Fellowship

Our scripture this morning comes from the Acts of the Apostles. It's the story of the church. I hear these words from chapter 2 starting with verse 36. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promises for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words he warned them and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to the number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and to the fellowship and breaking of bread into prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common, southern their possessions and goods. They gave to anyone as he had need. 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. Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Morning church. John's already mentioned how we changed our setup a little bit today, so I'm going to stay over here in the pulpit today as we continue our look at camp meetings. We've been doing that throughout the Sundays in August, all throughout the month.

Ryan has been reminding us over and over again that these camp meeting gatherings were so important for the early church in our area that they involved people spending a week together around worship and preaching and food. If you missed any of those camp meeting messages, I would encourage you to go online and find those and catch up with us. It's been a great series.

I've really enjoyed it. Today we're going to continue that look at camp meetings and we're going to look at what it meant for those people to be together with one another. We're going to look at that fellowship.

Now, I got to think of the other day. I've worked with a variety of preachers over about 36 years that I've been in ministry, and when I reflect on those years, I recognize that I have worked alongside some very good preachers. I guess I'll include the two I'm working alongside with now.

The first pastor, though, that I remember from the United Methodist Church where I grew up was a man by the name of Reverend Donny Crenshaw. Now, Donny was the only preacher I knew for a lot of years, but he simply went by the name preacher. Everybody called Reverend Crenshaw a preacher.

Even his family called him preacher. As a young boy, I was convinced that preacher was the only one who did this sort of thing on a Sunday morning. He was the only one I ever heard.

Now, I have very fond memories of my church I grew up in and the people around there, and I also have very fond memories of preacher. Preacher kept a candy dish in his office, and we kids, as soon as the service would end, would fly out the doors, fly down the hallway and stand outside his door, waiting for our chance to pick out our favorite piece of candy out of that candy dish. Every Sunday, we did the same thing.

When I got my first appointment as a preacher myself, preacher called me up one day and said, I want to take you to the mall and I want to buy you a new suit of clothes so you look like a preacher. So that's what he did. He was very generous.

He made a huge impact on my life. I remember a lot about him, but you know what I don't remember from preacher? I don't remember one of his sermons that he preached. I just don't.

I don't remember him. I also grew up going to camp meetings every summer at Camp Cavanaugh just outside of Louisville, Kentucky, where I grew up. We didn't stay there, whether in a tent or in a cabin.

We drove back and forth each night. We showed up in time for dinner on the grounds, and then we'd stick around for worship before we headed back home. Sometimes we rode on the church bus with the rest of our church group.

I am pretty sure that in all those years of going to camp meeting at Camp Cavanaugh that I probably heard some pretty powerful sermons. There were probably some pretty powerful sermons preached during those camp meetings, but if I'm honest, I don't remember one of those either. I just don't remember them.

You know, that's one of the hardest things for us preachers to kind of realize, that as a preacher, as a guy who's preached these sermons like this for over 35 years, I have even preached a few good ones. A lot of times people don't remember what I said. Somebody told me this morning after the 830 service that I remember the sermon where you stood up here on Thanksgiving and preached in your underwear.

If you haven't known that, you had to find that on YouTube to figure out what they're talking about. But I don't remember what you said. There you go.

So you got to be memorable one way or another, I guess. What I do remember about going to those camp meetings is spending time with the other people who sat at the table next to me as we had dinner on the grounds. What I do remember is sitting next to someone in the pew while we sang those old hymns during worship.

Things like, what a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms, what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms, or blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. What I remember about those camp meetings, about the church I grew up in, about the churches that I've been a part of, about the church that I am a part of now is the fellowship.

And so as we consider in this camp meeting series the importance of fellowship, whether it's in an old time camp meeting or in the church today, I want us to have a clear definition of what Christian fellowship is really all about. In the New Testament, the word we most often translate as fellowship is the word koinonia. It's a Greek word that means sharing something with another or participating in something with someone else.

The term fellowship is used in our world today for various numbers of fraternities and academic fellowships or vocational fellowships or if you're a token fan, the fellowship of the ring, right, okay. It describes societies, groups of people, clubs that share something in common. Did you know that the history of the word fellowship is simply a relationship among fellows? That's where it comes from.

The idea of a fellowship being two or more people who have been bonded together because they share something in common. But the biblical idea of fellowship is so much more than this common understanding. And it's vital for us to understand that because if not, we run the risk of letting our fellowship slip into the realm of a club because what we share in common is so much more as Christian believers than any of that.

So therefore, if that is what fellowship is, and I think it is, we also have to understand what it is not. Fellowship is certainly not sitting in a pew looking at the back of somebody else's neck. It's more than attending the gatherings and events at the church.

And we all have our own ideas about what church should be. Some of us look for an exciting show, an inspirational message, some sharp cultural commentary, an opportunity for community service, a friendly social group. And all of that is a part of a church for sure.

But in the days when the church was just beginning, immediately following Pentecost, Luke tells us that the believers were focused on fellowship. He says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship. All the believers were together and held everything in common.

They enjoyed the favor of all people. That's fellowship. Our scripture reading today helps us understand that all the ways that the fellowship to which we should be devoted happens.

One of the things that Luke highlights is that genuine worship should be a part of fellowship. It's essential for the fellowship of the early church. Did you hear what Ryan said when he read those verses from Acts where it says, every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

They broke bread in their homes. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They praised God and enjoyed the favor of all people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. As I read through the book of Acts, I am always struck by how attractive the first church really seemed to be. They truly loved and looked out for one another, even though they had their differences, their disputes.

