LIKE A POTLUCK
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” Acts 4:32, NIV
Theme: The Acts Church mutually agreed to pool resources, thereby rejecting both excess and deficit.
LOAVES AND FISHES AND COVERED DISHES
Every wedding, family reunion, anniversary, and milestone my mom’s side of the family ever celebrated included a potluck dinner. The St. Peter’s Lutheran Church fellowship hall was THE place to gather for endless pans of fried chicken, ham, biscuits, cornbread, and all manner of veggies cooked in lard, not to mention the cakes and pies at the dessert table. My mother always brought her “we-drove-through-Bojangles-on-the-way-here” 12-piece fried chicken meal—her specialty. And in a sea of 50, 75, even 100 people, I’d wonder, “How is everyone here gonna have enough to eat?”
Friends, in that fellowship hall, everyone ate their fill with mounds of food to spare. I’m convinced that church ladies can pull off loaves and fishes miracles.
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
In His ministry, Jesus described the Kingdom of God in many ways: like a mustard seed, like yeast working through flour, like a treasure worth more than anything (Matthew 13), like a king who cancels a debt, expecting his servant to show the same mercy (Matthew 18). Jesus compared it to laborers in a vineyard, a net casting fish, a wedding banquet where everyone is invited—each parable a beautiful glimpse of the New Creation.
NEW CREATION
Of course, we don’t live in the perfected version of God’s New Creation (yet!), but we —you and I—are a New Creation when we are in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are living, breathing, walking, ministering glimpses of heaven. We are Good News personified to the people around us who are in desperate need of some good news.
In Acts 4, the early church exemplified complete unity and selflessness. They shared everything they had, ensuring that no one among them had excess or lack. Everyone had enough. This contrasts sharply with our culture of scarcity and self-preservation, making such radical sharing seem impossible—or at least scary. I often wonder if we’ll ever experience that kind of faith-driven unity again, this side of heaven.
But then I remember that sacred American community love ritual: the potluck dinner. At a potluck dinner, you can bring your abundance of food, or your meager amount—sometimes nothing at all—but everyone gets fed, and everyone is joyful and satisfied. Everyone has enough.
Jesus taught us what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like. When I consider the ways a simple shared meal in a fellowship hall reflects the same abundance and community-mindedness of the early church, it occurs to me that perhaps the Kingdom of Heaven is also just a little bit like… a potluck dinner.
Make It Personal: Being a Christian means that we are living in a Kingdom that is both “already here,” and “not yet arrived,” or, as some people call it, the “Already, Not Yet Kingdom of God.” How can you, as a citizen of Heaven, reflect Kingdom values like community, sharing, and mutual care in your own life and relationships? What are some ways you, and the Church as a whole, can create spaces where people experience the abundance and care of God, even when the world around them seems to operate on scarcity?
Pray: Lord, thank You for drawing me into Your beautiful abundance. You have sacrificed everything for me, yet I confess that I find it hard to live sacrificially. I pray that You would show me when I am tempted to hold on to my “things” a little too tightly so that I can loosen my grip, faithfully share with others, and trust in Your goodness and enough-ness. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Read: Luke 17:20-21; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
Weekly Memory Verse: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21, ESV