Get Your Pretense On!

142 • Get Your Pretense On!

digital media and platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, “digital tribes,” etc.), people connect anonymously through digital media, oftentimes with pseudonyms or under different guises. Despite the nature of digital connection, however, all human beings still belong to a distinctive oikos network where they are known, through which they relate, and in which they reside. Truly, every urban person has an oikos of which they are a part. Of course, one’s oikos connection in the city may not have anything (or very little) to do with where the person is living . As a rule, individuals are very suspicious and distrustful of people who are not a part of their oikos circle. Yet, once in a circle, one can find great friendship, companionship, and connections with others in their unique web of relationships. What is perhaps most important in oikos web relationships is the idea that we tend to relate to people with whom we have connection, those who share in common with us, whether in kinship, interests, commitments, history, or experience. This is central to all human relating: As Christ had shared his life and his Spirit with them, they were free to share their life, money and goods with anyone who had need for them. “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; see vv. 33–35). This movement of commonness was intimately connected to the apostles’ presence and teaching, which had its roots in their life together as the Twelve and others with Jesus. The common life of Jesus with the Twelve became the common life of the apostles among the ecclesia, which became the common life of the ecclesia as household for any who had need, so “there were no needy persons among them.” 27