This challenged me today. I - at this moment anyway - can't embrace everything she is saying but wow, is it food for thought. This was written from Germany in 1921 by Emmy Arnold, who along with her husband, chucked a nice middleclass lifestyle to begin what became Bruderhof community living. As I look around my nice comfy 2400 sq. ft home that houses 4 people and a dog and that takes pretty much ALL our income to sustain....well, let's just say there is room for some challenging questions that soon will demand answers. She writes:

The Sermon on the Mount was both our direction and our goal, but there were other voices that made themselves heard too. Some said, "It is impossible to live up to that today! There will always be rich and poor. You can't eliminate competition. Everyone has to do the best he can with what he has. Otherwise people would soon take advantage of each other's generosity." Yet we could hardly ignore the contrast between this attitude and Jesus' words: "If someone wants to take your jacket, give him your coat as well. Live like the lilies in the fields and the birds in the air. Have no enemies. Love your enemies. Do good to them!" And so we continued to struggle. People asked us, "But what would you do if somebody carried off your furniture?" or, "What if somebody were to rape or kill your own wife in front of you? How could you love such a person?"

A short time later, in the same open-house meetings, we read from the Book of Acts, chapters 2 and 4, about Pentecost.

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things he possessed were his own, but they held everything in common. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold...Distribution was made to each as had need. (Acts 4:32-35)

Here, we felt, was an answer to our seeking and questioning: community of faith, community of love, community of goods - all born from the energy of that first love. Perhaps we would be an itinerant community, in trailers or on foot, or maybe we ought to build up a settlement. Whatever form it took, we now knew we had to be messengers of a church aflame with love.