Orphans and the Early Church
Last Sunday, our pastor led us through a description of the very early church. These men, women and children had just watched Jesus crucified, resurrected and ascended to heaven. They were full of wonder and enthusiasm and zeal. They ate together in each other’s homes, every day. If anyone needed something, someone else sold off stuff to take care of it. They shared their possession and their lives. (Acts 2:42-47).
And what happened? Our pastor pointed out the radical nature of this band of Jesus-followers and how it turned its culture upside-down.
This small new religion, just by their sharing of meals and possessions, reversed the social and economic order of the day. In the Roman empire, large banquets were a way for a host to show where his guests ranked in the social hierarchy, displaying who was currently in the inner circle. These meals excluded people. But the church meals were inclusive, open to widows, orphans, and foreigners, the socially and economically marginalized groups. The church became a social and economic safely net for the poor. It was radical.
In the early church, God’s people became family to those who had no family. I think of the Roman practice when a baby was born. The baby was set at the feet of the father. If he picked up the child, the boy or girl was legitimized and became part of the family. Babies that were not picked up, perhaps because they looked weak, were outcast – often taken outside the city to designated places where they would die of exposure or from wild animals. The Christians reversed this horrible practice. They went out and brought the babies back, adopting them into their own families, and eventually putting pressure on the government to outlaw the practice.
Who needs a new family today? War refugees and children fleeing from those who would make them child soldiers. Big sisters trying to raise their younger siblings after their parents die of AIDS. Foster children longing for a permanent home. Women abandoned by men and left to make heart-wrenching decisions about their babies.
Can our churches weave these people into our families as exuberantly as the early church? Can we do it by sharing meals together in homes and selling our things to care for others? What keeps us from this?
A New Mission. Our life in Christ should overflow outward, forward, into the world. The early church became a new social order. It was joyous and inclusive. It was generous. People followed Christ in community. When we adopt children, we should not just be bringing them into our individual families, but into communities of celebrating people who enfold them into love and worship.
If we do, perhaps we will see God work as he did in this early church. They didn’t have their own buildings, but they enjoyed the favor of all the people and God added daily to their number those who were being saved.
Cities all across the Greco-Roman world had a taste of the eternal party that never ends. Let’s join in!
