Like It Matters--April 29, 2020

Like It Matters--April 29, 2020

"Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but eveyrthing they owned was held in common.  With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.  There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.  They laid it at the apostles' feet, and itw as distributed to each as any had need." [Acts 4:32-35]

I'm going to say something here, and I am going to ask you to give me the benefit of the doubt to explain it before you start picking up rocks to throw at me.  Would you do me that favor?  Ok, here goes:

The early church did not grow merely because they told a story about a divine figure who rose from the dead.  The church thrived--and spread like wildfire--because they actually lived like the resurrection of Jesus that they preached about actually mattered.  

Now hear me out.  You could find plenty of religions in the ancient world that had stories about gods or heroes who went into the realm of the dead and came back.  Just about every culture had a sun god, and the celebration of its "return" after the cold of winter was usually told like a journey or a battle in the underworld.  There were heroes like Hercules and Orpheus, too, who went into those shadowy realms where deathly monsters waited, too. There's a running rumor, too (although it seems a little shaky, historically) that the cult of Mithras told a story about their god dying and rising, too.  And for good measure, the old Norse myths tell of Odin sacrificing himself on a tree in order to gain knowledge and wisdom, and then coming back to life.  But to be honest, in the first century you could tell any of those other stories about other gods and heroes that seem to die and rise and then just go on about your business with life as usual, as if nothing was any different.

In fact, for a lot of those ancient religions, the death and return of the gods was seen as a support for propping up the order of the day.  The Romans used their worship of the sun (whom they called "Sol Invictus"--the Unconquered Sun) as a way of reinforcing obedience to the state, the king/emperor, and the decrees of the empire.  Just as surely as the sun was always going to rise in the new day, Rome would be calling the shots, and you should do what the king said.  That sort of thing.  The myths of heroes who went into the underworld, too, didn't really offer any hope of changing or breaking the power of death--the heroes might survive their brushes with the grave, but they left the inner workings of death unchanged.  And therefore, for most of those other ancient myths and religions with, the world wasn't any different because of those dying-and-rising gods--if anything, the stories were used to teach adherents, "This is how things are.  This is how the world works.  It ain't changing for you.  Get used to it... and get back to work."

But the first followers of Jesus really were different in that respect.  They didn't see the resurrection of Jesus as a way of preserving the status quo--they saw it as the upending of the old order and the beginning of a whole new creation.  Jesus' resurrection wasn't seen as just an analogy for the repeated cycle of seasons or the setting and rising of the sun--it was seen as the breaking of the powers of death, the dethroning of all other powers and authorities, and a rearranging of old priorities.

After all, if Jesus really was risen from the dead and really promised resurrection for us as well, then, for starters it means that there's more to life than just making as much money in this life as possible for myself.  That undermined all the voices from the empire that taught people to look out only for their own interests.  And second, if Jesus really was risen from the dead, it meant that he was right about what he taught and commanded his followers to do--and that meant sharing your abundance, lifting up the lowly, giving to others, and trusting God to provide what was needed for the day.  And if those things were true, well it was going to mean a whole new way of living your life.

And I really do believe that's the connection here in Luke's mind as he tells us about the life of the early church in Jerusalem.  He connects their sharing of possessions with the apostles' preaching about the resurrection, because the one logically led to the other for the first Christians.  If Jesus really was alive, it made perfect sense not to waste your life in the present just piling up more money or stuff if you could instead use your resources to help out a neighbor--who is of infinitely greater value in God's eyes than your cash.  If Jesus really is alive, then surely we could trust God to give us our daily bread, and I don't have to live my life with clenched fists clutching my possessions. In other words, the early Christians actually let their belief that Jesus is risen affect their daily lives--all the way down to their wallets.  That was the evidence the watching world needed that said these people really believed what they said... and it also spoke hope for people who were just so weary by the rotten systems of the world as they knew it.

This, I have come to believe, is what really made the early church catch fire across all sorts of people, especially those who were on the margins in the first century.  Women were treated like they mattered--in fact, they were the very first preachers of the resurrection!  Slaves were treated like they belonged, and those in high estate were taught to treat all with dignity and humanity regardless of their income.  Foreigners were welcomed.  The poor were told that they were specially beloved and blessed by God.  The outcast, the sick, the grieving, and the brokenhearted--the "least of these"--were all treated like they really bore the face of the risen Christ.  And because the early Christians actually arranged their lives, their routines, and their finances around that, it drew people.  

And maybe even more than that, the early Christians taught and believed that Christ's resurrection meant that the old order, the old system, and the old powers-of-the-day were dead men walking, rather than using the resurrection news to reinforce the status quo.  The early Christians did not say, "Jesus is risen, and therefore Rome will last forever, so get used to being ruled by a foreign empire and an arrogant blowhard on the throne." But rather, they said just the opposite: "Jesus is risen, and therefore the days of every empire and emperor are numbered, because God's new reign of abundance and justice and mercy for all is breaking in around us."  The resurrection of Jesus was the reason the early church dared to share their bread.  They lived like Easter Sunday actually changed the way they lived, acted, and used their money on Monday through Saturday. And that turned the world upside down.

If there is a reason folks think the church is dying in places like 21st century America, I think it has almost nothing to do with Christians not getting special treatment or whether there is prayer in schools or there being a multiplicity of religions around us in the public square. That's exactly the incubator in which the Christian faith first grew and spread.  No, I think the reason it can feel like the church is dying is that we have stopped acting like the resurrection really matters to how we live and work and share.  We have decided that the resurrection is only about getting a spot in the afterlife, but that everything else in the world will just stay as it is forever, unchanged, because "the way things are must be the way God has willed them to be," and therefore the hungry and poor should just accept their lot in life, and the wealthy and privileged should thank providence they were elected to comfort in this life.  We have decided that Jesus' resurrection doesn't get to affect how I use (or hoard) my money, and we have all collectively agreed that Easter can't make me rearrange my life around the needs of my neighbor.

And to the watching world, all that says is simply, "The resurrection those Christians talk about doesn't mean anything, not really. It doesn't even change the way they spend their money."  And if all we have to share with the world is one more myth about a dying-rising god like Odin or Osiris or Mithras, but one we treat like it's "just a story," you might as well pick one of those other stories to tell, because they are even more fantastic in their spectacle and special effects budgets.

If we want to see the church thrive, maybe it is time to stop acting like the resurrection is just about reserving a spot in the afterlife while leaving the present world unchanged.  Maybe it is time to let the news of Jesus' resurrection overturn the old orders of our lives once again so that we share our resources without fear, so that we give up the damnable thinking of "Me and Mine First," and so that we look out for those most vulnerable and weak before we pad our own pockets.  

That would get the world's attention.  I know it would get mine.

Lord Jesus let your resurrection rearrange our priorities, revitalize our practices, and renew our passion.  Let us live like your resurrection matters... today.