On March 18, Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama gave a major speech on race in America.  The speech, entitled Toward a More Perfect Union, was in response to controversial statements made by his long-time pastor.  His speech was rightly praised, in my view, for its nuanced and courageous treatment of the subject of race.  As a priest and a parish rector, however, I was particularly interested in what Senator Obama’s speech said about his relationship with his church.  There has been a steady drumbeat of calls for him to quit his church and disavow his pastor, and that he has been unwilling to do.  Although Obama does not agree with everything his pastor has said, he will not leave the church he has attended for twenty years, where he was married, and where his daughters were baptized.  Good for him.  As one commentator put it:  “If you agree if everything your pastor says, one of you isn’t doing your job.”  Obama’s steadfast commitment to his church makes me think of another Presidential candidate, Howard Dean.  Dean had been a member of an Episcopal church, but when his church voted not to allow a bike path to cut through their property he left it.  Can you imagine leaving your church over a disagreement about a bike path?  You will remember that Dean once famously identified Job as his favorite book in the New Testament, so perhaps he is not the best example of a faithful Episcopalian.  Nonetheless, the contrast between his attitude and Obama’s raises the question of what the church is and what our relationship to it should be.

Our lesson this morning from the Book of Acts is the concluding summary after St. Peter’s long sermon to the crowd on Pentecost Day.  In that summary, St. Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, lists four hallmarks of the church: Teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

The first hallmark of the church is apostolic teaching.  Luke is describing a time hundreds of years before there were formalized creeds, so he is referring to an oral tradition.  It can be hard for us to know exactly what this oral tradition consisted of, but there are indications in the Book of Acts itself.  The heart of it seems to be the witness to the Resurrection and the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah and Son God.   These two items form the kernel of the apostolic teaching.  The church of Christ is a teaching church.

The second hallmark of the church is fellowship.  The fellowship of the church depends, of course, on common teaching, worship, and prayers but also on social relationships.   Christianity first grew among the urban poor and there were practical benefits to belonging to the church.   Many of the urban poor may have been living apart from their families, and so the church provided the care and protection of a family.  The church saw to it that no one starved, that no one lived in abject poverty, that the sick were cared for, and that the dead were buried.  For a brief time, the fellowship of the church in Jerusalem was so pure that that they managed to hold all things in common.  The church of Christ is a church of fellowship.

The third hallmark of the church is the breaking of bread.  While this phrase may refer to sharing meals, it also undoubtedly refers to early celebrations of the Eucharist.   Although the New Testament does not contain the technical understanding of the Eucharist that developed later in the church, clearly the early church believed that Jesus was present in a special way when they shared a meal together.   As an example of this, you’ll recall last week’s Gospel lesson which told the story of the road to Emmaus and how Jesus was present to his disciples in the breaking of the bread.  The church of Christ is a Eucharistic church.

The final hallmark of the church is the prayers.  You’ll notice that the hallmark of the church isn’t praying – it’s assumed that the church will pray – rather the hallmark of the church is the prayers.  This indicates that even by this early date there were already fixed forms of prayer.   The importance of knowing your prayers reminds me of another politician and Presidential candidate, John McCain.  McCain grew up as an Episcopalian, although he later left the church, but reciting the prayers he learned as a child sustained him when he was a prisoner of war in Viet Nam.  The church of Christ is a church that knows the prayers.

Continuing the in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers are the four hallmarks of the church.  It seems to me that if your church is doing these things then it’s on the right path.  But does this mean that what the pastor does is irrelevant?     Of course not, the priest or the pastor does make a difference.  In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd.  Every priest or pastor – pastor, by the way, is the Latin word for shepherd – every priest or pastor models his or her ministry of that of the Good Shepherd.  On the other hand, there some pastors and priest who seem to model their ministries on the thieves and bandits who break in to kill and destroy.  I know; I’ve worked for some of them.  The sheep are right to follow Jesus’ advice and run away.  But everything I’ve read tells me that Obama’s pastor is not like that and that his church continues the biblical mandate to continue the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.  Senator Obama’s steadfast loyalty to his church models for us a mature Christianity.  He knows that we come to church not to worship the pastor; we come to church to worship God. Amen.