Easter IV

Acts 4:32-37
Psalm 23
1 John 3:1-8
John 10:11-16

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

IN THE 1960s AND 1970s, Maxey Jarman was one of the movers and shakers among the Southern Baptists and the Billy Graham Crusade. Jarman had developed his father’s modest shoe company into the world’s largest apparel company at the end of the ‘60s. Along the way, he donated lavishly to Christian ministries all over the world. Then the business hit the ceiling and soon thereafter crashed, leaving him with little of his fortune. While once almost ubiquitous, we don’t see a lot of Jarman Shoe stores anymore.

When things bottomed out, a friend asked whether he thought about the millions he had given away. Jarman answered, “I never lost a dime of what I gave away; I only lost what I kept.”1 A few years later, he wrote to another person who had lost his fortune:

The very considerable reduction in income that I had, I believe, was a great blessing to me. First of all it made me re-evaluate my ideas about what are worthwhile things. Material things are passing; and while we all start out wanting a lot of them, actually after we’ve had a lot of material things we begin to realize that they are not worth that much anyhow and become a burden rather than something to enjoy. A time of reversal is a good time for a person to take stock of himself to see what he really wants out of life, whether he wants things that have eternal value, real value, or whether he particularly wants to have the kind of things that the world puts great value on.2

When I listen to what Jarman has to say, I know he’s right, but I confess that I’m not there. I’d like to be able to get bored of material things, to be wearied by driving a Maserati. I know material things usually become a burden, the desire for them the source of all kinds melancholy and angst, but the world is very seductive. Despite our better selves, we often look for pleasure and security in the wrong places.

When I think of Jarman taking stock of his life, I think of S. Barnabas in today’s lesson from Acts. Something must have caused Barnabas to take stock of his life, to think about what he really wanted, what had eternal value. Something led him to sell his real estate and to give the proceeds to the Church, knowing that the Church would distribute it to those in need.

Last week, we heard about Saints Peter and John getting harassed for healing a lame man. The lame man had asked for alms from Peter and John. They had no money to give, but they had something better than money. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they had made the lame man whole. Today, the Holy Spirit is working in Barnabas, healing Barnabas, making Barnabas whole, complete. Barnabas is transformed. The way we gain in character and love, the way we gain what has eternal value is by giving away what we have.

Now some will say, “Here goes the Church preaching about money again, not worrying about the spiritual things, but worrying about Mammon. The Church is being hypocritical – again.” Not at all. What we do with money is a profoundly spiritual matter. Of course, the Church has some shysters and con-artists who steal from the faithful and speak all sorts of nonsense about money, but that does not mean we shouldn’t talk about money. Money is terribly important to us, and the Church has much wisdom about it.

Probably more than any other thing, Jesus talked about what we should do with wealth and possessions. But often Christians don’t get his message right. Wealth is not a sign of divine favor. Wealth is not for our personal goals. The gospel is not about having worldly success. When we see wealth as God’s favor to us, or as something we deserve, or as something for our own use, then wealth is a serious danger to our spiritual lives. God wants us to trust in him – not in our own efforts.

We see wealth as a means to security, power, control, and pleasure. Our world, our culture, teaches us to trust in mammon. What Barnabas did makes no sense to the world. But Jesus tells us, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mt. 6:24, Lk. 16:13) The gospel directly challenges the way I live and probably the way you live. The gospel challenges the way we think about value, the way we think about ownership.

The gospel doesn’t harmonize with capitalism. The gospel doesn’t lead us to treat people according to their economic value. The gospel teaches us to share because sharing is what makes us safe and secure and sharing is what gives us real pleasure. The gospel directs us to build strong relationships with people, to commit to other people without reservation and calculation, to welcome all people. Deep inside we’re often coldly, callously figuring, “What’s in this for me?”

Barnabas laid his wealth at the apostles’ feet because he had experienced Jesus. He was learning to trust God; he was growing in love of God and of other people. Barnabas knew Jesus and the resurrection through the life and love he experienced in the Christian community. It was a community that cared for one another, looked after one another. “There was not a needy person among them.” (Acts 4:34)

Luke is showing us a vision of spiritual health, the fruits of the right use of wealth. Our wealth is not our own. Everything is God’s. We should use our gifts – our time, talent, treasure – for the common good, not for ourselves. That’s the responsible and godly way to use wealth and possessions.

Generosity is our response to God’s love for us; generosity flows from our gratitude, not out of obligation. Luke says that the disciples were of “one heart and soul,” that they were united, meaning that love and gratitude animated them. Dissension usually indicates a lack of love, a lack of gratitude, a lack of commitment. Generous and committed people in a community rarely complain, criticize, agitate; generous and committed people are not full of what S. Paul calls ‘party spirit,’ the conviction that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group. (Gal 5:20) People who give substantially of their time, talent, and treasure build unity, a sense of common purpose, common identity. They become part of something bigger than themselves, and that’s essential for happiness.

Like Barnabas, we want to invest ourselves wholly in something bigger than ourselves. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.” (Mt. 6:21; Lk. 12:34) Barnabas’ heart was with his fellow Christians. The more he committed to Jesus and the Church, the more he knew God’s love, the more he trusted God. How does belief grow? How does faith grow? We have to commit ourselves. The more we commit, the more we grow. All of life is about growing in faith. We never want to stop growing; we want never to stop changing; we want never to stop learning. All of life is growing up.

The Church – this parish – exists for God to transform lives, to nurture our growth in Christ, to help us grow up together. We come not to be coddled, not to feel superior to other people, not to have our thoughts and feelings reinforced, but to be challenged, to mature spiritually, to become more godly. A Christian community being shaped by God is learning to love one another more fully, to forgive one another more readily, to enjoy each other more thoroughly, to make new disciples more zealously, to welcome the stranger more warmly. We talk about how God has blessed us. Even when things are rotten, God is with us.

When some would have been in despair and misery about losing a fortune, Maxey Jarman wrote:

It’s easy for a person who has had reverses to feel sorry for himself. Self pity, however, is one of those things that is probably a considerable spiritual sin that a person needs to be very careful about. Whenever we find ourselves being sorry for ourselves we need to refer back to Ephesians 5:20 that says, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That means [giving thanks] for those things that seem to be unpleasant and hard and unjust but which the Lord can use to help us to grow in a spiritual sense and a better understanding of the real values of life.3

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1. Fred Smith, ‘Coping With Financial Loss,’ at www.breakfastwithfred.com.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.