In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
- Acts 6:1

Listen to the complaint in today’s passage: the church was failing to take care of a group of widows just because they came from Greek backgrounds.

The church had grown quickly, possibly over a number of years. Thousands of people were involved. They gathered and scattered, meeting in large worship settings and in small groups. And one of the things that marked them out was their peculiar concern for the poor.

In society at that time, women rarely had financial independence. They worked hard, but weren’t paid for their work. For food and shelter, they depended on parents, then husbands, then children and relatives. Without those networks, these women would starve.

The early Christian community preached a radical message: in Jesus Christ – through his death, resurrection and kingdom – God is creating a new family. They applied this message not only to their worship, but also to how they treated each other. The family obligation to take care of women who didn’t have husbands was taken up by the church. Every day widows would receive food from their Christian family.

At least, that’s how it was supposed to work. As the church grew, more and more of this food distribution depended on relational networks. As best as we can tell, without meaning to, the question of “who do you know?” became a deciding factor in whether or not widows would receive food. And this led to injustice. The Christian community was marked by generosity, but that generosity failed.

Even the most generous communities will, at times, fall short. Many times this happens without malice. Often this happens along already existing fault-lines: race, class, gender, age, seniority. What happens next – after the complaint is brought to the surface – matters tremendously.

Where have you seen generous communities fall short? Where have you seen these fault-lines appear within a community and create hurt, pain and injustice? How did the communities respond when these failures were brought to light?