Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Acts 5:27-42
27 Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
It seems to me that there are some profoundly important stories in the Acts of the Apostles. I don’t mean just interesting stories, or stories that tell about important milestones in Christian history. I mean stories that challenge our thinking, and that provide us with an important framework for making decisions in our own time. Our reading for today is one of those stories.
This story takes place in the period shortly after the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Under the influence of that Spirit, the followers of Jesus were traveling around Jerusalem and the surrounding area, telling people about what God had done in Jesus’ death and resurrection. According to the accounts in Acts, the apostles seem to have performed a lot of their teaching in and around the temple of Jerusalem. Jesus himself had done a good deal of his teaching and preaching in that area, and it was the heart of the Hebrew religious tradition. But of course, that would attract the attention of the priests who ran the temple, and also of the Sadducees, who were supporters of the temple leadership.
At one point, these Jewish leaders had some of the apostles arrested and locked up. (Apparently there were jail cells in the temple precincts, which is kind of interesting to think about.) But during the night an angel let them out, and the next morning they were right back in the temple teaching and preaching again. So the temple leadership sent guards to bring them in for questioning – but they warned the guards to be respectful of the apostles, since they were highly respected by the religious Jews.
In today’s reading, the Jewish high council – the Sanhedrin – reminds the apostles that they’ve been ordered to ‘cease and desist’ their preaching in the name of Jesus. But Peter, who as usual served as the spokesman for the apostles, says that they believe they’ve been commissioned by God himself to tell people about Jesus, and that’s what they intend to keep on doing.
Some of the members of the council want to have the apostles executed for their disobedience. But in the middle of the debate, a Jewish leader named Gamaliel rises to speak. The council falls silent, because Gamaliel was one of the most respected of all the Hebrew scholars of his day. (You might remember that the apostle Paul took pride in having been one of Gamaliel’s students.)
And what Gamaliel says in this story probably helps to show why he had such a reputation for wisdom. He reminds the other members of the council that other rebellious movements had sprung up around various charismatic leaders in their nation’s recent history. But when those leaders were arrested or killed, their movements had just evaporated. So, Gamaliel says, if these followers of Jesus were just another group of rebels, their movement would evaporate on its own. But if the ‘Jesus movement’ really was empowered by God, no human effort could stop it. And resisting it would amount to “fighting against God.” So, Gamaliel advises, “Leave these men alone!”
This strikes me as one of the smartest things anybody other than Jesus says in the whole New Testament.
One of the persistent problems in the Christian tradition is that we have a tendency to think that all the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ time were self-absorbed hypocrites. But what Gamaliel says here is such a wise and interesting thought that it should remind us that not every meaningful insight about God comes from within the Christian faith. The example of Gamaliel should probably make us more humble about the possibility that we could hear God’s truth through Jewish thinkers. After all, a number of the early Christian leaders have been leaders of the Jewish tradition first — most notably the apostle Paul.
What Gamaliel said in this passage seems like something we should keep in mind in times of change. Because one of the realities about the workings of the Holy Spirit is that when it brings about change in the world, it’s not always immediately obvious to everyone that those changes actually are works of the spirit. So some people of faith often oppose those changes.
The civil rights movement would probably be an example — lots of church people were bitterly opposed to it. Or going back further, think about the time when the Holy Spirit began to persuade people of the evil of slavery. Many committed Christians supported the institution of slavery – and even died defending it. Stonewall Jackson was a very pious Presbyterian elder. But in retrospect, many or most Christians would say that those people were, in Gamaliel’s words, “fighting against God.”
In our part of the church, we believe that in the 20th century, the Holy Spirit empowered a movement to open all positions of leadership in the church to women, and to gay and transgendered people. Of course, not all believers have accepted that, and congregations have left our denomination rather than accept those people in positions of leadership.
People of faith and good will can and do disagree about things. And it seems to me that when we do disagree, we would be wise to remember the words of Gamaliel. With our imperfect human understanding, we are sometimes wrong. Some early Christian leaders insisted that all converts needed to be circumcised – but they were wrong. Some 19th century Christians insisted that God was in favor of slavery – but they were wrong. Other Christians insisted that black worshippers should be required sit in the balcony at worship services – but they were wrong. And in our part of the church, many of us believe that Christians who insist that women, gay and transgendered people can’t be spiritual leaders are also wrong.
The words of Gamaliel should always be ringing in our ears when winds of change seem to be blowing around us. Because the phrase we translate as “Holy Spirit” can also mean “Holy Wind,” and if a change is being empowered by that holy wind, it will not be stopped.
Let’s pray. Lord, you know how hard it is for us to accept the idea that you might be changing things, and that our “accepted wisdom” might have to be laid aside if we are to see what you are doing in the world in our time. Give us the humility to face the fact that we are often wrong, and open our minds and hearts to receive your wisdom, so that we might follow and serve you more faithfully. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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