© Rev. Lance Carrithers, all rights reserved.  Permission required to copy any portion of this message by any means. Email for permission: lance@firstchurchdc.com

"A Scary Story"

ACTS 5:1-11

           Ooooo.  A scary story.  Fitting for the day, don’t you think?   Weren’t you scared when you heard it?  You weren’t? 

Well, the whole church who first heard about these events were scared.  Luke tells us so.  Look again at verse 11.   “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

            Ooooo.

            Do you know why it scared them so?

            Two people dropped dead, just like that.   That could create a bit of a scare.  You know how people get when they hear of someone dropping mysteriously dead.  Let alone, two people, mysteriously dead.    West Nile?  Hantavirus?   What caused it?

            Apparently, the two, husband and wife, tried to pull a fast one on God.  That’s the jist of it.  They professed their faith in Jesus as the very Son of God, and became a part of the first Christian community of believers, who, you’ll read in  the previous chapter, chapter 4 pooled all their resources for the good of the community.  Listen:

            “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

            Ananias and Sapphira  joined up with this community, and they sold off their land, and came and put the money at the apostle’s feet, just like others had. 

            But before they had done so, they put back a little nest egg of their own.   You know, just in case the community of believers couldn’t be relied upon to meet their needs.  Luke doesn’t say how much they held back, that’s not the point.  Just that what they laid at the apostle’s feet was not all of it.

            Peter knew.  And confronted Ananias.  And Ananias really didn’t have any defense for his action, instead, dropping to the ground, dead.

            They carry him out, and soon after Sapphira comes in.  Peter points to the little pile of money at his feet, and he asks her, was this the price you received for your land?

            “Every penny,” she tells him.  Peter then confronts her, and almost immediately, Sapphira joins her husband in eternal rest, and is carried out also.

            And the story of these two deaths, frightened the whole church.

            I think I know why.

            The story is scary because the subject is scary.  Oh, I don’t mean death.  No--I think it created great fear in the church because the topic was money.  And giving.  You really want to scare a church?   Tell them it’s time to talk about tithing.  Tell a church it’s time for the big money sermon.  Then you’ll see a church seized with fear?

            You know?  Folks will laugh with me about just about anything.  But when the topic is giving and a Christian’s use of money, well...folks often aren’t in a laughing mood.

            Money is such a private thing.  We don’t like to talk about money, not how much money we make, certainly not how much money we give.  “It’s between me and God,” folks will say.  And they couldn’t be more right!

            Giving is between the believer and God.  But the truth is, we forget that sometimes.  That’s what happened I think with Ananias and Sapphira.  They forgot that what they were doing was between them and God, and they thought it was just between them and the apostles, and who would ever notice if a part of it was withheld and put away for a rainy day?  And if they did notice, who would blame them?

            But Peter reminds them, that their giving indeed was between them and God, and God had never withheld anything from them, had never sought to trick or deceive them.  “You have not lied to men” Peter tells Ananias, “you have lied to God.”

            There is much in this story that just doesn’t fit with who we are today.  We don’t hold all of our property and resources in common in the church today.  We don’t pool all that we have and take care of the needs of all from it.  So it’s easy to simply dismiss this story and say, “it doesn’t really fit.”    You reckon that’s why it doesn’t scare us so much today?

            But there is one thing that remains very much the same.

            Ananias and Sapphira were left to their own free will as they chose what to do with their resources.   They alone made the decision to be a part of the community of faith.  They knew what that meant.  And they alone, decided to see if there was a “short cut” to the responsibility to being a member of the community of faith.   They alone, made the miscalculation that their actions were between them and the others in the community.  They were the ones who forgot that their actions were a part of a covenant between them and God.  You see, that’s where they had no choice--whether or not their actions had anything to do with their relationship with God. 

            Ah--perhaps we have much more in common with Ananias and Sapphira than we first thought.  We too, have free will to choose what we will do with our resources, don’t we?  The church does not force us to be a part of it, not does it tell us what we MUST do once we are a part of it.   We have a responsibility, but we have a choice.  And we also have the temptation to short cut that responsibility, something that happens when we forget that our actions are part of a covenant between ourselves and God. 

            We have a choice whether or not to make a commitment to give resources to Christ’s work in this church.   We have a choice whether or not to honor that commitment once it is made.  We have a choice whether or not that commitment will represent a tithe, or at least a portion of all that God has given us.  What we  do not have a choice in, is whether or not our actions have anything to do with our relationship with God.

            Every household in our congregation has been mailed a “Living Water” and “Foundations of Faith” combination mailing.  In it are materials to hopefully prepare us to prayerfully consider our commitment to Christ through this church in the coming year, as well as provide an opportunity to help us finish our obligation to the “Foundations of faith” building renovation.. 

            In the mailing is information about our church financial picture.  Each year, it takes nearly 650,000 to continue the ministry of this congregation.   The Living Water brochure identifies our most important ministries, along with some idea as to how our budget breaks down.

The mailing also contains information about our church’s giving habits.   Of the 630 or so households in our congregation, about one third, or 150 provided  two-thirds of our church’s income, and the other two thirds of the giving households provided the remaining one third of our church’s income.   But the really scary thing is this:  There are 187 member households  with no recorded gift at all in 2004.

            As you review these materials, resist the temptation to quickly fill out your pledge card with a flat number.  It’s too easy to write in a round number, and give say, 50 or 100 dollars a month.   But to do so does not connect us with the generosity of God.  To do so fails to take even a moment to reflect upon what God has given us, and to make our own giving in proportion to what we have received.

            That’s why the Bible emphasizes tithing, I think.  To put before us a percentage, rather than a dollar figure.  To put before us a means by which we will have to calculate what God has done for us before we turn around to give.

            When you bring your commitment cards back to worship in the next two weeks, I want you to bring them forward to the altar, and when you do, you will be invited to select a stone from the fountain we have here, to remember your commitment with God.

            After all, our giving is between God and ourselves.

            Also in the mailing from the church is information concerning the final year of Foundations of Faith.  I hope you’ll also take time to read the fact card on Foundations of Faith.  When the original campaign was completed two years ago, we had 244 families, roughly 40% of our member households who participated and made a commitment.  I know some of you weren’t here then.  Like my family, you moved here since the original campaign and perhaps assumed it was all taken care of.

            The truth is, we will need the help of new families and households who have become a part of our church since Foundations of Faith began.  We will also need the help of some households who perhaps just weren’t in a position to pledge then, but who have been able to give toward the project, or who could begin to give toward it in the final year.

            Finally, I know quite a number of you here have given faithfully to the project.  Now that construction is complete, we will need to raise additional funds if we still aim to have it all paid for by November of 2005.

            As we continue with our special worship emphasis in the coming month, we will examine together what it means to both receive and to share the Living Water offered by Jesus Christ.  We will talk about being channels of God’s grace, and we will focus on the showers of God’s blessings that has been poured out upon us. 

            On each of the next two Sundays, we will have an opportunity to bring our commitments to the altar, selecting a remembrance stone from the fountain to remind us of our vows.  I hope you’ll be with us now through Thanksgiving, and that you will prayerfully consider your own commitment.