Garrett Vickrey 4.22.15 10:45 AM Worship Yours, Mine and Ours Acts 4:32-5:11 Woodland Baptist Church San Antonio, TX There s no cuddly sheep in this story. So it may seem like an odd choice for Good Shepherd Sunday. Instead of sheep tales, we hear of Barnabas giving the proceeds of the sale of his field to the community, and in contrast there s a frightening anecdote about a couple who misrepresents their gifts to the Christian community a sin, which when unveiled leads to their death. Good Shepherd Sunday is a day for us to remember the way God cares for us and sustains us even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We should not fear for God s rod and staff comfort us. In Acts, Barnabas puts this belief in God as shepherd into practice, while Ananias and Sapphira who refuse to be sheep. Instead, they took their security into their own hands by holding back some of the proceeds of the sale of their field. Just in case this whole Christian community thing doesn t work out, they wanted to have a little something set aside. They wanted to make sure they were taken care of. Security is the ultimate idol. Stanley Hauerwas writes, We are vulnerable animals who seek to secure and establish our lives in improper ways, living by our wits rather than by our faith. 1 There s a lot of reasons why we choose to live by our wits and not by our faith. There s a lot of reasons why we hold back like Ananias and Sapphira. We tell ourselves we will give when we reach a certain point. Maybe we think we give money so we don t need to give ourselves our time, our talent. Maybe we just don t think we have enough to make a difference. But, remember that stewardship is a way of life that flows out of our relationship with God. Stewardship is the faithful administration of our time, talent and treasure. And if practiced faithfully it helps us live from a feeling of abundance rather than scarcity. Giving is not just for those who have it is for those who seek God. Some of you may have had experiences with churches or pastors who always talked about 1
money or did so in strange ways. Maybe they always seemed overeager maybe that describes me. There s an old story about two men who were lost on a deserted Island. One man paced back and forth worried and scared while the other man sat back and relaxed in the sun. The first man said to the second man, "aren t you afraid we are about to die." "No," said the second man, "I make $100,000 a week and tithe faithfully to my church every week. My Pastor will find me." We all know horror stories of how churches have abused money. There are prosperity gospel preachers out there who will tell you that if you give to their ministries God will bless you because God wants to make you rich. But, that s not Luke s message here. In Luke and Acts, Luke see the perils of idolatry that tempt us through the security of our material possessions. I m sure that there are people out there somewhere with this story of Ananias and Sapphire in mind who are printing T-shirts that say Tithe or die. But, that s not what Peter is saying. You could accuse me of trying to protect God s reputation here (and maybe you d be right), but it doesn t directly say that God killed Ananias and Sapphira. It is when they are confronted with the truth, called out in their lies, that they fall down dead. You could accuse me of trying to protect Peter s reputation here, but how could he have nicely confronted people who are trying to deceive everyone. Ananias and Sapphira were trying to make everyone think that they were doing the same thing as Barnabas. They weren t. And Peter calls them out. Confronting lies like this is always going to seem harsh to those who perpetuate lies. Ripping away lies in this way and exposing them to the truth is always painful if not deadly. If we cling to idols long enough we become so reliant on them they are like a feeding tube, which when removed leaves us lifeless. If Peter hadn t confronted the lies and deceit and the greed and self-service among the people, it would have been the death of the church. The Good New here is that perhaps there s something we can learn from Barnabas. He takes his name from the apostles. He lets 2
himself be defined by community, not needing to cling to his own proud definitions of who he is. He is from Cyprus which will come up later in Acts and he is a Levite. In the Old Testament the Levites weren t given any land when the Promised Land was broken up between the tribes. They were the priestly class. They were not to possess land. Sometimes they would be given land, but they were not to see it as theirs. Perhaps, there s something we can learn from these Levites. This land and all that is on it all we have is not really ours at all. And the more we see it all as borrowed blessings, the more fully we can live into the life God is giving us. Barnabas knows that this land is not really his. In essence, all things come from God. And so he takes this brave step in giving back what he had been steward of. But, that s not all. He continues to live out his name Son of Encouragement. It s Barnabas later in the story who goes out on a limb to meet a man who claims to have had an encounter with Jesus. Nobody else wanted to go near this man because he had been going after and killing Christians. He had ordered their leader, Stephen, to be stoned to death. But, Barnabas steps up and goes to meet Saul. And Saul takes on a new name becoming Paul, the Apostle. Paul went on to bring the gospel to the rest of the world and write half of the New Testament. So what we learn about Barnabas in just a few verses is that he is an encourager. But, he s not all words, he backs up his words in sacrificial giving. Maybe it s that kind of sacrificial giving which gives him courage to go see Paul. It s his willingness to do so that changes history. The juxtaposition of these 2 stories says a lot about who we are doesn t it? Churches are made up of both those who give unreservedly and those who hold back. At the same time that we are of one heart and soul, we are not. Even within ourselves Sometimes we are Barnabas and sometimes we are dead to the need that surrounds us. Or really, sometimes we refuse to come alive to all that our combined gifts could do for the dreams of God for this world. Stewardship is not just something we do just so that we can pay the light bill or even just to provide support for missionaries though each of those is important. 3
