first —> The Daily has a fascinating audio journal on a woman who can smell Parkinson’s before symptoms appear and has the clinical studies to prove it! This has numerous medical diagnostic and healthcare implications. 
• Comment Magazine has a raw, insightful, and much-needed look into the fallen human psyche, how it relates to others, and its counter-intuitive redemptive value: “The Truth Will Lead You Home: Why do we cling to our denials, delusions, and deceits?”
• Providence Magazine has a read-worthy essay that looks at Stephen Wolfe’s recent provocative book, “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” through the lens of historic Byzantinianism. 
• Barna has an essay on the intersection of marriage, vocation, culture, and mission that asks, “Can Working Couples Have It All?”

• It’s August Recess in Washington, so most think tanks and policy centers are on break. Enjoy!
• Weekdays 12:00 - 1:00 pm, LIVE! CONCERT SERIES ON THE PLAZA at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center’s Wilson Plaza. On stage this week,
• • Mon. 8/26 - Wylder, Indie Folk
  • Tues. 8/27 - The Deni Starr Band, Classic Rock
  • Wed. 8/28 - Patrick Alban & Noche Latina, World Music
  • Thurs. 8/29 - Mark Kraemer, Saxophonist
  • Fri. 8/30 - DC Vybe, Go-Go
• The Chicago Cubs play the Washington Nationals Friday-Sunday
• The Virginia Scottish Games take place this weekend in The Plains, VA. 
• The National Symphony Orchestra's free annual Labor Day weekend concert returns to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Sunday, Sept. 1. The performance is free to attend, and tickets are not required. Seating is first-come, first-served.
• This weekend is the D.C. Jazz Fest at the Wharf.

Labor Day Getaway Weekend is coming! What will you do with that extra day to enjoy a last long summer weekend? If you plan to head out of Washington, you should put Berryville, VA, on your destination list. About an hour outside of D.C. is some small town, main street, American goodness, and hospitality. There are many “mom & pop” shops to visit and several splendid restaurants. 

Homespun is what you get if you cross a local farm to a local table initiative, with an ice cream shop, or with a diner that Anthony Bourdain would love. Their menu includes a bistro-level offering of hot dogs, including: The Le Oui Oui (local goat cheese, bacon crumbles, Dijon mustard) and The Sweet Kimchi (kimchi, sweet relish, sriracha-mayo). They also have an amazing one-third-pound Lamb Burger, which should be topped with cheddar cheese, grilled onions, and sriracha mayonnaise. Homespun takes their fries seriously, offering a truffle seasoning and horsey sauce. Since it’s the holiday weekend, and calories don’t count, you should go ahead and order a shake. Our recent visit ended with four happy customers and a tab around $110. Well worth it!