There were issues about how resources were to be used. There were questions about whether we should reach out to Gentiles, and if so, how are we going to do such a thing? There were even a lot of personality conflicts as they struggled to get along. But despite all of these things, they all remained devoted to the fellowship.

And the overall picture we get is of a church that while not perfect is one where forgiveness and love abound. And the norm was to accept one another despite peculiarities and personality differences. The New Testament is filled with verses that urge Christians to look out for each other, to get along with one another, to forgive each other, to bear one another's burdens, to help one another, to allow for differences, to avoid criticizing or judging someone of things that, well, that just aren't essential.

There's another Greek word that's important for our understanding here. It's the word, alellone. Now that is the word that we translate one another.

And you know that there are over a hundred one-and-others in the New Testament. There are verses written with the words of Jesus. They're written by Paul.

They're written by all kinds of others throughout the New Testament as they start to tell us that it is important how we relate to one another. Jesus was the one who started all of it by saying throughout the New Testament that we are to love, love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the first and greatest commandment.

Love our neighbor as ourselves. That includes everyone around you. That's the second one, and it's just like that first one.

That we're to love our enemies, to pray for those who hurt you, who hate you, who oppose you, who persecute you. But he also tells us that we are to love one another. Jesus says it this way.

I give you a new commandment. Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also ought to love one another.

Scripture calls us to offer a radical welcome to strangers. But we can't give what we don't have. Before we can love our neighbor, we must love and care for one another so we have something to offer when they come.

By this, all people will know, Jesus says, that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. That kind of fellowship is attractive to others. Now, the truth is the kind of love that results in that kind of fellowship can also be a bit of a challenge.

I mean, some people are just harder to love, right? I mean, present company excluded, I'm sure. But if you really get involved in someone else's life, in one another's lives, you'll discover that everyone but you is weird. They're irritating.

They're flawed in some way or another. You'll need to learn to forgive one another and forgive those who hurt you and accept those who might otherwise drive you a little nuts. There are some things you can count on here when you gather in the fellowship here at Levin and First United Methodist Church each week for worship.

Now, whether it's special guests like our friends from Linwood Road who are here today, thank you very much for being here today, or it's our praise team at 830 or our choir and musicians that are here at Levin, you're going to hear and experience some incredible worship music. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. You know, there's a team that sits up in that window up there that handles the technology for our worship time.

This means that they will look good and sound good here in the sanctuary and going to be available for those who are streaming worship at home or on the road. At least two-thirds of the time, you're going to hear a good sermon. Beyond that, what you can count on is that you're going to experience fellowship.

Hopefully, you're doing more than staring at the neck of the person sitting in the pew in front of you. Remember, Acts tells us that the church began by being devoted to the fellowship. Now, when we pass the peace at the beginning of worship each week, it always makes me smile how long it takes until it's over, how much you all move around the room and try to greet one another.

I hope you're finding someone to greet that you don't know well or maybe at all. It's important in those moments and throughout the day that we extend the fellowship to everyone. And that's not just true in worship.

Maybe you're already in a small group. If not, I'm going to encourage you to find one soon. There are groups that meet, are Sunday school classes that meet every Sunday, and there are some new studies and groups starting in a couple of weeks on Wednesday.

That also means it's time to start our Wednesday evening meals where we gather around the tables in Hessen Hall. The meals are okay. The guy who cooks tries his best, but the fellowship around the tables is the most important part.

Maybe you want to help serve one of those meals and help the fellowship happen on Wednesdays. It takes all kinds of people to make fellowship happen around here, and we are devoted to it. On the back of your bulletin today, you're going to find an opportunity to sign up to make fellowship happenings, gatherings happen around here.

Maybe you want to be an usher or a greeter. Maybe you want to be the person who, like the person who handed you that bulletin this morning when you walked in the room or the person who opened the door for you when you came in the building. Maybe you want to stand up here and serve communion with us on a Sunday morning.

Maybe you want to pick up the donuts on Sunday mornings. I got in trouble, I think, at the first service when I said you can eat a couple on the way, but anyway, maybe you want to make coffee, so our fellowship time happens as it needs to happen on Sunday mornings in Hessen Hall. There are opportunities after opportunities for you to help make fellowship happen in this place.

There are things for Sunday morning. There are things throughout the fall. We even listed a few things for the Advent season. It'll be here before you know it. We encourage you to take a few moments, write your name on there and fill that out. Circle a few things and rip that out of your bulletin. Be careful not to mess up your seek and find. I know some of you haven't finished that yet. Drop that in one of the plates on the way out the door or hand that to me on the way out the door and we'll get you involved in making fellowship happen here at Leaven and First United Methodist Church.

One essential element of true Christian fellowship is commitment. Our scripture reading uses the word devotion. True fellowship cannot develop unless we are devoted to one another This does not necessarily mean that everyone in the church is going to be best friends with everybody else. It does, however, mean that we have a commitment to Christian community. For any depth of community or fellowship to develop, people need to feel safe enough to express what is really going on with them. And people will never feel safe enough if they sense that others in the group are not committed to the fellowship. Those first disciples were devoted to the fellowship despite the difficulties and the different personalities. They understood that they would spend eternity together so they might as well try to start loving each other now. It was something they really worked at. I want to tell you that I am glad that you are a part of this fellowship. It makes a difference to me.

I'm sure it makes a difference to the person whose neck you're staring at right now and it makes a difference to the person who's staring at your neck right now. Sometimes we just have to work at the fellowship to which we are devoted. But each of us is also what makes that fellowship work.

That fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Thanks be to God for the fellowship.