"Betrayal in Community"
Acts 5:1-11
Rev. Emily Labrecque, Westmoreland UCC
May 10, 2026
Betrayal: the violation of trust, confidence, or a moral standard, often involving deliberate disloyalty or deception by a trusted person.
Betrayal is a recurring theme in scripture. Cain, out of jealousy, kills his brother. Jacob deceives his father, Isaac, to gain his blessing, taking it from Esau. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. Judas betrays Jesus, and in doing so hands him over to the authorities. Peter denies knowing Jesus, betraying his trust and friendship. We also hear from a psalmist (Psalm 55) who experienced the deep pain of betrayal by a close friend. “He expresses the thought that if it had been an open enemy who had betrayed him, ‘then I could have borne it’ [he said]. The fact that it was a friend made the betrayal doubly painful and unbearable.”[1] In most cases in scripture, the betrayal happens as the result of greed, jealousy or selfishness. Most of us can probably recall similar experiences in our own lives, whether we were the betrayer or the betrayed.
Now remember, the early Christians had covenanted together to share their wealth. In contrast to the generosity and sincerity of some of the other community members found in preceding chapters, Luke explains in our text for today that others gave not out of love, but a desire to be respected by the community. Ananias and Sapphira didn’t give everything they had, just a portion.
We don’t know how the information came to light. We don’t know what all transpired in between the lines of this passage. And because of that it’s easy to read a lot of assumptions into the passage.
My first assumption was to condemn Ananias and Sapphira for their selfishness.
My second assumption was that they dropped dead at the hand of God.
My third assumption, which may be the only safe one here, was that no one betrayed the community for a long while after that.
But the question that has been with me, the reason for using this scripture passage in this sermon series, lies in this question: How does a community respond to betrayal?
How do faith communities respond when the covenant has not been kept?
Now, we have to be clear, sometimes there are betrayals that require us to step in and set boundaries for the safety of others. I can think of several instances when I’ve had to use the phrase: All people are welcome here, but not all behaviors are welcome here. I have been in situations when there needed to be boundaries set, building bans put in place and the police called. Those types of betrayals are possible.
But most betrayals don’t look like that. Many of them look like this....
Jamie (name changed to protect the innocent) had been invited to join the stewardship team at another church. She felt empowered into leadership and liked the person who was to be her co-chair so she said yes! After a couple weeks passed, her pastor took the stewardship co-chairs to lunch. They sat there talking about what stewardship had looked like in the past, how their approach needs to change, what it could look like this year. Then Jamie paused. And said, “You know, my husband and I haven’t pledged in years.” The pastor, who knew this information, said, “Oh, yes, I know this.” Jamie continued, “Well, my husband lost his job a couple years ago and things just got really tight for a while. We couldn’t fathom giving money to the church when we could barely put food on our table, so we just didn’t do it.” The pastor looked at her and said, “You know, it says on our pledge forms that if you can’t meet your pledge, you can just let the Governance Council know so we can know how to adjust accordingly. No shame, no judgment.” “I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the giving statements each month,” Jamie said. “My husband always did that because I was too ashamed and embarrassed that we had betrayed the church by not keeping up our end of the deal. There’s no way I could have said anything to anyone.” The pain of speaking the truth was too great. She was terrified. “Oh, but Jamie, had we known, we could have helped you. We never would have let your family go hungry. We could have helped pay your mortgage once, maybe even twice! We could help, but we can’t help if we don’t know.” “I know, I just felt like I was abandoning the community. I felt so ashamed.” Jamie couldn’t bring herself to name it so she suffered alone. And yet here, in her admission, the pastor did not condemn, she did not cast out, she offered grace. Grace upon Grace.
Sometimes we are so afraid of speaking the truth because we feel like we might actually die. In situations where we have deceived or betrayed someone or something, we are inclined to withhold because we’re afraid we might die if the truth gets out. And it’s either that our relationship to the wrongdoing dies and we repent, or, if we refuse to step through the door that’s being helped open for us, our relationship does die. We hear in the story today that upon being confronted with their wrongdoing Ananias and Sapphira both die on the spot. We don’t know why.
Perhaps they made a choice that felt like the right choice to them but it felt like betrayal to everyone else. Perhaps something else was happening in their lives where they felt like they couldn’t fulfill that covenantal promise. Perhaps, just like Jamie, they couldn’t give, not because they intended to betray the community but because they were so afraid and ashamed of their circumstances. Their situation changed and it was scary to admit to others.
And yet. And yet.
In our story from Acts as in our story from my colleague, the betrayers were offered grace even after their admissions. We are told that upon Ananias’ instantaneous death, some young men came and wrapped his body and buried it. Similarly, when Sapphira died, the young men came in, carried her corpse outside and buried it beside her husband. Even in the face of betrayal the community ends up showing them so much grace and treats them with honor even after they have died.
So the question for us today, as shown through our story is this: Can we risk being honest with each other when there’s been a betrayal, trusting God’s grace can hold us?
Betrayal will come – it already has. Someone in this room has broken a promise. Someone in this room is carrying shame they haven't spoken aloud. Someone in this room has been hurt by a person they trusted, and hasn't found the words yet.
The question is not whether betrayal happens in communities of faith. It does. The question is what we do when it surfaces.
Can we be a community that makes it less terrifying to tell the truth? Can we be the person at the lunch table who says: had we known, we could have helped? Can we trust that God's grace is not fragile – that it can hold the confession, hold the betrayer, hold the betrayed, and hold us all together still?
We will not always get it right. But God does not call us to be right. God calls us to be in relationship – honest, risky, grace-soaked relationship. That is how we choose to be community together.
Amen.
