· Acts 4:32-35
· Psalm 133 (1)
· 1 John 1:1 - 2:2
· John 20:19-31
Today the lectionary tells us what the disciples did immediately after the Resurrection of Our Lord.
· They did not claim ownership of any possessions.
· They sold what they owned and gave the proceeds to the poor.
· They gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
· They believed.
There is something here that they didn't do, and that I have been telling you over and over not to do. They did NOT sit and make lists of what they wanted the Lord to do for them.
Why? Because they were doing what Jesus told them to do.
Mark 10:21: "go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
John 20:27: "do not doubt, but believe."
Acts 1:8: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Where, in the whole book, did Jesus teach people to give the Lord grocery lists? Nowhere. In fact Jesus said quite the opposite. Matthew 6:5-13:
And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
But rescue us from the evil one."
In fact, if you read through the entire Bible, I don't think you'll find one person praying in the modern way, going on and on about the many things God is gonna do for them. When and how did this fashion start? I have no idea. But it isn't how the Lord taught us to pray, from the very beginning to the time of the first disciples. The Lord made it clear that this isn't pleasing to him. What is pleasing to the Lord is for a Christian to do this: believe, testify, renounce material possessions, give to the poor. And this is what Christians began doing from the very beginning. This is what the people who heard the Lord with their own ears, saw him with their eyes, and touched him with their hands, undertook to do from the very beginning. If any of them sat on his hands asking for loot, he certainly didn't make much of an impression, because he isn't recorded anywhere in the Acts or the letters or anywhere else. We have no known record of a disciple of Christ sitting down after Easter or after Pentecost, hoarding his wealth to himself, and praying devoutly to the Lord to give him more and more loot.
People give me all kinds of arguments why this is righteous and pleasing to the Lord, and why it's perfectly worthy to sit on one's hands asking for loot. None of those arguments come from the scripture. None of those arguments hold any water even on plain logic.
Praying for loot with many words is not pleasing to the Lord and it is not what Jesus Christ taught us to do. Believe, witness, renounce your possessions, give to the poor. It's really pretty simple.
Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
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