Stewardship is a spiritual practice. It s the spiritual practice of learning to let go of the money, possessions, time, and the talents we hold back. In holding these things back we never realize the full potential of who we are and what we could do. Because instead of relying on our faith in the Good Shepherd we rely on our wits. By the time John Rockefeller was 23 he had become a millionaire and that was in 1862! By the time he was 50 he had become the first billionaire. Every move he made, every decision he made, every friend he made from the time he started working as a teenager was a part of a plan to make money. By the time he was in his fifties he had worked himself to death. His entire body was racked with pain. He lost all of his hair. The only foods he could digest were milk and crackers. His doctors predicted he would die within a year. Days and weeks dragged on and he could barely get out of bed. As he approached death he awoke one morning with vague recollections of a dream. He could barely remember what he had dreamed, but knew it had something to do with not being able to take any of his successes with him into the next world. This man who could control the business world suddenly realized he was not in in control of his own life. He made a choice. He called his attorneys, accountants, and managers and announced that he wanted to channel his assets to hospitals, research, and mission work. Following a dream John Rockefeller established his foundation. This foundation led to the discovery of penicillin, cures for current strains of malaria, tuberculosis and diphtheria. The list of discoveries resulting from his choice is enormous. But, perhaps the most amazing part of Rockefeller s story is that after he began to give he was changed. Not just in mind or spirit. His body s chemistry was altered so significantly that he got better. Though it looked as if he would die at 53 he lived to be 98. Our bottom line easily becomes our means of understanding our own intrinsic value if we don t learn to see differently. When we practice generosity and begin to see ourselves as stewards of the gifts of earth then we can begin to 4
see ourselves for who we truly are and our neighbors become a blessing instead of a burden. A church in a west Texas city was in trouble. The Sanctuary burned down in a fire in the middle of the summer. The church had some insurance money coming, but it wasn t enough to cover all the expenses. They still needed to pool some money together to rebuild. The deacons and the pastor met one night in the fellowship hall of the church to make decisions about what to do next. As the chair of deacons explained the situation to the group, Frank stepped in from outside at the back of the room. The door creaked as he entered everyone turned to see a man who had not stepped foot in that church in twenty years, except to attend the funeral of his wife 2 years ago. Frank had a reputation about town for being well Frank. He said what he thought. He was fiercely independent. He was a rancher who owned a decent little ranch just outside town. Frank didn t believe much in what the church taught, but his wife was there every Sunday until her untimely death of cancer. Needless to say, it was a surprise to see Frank at the deacons meeting. He didn t waste anytime. He said, Well, You looked surprised to see me here. I ll get to the point, here s a check for $50,000. Frank Said. The room was stunned. The pastor fell out of his chair and caught himself just before he hit the floor. So Frank continued, You all know me, and you know I haven t been the most regular of attenders around here. Probably like you, I get asked all the time for donations from the hospital, the college, the symphony; all good things, I guess. When my wife got sick the symphony didn t call and check on her. When she came home from chemo the college didn t bring dinner over. After she died all I got from the hospital was a bill. But this church, your heart broke in half with mine when she died. You took my pain upon yourself, and now I want to do the same. In this place as a community of faith we give because we want to be changed. We give because we seek to follow the Good Shepherd, and we can t do that if we are clinging to what holds us back. We give of ourselves to each other because we follow Jesus who took our pain upon himself and in sharing in our pain we share in his life now and forever. We call him 5
Lord not for his sake but for ours. So that we remember that everything we have comes from him. Whatever is yours, mine and ours is really not ours. It s all borrowed blessings. God, seems to have a lot of faith in us as stewards of the gifts God gives. The question for the church in Acts and maybe even the church today is: Do we have that same faith in each other? 6
1 Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN: 1989). 7