Reading Luke/Acts Together #58 – The 3rd Conversion
How strange were the first Christians in the ancient world? Strange indeed! - but not as strange as they would be today. Acts shares what we feel is a semi-embarrassing fact about the first followers of Christ: they engaged in a social experiment we'd call "communist." "No one said that anything which he possessed was his own; they held everything in common. And with great power they gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord" (Acts 4:32).
Aren't the two thoughts there inseparable? a stunning cause and effect? So enthralled with Jesus were his first followers that possessions just seemed trivial. They caught on to the sheer delights of giving treasures away. And because of this revolution in the soul, this declaration of independence from the tyranny of consumerism and possessions, their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord indeed had great power. Pagans complained about the generosity of the early Christians, and understood quite well why the church was growing and vital while paganism was dwindling.
We will never get through to people who don't believe, we will always cause people to yawn indifferently to us, we will never discover the joy of following Christ as long as we mimic the grab-bag ideals of this society that says More is better! Get newer, shinier things! Protect your stuff! Before you give, be sure it's something you don't really need any more, and that the one receiving truly deserves your grand generosity. No! Instead, travel lighter. Give what you might prefer to keep. It’s for God. It’s love.
American Christians insulate faith into some little compartment that doesn't touch what we own. Private property, my freedom to do what I want with what I earn, is more sacred than God almighty to us. But the first Christians were close enough to Jesus to understand that he meant business (literally!), that this faith jams its way into every corner of your world, that you give evidence of Jesus not just in your head or by your words, but also with your stuff - and all of it. Martin Luther said we need three conversions - of the head, the heart, and the pocketbook.
You and I get possessed by our possessions in sneaky ways - and it may take a shocking phone call in the middle of the night or a stunning turn in life to break your soul's addiction to things. Maybe God let the things you have fall into your hands so you could feel the delight God feels when you give it away with abandon. Or there’s this thought from Willie Jennings that I like a lot: in the early church, and we might wish in our church today, “Money here will be used to destroy what money normally is used to create: distance and boundaries between people... God watches and waits to see faith that connects resource to need."
People ask, Why don't I feel close to God? Why is the Church so lame? Why are there so many problems in our world? Is a big piece of the answer to these interrelated questions because we have no interest in No one said that anything which he possessed was his own; they held everything in common? If things are my gods, I block God; if I keep so much for myself, somebody goes without.
And not just money! Our most fiercely held possessions might be our time, or our talent, or our love. God, in holy mercy, pleads with us to join the first Christians by not being possessed, but sharing, and not a little to make us feel noble, but all of it. Then - and only then! - will we with great power give testimony to the resurrection of the Lord, to skeptics out there, and even to ourselves.