Today’s first reading, from the 4th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, belongs in that very large category of biblical texts we don’t like and try to avoid. We don’t like the story of Ananias and Sapphira because it speaks to the issue of money and giving, both closely tied to our insecurity and fear and therefore to the most pedestrian of our sins. We also don’t like this story because a God who strikes people down like this isn’t really the God we want, despite the fact that this sort of thing happens all the time in the Hebrew scriptures. This God is the God connected to corrupt and greedy church leaders and a bullying fear. We want the forgiving parent God of Jesus. Even more, we want a God who demands nothing and provides everything, a God we can neglect most of our lives, but also a God that will ride in with a miraculous cure when the diagnosis is bad. We want zero consequence, go to heaven, go directly to heaven, do-not-pass-go sort of a God, which requires us to cut out pretty much all of scripture, repeating the same old anodyne texts again and again.
In fact, we want a deconstructed postmodern sort of a God up until the very moment when we are afraid, at which point we want a hands-on God of the most ancient variety, a puppet master God who erases cancer cells and gives our team the championship trophy to boot. And we don’t want to talk about money.
The thing is, while both the Hebrew scripture and New Testament are full of stories about greed, this particular story isn’t really one of them. At least I don’t think so. The whole struck down dead thing doesn’t work with my understanding of God either. Still there is a reason this particular story made the cut, was included in the Christian canon.
That first generation of Christians believed that Jesus was going to return in their lifetime. Like some of today’s evangelicals, they didn’t really care to plan for the future, for there would be no future, at least not of the present kind. Unlike today’s evangelicals, they responded to this belief not with survival buckets and bunkers, gold bars and a self-salvation heresy, but instead with agape, with generosity, and with an emphasis on the whole group. They were communitarians, committed to the common good of the community, a whole series of English words that share the same core, the Latin root “com†which means together. Two thousand years later, this sort of mutuality has been freighted with mis-applied words that did not exist, words from political economics like socialism and communism, yet like every free society, ours is built on an implied commitment to the common good and to shared resources, despite our rabid individualism.
Joining the community of disciples was a radical act in those early years. It wasn’t something you didn’t talk about in polite company and it wasn’t an hour or so a week. To follow Jesus was to risk death at the hands of the Romans or of the Hebrew elite, all to spread the story of a man who said that God was a good and loving God, like a father, and that this God demanded not legalism but love, not scribes but good Samaritans. It was good news for the poor and the outcast because it was a way that refused to throw anyone away, no matter their past. It was an opportunity for everyone to experience renewal, to break out of the box and become new. These courageous women and men were already risking their lives, so why not place their worldly treasure on the line as well?
The real sin that cost Ananias and Sapphira their lives, however, was not their wealth. It was their dishonesty. Peter points out that they need not have sold their property. According to the leader of the first Christians, Ananias has lied to God, and that is why he falls down dead. Not knowing that her husband is dead, Sapphira repeats the lie and meets the same fate.
No, no “strike’em down dead†sort of God for us. But is sure looks like that sometimes, even in our own time of logic and science. Consider the case of Prisoner 61727-054, a modern day case of the sins of the father. Turned in by his own two sons and not due for release until November 14, 2139, both of those sons would die prematurely, one of lymphoma, the other a modern-day Judas, hanging himself in his Soho loft. Three other people we know of, probably more, would take their own lives as a result of 61727-054’s actions.
Prisoner 61727-054 is, of course, Bernard Madoff, the con man behind one of the greatest Ponzi schemes of modern times. No one is quite sure how to calculate the size of his fraud, somewhere between the amount of money actually invested in Madoff funds and the fictional amounts clients were told were in their portfolios, but the number is in the tens of billions of dollars at least, possibly more than $100 billion by some estimates.
Henry Markopolis, a forensic accountant, says it took him about five minutes to spot the fraud in 1999 when he was researching Madoff’s firm as part of his work with a competitor, another four hours to prove it mathematically. He reported his findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2000, then again in 2001, and yet again in 2005, though no action was taken. It was the Great Recession of 2008 that finally doomed the scammer, when the inflows of cash were unable to meet the demands for payouts, something that always eventually happens with a pyramid scheme.
Some experts believe that Madoff’s fraud started as early as 1964, and there is pretty good evidence to back that up. He only confessed to starting the criminal activity in 1991 in a guilty plea many think was meant to protect co-conspirators. When questioned, Madoff said he always meant to resume legitimate trading activity, but found it too difficult. He had become trapped in his own lie.
