Acts 5: 1-11
Romans 12:1
Sacred Gifts
October 29, 2006
Rev. Elizabeth Macaulay
Here is what I want to say about the
account of Ananias and Sapphira I just shared with you.
It seems one of the most potent lessons a preacher could
share on Stewardship Sunday: give it
over or God will strike you dead.
You think God doesn’t know what you
have and how much you share? Think
again.
But that’s not the message you will
hear from me. Surprise.
The message I want to lift from the story of Ananias and
Sapphira is this:
They were in the midst of a Jesus inspired movement that
taught that there is enough for all.
They were in the midst of a movement in which all needs of
all in the community were tended.
They were in the midst of a movement where sharing was
bedrock.
And they couldn’t let that grace
in. They couldn’t believe and trust it.
So they held back.
And, they were struck dead.
What I want us to think about on this day is NOT the
lightning-bolt power of God this cartoon-like story shares with us.
I want us to think about how the community of Ananias and
Sapphira was made poorer because they decided to hold back.
And I’m not talking only about the
money gained through the sale of their abundance.
I’m talking about how the community was made poorer because they
lost the juice and power and witness of two of their own.
Two of their own who clutched in fear rather than shared
through gratitude and a faith that the movement of Jesus Christ and the power
of the Holy Spirit made alive in their community
was bigger than their fear.
This past year, the Ad Board of our
church read a book called “Becoming a Blessed Church”.
The main point of the book was this:
So many churches in our culture are being struck dead -
spiritually and literally - because they have turned into Ananias and
Sapphira. As a people of faith called
church, churches have focused more on holding back than on opening ourselves to
the work of the Spirit.
We have become like small businesses, settled into our own
little plot of land, monitoring with pinched pain every big and little
expenditure we have and we have forgotten in our fear driven clutching and
wrangling why oh why are we here, anyway?
We are here - on
We are here - as we have been for 152 years - seeking to
live our call to share what we have with JOY in order that others can come to
know the softening of heart that comes with gratitude living.
We are here - as we evolve into the church NOT of 1966 but
of 2006 - to bear witness to the movement of Jesus, a movement that asks us to
take our very lives and offer them to God as sacred gift.
We are here. I hope
YOU are here. Because we believe this
church helps us, as our mission statement states, to:
Worship God
Cherish creation
Cultivate wisdom
Live gratefully and
Seek justice in the way of Jesus in this so often divided
and fear clenched world.
Here’s the thing we could take from
the lesson this morning.
Let’s take what we have.
Each one of us. Let’s offer it
before God upon the altar of our lives.
And let’s know it to be sacred gift.
And I am talking about money here, as well as the
gift of our talents. Money to be used in
the community of faith called
Why?
I went to a funeral two weeks ago. It was held at
I was at the back of the sanctuary shaking hands as I do
each Sunday and this man of 86 years approached me and his face was lit with
wonder and joy and he shook my hand and was THRILLED with the witness he had
experienced in church that day.
He loved the music. He loved the sermon. He loved the worship. He loved the welcome he got.
He had ended up at our church by mistake. He had gotten on our church bus at his
apartment building, and been delivered to RUMC on a Sunday when Spirit Express
was singing.
He was thrilled, and he could not wait to come back. He was also very excited about the new
worship service we were going to be starting.
He told me that the music offered there was just what spoke to his
spirit. He told me how powerfully he
felt the Holy Spirit moving through this church. Every Sunday he was here he testified to the
Spirit’s movement.
And so he has been at the Living Waters worship service -
don’t tell me it is only for “those” young people - every chance he got.
His health got bad and he was
hospitalized.
On one of the occasions when he was in intensive care I went
to visit him and as I approached his room another woman went in - she looked
like a social worker so I stayed outside the door so as not to interrupt.
I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation he had with
her. Before much time passed he began to
talk enthusiastically about his church and the wonderful new worship service he
was enjoying, I poked my head in the room and introduced myself. It seemed better than eavesdropping while he
talked about “my” church.
It turns out the woman there was the parish nurse from his
daughter’s church. I had no idea that
Alan was affiliated with another church.
It could have been awkward, but it wasn’t. We both stayed and talked with him and then
shared a prayer together.
Alan made it to worship one more
time, and then died, all too soon.
His funeral was held at his daughter’s church, and I want to
share with you what I learned about our brother Alan Bogert.
Alan hadn’t been in church much in the years before he
entered our sanctuary. He had been
estranged from his family. Weeks before
he came to church here, he had moved into town to come to know his daughter and
her family. I also learned that he had
been a jazz musician, playing piano and delighting in good music.
What the preacher that day told us was this. When he went to visit Alan shortly before he
died, he asked Alan: how was his walk with God?
Alan told him that he had discovered a profound love for the
Lord. Alan told him that he had felt the
Spirit so powerfully here, at
In this sanctuary. In our fellowship
hall. In this church. Through you.
Alan joins the saints who have gone before and who are
coming yet who have found Jesus here.
Who have felt the Holy here.
Who have taught and blessed and fed
and laughed and celebrated here.
Through this Body of Christ.
Brothers and Sisters, we get to share what we have. We get to let go and let God work through
us. To offer our lives - and all that we
have - as sacred gifts.
Because we don’t know when it is
Alan is going to walk through our door.
Amen