Thursday, October 31, 2024  

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Today's Scripture
Acts 2:42–47

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (NRSV)

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Reflection

Although it is significantly overshadowed by Halloween each year, Protestant churches all around the world observe today, October 31, as Reformation Day as well. It is hard to compete with free candy in the minds of children (and adults too, I suppose), but this annual observance is not only a reminder of the spark that set the Reformation ablaze when Luther nailed the 95 Theses onto the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. It is also a reminder that the work begun in the Reformation will never be fully complete. Reformed and always reforming, the saying goes — striving to come ever closer to the type of church Christ calls us to be.

Lately we have been emphasizing the necessity of community as the church emerges from the disconnection and dislocation of the pandemic, and it is heartening to know that sense of community has been core to the identity of the church from its very founding. In today’s passage, a text coming directly on the heels of Pentecost or the “birth of the church,” we hear Acts’ beautiful description of this tightknit group: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all people” (Acts 2:46). 

There is a strength and a power to being together — not only in contributing to others’ well-being and welfare but in time spent gathering around the table and offering praise to God.

As we continue reforming into the church Christ is calling us to be, may the Spirit remind us of the gift we have in one another, and may it spur us to forge and foster those connections once more. 

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Prayer
Creator God, as you continue to guide and reshape us into the church you have called us to be, may your spirit draw us closer to one another — so that we, like the earliest church, may be bound to one another with glad and generous hearts. Amen.

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Written by Matt Helms, Associate Pastor for Children, Family, and Welcoming Ministries

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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