Ananias and Saphira

It seems that I am a posting fool today. Sorry. I never addressed what you had to say about Ananias and Saphira, and I quote since I think this is an important point, "I'd always thought (and this seems to be very much like prosperity preachers) that their sin wasn't the money, it was the LYING about the money. They weren't under obligation to give all that money, but they wanted the props for it AND they wanted to keep some for themselves. "

Yes, the whole passage makes it clear that their money was their money to do with as they pleased. It was in the promising to give all that they had and then holding back some and lying about it that was the sin. But my point is that as soon as they saw the actual money, they did what people always do - started thinking about what a pity it would be to give it all away when it would buy them something that they had always wanted, or that it would provide security in an insecure future.

That is how I would think. I would think what is the harm in putting away a little something for the future in case bad times come. Hopefully I wouldn't lie about it and hopefully I would have, in the same situation, just given it all to the church. But I wasn't there and I'm not holy enough to say that for sure I wouldn't do what they did.

But it is the money that was the problem in the sense of the gold fever that sends otherwise normal people off to the Klondike. If they had not had more than a penny, it would not have been nearly the temptation to hold some back and lie about it. It is always money that is the cause of problems. It is easy to say what you would or would not do when you aren't in that position but when you actually have that sort of decision in front of you, it isn't an easy thing to do at all - to put your faith in God that He who feeds the sparrows will also feed you.

And that I think is the lesson in that famous, maddening and completely impractical words of Jesus' in Matthew 6:

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

In addition to the sin of lying, they lied because they lacked faith that God would provide them with all the necessities of life. The other interesting thing about people is that once they have the necessities of life, they want a little more. An extra coat. A meal just because it tastes good but not because they actually need it to keep from starving. More room in the house. Maybe a new bed to replace one that is perfectly serviceable but maybe not the most comfortable. We're never happy with what we have. We do not live as the lilies of the field. We don't trust God enough for that. What Jesus said seems foolish, and we kind of write it off as though it is a parable, and not something he meant literally and seriously.

Although Sodom and Gomorrah have traditionally been associated with the sin of sodomy (that's where we get the word sodomy from), in Ezekiel 16 we are told behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah didn't begin and end with mass sexual encounters and immorality. It was the result of cause and effect - of what happens when people have more than the necessities of life. When we don't need to worry about where we will spend the night and if we will have a roof over our heads, or where our next meal is coming from - when we have too much time on our hands - fullness of bread and the freedom of time it implies, is what leads to man's most evil behaviours.

Perhaps this too is one of the reasons our Lord prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread."

You wrote that you consider yourself rich in material things, and I do too. I look around at all the things that I have and don't need. That aren't necessities to life. A person can have all that he reasonably needs in a one room shack. We need a bit more here in the frozen north than you guys do in the warmer south, but still. We are rich and need to be always aware of our great wealth because it is so terribly easy to allow our idleness to veer into sin.

I am not sure I understood your reference to the prosperity preachers - if you were saying that they were in the wrong, or only in the wrong if they were lying about where their money is going. I think that riches are given to people for the sole purpose of helping other people who aren't rich. I think that there are houses (mansions) which are sinfully large. There is no reason for anyone to have such a large house.

And I think that the gospel of Christ is better followed by the example of Paul who worked as a tent maker, even though he was entitled to a living wage. It says nothing about riches. But he was entitled to a living wage. But to avoid any appearance of wrong-doing, to better emulate Christ, because he was able to make a living, he did. I don't think it is any great feather in a preacher's cap that he takes a wage, even if it is one he is entitled to, because of where it can lead to - which is when you see all that money, like Ananias and Saphira - why put yourself in the way of temptation, which is what leads to sin?

The church when I grew up in it did not pay its preachers for that reason. Being a pastor shouldn't be like being a CEO. You should be a pastor if God calls you to be a pastor, not because it is a great career opportunity. The pastors in my church were expected to have a job. I'm sure it wasn't easy but God doesn't call us for an easy life. Later on, they gave them a gas allowance. Now they are paid and I think that the church is poorer for it, spiritually. I think they get weaker people.

Layla