Today's passage continues where chapter four left off concerning how people gave all of their resources to God through the oversight of the apostles.
Two of the converts to the faith, Ananias and Sapphira are married and sell a piece of property but do not give all of the proceeds to the apostles. Rather than admit that they were not donating the entirety of the sale, they cover up the actual profit margin. Peter seems to know Ananias is lying and we infer that this discernment is from the Holy Spirit.
After he accuses Ananias of trying to deceive God, Ananias dies.
Peter then sets up his wife Sapphira by asking her if the price Ananias quoted was the actual sale price. When she agrees, he tells her what happened to her husband and that the same fate will befall her. She dies as well.
While I've been aware of this story for a long time, I've never utilized this text for a stewardship sermon!
I'm uncomfortable with this story. It seems as if God has struck them dead for their deceit. If this were God's regular practice, the church would either be very empty (everyone would be dead) or very full (everyone would be terrified).
The death penalty seems a big much for deceit. People that commit perjury today don't get this kind of sentencing.
It reminds me of the story of Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant from 2 Samuel 6:6-7:
When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God. (NRSV)This seems even more unjust because it appears that Uzzah was trying to stabilize the ark so that it didn't fall.
My interpretation is that we don't approach God with the same kind of fear and awe that they did in ancient times. It could have been that each of these died of shock because they believed that God would kill them.
In Uzzah's sake, he may have deeply believed the teachings of Numbers 4:15 which stated,
When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the Kohathites shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, or they will die. (NRSV)As modern science continues to unravel the mysteries of the brain, we are finding out how powerful belief can be.
As an alternate to the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, we see that the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits were being healed. The power of their faith was so great that they would seek for Peter's shadow to fall upon the ill as if one could receive healing by association!
One of the story's juxtapositions of popular belief in that day was that you had people of wealth (property owners) fall out of God's favor while the poor (those considered unclean) were being blessed. This story seems to be a fulfillment of the words of Jesus from Luke 16:13:
No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (NRSV)
What does it mean for me to hold God in awe? What if I refused to shape God in my image but rather allowed God to shape me to become someone who is more Christlike?
Prayer for the Day:
We humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and for the glory of thy name turn from us all those evils that we most righteously have deserved; and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living, to thy honor and glory; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer from the Church of England, Book of Common Prayer
Photo by Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license
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