The first case of church discipline after Pentecost was with
a husband and wife named Ananias and Sapphira.
For an offering they sold some of their property. But when Ananias presented it to the apostles
he kept back a portion of what he had sold.
St. Peter responded: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie
to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for
yourself? It was your property. You could have done with it what you
wished. You have lied not to men but to
God.” When Ananias heard these words
he fell down and breathed his last. The
men wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what
had happened. St. Peter asked her, “Tell
me whether you have sold the land for so and so much?” And she said, “Yes, for so and so much.” Then St. Peter said to her, “How is it
that you have agreed together to test the Holy Spirit? Look, the feet of those who have already
buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out too.” And immediately she fell down at his feet and
breathed her last. The young men took
her out also and buried her.
Understandably, great fear fell upon the whole church as well as those
who were thinking about joining the church.
Those who were merely curious stayed away, but St. Luke says that the
Word of the Lord grew tremendously nonetheless.
In this first case of church discipline we see that it was
the Lord himself who carried out the punishment. The couple were not just excommunicated from
the congregation, but from the land of the living. We should see here that making offerings to
the Lord is not some trifling matter. If
someone wants to trifle with their offerings, then they would be better off not
giving them at all. That is what St.
Peter said to this couple. The money was
theirs to do with what they wanted.
Nobody forced them to give anything.
But in their keeping some of the proceeds back and then lying about it,
they had offended God so much that he punished them with death.
This strikes everyone, I think, as being overly harsh. Lying and covetousness were Ananias’ and
Sapphira’s sins. Those rank pretty low
on the natural man’s list of sins. In
fact, they are so low that they often aren’t regarded as sins at all. Folks will even go so far as to praise lying
and coveting as being shrewd. When you
understand the ineptitude of the natural man when it comes to understanding
God, then it’s not surprising that what is honorable among men is an
abomination before God, and that what is good in God’s sight is seen as
worthless in Man’s eyes. Since our
natural understanding is so abysmal in the matters of lying and covetousness,
it is good for us to spend some time in looking more closely at these sins.
There is a common denominator that ties together lying and
covetousness: self-interest or self-love.
The reason why people lie or are greedy is because they think that they
will be blessed with success by doing so.
Ananias and Sapphira thought that they would have a happier life if they
did not give away all the proceeds from their sale. Perhaps they didn’t want to appear stingy in
the eyes of their fellow congregants and so they decided to lie and say that
they gave all of it away. Who, after
all, wants to appear to be a skin-flint or a miser? And so it was their looking after themselves
that drove their actions.
What, then, is the alternative? The Bible has a lot to say about this. Jesus says “Do not worry about what you
will eat, drink, or wear. Look at the
birds and the flowers and how God takes care of them. You are more valuable than birds and
flowers. Won’t he take care of you? Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”
Jesus once commented on some mites that a woman gave. A long time ago our LWML picked up on this
language of mites for their mite boxes.
But take note of the original story.
It’s a bit different, I suspect, from the way you give your mites. This widow was not dropping in some change
that she found in her couch. It’s true
that the amount she gave was small—just a couple pennies—but that was all she
had. Jesus says that she gave more than
all the rest because she gave her whole life with those pennies. She gave out of her poverty; the rest were
giving out of their abundance.
How could she do such a thing? It is only by faith that God would continue
to provide for her and sustain her. This
is similar to the Syro-phonecian woman who housed and fed Elijah in the Old
Testament when there was such a severe famine in the land that she was going to
prepare one last meal for her and her son and then they were prepared to
die. According to the Word of the Lord
that Elijah had received he told her to prepare some for him first, and then
prepare some for herself and her son.
The jug of oil would not go dry and the bin of flour would not go empty
until rain replenished the earth, and that is what happened.
As I mentioned when I preached on this text last fall, in
the eyes of the world this widow’s actions were incredibly foolish, if not
evil. She was taking the bread out of
her dying son’s mouth and giving it to this stranger. But she was not foolish. She said there is a God and he actually does
stuff. And so I’m going to set aside my
own self-interest and put my trust in the Lord.
She and her son lived, even though, in a sense they had died. They relinquished their control over their
own lives and self-interest through faith in God. Though they remained extremely poor—they only
had enough—they nevertheless became extremely rich. They were blessed with the knowledge of God
and trust in him. This good part cannot
be taken away from them by death or the destruction of the world with all its
riches. Into God’s hands they commended
themselves (as it says in Luther’s morning and evening prayers) instead of
looking out for themselves. They were
better cared for by God than they could have been by themselves.
