April 5, 2024

Creating Caring Communities

Theodore Hiebert | Read 1 John 1:1-10 , Read 1 John 2:1-2

(Image by: Pixabay)

Lectionary Week

April 1–7, 2024

Scripture Overview

The earliest followers of Jesus faced the challenge of creating communities unlike any that had existed before. This was an amazing opportunity because they had the chance to build communities from the ground up, creating more open, intentional, and caring fellowships than they had known before. But it was also daunting. They sought to build their new communities in a politically, socially, and religiously hostile world where they were not guaranteed success. Each of the New Testament texts this week reveals early Christians struggling to form new communities, make them whole and healing spaces, strengthen them to survive the harshest threats, and build them to endure. Because of their courage, we still live in Christian communities of all kinds, and we continue to find ways to make them caring communities.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Acts 4:32-35. In what ways does your Christian community extend generosity to those within and those beyond the community?
Read Psalm 133. How do you experience God’s extravagant love for you? What is your response to this love?
Read 1 John 1:1–2:2. What experience of Christ have you “heard . . . seen . . . looked at . . . touched”? How do you share your experience of the risen Christ with others?
Read John 20:19-31. How do you relate to Thomas’s desire for tangible proof of the Resurrection?

Respond by posting a prayer.

We’ve already been reintroduced to the Pentecost community in Acts as an intentional community sharing economic resources. And we’ve learned from the ancient kinship communities in Psalms (and Genesis) about conflict and restoration. The community in today’s text is a unique community of early congregations who connect themselves with the...

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God, teach us humility as the beginning of building caring communities. Amen.

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