Word to the Wise
Friday, April 16, 2010 - Friday in the Second Week of Easter
[Acts 5:34-42 and John 6:1-15]So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men,and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. (Acts)
There is some wonderful irony in Gamaliel's advice to the Sanhedrin! One of his start pupils was a guy named Saul who disregarded the advice and became a bounty hunter for Christians. On the road to Damascus, Saul had an experience that indeed showed him that he was fighting against God. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Under a new name, Paul was to become what many people regard as the "second founder" of Christianity! Nevertheless, the scene with Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin reflected the ambiguity caused by the preaching of the apostles. Jesus was executed by the plan of the Jewish authorities who both resented his teaching and his action in the temple and at the same time were worried that the Romans might be provoked to crush the cozy "arrangement" that allowed the temple and its elite to "live and let live." As Gamaliel notes, there had been rebellions before and the Romans crushed them. (There would be two more before the Romans utterly destroyed the city and built a new place on top of it!) Gamaliel advises the Sanhedrin to stand aloof and see what happens both physically AND theologically! Of course it turns out that the movement was indeed from God and still is! The temple and the Roman empire disappeared but Christianity has become the saving force of God's plan. History is a great teacher. When I find myself discouraged by attacks on the Church from the outside and the inside (and it's not just on the subject of clerical misconduct, which was a major cause of the Reformation), I remember that time and time again the church, chastened and "cleaned up," moved on with preaching the gospel. Right now, the church is having to take some very harsh medicine on the level of leadership and those "spoonfuls of sugar" to help it go down seem rare, but if my experience in preaching parish missions this Lent is any indicator, the grassroots are very much alive and well. AMEN
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