Koinonia

Koinonia (outline)
Acts 2:42-47

Good News: God adds to Koinonia-- “Haves and Have-Nots” creates a negative sum. Koinonia breaks from the “Haves and Have-Nots” perspective of living, and offers a worldview in which God adds. Koinonia is a positive end for all.

Haves and Have Nots
► Story from trip to Ethiopia: “We had to roll the windows up.”
► A world of “Haves and Have Nots” creates a negative sum.
o The poor multiply producing a negative experience of life desperately insecure of food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education.
o The wealthy become few producing a negative experience of life as they isolate themselves into loneliness behind a false sense of security of walls, as they desperately try to maintain wealth and secure it away from those who are poor.
► In America
o In America we have in place anti-trust laws, federal social welfare programs, and non-profit organizations. We also have the freedom of speech, which gives any of us permission to blow the whistle on cultural injustices in our world. These serve a vital role in the fabric of America, and are blessings worth fighting for that we so often take for granted. These work systemically to protect the American dream by restraining capitalism from spinning our culture out of control into nothing more than the “Haves and Have Nots”.
o This is why the vital sign of our country’s life and the livelihood of the American Dream is the strength of the Middle Class. It’s a strong middle class that offsets the “Have and the Have Nots”. In Africa there are two classes of citizens the rich and the poor, with the majority of the population made of the poor, who have little or no power or influence over the government. But, in America the majority of the population is made of satisfied American dreamers who are not the wealthy or the poor. They are us, the middle class, and it’s the middle class that serve as a powerful block of influence against the creation of a “Haves and Have Nots” culture. Working together we form a powerful block of influence that keeps the wheels of democracy and capitalism functioning properly. This is why a measure of our country’s strength is not necessarily a measure of its GDP, or its approval rating of the president. The most vital statistic of our country’s health is the size and vitality of the middle class. This is why you may have heard and will likely hear more from politicians during this campaign year talking about the problem of a shrinking Middle Class. A study by Brookings Institution in June 2006 revealed that middle-income neighborhoods have dropped 17% from over the last 30 years. When the middle class shrinks, it means the numbers of those living in poverty is increasing, and the amount of wealth that the wealthy are amassing has gone up. As housing costs increase, the middle class is squeezed and forced to live in less desirable areas making upward mobility more difficult.
o Meanwhile the middle class is divided in two over values such as marriage, family, and religion. Values that were once the cornerstone of the middle class and the glue which helped to build community among neighbors are now the very reasons that segregate communities and turn neighborhoods into just “hoods”.
► Story: “We should all be as lucky as those adopted who get to go to America.”

We are very fortunate in America. But, we should be careful not to neglect the fragility of what makes this country strong. It is a middle class of people who share certain rights and values and are willing to defend them for the sake of the whole. It is a worldview that begins in the bible. It starts with the church, but it is meant to spread out affecting the ways and means of the culture and government in which we live. The biblical word for this way of living is Koinonia.
Koinonia
► Acts 2:42-47 describe this way of living.
► While the world offers nothing more than the “Haves and Have Nots” way of life, God offers through Christ a new way of envisioning how life and living ought to be. “Haves and Have Nots” is a negative sum as was described so far. But, Koinonia is just the opposite. With Koinonia living the people within the community share what they’ve been given for the benefit of the whole. With Koinonia living nobody has too little, and nobody hoards too much. There is a positive result of life for the community. And, finally, God blesses this community by adding yet more to it. Koinonia is positive living.
► It is God’s dream that all of his people would live this way. So, while it is meant to be a world view it must begin with us in the church.