It is a dark and dangerous world out there and anyone with any sense would just stay home and lock the doors behind them! There are certainly places in the world where such a statement seems to be true most of the time. And for most of us it seems true at least some of the time. Just listening to the news in the morning can be enough to make staying in bed seem like the most sensible option available. And such an experience is really nothing new. Listen to how the Gospel of John describes life for the disciples in the days following Jesus’ crucifixion. “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews...” (John 20:19) Sometimes life is a frightening experience and we just want to hide under the covers and hope it all goes away.

But the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t just go away. Sometimes it’s better and sometimes it’s worse, but we never really find the perfect life without any stress and sorrow and conflict and danger. So what in the world was Jesus talking about in John’s Gospel when he said, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly”? (John 10:10) Where do we sign up for this abundant life in the midst of the dangerous world in which we find ourselves living?

I am convinced that we find it right here, in the community of faith we have come to call the Church. Not because the church is somehow holier or more perfect than any other group of people on the planet. Not because we have somehow earned the right to full, rich lives and therefore deserve to be spared from the darker side of life. Not because we’re nice people and God likes us better than everyone else. I believe that abundant living is found right here because that is the kind of living that God desires for all of God’s children, and we begin to experience it when we open ourselves to the activity of God’s Spirit in our lives and in our community. In fact, it is in community where we most fully and most powerfully experience the abundant life which is ultimately a gift from God.

Earlier this week, in the text study group I participate in with other local pastors who preach from the lectionary, I was reading the description of the early church which we find in Acts 2, when someone in the group muttered, “Fairy tale.” We all laughed, because, to be honest, it does sound a bit difficult to believe. “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...” (Acts 2:44) They ate together and worshipped together, laughed and cried and shared life fully and deeply and richly with each other, and life was good. While it is true that Luke wrote these words 50 or 60 years after the fact, and may very well have engaged in a bit of romanticized selective memory, it is also true that such experiences really do happen when people draw on spiritual resources to help them find meaning and purpose and security in the midst of life’s uncertainties. In the 1960s we began hearing about “base communities” in Latin America, which gave Christian people the strength and support to live their faith, and speak out for peace and justice. They did this by reflecting on the scriptures and applying it to their life reality. For the past 50 years there has been a small, tight-knit community living and worshipping together in the mountains above Lake Chelan in a place called Holden Village. I submit that even The United Church of Moscow shares much in common with the description we find in Acts 2. We experience rich and vital life together in this place as we worship and study and fellowship and share our resources with each other for the good of all.

In our case, and in all cases, this kind of abundant community life doesn’t occur simply because like-minded people get together. The church is not like the local stamp club or folklore society or seniors group. We are bound together by far more than merely a common interest. We stay together for far more powerful reasons like simply because we like each other. Just look around this room. We are a collection of very different people, with very different experiences, and very different views on most everything you can think of, including what it means to be people of faith. In the Adult Faith Exploration class on Sunday mornings we have some very lively discussions where differences are openly and freely expressed. And yet, we continue to find ourselves drawn together to share life. This is true, for us, and for the Church throughout the ages, because God forms the foundational relationship upon which all the other relationships within the community are based. We find security, not because the world is a safe place, but because God can be trusted. We find community, not because we just naturally like each other, but because we are bound together through the power of God’s Spirit.

Whether it is Psalm 23 promising that we can walk through the darkest valley without fear, or Jesus declaring that he is the gate through which we will come in and go out and find pasture, or the early church in Jerusalem coming together to share all things in common, it is God’s powerful love that makes such abundance possible. And when we experience such abundance, the dark and dangerous world seems less dark and dangerous. We need not hide under the covers, or behind closed doors, for fear of what might befall us. There is a powerful image in both John’s Gospel and the 23rd Psalm, that speaks of the shepherd leading the sheep out to pasture, where they find a feast set before them. Such abundance is not found within the safety of the sheepfold, but out in the midst of the dark and dangerous world. But the presence of the shepherd makes it possible to celebrate the feast.

A week and a few hours ago, I was laying in the emergency room of the hospital, my body under attack by a tiny little mineral deposit somewhere south of my kidneys. The pain left me breathless and crying and sick to my stomach. Not the sort of experience which falls easily into the category of abundant living. And yet, even when I couldn’t see straight through the tears, I knew at some deep level that I was surrounded by God’s love in the form of a community with whom I am deeply and intimately connected. And as I lay there a little bit later, in the growing mental fog induced by a very welcome dose of Demerol, and heard from the doctor that standing in this pulpit the next morning was not going to be in my future, I had an unshakable confidence that I was a part of a community who could and would rise to the occasion and do whatever was necessary. In my book, that qualifies as abundant life. Not because it is safe and without pain, but because it is filled with love which drives back all fear.

Do we always get it right? No. In one way or another we’ve been missing the mark since the earliest days of the church. The description of the church which we find in Acts 2 doesn’t even last until the end of the book of Acts. Trusting God and living in faithful community with each other is not easy. But it is worth the effort. Because when it all comes together we really do get to experience abundant life and we get to share it with each other. Even when the world is a dark and dangerous place. May it be so for us.