Acts 4:1-7
While Peter and John were addressing the people, the priests, the chief of the Temple police, and some Sadducees came up, indignant that these upstart apostles were instructing the people and proclaiming that the resurrection from the dead had taken place in Jesus. They arrested them and threw them in jail until morning, for by now it was late in the evening. But many of those who listened had already believed the Message—in round numbers about five thousand!
The next day a meeting was called in Jerusalem. The rulers, religious leaders, religion scholars, Annas the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander—everybody who was anybody was there. They stood Peter and John in the middle of the room and grilled them: “Who put you in charge here? What business do you have doing this?”
Acts 5:17-20; 27-32
[Several days later, hearing the men were still teaching and healing,] the Chief Priest and those on his side, mainly the sect of Sadducees, went into action, arrested the apostles and put them in the town jail. But during the night an angel of God opened the jailhouse door and led them out. He said, “Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.”
Promptly obedient, they entered the Temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.....
Bringing them back, they stood them before the High Council. The Chief Priest said, “Didn’t we give you strict orders not to teach in Jesus’ name? And here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are trying your best to blame us for the death of this man.”
Peter and the apostles answered, “It’s necessary to obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging him on a cross. God set him on high at his side, Prince and Savior, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven. And we are witnesses to these things. The Holy Spirit, whom God gives to those who obey him, corroborates every detail.”
This is the second Sunday after Easter but we are, for some reason, jumping ahead to a post-Pentecost story. This is actually from last week’s lectionary readings, but since we missed our regular discussion last week, due to visiting Geyserville, I decided to do this one today since I don’t remember addressing this particular issue for awhile.
The readings may have sounded a little choppy because this story actually covers several days of events and a couple of chapters of scripture. I’ve had to edit it down severely to fit our time today. I’ll try to fill in the gaps as we go along. This story begins right after Pentecost and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with all the remarkable changes that came upon the nascent Christian community.
Peter, it seems, just couldn’t stop preaching. Wherever he was found he was compelled to tell those around him about Jesus and about the promise of the Spirit. Other disciples were doing the same. They preached. They healed people. And crowds began to follow wherever they went. Eventually, of course, this all came to the ears of the Jewish leaders who thought they had rid themselves of this particular problem, only to find it was still alive and well – and spreading – among them. This is the first part of our reading that we just heard today.
The temple leaders arrested Peter and John and threw them into jail and, after a mockery of a trial the next day, let them go with a stern warning to keep their mouths shut. We all know how well that went. The disciples went out and simply picked up where they had been interrupted. For the next several days – the readings we skipped over sound has if it might have been a matter of weeks – the disciples continued to preach and new “Christian” home-church communities began to form.
When news reached the same leaders that Peter and the other apostles were still preaching a resurrected Jesus and that the new Jesus People phenomenon was actually growing, they arrested the men again. This is the second part of our reading we just heard.
The disciples were thrown into jail – again. This is the part of the story where an angel appears in their jail cell and leads them out of jail, instructing them to return to the Temple steps and continue telling their story. When the temple leaders send for them the next day to appear before them for judgment, they hear that the doors remain locked but the men have simply disappeared. When soldiers are sent to hunt them down and bring them back they find them, right where the angel had told them to be, still preaching, right there on the temple grounds.
And here is where Peter gives his impassioned defense of the disciples’ actions and explains by whose authority they speak – words that have directed the actions of missionaries and preachers around the world for over two-thousand years:
The readings may have sounded a little choppy because this story actually covers several days of events and a couple of chapters of scripture. I’ve had to edit it down severely to fit our time today. I’ll try to fill in the gaps as we go along. This story begins right after Pentecost and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with all the remarkable changes that came upon the nascent Christian community.
Peter, it seems, just couldn’t stop preaching. Wherever he was found he was compelled to tell those around him about Jesus and about the promise of the Spirit. Other disciples were doing the same. They preached. They healed people. And crowds began to follow wherever they went. Eventually, of course, this all came to the ears of the Jewish leaders who thought they had rid themselves of this particular problem, only to find it was still alive and well – and spreading – among them. This is the first part of our reading that we just heard today.
The temple leaders arrested Peter and John and threw them into jail and, after a mockery of a trial the next day, let them go with a stern warning to keep their mouths shut. We all know how well that went. The disciples went out and simply picked up where they had been interrupted. For the next several days – the readings we skipped over sound has if it might have been a matter of weeks – the disciples continued to preach and new “Christian” home-church communities began to form.
When news reached the same leaders that Peter and the other apostles were still preaching a resurrected Jesus and that the new Jesus People phenomenon was actually growing, they arrested the men again. This is the second part of our reading we just heard.
The disciples were thrown into jail – again. This is the part of the story where an angel appears in their jail cell and leads them out of jail, instructing them to return to the Temple steps and continue telling their story. When the temple leaders send for them the next day to appear before them for judgment, they hear that the doors remain locked but the men have simply disappeared. When soldiers are sent to hunt them down and bring them back they find them, right where the angel had told them to be, still preaching, right there on the temple grounds.
And here is where Peter gives his impassioned defense of the disciples’ actions and explains by whose authority they speak – words that have directed the actions of missionaries and preachers around the world for over two-thousand years:
“We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things.....”
We must obey God rather than any human authority.....We know (or in some cases suspect) that in the case of the apostles, this path – chosen and followed – led to their deaths as martyrs for their faith. They were not to be the last by any means.
When things began going not-so-well for the Roman Empire, the earliest Christians, who at first had lived fairly peacefully among their neighbors, became an easy group to demonize as “other,” and they were for a time blamed for every problem and persecuted and hunted for their faith – for no other reason than that they were “different” for those they lived among. Many proclaimed Christians no doubt publicly recanted to save themselves, but others held to their faith and died for their beliefs. Many more have died in the two thousand years since.
