A look at Acts 4:32-35

While some Christians campaign for certain texts to be taken literally, few advocate the authoritative nature of the wild generosity reported on in Acts 4:32-35. We hear of this early group of believers owning nothing. They were selling land and houses and giving away the money. It sounds like utter craziness, especially if land was as pricey as today’s prime agriculture ground.

We can get a little nervous about this passage, and we may have good reasons. What if in a moment of passion we impulsively reach for our billfolds? What if we start feeling unnecessarily guilty over a shopping fling or for buying that new carpet?

What if people begin to think we support some fanatical economical reform?

Our impulse is to tame this text, to control the wild tiger kind of faith found in radical sharing. The church has a history of declawing this passage and others like it. The church has done and does all kinds of interpretive gymnastics.

After Constantine legalized Christianity, it was understood that the sharing of goods was meant for a select few. The monks and nuns were to live exemplary lives. The rest of us are held to a different standard.

If you dust off the Wette’s 1826 New Testament commentary, you read that Acts’ author was speaking of willingness to share possessions. That sounds better. We are all willing to share in an abstract way. You don’t really have to do it; you just have to be willing to do it.

Later in the 1800s, it was proposed that Acts was written with an overly optimistic view of the early church and so may not be entirely accurate. That sounds better; all the craziness was just propaganda about and by some new movement.

Of course, we remind ourselves that the early church was flawed in their belief that Jesus’ return was imminent and thus who needs fields. Since we no longer expect Jesus to return tomorrow, it must be OK to keep worrying about our bills. It must be OK to keep taming these passages with yes buts. Yes, but we have children to feed. Yes, but there is the mortgage to pay. Yes, but we have retirement to think of.

All these taming strategies contain elements of truth. Is this enough to get us off the hook? And we haven’t even mentioned the fact that first-century Palestine was a different culture. In our culture, faithfulness looks different.

Our culture is different, and this leads to confusion. Our ears become slanted, slanted by repeated proclamations that capitalism will save us, slanted by endless commercials flaunting that material abundance brings happiness, slanted by subtle individualism implying that self-fulfillment brings contentment.

American culture values material success. Life can become a competitive race, with each person for themselves. We end up feeling isolated. We long for community. Maybe this text has more to say to our world than we realize.

If we return to the early church’s radical sharing and try not to tame it with our usual reactions, where do we end up? We begin to see that the early church’s economic sharing wasn’t just a fluke event coming out of nowhere. Sharing of wealth is tied to the life and teaching of Jesus and linked to the God of history who is the great equalizer.

Consider the numerous teachings of Jesus concerning possessions and sharing. Jesus told the rich ruler to sell all he had and distribute to the poor. He told his disciples not to lay up treasures where moths can get at them. Jesus told a story that revealed the folly of bigger barns. He also said you can’t serve God and Mammon. Jesus had more to say about economic sharing than any other topic.

The extreme sharing described in Acts is also rooted in the generous God of Moses who freed the slaves and gave instructions to care for the alien, the widow and the destitute. This God introduced Jubilee and sent prophets to remind us of economic justice.

What we may have thought was a wild moment in history we see is tied to holy history. It’s tied to a generous God who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. It’s tied to the life and teaching of Jesus.

But there is something more going on here. Acts says the whole group of believers was of one heart, sharing everything. This seems amazing considering the motley group of disciples of earlier days. This diverse group was tarnished by competition—remember the who-is-the-greatest argument? They were tarnished by betrayal—remember how they all fled after Jesus’ arrest? They were tarnished by rejection—remember Peter declaring he never knew Jesus? This tarnished troublesome group is now of one heart.

They own everything in common. What changed? It must have been more than self-discipline.

In John 20, we read that the scared disciples were huddled together in a locked room. Then the resurrected Jesus appeared and “breathed on them.” The breath of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, transformed them from a scared diverse group to a unified group. The breath of Jesus unleashed the impossible. They became of one heart and one soul.

We see in this group that smelled of Jesus’ breath, an impractical and impossible faith emerging. We see passionate care for others. We see the separation between the rich and the poor begin to dissolve.

Instead of raising red flags and getting nervous about what this passage may require of us, can we find ways to shout hallelujah? Let the breath of Jesus unleash on us the impossible.

As communities of faith we won’t all look the same. We won’t look like the group in Acts. A city church won’t look like a rural church. A church here won’t look like a church across the ocean. But we will all be living the impossible call of being Jesus in our world.

When it comes to individual matters of possessions and money, it is not easy. We will not all have the same response but at least can talk to each other about our use of money.

I recall being greeted at the door of a friend with an apology for her new carpet. This woman, who I admired for her graciousness and hospitality, was apologizing to me for buying a new carpet. I was surprised by her concern—had I said something that prompted this apology? We had a transforming conversation. We learned to understand our differences and our distinctive ways of letting the breath of Jesus inform our choices. After that I enjoyed her carpet on many occasions and so did a diverse group of people, both strangers and friends, both wealthy and poor and even some kids with dirty feet.

We don’t need to apologize for our differences. We don’t need to gossip about someone else’s purchases. We do need to become more open and honest with each other.

When the breath of Jesus is unleashed, the impossible happens. We love those around us with new understanding; we love those with no carpet and those with plush carpet.

We set off on the journey of becoming transformed people. As part of the transformation process we keep restacking our priorities to bring them in line with the Jesus we know and love. We keep restacking our priorities to move them beyond what our slanted ears hear, beyond our stock interests, beyond our material desires, beyond our narcissistic needs.

Following Jesus becomes complex in our global world with stark inequalities. How does it look to care about the needy when every seven seconds somewhere in the world a child under age 5 dies of hunger?

Acts 4 calls us to keep asking the hard questions. It keeps nudging us to imagine the impossible and live the impractical. It keeps us asking what wild generosity looks like.

The good news is that we are in this together. The breath of Jesus has already made us of one heart. We are not just one person against the cultural stream. We are part of a team that chooses to love those around us. This team chooses community over isolation and individualism. This team gives testimony to the life of Jesus. It is this untamed and wild faith that keeps life exciting.

We fail and so did the early church. Later in Acts we hear that the Hellenist widows are being neglected. We fail, but that doesn’t mean we dumb down the Jesus vision. We fail but still know who we are and where we are headed. We know we are part of something bigger.

The untamed tiger of the early church story keeps reminding us that we are part of a people where social classes are becoming irrelevant. It keeps reminding us that love is more important than success. May the passion of the early church continue to inspire us.

Jane Yoder-Short attends West Union Mennonite Church in Parnell, Iowa. This article is adapted from a sermon she preached at First Mennonite Church in Iowa City, Iowa.