Jay Rowland
“Here to Stay”
Acts 5:27-40
April 24,2022 Easter 2C
Here to Stay
There’s an old saying, “it takes a thief to catch a thief.”
Sometimes it can take a thief to prove someone is NOT a thief too.
Exhibit A: the late Charles Colson. Some may remember Colson was in President Richard Nixon’s inner circle (Special Counsel to the President). Colson is an early example proving that while mistakes and even crimes by government officials are bad enough, lying or trying to cover it up always makes the consequences more severe. But rather than admitting guilt and taking responsibility, Colson like many other government types before and after him, figured he could successfully lie and deny his way around the truth. News flash: it didn’t work and Colson was convicted and imprisoned for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up—including obstruction of justice.
In prison Colson obviously had a lot of free time on his hands. Apparently, he decided to pass some of the time reading the Bible. When he read the New Testament and the Gospel Colson had an epiphany—a conversion experience. His experience in the Watergate cover-up convinced him that the New Testament witness to the resurrection was valid. He later wrote that people involved in a lie, in a fraud, in a cover-up will eventually succumb to the pressure and tell the truth. Very few people, Colson explained, are willing to suffer for very long in defense of a lie. Very few people are willing to let their family members and friends suffer long in defense of a lie. And very, very few people are willing to die for a lie.
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When Peter and his fellow disciples make it clear that they will not be intimidated by religious authorities (Sanhedrin) or by Roman authorities, a certain wise rabbi felt compelled to speak.
The rabbi’s name is Gamaliel.
After Peter’s speech, Gamaliel looks around the room at his peers and sees the wrath in their eyes. He knows Peter and his merry band of apostles are either going to the dungeon or something worse.
For some reason, he feels compelled to intervene and speak his mind. Gamaliel's speech is one of my favorite passages in all of scripture. It explains how, in spite of very long odds, a bunch of nobodies entrusted to carry on Jesus’ message after his death succeeded. Let’s hear it again with slightly different wording:
“Distinguished colleagues, let’s all take a moment—let’s take some deep breaths and calm down. It seems to me we’re all suffering from amnesia. We’ve seen all this before. Many times. Remember Theudas? How about Judas the Galilean? These zealots are the latest in a long line of failures.
“We know how this goes: charismatic personality catches lightning in a bottle; word quickly spreads; people desperate for someone to lead the uprising that finally kicks the Romans out of Jerusalem and Israel get all worked up and ready to go.
“ … until the Romans arrest the big personality with the Big Ideas. Then what? We all know what happens next, right? Every … Single … Time:
“Crickets. Silence. Nothing. Oh, but what about those excited crowds?
“We know what: when the Romans flex their imperial muscles and start killing people, the crowds instantly disappear.
“And that’s the end of it until another sweet-talking, big-promising, charismatic catches lightning in a bottle and the process repeats all over again.
“Right? C’mon you guys! You all completely forgot about Theudas until I said his name just now. So listen: if this Peter fellow and a few Jesus-people want to start some cult based on a ridiculous story of resurrection—let them try. Nobody cares about that. The agitators only want a messiah to wage holy war against Rome and restore Israel to prominence. Let them do what they want—one way or another it will fail just like every other atttempt.
“But also hear me out on this: if all this Jesus business truly IS of God, then we don’t want to be on the wrong side of it.
“So our wisest course of action is let them go, let this end exactly the way all the other movements ended.”
Gamaliel was persuasive. He was able to calm down his colleagues from their highly agitated and reactive state. In the process he helped his them think this through. What he said made sense.
So they let Peter and everyone go … with strict orders to stop talking about Jesus … or else! (which they knew wasn’t going to happen)
Luke, the writer of Acts quickly adds that the apostles left there with joy. Not because they beat the system or pulled a fast one—remember they were all flogged before they were released. No the joy Luke reports they felt had nothing to do with what happened and everything to do with Jesus. Jesus told them the violence and wrath of the world would rise up against them, just like what happened to Jesus himself … because that’s what human authority and power always do. And so that out-of-place description of joy came over them every time there was violent opposition to their testimony. Every time chaos and terror threatened to devour them, they felt close to Jesus, they felt Jesus deep in their bones.
