Normally when people hear this passage from Acts, or some later ones dealing with the same thing of the disciples and new converts sharing everything in common, they are sort of shocked. Some question whether that really happened, and if it did how it really worked. Some wonder why they stopped and why the church doesn’t call for the same thing today. And on the opposite of that, some wonder why they were promoting communism when clearly we need to value and support private property. And perhaps all of those questions are the right and the wrong questions to be asking. The fact is that we don’t know for sure that the early church practiced this in the form that Luke reports, or if he was embellishing a little. But, we do know that there were communities that lived communally. All indications are that the Qumran community, from which we get the Dead Sea scrolls, live communally.
So it’s still there, and yet this practice does not seem to have lasted for very long in the church, and maybe not outside of Jerusalem, as there is no indication in Paul’s letters of converts being called to this behavior. In fact, he chastises the Corinthian community for not sharing their food and drink when they gather together, which may have led to communion becoming separate from a communal meal. But, the fact that Luke, who is the writer of Acts, tells us several times that they were doing this, indicates that it was a fairly important practice, because in chapter 5 we are told the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who sell some property they own, but lie about how much they sell it for, keeping some of the money for themselves. And when they both lie about it, they both drop dead, pretty harsh penalty, but Peter says that in doing what they have done, they did not lie to them, but they lied to God. And so there you go.<
In our series on looking at what is at the heart of the matter, we have looked at having a heart of peace and a heart of love, and today we look at having a heart of generosity. And so we have to again see that the reason the apostles and early converts are doing this, or at least one of the reasons, as there are many reasons why they are doing this, is so that no one would be in need. This act of generosity, or as we talked about last week, this act of agape love, of giving of themselves for others, doesn’t just happen by itself. It actually comes about after several things have happened. The first is a conversion to follow Christ, and this passage comes after the Pentecost story, so we’re up to more than 3000 followers at this point. Then once they are converted, then we are told that they devote themselves, so note this is not just a casual thing they are doing, not just a once a week activity for one hour, but they devote themselves to four activities.
They devote themselves to the apostle’s teaching, they devote themselves to fellowship, they devote themselves to the breaking of bread, and they devote themselves to prayer. That is, after they accept Christ, they begin practicing what we call spiritual disciplines, worshipping, Bible study, praying and participating in the sacraments. John Wesley said that these were not only means of God’s grace, of coming to know God’s love, but also the things that we were to do as part of being Christian, attending upon the ordinances of God were his words. That is deepening our relationship with God and our faith, then we come to understand giving as well as a spiritual practice, and we learn to give not because we have to, not as an obligation, but because we couldn’t imagine doing anything else. It just flows naturally from our faith, from having hearts of love and peace. And it connects us to our giving, our generosity, in unique ways.
As I’ve said before, our wallet tends to be the last thing to be converted, because we have to be connected to something in a different way to give, and certainly to give generously. If Yale were to contact me to ask for a gift, they aren’t likely to get anything from me, because I have no relationship with Yale. But if Harvard were to contact me, I’d at least listen to them, because I have a relationship with them. Now I probably wouldn’t give anything, and haven’t, because they have a 41 billion dollar endowment, and they don’t need my money. I can be generous elsewhere and make a much bigger difference, but I will at least listen. And so I guess I could say that my wallet has not been full converted in my support and relationship with Harvard, but it has been converted in other areas. But that generosity came not immediately, but after the fact, and the same tends to be true here. We tend to be generous after we have learned other things. Now we can be taught generosity by others, our parents in particular, but it to usually comes in relationship to where there heart is.
In fact, Jesus says exactly that. Where your money is, or where your treasure is, is where your heart will be. and yet, we can move our money to where are heart is by making those things our treasurers. That is why the giving of generosity came after conversion and after the practicing of the other spiritual disciplines. It recalculated their treasures and their priorities, and then their money and their hearts were tied up in the same place. And that’s why the story of Ananias and Sapphira is so important, because it shows us the opposite story. They were trying to put forward a good front, but their hearts were not truly committed, and so they tried to hold back, and what’s worse is that they weren’t even honest about it. I’ve heard lots of stories in my time in ministry about why people are or are not giving, or not giving at the level they would like, some good, some not so good, but at least there was honesty, and striving towards something is better than deception about it, because, as Paul says, God will not be fooled.
Of course what Paul also says is that God loves a cheerful giver, and someone who gives not out of compulsion but from the heart, and that giving, that generosity is much easier, first when we remember what God has already given, and that God provides, and second when our heart has been changed, converted, and third when we remember that we are made in the image of God, and God is a giver. God gave his only son, to us, to save us, and then Christ gave of himself, by sacrificing himself, giving of himself, giving of his life, so, as the reading for 1 Peter for today says, “so that free from sins, we might live for righteousness…” for we were going astray, like sheep, but now we “have been returned to the shepherd and the guardian of [our] souls.” And the shepherd is our guardian and our keeper, our provider and our source, the one who prepares a table for us, the one who makes us to lie down in green grass beside still waters, the one who restores our soul.
In more traditionally liturgical churches, today is called Good Shepherd Sunday, with most of the passages revolving around imagery of God and Jesus as the shepherd, including the 23rd Psalm. That imagery is a powerful one, probably why it’s so used, and perhaps a little misunderstood by us in an age in which we don’t see or know any shepherds, but that’s a different story for a different time. But the shepherd works to protect the sheep, including risking their lives against wild predators, and even, as Jesus makes reference to, those who want to steal the sheep. The shepherd gives their all, and knows the sheep by name, and unlike western shepherds who follow from behind, in the middle east now and then, shepherds led their sheep from the front, and so God calls to us to get up and follow. But the sheep also provided for the shepherd in milk, which can also become cheese, and in wool, which can become clothing and other items. The shepherd gives, and the sheep also give, and they are able to give because of what the shepherd has done for them.
Generosity, giving, is about us, because it is a representation about where our treasure is and where our heart is; it’s about our ability to give ourselves for other, to truly practice the love that we are called to show for the world. And here’s the thing, God doesn’t want generosity from us, God wants generosity for us. Because our ability to be generous is about the depth and width and length of our faith and spiritual lives. The more committed we are in our faith, the greater the ability we have to give of ourselves. And remember it’s not about the amount, after all the widow in putting in her two pennies, Jesus says, has given more than anyone else, and it’s not even just about money, because we also have to learn to give of ourselves and our time and our love and our creativity and our talent and our kindness and our energy and our knowledge, glory, praise, respect, honor, power, listening, enthusiasm, promises, joy, hope, worship, help and ourselves, it’s to give of all that we are for what the world needs. It flows out of us not as a command, as a requirement, it flows out of us because when we are filled with God’s love and grace and peace, it overflows into the world. And it flows out of being devoted to our faith and to our discipleship, and in building up our faith, and deepening our faith, then generosity, just like peace and love, are bound to flow from us. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
Based on a series created by Dr. Marcia McFee, Worship Design Studio
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