Day 10

Readings and Thoughts for Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Acts 4:32-37 The Believers Share Their Possessions

This passage should be compared to Acts 2:43-47 (Day 5). Both are summary statements, of a sort, describing life in the community. This passage is more focused, dealing primarily with the financial relationships of the early church. “No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common (Acts 4:32).”

Pause.

Gulp.

And you thought my sermons on tithing (giving 10% or your earnings) were hard to swallow! And just in case you wondered if there were consequences for not living up to this standard – read on a little further!

Acts 5:1-11 Ananias and Sapphira

Ananias and Sapphira have property are members of the new church community. They hold some property, which they decide to sell. They aren’t convinced, however, that the whole of their proceeds should go to the church and they decide to hold back some of the money for themselves. Peter either has super-natural knowledge or some really good informants, for when the husband comes forward to bring his gift of money, he is immediately accused of lying to the Holy Spirit. It is clear from what Peter says to him and from the later conversation with Sapphira that the issue is not even so much that they wanted to keep some of the money, but that they lied about it. Ananias acted like he was bringing the full value of his property to share with the others, when in fact he was only bringing part of it. He wanted to appear better than he was.

Ananias drops dead!

Soon after, his wife shows up playing the same game. She also drops dead.

The moral to this story is? Pay your church pledge in full, or else! (Ha Ha Ha!)

But seriously, people were upset by these deaths: “And great fear seized the whole church and all who heard of these things (Acts 5:11).” What were the followers of Jesus to think, having seen the sudden destruction of two people who dared to lie to the church and to God? If you were there with them, wouldn’t you be frightened that your own choices might not measure up?

Remember that this was a time in the church where God was dramatically present and great deeds of power were happening every day. Like a good power line system, as long as all that spiritual power was channeled appropriately, all was well and remarkable things could happen. By lying to the church, however, Ananias and Sapphira interfered with the integrity and trust of the whole community. They did the spiritual equivalent of tearing down a live wire, and the power they have so inappropriately handled zaps them with deadly consequences.

I don’t quite know what to make of this story, myself. (Perversely, I’ve always sort of liked it.) It certainly is a very sudden and severe kind of punishment that they experience. Are we supposed to be frightened into behaving better than they did? I guess the point I take from it is that God is powerful and worthy of our respect, and yes, even our fear. I don’t fear God as a mean-spirited disciplinarian, but I fear God like I fear a power line or a grizzly bear – God is a force either that is utterly beyond my direction or control. Ananias and Sapphira learned, the hard way, that integrity in big and small things matters to God.

When was your integrity challenged? If you had it to do over again, would you make a different choice? Why?