Friends, some might say that today’s scripture story is one of the scariest in the whole Bible…. even scarier than John’s apocalyptic vision of multi-headed beasts in the book of Revelation.
Listen again to these two verses from Acts 2:44-45:
44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.
45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.
They shared EVERYTHING?? Yes, “sharing is caring,” but to this extreme???
In case his readers stopped listening, Luke repeats the same words in chapter 4:32.
Hear we read:
32 All the believers were united in heart and mind.
And they felt that what they owned was not their own,
so they shared everything they had.
For Luke, this is clearly important. He doesn’t stop with saying it twice. He brings it up a third time two verses later, writing:
34 There were no needy people among them,
because those who owned land or houses would sell them
35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need. (Acts 4:34)
Naming this idea of sharing 3x is still not enough for Luke!
To make Sure Sure his readers get how important this is, he now adds an example, specifically naming someone who did exactly this, someone who sold off property to help those in need.
Luke identifies a man named Joseph from the tribe of Levi who came from the island of Cyprus. It was this Joseph who sold a field and brought the money to the apostles to distribute.
And in honor of this man’s kindness and generosity, the apostles nickname him “Barnabas” – which means “Son of Encouragement.” //
Can you imagine belonging to a group where sharing everything was the practice?
Some of us have memories of living like this when we worked at camp among the staff.
Some of us remember living like this in the dorm or in off campus households during our college years. It wasn’t that scary, especially in our teens and early twenties when we didn’t own much.
And later in life, as we got more established, we might have been okay with occasionally sharing with a neighbor a ladder or lawnmower, or a cup of sugar, or some of our kids’ clothes and toys – especially if our children had outgrown them.
But would we be willing to put big-ticket assets up for sale to meet the needs of those struggling in our community, including those in our church? //
I have a friend who remembers his parents meeting with their pastor once a year to discuss the family’s level of sharing.
The pastor asked to look at their financial information to see that 10% of the household’s income was actually making its way to their church.
That was their denomination’s expectation of sharing – a 10% tithe as the minimum.
How far should we go at St. Jacobs Mennonite when it comes to sharing? //
Recently someone told me about an adult Sunday School class in another church they were attending years ago.
A person in that class challenged the group to bring copies of their Income Tax report to next week’s session.
He hoped people would be willing to discuss how committed they really were to meeting the needs within their church and community.
I’m told attendance in that class radically dropped the following week, and shortly thereafter, folded! People got spooked – probably each for their own different reasons.
I’m guessing that within the class some were worried they would be shamed for not having met some minimum standard, like 10% given to church and charity.
No doubt a discussion of one another’s income, assets, and charitable giving would lead to comparing and judging. Chances are someone would turn it into a competition as to who gave the most to help their neighbor in need.
But, as you might already know, numbers don’t tell the whole story, do they.
Here I’m reminded of the time Jesus pointed out a widow at the temple in Jerusalem.
People were bringing their gifts and offerings, likely pouring them into large metal funnels that would amplify the sound of their silver coins sliding into the cash box.
The BIGGER the SOUND – the BIGGER the GIFT.
The disciples join Jesus in watching what the widow would do. They observe that she had brought two copper coins, worth less than a penny. In they went – perhaps making a “plink, plink” sound.
Indeed, quiet a contrast to the other “loud” gifts.
The sound her two coins made would have stood out – and not in a good way.
Jesus told his disciples something that must have made their eyes open wide in surprise. He said:
“This poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.
For they have given a tiny part of their surplus,
but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” (Luke 21:3-4)
The Lesson: Looks can be deceiving. //
I’m guessing that if we sat down together with our donation receipts and Tax slips, they wouldn’t tell the whole story.
For one thing, they wouldn’t touch on the spirit of our giving, namely, our motivation.
If you ask me, comparing income-tax summaries in a Sunday School class would create
“a tempest in a teapot” – a whole lot of angst and upset, taking our attention away from looking at what’s most important.
What is Luke wanting us to understand about the early church’s practice of generosity?
What does he hope we will be drawn to and inspired by? //
To help us figure it out, Luke follows the story of Barnabas’s generosity with one about a husband and wife named Ananias and Saphira.
