“Whoops”

“Whoops”

Meditation – Saturday, August 10, 2024

Acts 4: 32 – 5: 11 (Forward, p. 12) CEV p. 1138

No wonder the church members were afraid, just as was everyone else who heard about it. Imagine, being struck down dead by God because you lied to Him (or to His representatives). Lied about the sale price you got from selling a piece of property and pretending that the funds you handed over constituted the entire amount and being punished for that: this certainly is something enough to trouble anyone.

I have a couple of ideas that might explain their behaviour. Number one, they wanted to get on the bandwagon and share some of the limelight, praise, and accolades that such people as Barnabas had received. Certainly, that would have been attractive. And number two, nonetheless, they were concerned about their own financial security, which, to me, is only reasonable. They wanted to hedge their bets against future downturns in the economy etc., which, to me, is quite wise. However, on both counts, where they made a fatal mistake (no pun intended), was in pretending that the amount they gave to the apostles was the entire proceeds from the sale.

So, what can we ‘take’ from this isolated incident from the life of the early church? I have often thought that the donors ‘beggared’ themselves, selling their own homes and revenue properties, but it doesn’t say that, at least, not explicitly. However, the account comes close to intimating that, for it says that none of them claimed that their possessions were their own. So, it sounds like an early form of communalism, a kind of voluntary socialism—and here I would emphasize the word, ‘voluntary’. Even the apostle Peter, in alluding to what Ananias and Sapphira had done, clearly explained that how they distributed their money was entirely up to them. So, the bottom line was that no one went without—at least within the church, a very laudable and commendable outcome indeed.

But was it a wise policy to sell everything and have everything in common, own everything communally—and certainly to the point, is it a policy that we should adopt, as do the present-day Hutterites? I don’t think that with the early church in Jerusalem it was a wise policy at all, for later they fell on hard times, a famine, and had no reserves to fall back on (see Acts 11: 27-29), such that the rest of the church needed to ‘bail them out’ (see Paul’s appeal in 2 Corinthians 8-9). But perhaps I’m just reflecting my capitalistic background here.

That said, this account raises yet another question for me, namely whether we ever lie to God, or make promises to God which we do not thereafter keep or adhere to—which is a kind of lying? And then, in a similar vein, make promises to ourselves, others, or the church, which we do not then keep? (The Bible has some very strong words about the breaking of promises or covenants, so this is something that we need to take very seriously). Anyway, this passage gives us lots of food for thought.

Forward notes: “’Ananias,’ Peter asked, ‘why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land?’” (chapter 5, verse 3).

“When we collect a church offering and present it to the Lord, we often recite these words: ‘All things come of thee O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.’ These words help me reframe my net worth. Nothing is really mine; I simply have the use of it while I am here on earth.

“The practice of communal living and sharing all of one’s possessions is foreign to most of us. Perhaps we can identify with Ananias for wanting to keep back some of the proceeds from the sale of his land. It seems like a smart business move. And not even Peter condemns this strategy, saying, ‘Were not the proceeds at your disposal?’ The sin is not in keeping back a share of the proceeds but rather in lying to God about it.

“Only a few are called to take a vow of poverty and renounce their worldly possessions. The rest of us are merely asked to give what we can to the church. That offering is, and always has been, between us and God.”

Moving Forward: “During your church’s annual giving campaign, are you prayerful about your pledge?”