Acting Up and Out ~ The Church Today

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died  Acts 5

Come on, now, is this not one of the most mysterious, odd, wonderful, frustrating, and amazingly outlandish stories in all of Scripture?  I love it.  What I don't love is what the church has sometimes down with this.  Let's confess that we have taken this as permission to rain guilt on you about giving to the church.  We have, sly smile on the preacher's face...tongue in cheek...made a few jokes about what might happen to you if you don't give more to God.  When preaching on this passage, pastors (who depend on your gifts for our livelihood) who are willing to explain away how the sun stood still or how it doesn't have to be the Bible verses science, suddenly become literalists.  We confine and define "stewardship" so narrowly in our society to money.

That is because we live in a material world...we live in a world where cathedrals are build to capitalism....where we are what we spend and with the swipe of a credit card I can create a whole new identity.  Suddenly, with my skinny jeans and hipster glasses, I can try to be the cool pastor rather than just another schmuck who spent a lot of money on clothes.  So our natural and normal default is to read this passage through the lens of money.  Our natural and normal default is to read this passage as straight-forward equation that we cram into our lives.  You sell something, win something, get something, give some of it way.

But that isn't what the passage actually says.

First, we know that the early church held all things in common.  All things.  The earliest converts to the Way all pooled their resources: financial, time, and talents.  There was a common treasury that provided for all the needs of the community.  The closest we might have are the Monastic orders of St. Benedict or St. Francis or the New Monastics (click to read more).  But the vast majority of our churches really don't function in this way.  We really don't want to deal with four hundred utility bills, mortgages, groceries bills of our families.  So, there is already a difference and distinction we need to hold onto.

Second, the real issue isn't the money...it is the lying about money.  That is where this passage gets interesting in my opinion.  I recently finished the book, The Soul of Money, which talks about how much of our self-worth is wrapped up in our net-worth.  How we constantly feel like we don't have enough and are not enough.  We are ruled by scarcity rather than abundance.  We lie about this all the time.  We don't question how much money plays a role in our individual, family, community (taxes!) decisions, country and worldwide decisions.  We are now part of a global economic system that cannot turn back the clock to the good ole days...which we don't really want to give up our Smartphones any way!  Because we buy so much on credit, it is even easier to lie to ourselves and justify that we deserve this item or seek happiness from things.  While I am no literalist, I do know lots of folks like Ananias and Sapphira who are still breathing but dead inside.  I know lots of folks like Ananias and Sapphria who keep on spending their way, trying to buy happiness.  I know lots of folks who want a bigger house, a newer car, the latest and greatest technology...because.  Well, they can't quite tell you, "Why?"  Because the why is...that is what you are supposed to do.  Which we all know our mother would say, "If they jumped off the bridge, would you do that too?"

We keep on...keeping on.  We prop up an economic system, spending our way through the day.  To dive deeper...to ask the harder questions:

What do I really need?  What?  Why?

Those are exactly what the corporations are now trying to answer in thirty second soundbites of ads.  You need this Iphone.  Why?  Because it's cool...so you are cool.  It has a better camera than that old one in your pocket.  It has a new feature we won't let you use on that old phone.  In fact, we are just going to stop updating that old one...so you have to buy this new shiny one.

So...do we drop out and off the grid?  All move to the swamp of central Florida?  Or the plains of Montana?  No.
But we can be more honest about what we really need and why we want it.  I was just looking (okay drooling a bit) over the new wireless speakers...comparing the one from Amazon and Google...reading about which is which.  Why do I want one?  I would be nice to listen to music, but I can do that now.  It would be nice to turn on the lights when I am not home.  But really it is just a toy.  And that makes it a great gift idea for Christmas or my birthday.  I don't need it today.  That helps me dive deeper and realize that in the world we swim, there is a deeper soul to money that we all need to engage a bit more.

And may we do that with more than a trace of God's grace.