The prophet Zephaniah was active a very long time before Madoff began his fraud, but lies are as old as time, as old as that serpent in the Garden. Zephaniah was a prophet during the reign of Josiah, one of the last great kings of Judah and a religious reformer who attempted to purge the nation of the worship of other deities, particularly Baal. It was the age that saw the creation of the Book of Deuteronomy, that legal code that places such emphasis on law and the priesthood. Zephaniah announced judgment for the corrupt, comfort for the righteous. Speaking for God, he said
For I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord— the remnant of Israel; they shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths.
Zephaniah is so very different from Amos, an outsider prophet during the zenith of the Northern Kingdom, Zephaniah an insider, an establishment prophet near the end of the Southern Kingdom almost two centuries later, yet they shared a focus on integrity, on honesty. Amos warns of corrupt and dishonest business practices. Zephaniah declares that the haughty will be eliminated, leaving behind only the humble and honest. Would that we live to see Zephaniah’s Day of the Lord!
Today’s 24-hour news cycle is nothing but bad, a constant stream of accusation, who is corrupt, who is lying, with no promising prophecy for the humble and honest, who can feel tossed about, powerless in a sea of fury and corruption. To be sure, we are occasionally blessed with a feel-good story, but mostly? Not so much… We hear an insistence that “both sides†be presented to every story, even stories that are based on fact rather than opinion, as if somehow truth itself is negotiable. The Big Lie is back in vogue, reminding us of the words of its greatest practitioner, who wrote of ordinary people in 1925
It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
His use of the big lie would leave millions dead. We have appropriate concern for lessons of history unlearned. In an age that celebrates cheats and scammers, the post-Sopranos age, it is no surprise that we’ve forgotten the social contract, forgotten that integrity and honesty and interdependence are the glue that keeps us together. It is even legal for those who enforce our laws to lie, and we have come to accept that a significant portion of our business environment is fraudulent. Would you like the two-year warranty on that purchase? It will cost you more to ship the item in then it is worth, and we’ll refer to a clause buried three pages deep in a long contract that you are going to sign right here at the cash register to deny your claim, but we’d sure like your additional $24.99.
Yet for all our concern about systemic lies, systemic evil, the starting point is here, with us. Luke’s story is about individual integrity, a married couple telling lies. The sons of Prisoner 61727-054 were the sons of a liar and cheat who drew others into his lie, but it was his greed and corruption that started the evil. The merchants of Bethel that hear the word of Amos are pocketing the profit from their unequal scales. When Zephaniah promises us a remnant that is humble and honest, that does no wrong and utters no lies, he is speaking of a society built on personal virtue.
Those who receive Marilyn’s history newsletters may have been shocked when they read the last issue from Jonathan Fisher’s diary, the report from two centuries ago of one Mrs. Hinkley who confessed the sin of fornication before this church’s board. We may find that absurd, a private affair, but Congregationalism was built on the idea of accountability and covenant, and it simply doesn’t work without it. Lacking covenant accountability, our faith becomes little more than religious consumerism, a world of “I want†and “I like†rather than what God wants and what builds up the community, one of those “com†words of togetherness.
True, our sexual morals have evolved. We now mostly accept co-habitation outside of wedlock. Our faith demands forgiveness and reconciliation for those who do actually sin. Still, we should expect all who enter into our covenant to strive for Christian character, traits like honesty, even if none are perfect. Integrity, a willingness to own our sins, to confess and seek forgiveness, what is faith without expectation? A covenant community cannot be a place of easy lies. We are on a journey on the Way of Jesus. It is not a destination at which we have arrived. And we are warned that the Way is narrow and hard, but that the other way, the way of damnation, is oh so, easy. I bet it even has scenic overlooks, picnic areas, and plenty of room for us to walk side by side.
It doesn’t take the big lie or massive fraud to do us in, only little lies, a cheat here or there, and a culture that excuses lies, for that is the culture to which Zephaniah spoke, the culture to which Amos spoke. Business as usual. That is what Amos, what Zephaniah condemned.
Truth is so important that Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.†Congregationalists longed for more “light and truth†to break forth from God’s Holy Word, and we retained that commitment when we joined others in forming the United Church of Christ. Truth matters because Jesus matters, especially in a world of lies and madness.
May we be a humble people seeking refuge in the name of the Lord, just as Zephaniah proclaims. May we do no wrong and utter no lies. May a deceitful tongue never be found in our mouths.