Remember: they saw Jesus die a gruesome and violent death.
These followers of Jesus are not naive. They are not deceived. They know full well what they’re in for as they continue to teach about Jesus and proclaim Jesus’ Resurrection!
They aren’t defiantly proclaiming the Resurrection of Jesus because they think people will instantly support them or because they think that if they do God will make the Romans magically disappear.
The only way a bunch of average folk like the apostles would do what they did--knowing what it would cost them--is because after they witnessed Jesus’ awful death, they also witnessed Jesus’ resurrection.
… the resurrection wasn’t magic
… it wasn’t a theological premise
… it wasn’t a fairy tale
… it wasn’t an opiate for the masses.
And, just as Charles Colson realized after he landed in prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up: people involved in a lie, in a fraud, in a cover-up will eventually succumb to the pressure and tell the truth.
People will not suffer long in defense of a lie.
People are not willing to let their family and friends suffer long in defense of a lie.
People are not willing to die for a lie.
(Many people do die for a lie, but more often than not it happens against their will.)
Ordinary people like the apostles and the first no-name followers of Jesus don’t sign up for arrest and beatings and certain death for a lie or a theological premise. Or a fairy tale. Or an escape from reality.
You don’t sign up for that unless you know that arrests and beatings and the reality of certain death are no match for the Risen Christ.
Only Resurrection could provoke in Peter and a few dozen others the courage it takes to face the wrath of violence and rejection they knew they were in for. In the face of all the blowback and all the threats breathing violence on them from every authority with leverage over them, they refused to keep silent about Jesus’ Resurrection.
The more fierce the violence and the danger, the more they clung to the truth that Jesus’ love is stronger than death.
Fast-forward to the year 2022. Gamaliel was proven correct on two counts:
1 -- if the Jesus “cult” was not of God it would have died on the cross with Jesus. And …
2 --if God truly was in Jesus, no person or group of people will be able to sabotage the power of Jesus’ Resurrection or erase it from human history.
Even though Jesus was executed in a remote little occupied territory in the shadow of the Mighty Roman Empire, and even though Jesus’ death and resurrection was remembered by a only handful of ordinary people,
They know what they saw and they refused to keep quiet or shut up about it upon risk of death or worse.. And so because of them, and because of God,
… here we are some 2000 or so years later!
And in spite of all the crazy going on in the world, here we are again today the Sunday after Easter Sunday!
Sure it looks and feels different here and in other churches today, but that’s okay.
Because even though this week there are plenty of places to sit …
And even though sometimes it seems like people are sleepwalking their way past the church and faith community ...
What Gamaliel said is still as true today as it was last week and as it was when he said it more than 2000 years ago: “If this Jesus thing is of God it is here to stay.”
That’s Good News to embrace on this Sunday after Easter 2022:
Jesus and his Resurrection Church are HERE TO STAY …
… as the pandemic continues to disrupt and confuse and frighten and divide;
Jesus and his Resurrection Church are HERE TO STAY …
… as Putin and Russia continue to pretend there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing in Ukraine;
Jesus and his Resurrection Church are HERE TO STAY …
… as the climate crisis countdown continues like a ticking bomb and elected leaders argue about science and individual rights …
Jesus and his Resurrection Church are HERE TO STAY …
… as churches in the 21st century learn new ways to testify to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
My hope, my life and my sanity are rooted in the basic message Gamaliel declared to his skeptical colleagues back in ancient Jerusalem: If this whole Jesus thing is of God it is HERE TO STAY.”
I am grateful for and acknowledge Scott Hoezee from the Center for Excellence in Preaching for the ideas shared in this sermon. https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2022-04-18/acts-527-32-3/
Acts 5:27-40 NRSV
[The disciples were brought in to] stand before the council. The high priest [addressed] them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,[a] yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.”
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.[b] The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted [Jesus] to God’s right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. Then he said to them, “Fellow Israelites,[c] consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!”
They were convinced by him, and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Acts 5:27-40 Footnotes
[a] Other ancient authorities read Did we not give you strict orders not to teach in this name?
[b] Gk than men
[c] Gk Men, Israelites
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