Reading Luke/Acts Together #60 – If This is Of God
Read Acts 5:27-42! John Lewis, congressman from Georgia, told what it was like to see a photo of himself from a Nashville jail during the Civil Rights movement: “I had never had that much dignity before. It was exhilarating – it was something I had earned, the sense of the independence that comes to a free person.” I wonder if he remembered what happened to the first apostles? Arrested, and beaten within an inch of their lives, when they were released “they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus’ name” (Acts 5:41). How fascinating: we think piety or Church membership makes good citizens and exalts our nation. But in the Roman world, Christianity was subversive; followers of Jesus found themselves at odds with the values and political inclinations of their society, and were hounded, hated, and in trouble with the law. So it has been often throughout history – and a question we might always ask is Should we fit in so well to the world around us which isn’t exactly committed to Christ? Shouldn’t we – like the first Christians – be perceived as trouble?
All the apostles had to do to save their necks was to be quiet – and we’ve mastered that, haven’t we? It is a good thing to be respectful of others, and to be good listeners when we find ourselves in conversation with people who are different. But can we find a way to say something, not to shout condemnation at someone else, but to witness humbly to what Christ means to us?
Isn’t our problem that we are too acclimated to the culture? Peter said “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29). You and I “obey men” when we the vapid lifestyle pitched at us from TV, when we parrot the half-truths we learn from politicians, the ideologies that cloud our thinking and produce nothing but rage. We are to obey God – and not our vain fantasies of what we want God to represent, not a thin version of God’s will pasted on our own personal biases, but the God known through the living Word of God, which will set us on a bizarre course society and neighbors won’t admire.
Ours is the one cause that will ultimately win. Gamaliel, a wise Pharisee, intervened when tempers were flaring, and remembered another messianic movement or two that had failed after a few weeks. His counsel? Leave them alone: if this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to stop them. Such wisdom – and yet he’s a play-it-safe guy, isn’t he? Willie Jennings calls him “the quintessential compromised intellectual who reads history from the wrong side, and then reads politics from the sidelines.” But Gamaliel’s hands off insight bodes well for the persecuted Christians.
What about the Christian undertaking in 2011? Is this “of men” or “of God”? Before we answer “of God,” we might ask how many of our initiatives, priorities, and strategies are very much “of men,” goals that are nothing but our own preferences, plans borrowed from the business world, efforts to prop up our self-indulgent inclinations? Such activities will (and should) fail. But as we are in sync with the true, living God, whatever we do together (even if it appears to falter in the short term!) will prevail.
As a footnote: Notice also that God exalted Jesus – but why? So we can get into heaven? No: “So he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins.” In our Gospel reading we stumble on this same dynamic: Jesus is risen, the Spirit is given – so forgiveness can start happening! We are forgiven, we forgive, forgiveness becomes the very air that we breathe. Correcting confusions about forgiveness matters in preaching. It’s not kiss and make up, it’s not letting bygone be bygones, it’s not saying Oh, it doesn’t really matter. It’s costly, daunting labor. But it’s to be our strong-suit, and the way to joy and life.