The Sermon in 1st Century Practice

I have concluded these points about the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain:

1. Jesus called his followers to radical giving...even to the point of giving away materials crucial to human survival.
2. In order to give so boldly, Jesus affirmed that God cared for his creation and would take care of each giver.

So how did this work out in practice? Acts tells us that the early church had all things in commonand gave to each other as there was need. I believe this early church experiment in giving and sharing was a response to Jesus' teachings. People like Barnabas sold what land they had and gave the money to the disciples for distribution. Their gifts then helped those who had given away what they had or those who had never had enough to get by. So then as a person became destitute from giving away too much, he/she would in return receive from those who had. In this way God was taking care of them.

Although the result of all of this was very exciting for the people of the early church, it didn't last forever. Within a few short years there was a famine and the group of Chrisians in Jerusalem did not have enough rescources to feed the ever giving community and ever growing community. While the church in Jerusalem continued to trust God to take care of them, a church in Antioch raised offerings and sent a small team with a gift for the believers in Jerusalem.

As for the fate of the early church community experiment there is no mention. In all likelihood it was a failed experiment...almost like a pyramid scheme. Although the early church was extemely successful in building a community with all things in common, time wore the church down. It had a great start but it "petered" out as it grew and as the rescources dried up for whatever reason.

When I was a young Christian during the 70s in the deep South (of the U.S.) I heard some small time preacher explain the famine of Jerusalem as the result of the communist experiement the early church practiced when they first started (ie: having all things in common). Even though I shrug off that preacher's paranoia about communism, I still can't shake the idea that perhaps that famine was partially due to early church's sharing experiment.