private ownership (Jewell)

(And the whole group of those who were in a state of faith were of one heart and soul, And no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common—think how radical that is for the modern church—just imagine that…

This morning we were given a peek at early church life…and it reflects some of the core teachings of both Jesus and Paul…

I can’t think of any teachings of Jesus and the early church that are more counter-cultural than those dealing with possessions—there are more than 30 of them and they hit us where we live—literally—they are really multi-level tales and teachings about the urge to possess and what that does to us. I may possess many conclusions, beliefs, and my neighbor may be rich and own a big house and fine things. Whether we possess things, or ideas,—all possession is essentially the same—it segregates. The early church, on the other hand, was not divided or segregated —they were one—they were integrated in their hearts and souls—in the deepest part of their being.

In order to understand this passage from Acts we have to understand possessiveness—we can’t just go with the old approach. The old approach is that Religions have said for thousands of years that possessiveness is bad, that it causes us trouble—and then they ask us to conform to that teaching—but that conformity only brings a conflict. I hear that I shouldn’t be possessive but I am anyway and maybe I feel bad about it or I just give lip service to my religion. Just look at the result of such an approach—our so called Christian culture is built on possessiveness—we not only possess, but we are encouraged to possess things, possess ideas, heck, we even possess people. We say that is my wife, my husband, my car, my race, my class, my friends, my religion, and the church is not immune--we even possess ministries. And we get very nasty when someone threatens to take away my possession---when someone threatens my control—be it a spouse, a car, an idea, or a ministry. When I take ownership over anything, that builds a division—this is mine---this is not yours. Possessiveness prevents us from loving. Possessiveness builds and reinforces the self. And let’s think about this—is the thing that possesses really different from the ideas, conclusions, things, people, that it possesses at any given time? We are the things, ideas, conclusions which we possess. In the words of Fight Club—the things you own end up owning you.

 The only way to deal with possessiveness is to understand it—why do we possess? Merely conforming to a pattern that says it is bad won’t do it. We each must understand why we do it.

I will tell you what I saw for myself: Possessiveness or attachment all stems from the same thing. Whether I was attached to or possessing my girlfriend, my car, my job, my ideas, my conclusions, these were all my treasures on earth and without those I didn’t know who I was, I was less than.

About ten years ago I was getting ready to drive out west. I didn’t know exactly how long I would be gone…while I was packing I stood in the center of my apartment and was disturbed—why do have all of this? I saw that I owned all of it due to a warped need for security—that the things I owned owned me. I said, I don’t need this. So I donated most of it. I live with much less now than I used to. I have one plate. I have three bowls—can’t mix your veggies and your fruit—evidence of a mental disorder born of affluence—I wonder if a starving man cares if his fruit touches his veggies. My studio apartment has very little in it—except for all those books and old leather jackets--they’re the next to go. I realized that, due to a subtle feeling of dependence, either emotional or economic, there was fear deep in many of my relationships. Where there is dependence there is usually fear. And fear leads to a subtle desire to control or possess. Many of my old relationships are also either gone or very different now. Something had changed—and that something was the result of practice and teaching. The more I was immersed in Spirit and guided by mentors the less ownership or possession meant to me. I did not will this change—it happened like anything else does—it was organic. And of course, this is ongoing—a work in progress. The most problematic possessions are the psychological ones…it is easier to let go of furniture and clothes than conclusions, beliefs, ideas. I still get stuck on my own way of doing things—I must practice letting go. Humans we have been killing each other forever for the ideas we possess, just look at the news—ideas we possess about religion and race are deadly. Why wouldn’t Jesus want us to get beyond them?

What we see in Acts is not an attempt to conform to a political vision like socialism—this is an organic outgrowth of life in the Spirit—it is an outgrowth of the reality experienced by people like Jesus and Paul. As I said, their teachings were full of phrases about our urge to possess.  Here are just a few:  Matt. 6, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth”, Luke 12, one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, Matt. 19 The story of the rich young man., Luke 12, the parable of the rich fool. Jesus goes so far to say it is next to impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus and Paul clearly challenged the material and psychological possessions of their cultures—they challenged beliefs, customs, laws, ideas. In fact it is safe to say that that is why they each died. Our passage today demands that we each look into our hearts and understand our own desire to possess.

Luke tells how the early church managed to live without private possessions. Those who were in a state of faith were one in heart and soul. This gives us the spiritual practice of the group. Each individual was in faith—this is code for the state of mind of each member of the body of Christ. And we clearly see Paul’s influence. We are saved by grace through being in a state of faith. When we are in faith grace is upon us—we live in Christ. We are the world, if we want to be beyond the lines our possessiveness draws—then we each must look deeply into our own hearts—examine ourselves as Paul says. Blindly going with the flow of the culture and the values it imposes is no longer an option. The church of Jesus Christ challenges the very foundation of such a culture—a culture that segregates. The church of Jesus Christ is not reform within the system it is a revolution from outside the pattern of society. When the world says hold on to what you’ve got—we say let go. Life in our culture of consumption is about addition, life in a culture of consumption is big, it is about look at me. Life in Christ is about subtraction.

This is what the early church did: it did not support the culture—it challenged it.

When we are in a state of faith--we are one--then God’s grace is upon us—and we live beyond the boundaries of our possessiveness. Just like the early church, the more we let go of that which we possess—or that which possesses us—the more we let go of our false selves—the more we let go of that which divides us from God and one another. Then we can better respond to all—to Life itself.

Our church has a practice in which we respond to our neighbors. We call this practice outreach. And I want to say a little bit about the criteria for gifts from outreach: we seek to participate in special projects or established ministries that express the compassion of Christ with priority given to:

Projects of ministries having a UMC affiliation

A local or ecumenical origin

Personal connection to our congregation

Projects that allow for “hands” on participation

We also want to balance our gifts among local, regional, and international projects

We have a policy of avoiding making gifts to individuals based on that individual’s needs

 (after listing these and saying, “why such an emphasis on possessions and the urge to possess”?) put in K’s stuff—for many of us relationship is grounded in some kind of dependence either emotional, psychological, or economic. And where there is dependence there is fear. This leads to this need to possess…we must possess our girlfriends our husbands, our conclusions, our ideas. Even many of our religious ideas, if we’re honest, are grounded in dependence—so we must possess those ideas to feel secure.)

(eventually get to them all being one heart and soul, by grace through faith—all those who were in a state of faith—that’s how they get beyond possessiveness they transcend self)