Acts 5.1-2 1 Now a
man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of
property. 2 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. – St.
Luke
I don’t think Ananias and Sapphira were evil; I think
they just wanted some attention. I think they just wanted to be well thought of
by the local church. I think what they did wrong, was to try to impress people
and to be phony – why they died for that, I’m not sure. What happened as a
result was the whole church realized how serious the belief and commitment were
supposed to be.
Many today have strains of: look at how wonderful I am. It’s human nature. But if we took our
place in the church seriously we would only ever say: we are unworthy servants. The hallmark of servanthood is this: it doesn’t seek attention for itself; it
just does. Is that worth dying over? It depends on how you view it...
Yesterday I had a first: I performed a wedding on a
dismal rainy day. Fortunately, we were in a tent out of the rain, but it rained
hard throughout the day. The good news is not all weddings are rainy day
affairs. (Some, post nuptials, may think they are, but not all are.) The Book
of Acts is full of firsts: not everyone died for being phony.
But like the irreparable Day of Pentecost, Ananias and
Sapphira were – to my understanding – an irreparable occurrence. A point was
made, strongly, and that was enough.
Everyone got the point. The Bible is full of accounts of phony people. Maybe
this time there was more to the story than we’re allowed to know. (I’ll bet
phoniness hit an all-time low after that…)
I think part of the point here is genuineness; as in: let’s do a better job in this part of our
faith. The early church (as well as the Church today) was surrounded by
phoniness. The Apostles were accosted by
phoniness from the religious leaders. There were people who wanted in on the
action of the New Church whose motives were less than pure. We have to ask
ourselves: where do we stand? And
when is the last time someone in our church died for being phony? What effect
would that have on the rest of us?
Was the phoniness of Ananias and Sapphira enough to keep
them out of Heaven? Or were their deaths a sign to the early believers that God
is intolerant of phoniness? I think there was more to the story. But I also
think the point was made.
Father, I confess
phoniness in my own life. I confess that I get lazy in my belief, and I know
You know all this. I pray to be genuine. But I think when I do, You may reply:
Paul, why do you ask Me for what you already have? Genuineness is the result of
my relationship with You Lord, and my true view of Who I think You are, and
what I think You do. When I think of all the shenanigans that happen in modern church,
I am surprised that not more of us die for our misuse of faith and abuse of
Your grace. But You are gracious and good and there is a reason those two died
for being stupid. Help me at least to avoid that. Amen
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