“This Side of Easter”
Acts 4:32-35
Have you ever played that game with someone, the one that goes: “If you won the lottery what would you do?”
I did that one time with a buddy of mine in college.
First he said he’d buy a Corvette for himself.
Then, he went on to say he would purchase a huge mansion for himself.
This went on and on and on until my friend couldn’t think of anything else he could buy for himself.
After a moment or two of being stumped, he finally looked up and said, “Oh, and I’d give some away.”
I remember thinking that was hilarious, and also very insightful into the way we humans often think.
As most of you know, recently three winning tickets were sold nationally in the March 30th Mega-Millions Lottery drawing, which had a record $656 million dollar pre-tax payout.
The country seemed to go crazy over this.
Before the drawing, the news outlets carried stories and pictures of people standing in line for hours in order to buy tickets.
Sometimes they would interview the hopefuls as to what they would do with the money.
And although the answers varied greatly, one thing which came through loud and clear was the message that: “If I win this lottery it will change my life.”
And no doubt it would.
A recent Boston Globe article asked this very question: “Does Money Change You?”
The article reported, “As a mounting body of research is showing, wealth can actually change how we think and behave—and not for the better.
Rich people have a harder time connecting with others, showing less empathy to the extent of dehumanizing those who are different from them.
They are less charitable and generous.
They are less likely to help someone in trouble.
And they are more likely to defend an unfair status quo.”
The article goes on, “If you think you’d behave differently in their place, meanwhile, you’re probably wrong: These aren’t just inherited traits, but developed ones.
Money, in other words, changes who you are.”
The article noted that “if you win the lottery and you want to avoid becoming an insensitive lout, there is a simple solution: ‘Give at least half of it away.’”
Our Scripture Lesson for this morning from Acts is a window into the very early Church.
This was a Church which had a number of members who had personally known Jesus Christ.
They had been followers as He taught in the villages and towns.
They had watched as He lived by example.
Then, they had seen Him die.
And most impressive of all, many of them had seen Him Resurrected!!!
And verse 33 informs us that because of this, “The apostles continued to bear witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus…”
…and one of the most powerful ways that they “bore witness” to Christ’s Resurrection was that “None of them would say, ‘This is mine!’ about their possessions, but held everything in common.”
It’s as if “worldliness” had lost its luster this side of Easter!
Who cares about money when you’ve got Jesus!!!???
By giving Jesus Christ lordship over their wealth, these early Christians were providing a mighty powerful “living sermon” to the world!!!
Not only were they proclaiming the Resurrection of Jesus with their lips, they were embodying Jesus’ redemptive and transformative truth by caring for one another in ways unheard of.
And, as a result, the Christian faith was spreading like wildfire!!!
Lives were being changed.
The broken, the hurting, the thief, the liar, the hopeless were becoming new creations all together!!!
When we look out on our world we see so much corruption and despair.
We see gang violence and children growing up in crack houses.
We hear about shootings in our city every night on the news.
And all across the nation, in every Christian denomination, church attendance is on a big downward slide—especially among the young.
It’s scary, really.
It’s sad, so very sad.
So many people are growing up and living without knowing a thing about true love.
So many people are growing up and living without knowing a thing about Jesus.
Could the fact that we live in such a consumer culture that is dominated by major corporations have anything to do with this?
It’s been noted that “One of the many results of the amazing growth of global economy has been a transformation of values.”
Materialism is on the rise everywhere, and this stands in stark contrast to Scripture.
The Bible has a very balanced view of wealth.
The problem with wealth is spiritual—it easily takes our minds off of God and weakens our faith.
Money itself is not evil, but the Bible proclaims that the love of money is the root of all evil.
And for this reason we are advised in Hebrews 13:5 to “keep [our] lives free from the love of money.”
And the teachings of Jesus are very sharp on the subject of wealth and the pursuit of riches.
“Greed is good,” may go down well on Wall Street, but not in the pages of Scripture.
Jesus tells us plainly that we cannot love both God and Money.
And so we have a choice right in front of us.
And research shows that you don’t have to be rich to be “ruined” by money.
Studies from the University of Minnesota have found that “even the mere suggestion of getting more money makes people less friendly, less sensitive to others, and more likely to support statements like ‘some groups of people are simply inferior to others.’”
As Christians, we promise to support the Church and help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ by giving at least 10% of our income.
I give 15 % of my income to East Ridge.
Clair gives 10% of her income to the churches she serves.
And we don’t miss it.
Giving is the greatest joy I know of.
If you don’t currently tithe, you will be shocked by how transforming it is to give to the Lord.
It not only increases your faith, but it makes you happier and more at peace.
It has been noted that one of the biggest excuses people make as to why they don’t tithe is this: “I’ll give more, when I get more.”
That is obviously not the case.
And if that is your excuse, you never will give more…
…until that excuse is eradicated.
In the book God So Loved, He Gave Justin Borger shares a story about a homeless woman who lived under a bridge in, of all places, downtown Chattanooga!!!
After providing Tammy with some basic hygiene supplies, Borger didn’t hear from her for weeks—until she called and said that she had been raped.
After Borger brought her to the hospital, Tammy started attending Borger’s church, and the church started giving Tammy vouchers so she could buy food from the food bank.
But Borger said that created a problem: Tammy kept giving the vouchers to other people.
Borger told her, “Tammy, you need to keep this for yourself. Otherwise you’ll run out of food.”
But living under the bridge meant living with other needy people, and it was unthinkable for her to be given a gift and not to share it with other people.
So with an incredulous stare she asked Borger, “Why can’t I give some too?”
Borger wrote: “I found myself taken aback.
Why shouldn’t Tammy be allowed to give some of what she’d received?
Wasn’t that exactly what I was doing?
I paused for a moment. But then I gave her a very pragmatic answer, ‘We’re giving this to you, not to everyone else you meet.’”
Borger continues, “Yet I recognized the deeper problem: to only receive and never give back is to be belittled—to be humiliated.
Over time, I had begun to think of Tammy as a kind of pet project in which I was always the giver and she was always the recipient…, but the good news is that God not only made us to be recipients of His grace but also participants in the movement of His own generosity.”
There is no greater gift bestowed upon humankind than the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ!!!
There is no greater example of love in all the earth.
And there is nothing more important; not money, not anything!!!
Do you know that one in every six American children still falls below the poverty line…
…and in East Ridge that number is much higher.
Also, one billion people globally are forced to try and survive on less than a dollar a day, and three billion people try and live on two dollars per day.
Thirty thousand children die every day due to hunger and disease related to preventable causes.
These poverty “facts” shouldn’t be tolerable to anyone—but especially not to those who have been Resurrected with Christ—who are the very Body of Christ!!!
It’s been estimated that $70-80 billion dollars a year could meet the most essential human needs around the world.
That figure may sound like anything but good news.
But consider this: If church members in the United States would increase their giving to 10 percent of their income, that would come to an additional $86 billion dollars.
Jesus said, “From everyone to whom much is given, much will be required.”
In Acts Chapter 4 we are given a model to imitate for a reason.
“The community of believers was one in heart and mind. None of them would say, ‘This is mine!’ about any of their possessions…The apostles continued to bear powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and an abundance of grace was at work among them all.”
All across this nation there is a widening gap between the haves and the have nots.
One of our former Presidents has recently warned us that this gap—he calls it “the chasm” between the rich and the poor—“is the most serious problem we face today.”
How will we respond, as a post-Resurrection people, to God’s call to “preach good news to the poor.”
How will we witness to Jesus’ Resurrection power in our lives amidst the scandal of poverty?...
…both spiritual and material poverty?
