Pentecost: The Stinger in its Tail (4)

Luke’s Pentecost tale is a triad of stories:

-Acts 2:1-13 the experience of "tongues,"

-Acts 2:14-41 Peter's speech and the response of the crowd, and

-Acts 2:42-47 the discipleship community of goods.

The first two parts, what we usually consider the Pentecost story is fascinating, perplexing, strange, and a bit fabulous. And if we don’t read to closely we get away with sentimentally celebrating the “birthday: of the church and move on without further ado.

Closer reading, however, will not allow that. If in the gift of the Spirit Jesus returns to indwell his church, that is, if God “comes again” to them, we should expect a thorough reworking of the church’s life in every area. This is what happened to Israel when God called Abraham and Sarah and redeemed their family from Egypt and made them his own people and we should expect nothing less when his Spirit is poured out on them. And it is that reworking of the shape of the church’s life we find if we include 2:42-47 in the story.

If we read Acts 2 as a whole as Luke’s Pentecost story, it is clear he goes from preaching to meddling in this last section. Acts 2:43-47 is the stinger in the tail of this otherwise happy story for us.

^“Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common;  they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

And just so don’t miss his point Luke’s next description of the church is laden with similarities of content and language (Ched Myers, “Pentecost, Part II,” www.bem-net.org)

Acts 2:44f: All the believers were together and had everything in common (Gk hapanta koina), and they sold (epipraskon) their property and belongings (ta ktēmata kai tas huparxeis) and divided them (diemerizon,) among whoever had need (kathoti an tis chreian eichen).

Acts 4.32, 34f: No one claimed their belongings  (tōn huparchontōn) were their own; rather, everything was in common (hapanta koina)… for whosoever owned (hosoi gar ktētores) a place or possessed a house (e oikiōn hupērchon) would sell it and bring the value of what was sold (tōn ipraskomenōn)… distributing (diadidōmi) to whosoever had need (Gk kathoti an tis chreian eichen).

Such connections can hardly be accidental. “The point is to illustrate the church as a redistributive community where affluence and poverty are both being eradicated, as envisioned in another tradition of Sabbath economics, Deuteronomy 15. The echo is clear:

Deut 15:4: “There will be among you no one destitute (Septuagint Gk endēes, also in vv 7,11), because the Lord your God will bless you in the land...”

Acts 4.34: “…nor was anyone destitute (Gk endēes) among them.”

Further, though by Jesus’ time Pentecost celebrated the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, it originally celebrated the annual harvest. In the description of Pentecost in Lev.23 we hear distinct echoes of the Jubilee legislation in Lev.25 (in which lost land was returned, slaves freed and debts cancelled every fiftieth year or once a generation). This suggests that Israel’s life all the time should be marked by Jubilean justice and generosity.

And that kind of “meddling” with our money and autonomy are things we North Americans don’t take kindly to. Probably neither did Luke’s hearers. Otherwise he probably would not have included the cautionary tale of Ananias and Sapphira in ch.5 as a counterpoint to his description of the church immediately preceding it. Their keeping a hold on their money and autonomy killed them. Are they killing us too?

At any rate, it won’t do to cry “Communism” or to claim that somehow this aspect of Pentecost was just for that time but does not apply to our time. It’s challenge to us now is to find ways to order our lives in such a way that we can release our death-grip on our money and the need to control our lives to serve God in a Jubilean-style discipleship.

And that challenge is indeed the “stinger in the tail” of this celebration of the church year. And since the long stretch of Ordinary Time (till the next Advent season in the winter) follows immediately, this challenge forms a lens for the living of that time, the time of the church in the liturgical year.