Those who have relinquished the control they wish to have
over their own self-interest and put their trust in the Lord also have no
reason to lie. The reason why we lie is
so that we can set things up in such a way where it seemingly will be nicer for
us. The variations of lying are
practically endless, and it is amazing how sophisticated this endeavor can
get. Lying is not just speaking a
falsehood. Lying is the use of
manipulation, innuendo, conjecture, tone of voice, and many other things. The goal is to influence and coerce others
into doing what you think would be good for yourself. The so-called silver-tongues and salesmen and
shrewd negotiators are also in this group of liars. The care and concern is only for one’s own
self and not for what is right and what is good also for the other person.
It is astounding how deeply seated lying is in our natural
selves. It is one of the first things
children develop. They learn how to
avoid punishment by lying about what they have done. They also learn what buttons to push to get
what they want out of their parents and their siblings. With the further sophistication of lying that
is gradually learned, it becomes impossible to root it out of children unless
God himself should do it. That’s because
the lie is known only to themselves, and if they do not regulate and control
themselves, then it will almost always go unpunished. And when it goes unpunished, it becomes just
a part of life. Lying for one’s own
self-interest is just expected and everybody ends up doing it as a matter of
course.
The Bible, however, presents lying as totally incompatible
with the new life of faith that we have in Christ. In our Epistle reading today St. Paul says
that there should be no filthy talk or foolish talk or crude joking. I think this is often understood as being sex
talk, but I don’t think it is only that.
I think he is also talking about the way that we can ever-so-subtly use
our tongues for evil to hurt our neighbor.
One of the best ways to belittle someone is to make little comments and
jokes. The talk can be so skillfully
done that it not possible to chastise it in someone else. If someone tried, the one doing the joking would
say, “Oh, I was just joking. Why are you
being so uptight?” but the slight was truly meant. This sniping and backbiting is responsible
for destroying many relationships.
St. Paul in our reading also speaks of us being “light in
the Lord” instead of being darkness as we once were. Being in the light means that you have
nothing to hide. Secrecy and sneaking
around are disgusting and dreadful and take a terrible toll on the soul. The way we act is to be out in the open. This can make us vulnerable. The reason why we hide things is because we
are afraid of what might happen if we speak and act openly. But it is good and holy to live that
way. Jesus is right when he tells us to let
our “yes” be “yes,” and our “no” be “no.”
Anything more than that comes from the evil one. The hemming and hawing and beating around the
bush is for the purpose of manipulating so that you can get your own way. That is from the devil.
Coveting and lying, far from being inconsequential, strike
at the very heart of the Christian faith—which is the fight between Christ and
the devil. Christ is truth and he
operates only according to the truth—even when that truth is not to one’s own
advantage. No lies here. Also no coveting. The point of everything that Jesus does is to
redeem us out of this world of corruption which is going to be destroyed so
that we can live incorruptible in the Kingdom of Love that awaits us as our
inheritance.
The devil is exactly the opposite. He is a liar and the father of lies. Deceit and deception are the only tools he
has to work with. It is only by his lies
that he has any power whatsoever, but that power is quite terrible. He is able to murder souls with his
lies. Perhaps his greatest lie of all is
that we only have one life to live, and so we better live accordingly. We dare not be generous or truthful or
courageous. These things will only make
our lives miserable. Instead we should
go after all that we possibly can that might bring us advantage or pleasure. “Coveting,” says the devil, “is the way for
you to get ahead in life.”
But this is such a whopper of a lie! Do not believe it! Jesus directly contradicts him when he says,
“Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
will keep it to eternal life.” If
you feather your own nest and live for yourself you might have a lot of
pleasure and happiness, but you better enjoy it, because in a very short time
it will all be taken away from you. But
if you die to yourself and live to God in Christ Jesus, then you will live—even
unto eternal life. This is the reason
why Christ has come—so that you may die to all evil and be filled with the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, the chief of which is love, and love does not take
delight in coveting, but rejoices in the truth.
Remember what is at the heart of all existence and for each
one of us personally—the great battle between the devil and Jesus. Lying and coveting on the one hand and
truthfulness and square dealing are on the other. These are two very different ways of living. One is the way of darkness. The other is the way of light. One is the way of death. The other is the way of life. By nature, as each of you know quite well, we
are predisposed to lying, coveting, secrecy and scheming. But that is not the way that you have learned
Christ, assuming that you have learned of him.
And so renounce the ways of darkness and come into the
light. As St. Paul says, “Walk as
children of light, for the fruit of light is found in everything that is good
and right and true.”