Christians even today are dying in parts of our world for no other reason than their professed faith in God and Jesus. Of course, we have to remember that misguided Christians – convinced that they were somehow obeying God – have as often murdered others for refusing their faith, as well – or even those whose lived experience of the same faith was different – we have always not been above killing our own.
Choosing God over human authority doesn’t always lead to martyrdom and physical death. It can more often mean death to old beliefs, to old ways of seeing the world, to old rules that turn out to have always just been human rules masquerading as sent from God. The story of St. Francis illustrates this for us beautifully.
Francis, born a child of comfort and plenty, accepted the church and the faith he was born into and at least obeyed it on the surface. The Catholic Church was at this time in history – around 1200 – the most powerful entity in the western world, dripping with pomp and ostentatious wealth and claiming power over even kings and emperors. When Francis, much to his own surprise, found himself called to a life of poverty and simplicity, and when others eventually came to join him, he went to Rome itself seeking understanding and ended up challenging the prevailing view of God’s will for the church.
His was no violent revolution, simply a quiet refusal to accept the reigning view of what the church should be about. His quiet insistence on obeying God rather than human authority – although he would always choose to do both, as far as possible -- led to deep changes within the church – changes that still affect how we see our role as Christians today.
We live our lives hemmed in by so many human rules – we’re so used to them that we hardly see most of them and take it as “just the way things are.” But do the human laws around us ever conflict with God’s laws? In the past year or so we have seen an increasing number of laws passed by cities making it illegal to feed the hungry unless it is within an authorized shelter, out of sight, well wrapped in red-tape. What we do here in Ukiah would get us arrested in many cities. Some would-be helpers, I suspect, have been discouraged by this. Others go ahead and feed folks, get arrested, get out of jail and go right back to feeding people - regardless of the consequences -- placing God's law above that of the state..
Many people have a serious issue with their tax dollars going to support wars because they simple do not believe in war. They withhold part of their taxes in defiance of the law. The laws of our country support capital punishment and yet I myself stand firmly against it and am sickened anytime someone suggests a fellow human was executed “in my name.” It disgusts me that part of my taxes support research into “better” ways to kill people.
We exist right now in the middle of a cultural war with both sides claiming loudly to be obeying God’s injunctions. Some of us choose to listen to “love your neighbor” and “judge not” while others blissfully quote scripture right and left as their warrant to hate and discriminate against others. We cannot simply legislate these differences away. One side will always hate the other’s “laws.” I suspect only deeply humble prayer – a lot of it – is going to fix the mess we’re in, as long as everyone claims that God is on their side.
My claim is smaller. I just hope that it turns out that I am indeed on God’s side.
Amen.
When things began going not-so-well for the Roman Empire, the earliest Christians, who at first had lived fairly peacefully among their neighbors, became an easy group to demonize as “other,” and they were for a time blamed for every problem and persecuted and hunted for their faith – for no other reason than that they were “different” for those they lived among. Many proclaimed Christians no doubt publicly recanted to save themselves, but others held to their faith and died for their beliefs. Many more have died in the two thousand years since.
Christians even today are dying in parts of our world for no other reason than their professed faith in God and Jesus. Of course, we have to remember that misguided Christians – convinced that they were somehow obeying God – have as often murdered others for refusing their faith, as well – or even those whose lived experience of the same faith was different – we have always not been above killing our own.
Choosing God over human authority doesn’t always lead to martyrdom and physical death. It can more often mean death to old beliefs, to old ways of seeing the world, to old rules that turn out to have always just been human rules masquerading as sent from God. The story of St. Francis illustrates this for us beautifully.
Francis, born a child of comfort and plenty, accepted the church and the faith he was born into and at least obeyed it on the surface. The Catholic Church was at this time in history – around 1200 – the most powerful entity in the western world, dripping with pomp and ostentatious wealth and claiming power over even kings and emperors. When Francis, much to his own surprise, found himself called to a life of poverty and simplicity, and when others eventually came to join him, he went to Rome itself seeking understanding and ended up challenging the prevailing view of God’s will for the church.
His was no violent revolution, simply a quiet refusal to accept the reigning view of what the church should be about. His quiet insistence on obeying God rather than human authority – although he would always choose to do both, as far as possible -- led to deep changes within the church – changes that still affect how we see our role as Christians today.
We live our lives hemmed in by so many human rules – we’re so used to them that we hardly see most of them and take it as “just the way things are.” But do the human laws around us ever conflict with God’s laws? In the past year or so we have seen an increasing number of laws passed by cities making it illegal to feed the hungry unless it is within an authorized shelter, out of sight, well wrapped in red-tape. What we do here in Ukiah would get us arrested in many cities. Some would-be helpers, I suspect, have been discouraged by this. Others go ahead and feed folks, get arrested, get out of jail and go right back to feeding people - regardless of the consequences -- placing God's law above that of the state..
Many people have a serious issue with their tax dollars going to support wars because they simple do not believe in war. They withhold part of their taxes in defiance of the law. The laws of our country support capital punishment and yet I myself stand firmly against it and am sickened anytime someone suggests a fellow human was executed “in my name.” It disgusts me that part of my taxes support research into “better” ways to kill people.
We exist right now in the middle of a cultural war with both sides claiming loudly to be obeying God’s injunctions. Some of us choose to listen to “love your neighbor” and “judge not” while others blissfully quote scripture right and left as their warrant to hate and discriminate against others. We cannot simply legislate these differences away. One side will always hate the other’s “laws.” I suspect only deeply humble prayer – a lot of it – is going to fix the mess we’re in, as long as everyone claims that God is on their side.
My claim is smaller. I just hope that it turns out that I am indeed on God’s side.
Amen.
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