A cult by definition is: a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister. synonyms: sect, religious group, denomination, religious order, church, faith, faith community, belief, persuasion, affiliation, movement; a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
I don't think I'd be off based by saying that sounds like a description of Christianity. Religious devotion towards someone, living in a small group of people that are perceived as strange or differing from the normal world around it. (Romans 12:2) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (1 John 2:15-17) Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Sounds to me that this was the exact culture and way of life Christ and His disciples instructed us to live in. We and those who believe as we do should live in a way so apart from normal culture and ways of the world, that we will appear; in the world's term: Cultish. Not in the way this lifestyle is shown through those worldly people; but in a way that the world will look at us, our love and kindness, and the way we live and thirst for it. Does the modern picture of the Church look like this, or just another version of the world itself? (Acts 4:32-35) All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Acts makes it seem so clear, so easy. All these problems with inequality would evaporate if we lived in such an exemplary and faithful way! This is a picture of the ideal community, one in which no one lacks for anything! Everyone gives to those who need. No statements like "Why should I help them if they don't work?" Or resentment towards those who aren't exactly like us in appearance, nationality, financial status, or a plethora of other selfish reasons. Things are more complicated than this as we know too well. Often times, Christians have turned to the Acts of the Apostles hoping to find there the perfect church or at least a really good model of what church might be like. We hope that if we could just do church the way the early church did, we would be in a much better place.
This passage is one key motivation for these nostalgic hopes. Acts notes that this is a community of “one heart and soul.” Doesn’t that sound like what we yearn for most? In a world where many of us don’t know our neighbors, where we are so easily divided over political questions, where we can’t seem to agree on anything, where we legislate the privileges of some over the simple liberties of others, don’t we yearn to be of “one heart and soul?” Now, notice that this is a community that talks the talk and walks the walk. They love one another by selling their possessions. And why do they do this? We find the answer in a verse we too often miss. Verse 33 reads: “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”
They were not of one heart and soul because they tried really hard. They did not sell their possessions because it was the right thing to do. Instead, everything they did was because of their belief in the resurrection. They so believed in Jesus who defeated death and promised life to us all that they trusted every bit of their lives into the hands of God and their neighbors. They so trusted each other that they gave all that they had to one another so that there would be enough for all. They believed because if God can raise the dead, then surely God will provide our every need. They believed in God who can raise the dead and in this way discovered what it meant to be children of a God of hopeful abundance.
In the beginning of chapter five we see what selfishness and worldly desires do to the community of believers. Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
Right after this community begins to unify, the greed of one couple starts to tear the community apart. As soon as this community starts to come together, as soon as everyone’s needs are being met, it all starts to fall apart. And perhaps this was inevitable. We know what we are really like. We are not all that surprised that we have established systems that privilege some and neglect others. This is what we do!
The Gospel calls us to imagine what it would be like for us to live in such a community. The gospel calls us to wonder what would keep us from selling all we have for the sake of the other. The gospel calls us to wonder whether our stuff has become our “stuffing” in life. Does our stuff give our lives shape and meaning? Or might it just be that our stuff is a gift not for us but for others? That our stuff is never about us. That our stuff didn't belong to us in the first place, but to God. What might it be like to trust, really trust our neighbors with all we had? And an even more radical thought for many of us: what might it be like to rely on God to form me into a person and us into a community worthy of such precious trust?