You might remember that this couple, like Barnabas, sold a property they owned. They then proceeded to present a huge chunk of the proceeds to Peter and the apostles.
It all sounds great!
More generous sharing to bless those in need.
Perhaps they too will get a “nickname of blessing” like Joseph from Cyprus did.
But the story takes a twist.
Ananias – with his wife’s full knowledge and implied consent – holds back some of the money they got from the sale, keeping it as a secret stash to draw on for their own use.
What we have here is a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too.
Were they looking to be praised for a selfless generous act, while at the same time selfishly putting their security in a hidden nest egg?
Somehow, Ananias and Saphira’s double standard comes to light.
Maybe Matthew (one of the apostles and a former tax collector) had a buddy check the tax roll and found that the appraised value of the couple’s property didn’t match what they donated. Who knows. //
What would we do if we were one of the apostles and learned about this lie?
Would we feel the need to make a big deal about it? Or would we let it go? Afterall, a donation is still a donation – and this one quite sizeable at that!
Couldn’t we just say “thank you” and look the other way?
Or maybe to ease our conscience, could we pull Ananias and Saphira aside and quietly encourage them to be more honest next time? Give them a little tap on the wrist? //
Well, here’s the thing.
Let’s put ourselves in Peter and the apostles’ shoes.
They have just been forgiven for the huge sin of holding back their loyalty to Jesus.
It’s only been a couple of months since Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead.
His followers remember with thankful and humble hearts how Christ brought them back into fellowship after such a terrible betrayal.
Like anyone newly gifted with a second chance, there is no way they would ever want to go down that path again, and cheat on Christ, compromising their confidence in him.
Having anguished over their experience of betraying Christ, they likely also felt convicted by the prayer he prayed over them before they ran away at his arrest.
They would remember how he expressed to God his hope that they would be one with him – mirroring his absolute trust in God’s love and power to see them through all circumstances.
Listen to a couple of lines from that prayer found in John’s gospel, chapter 17:20-21.
Jesus said:
20 “I am praying not only for these disciples
but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—
as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.
And may they be in us
so that the world will believe You sent me.
Imagine the impact on the disciples of learning that Ananias and Saphira were holding back – in essence, holding back trust in Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Every day in the temple the apostles were teaching, instructing the believers to mirror him who held nothing back.
They point to how Jesus let go of his success, his reputation, and ultimately, his life.
They would teach that Jesus put everything on the line to bear witness that God is trustworthy even and especially in times of suffering, injustice, and overwhelming need.
Can you see how Ananias and Saphira’s deception contradicts this testimony?
How it contradicts the very core of the gospel?
They had signed on and I assume been baptized in the Way of Christ. Surely they made their confession of faith, claiming God’s grace, grateful to be forgiven too for being disloyal, for abandoning Jesus, for maybe even shouting for his crucifixion.
To the apostles, this couple’s false testimony mocks what this brand-new group of 3,000 believers is all about.
Simply put, the church can’t be a means of heaven’s light and power from above if people are faking their belief in God being faithful. //
What happens next is SHOCKING.
Luke says it caused great fear to seize the whole church and all who heard about these events (Acts 5:11).
Separately, Ananias and Saphira are confronted with their act of disloyalty.
Exposed, they are seized with fear, and drop over dead.
The lie they trusted in – that they could manage their own wellbeing – led to their death.
What is Luke trying to say?
- Share everything, or die??
- Give, give, and give some more lest ye be struck down?? //
In his second letter to the church at Corinth, we read that the apostle Paul is trying to raise an offering to take to Jerusalem to help the believers there who, if I understand correctly, have become impoverished, having suffered the effects of a famine.
He writes:
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give,
not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
If this is true, we should look around and see if there are any signs of cheerfulness among the 3,000 who have just come together to form the church in Jerusalem.
And in deed there are!
Their experience of being forgiven and connected to Christ has motivated them to go to the temple everyday to hear and learn from the apostles’ teaching.
Their experience of being welcomed home like the lost son in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal (Luke 15:11-31) has them humbled and thrilled to be enjoying the same kind of fellowship he received at his father’s table.
Luke paints pictures of meals generously shared.
