What Needs to Go?
July 22, 2007
Acts 4:36- 5:13
This story of Ananias and Sapphira is nearly extinct. No one talks about this story. There’s no historicity to it and theologically it’s tough because two people drop dead at the feet of the apostles. And, it involves money, who wants to touch this? No one. It’s the beauty of the lectionary plan of preaching the Bible, they skip stuff like this. But, I think it’s important to not skip. If we’re going to be rooted in this stuff, to really look at it and consider what it means and why it’s here. However, I think we would be better suited if we had a more modern example of this story. So, Dacia helps me bring a clip to us today from the 1997 film Liar, Liar. Jim Carey plays Fletcher Reede, a father whose family includes a son named Max. Fletcher makes his money as a fast talking attorney who has built his career on lying. He has a habit of giving precedence to his job and breaking promises to his son, which comes to a head with he misses Max’ birthday party. At this birthday party Max wishes that his father would have to spend one entire day not being able to lie. When his wish comes true all sorts of havoc ensues leading us to our scene today when Fletcher tries to get Max to take it back. Watch this clip and try to determine which Biblical characters these two line up with.
Show clip
Didn’t that clip help with clearer telling of today’s story? You see, Fletcher is Ananias. Fletcher is Ananais and he’s sitting down to have a chat with Peter. Max is Peter. This is so beautiful because it makes the apostolic teacher, a child and the misguided disciple/student an adult. This is another Biblical imperative, to let the children lead us. Peter is deeply concerned about the life of the church, the covenantal community that has come together because they have been so convinced by the signs and wonders that something has shifted within them. They no longer want to live by the rules of the world, but this other world. They want to be signs that another kind of living is possible. And, it’s so incredible this kind of living instead of making you feel anxious, worn down, barely making it, it helps you to feel lifted up, a part of something important, enough. Peter knows that it doesn’t matter what kind of conversion you have, or how long it lasts, if you’re not in relationship, it can not sustain itself. Max, clarifies, he understands completely what his father is saying…but the result leads to death, it hurts him, and it has to stop. When we choose to live for ourselves and not the community we have made a choice.
Max is attempting to help Fletcher to get his act together by giving Fletcher an opportunity to make better choices. Choices that will not only make himself feel better, but choices that will help instead of harm the community. If you look at their faces…Max is gently but firmly cooperating with Fletcher but he is clear that this is not something you can mess around with. And, the reasoning behind Max’s wish? His father’s lies hurt people, and hurt him. Upon hearing this, Fletcher’s face changes. Recognition…I’m hurting this child. I’m choosing to hurt this child. That’s not OK. And, it’s this recognition that points to the real truth trying to be born from this teaching by Peter. We make millions of choices every day. And, so many of us have had this conversation with at least one kid in our lifetimes or ourselves. And, what we rarely acknowledge, is when we try to deceive ourselves, when we try to sell out our community, when we try to avoid relationship we are breaking that covenant we made with God and it begins to suck the life from us. God doesn’t smite this couple. Jesus doesn’t kill this couple. The Spirit didn’t cut these folks off. Even Peter can not be blamed for their death. There were no words that anyone said creating this couple to die. Instead, it is of their own shame or self hatred that these two drop dead. They choose, they make bad choices and it kills them. Just like when we begin to play these word games trying to justify what we do, even when we know it is wrong, it also begins to cut us off from ourselves, and our relationships with one another. The first person we sell out in trying to pull something off, is ourselves. God offers us grace to come around, to name what we’ve done and begin again. Peter as the teacher of the church, he asks each of the member’s of the couple to begin again…tell me, tell me about this gift you’ve publicly given. The moment this couple decided to make a public witness professing faithful support while not following the promises made to their family they separated themselves from the community, and elevated themselves as more important than the community. This is the thinking of empire, Peter warns, this is not the sign of a different kind of world.
We all know people who have clung to their money so tightly, or have been so anxious about money in their living, that they have built a world of deception that destroys their life as well as the relationships around them. It is usually not immediate, but instead slowly drains their life and relationships away, or stresses them out into a bundle of stress related health issues. And, when these people are about to die, you sense an isolation in them and in the deepest most spiritual sense a deep regret, a regret that he had not been part of a great thing, a generous thing. But, God can not do this for us. The living Christ can not do this for us. The Spirit can not force us, we must choose. We must choose to be the generous people from the beginning that we might live out of a Spirit of generosity instead of a spirit of Inadequacy.
The community responds to this teaching by being seized with great fear. But, the fear is not of God. For God did not cause these two to fall down…they chose with their own actions. We often have these experiences of signs or wonders. A car accident, a death, a sickness…and we want to say, God is really shaking me up, or punishing me, or casting me out. However, these are again the voices of inadequacy, not something that would come from a generous God that is constantly pregnant with new life. When we have these conversion moments. When we have these realizations…Fletcher Reede finally got it from the words and look his son gave him. Dad, you’re hurting me. Your words hurt me. Fletcher’s own lying disconnected him, was alienating him from his son. He was choosing to create a distance and separation from his son. But, if this conversion moment, he could understand and then be supported by community to hold him accountable for his truth. To help him have the tools to be truthful, a new way of being in the world would be possible. In order to support this kind of transformation in the world, we must choose to open ourselves to forming a new kind of community, with a new set of rules in which we hold our choices to. We must eradicate the idea of making decisions out of fear and inadequacy for they are cancerous to ourselves and our community. And instead, open ourselves to the generous blessings of God and the power of truthful commitment.
Once we begin selling out we are choosing death. Once we begin selling out we are choosing to live in relationship to the empire, that whoever has the most toys wins. Once we begin selling out we have stopped listening to the Still Speaking God and ended the promises of generosity and community.
When we find ourselves alone, a good thing to ask ourselves is, what lies have I told myself? My family? The world.
We are a people of endless opportunity. We believe in being the land of fully human community in all of its blemishes and screw ups. Because we believe in the Spirit of Generosity. And we know, that we are enough with God. And, we aren’t fooling ourselves, we aren’t fooling one another, and we most definitely aren’t fooling God when we choose to tell lies. It corrupts us. Beauty is something that comes from within. And it radiates out, touching all in its path. Are we open to being truthful about this? Or will we choose the isolated, lonely path of “plenty”.
If we are going to be the people of God, we have to mean it, with all of our lives, not just on Sunday, not just in worship, but in relationship with one another and in relationship to the world. Let us pray.