In addition, he notes that Christ is being remembered often in the breaking of the bread, and the drinking of cup.
Hundreds of people are ready to own their past and be restored to a profound sense of being loved! They are giving control over to God’s Spirit, and finding healing and joy. //
It is around these tables, in each other’s homes, that the outpouring of God’s grace and Spirit of welcome are transforming lives.
And the experience of inclusion sets the stage for many miraculous signs and wonders.
We see this in our own day.
Take for example the tremendous impact of the House of Friendship’s Shelter Care program located at 190 Weber Street North in Waterloo, in what was formerly a Comfort Inn hotel.
(Play Video: https://houseoffriendship.org/sheltercare/
Did you catch those stats? After only one year of being open, among the 80-100 men living there:
- A 50% drop in overdoes,
- A 75% drop in emergency care calls, and
- 56 men “graduating,” have been housed in the last 6 months.
Signs and wonders!
And equally dramatic life-changes are happening in other places too.
They happen where these two things come together:
- Where there is a community of caring, and
- Where there is an openness to let God in.
Friends, the early church waited upon the Lord and found God faithful.
The believers quickly saw how their experience of God’s grace, and the resulting joy of belonging, was not only making their lives more whole, but was also inspiring others to come in from out of the cold.
The church’s witness of inclusion, and the signs and wonders of healing growing out of that vulnerable trust in God, were earning the respect and goodwill of the community.
People are hungry to experience a power greater than themselves or any other human being or earthly institution.
I wonder if that longing was part of the high interest in the lunar eclipse of the sun two weeks ago.
I was watching the Discovery channel’s coverage that Monday morning. Their network started tracking people’s reaction from Texas on up to Niagara Falls.
In each community, I was struck by how excited people were – and by how emotional some got.
One TV host was in tears as it was taking place in her location. She didn’t have words.
People were cheering and applauding all around her. It especially seemed like everyone there was filled with joy at seeing the sun re-emerge.
Had the eclipse been a means for hundreds if not thousands of people to see an answer to prayer get acted out? Light triumphing over darkness?
How many of us have likewise been moved by a sunrise – seeing the darkness in and around us dissolve … seeing it happen on scale 10,000 x greater than any human effort we could ever make to rid the world of a shadow? //
Just as God poured out heaven’s power through Jesus to heal many hurts and losses, now God is doing that through the church – Christ’s body here on earth today.
Friends, it is this joy – this experience that God has not forgotten or abandoned us – that makes the church holy and a means of God pouring out healing today.
It is this joy rooted in God’s grace, expressed in our being welcomed home and forgiven, that makes the church a people willing and wanting to be generous with all they have, holding nothing back.
Think about when and where you have experienced this grace.
Think about through whom God has touched you with a kindness – with a warm caring welcome.
Chances are it didn’t take much for you to feel that love, and want more – to find its source not in a person, but in the One who made your person.
As God restores and heals, we won’t be able to keep from singing, from sharing everything we have to bless the journey we’re all on to be people of the Light.
Let’s pray:
Dear God, You are the One behind all these signs and wonders in the church’s story.
You are the One who poured out Your Spirit on a people ready to come home and come into fellowship.
You are the One who heals and restores, who makes us whole and holy – one with Jesus.
You are the One who gives us joy full to overflowing – inspiring faith, igniting an eagerness to invest our everything in this testimony, burning in us a passion to point and guide others to Your mercy and unstoppable love.
Holy and wonderful God, hear our prayers for family and friends who are watching from the sidelines – perhaps cheering for the good they see, but afraid to enter in, wishing they could access the same.
Maybe some are watching from the bleachers with arms crossed over their chest, angry and frustrated – wanting to be heard and seen, yet fearing rejection and being left once again.
O Lord, send Your Holy Spirit. Blow upon us in power. Be the wind that comes through each open window and door. Be the fresh air that finds its way through every crack and missing chunk of caulking.
Renew Your church as the body of Christ – a people who mirror the Lord Jesus’s profound trust and confidence in Your power to welcome and raise up.
Know that we are so grateful for all that You have done, are doing, and will do to show the world that Light is greater than darkness.
We make this our prayer offering it in the name of Jesus, our true friend and savior.
AMEN.