THE CHRISTIAN CONSPIRACY
Text: Acts 5: 17-32
July 3, 2005, Dave Philips
From the beginning many have looked upon the Christian Church as being a conspiracy. From Annas and Caiaphas in Judaism, and the Emperor Nero in paganism, right on down to the village atheist in our own time, there have always been people who have suspected us Christians of trying to take over the government, or take away their freedoms, or take the fun out of life.
In the early days we Christians were called atheists because we didn’t worship the pagan gods. We were called cannibals because we spoke of partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We were called killjoys because we didn’t participate in the pagan festivals where the wine flowed freely and there was promiscuous sex. And then, oddly enough, the pagan world turned around and accused us of being sexually promiscuous ourselves because we called each other brother and sister and loved each other on the briefest acquaintance.
And perhaps it’s right to call us a conspiracy. Maybe we are a danger of some kind to the stability of the state. There have certainly been rulers who have thought us to be a threat to internal security. Toward the end of the first century there was a frenzy of persecution directed toward the Christian community by the emperor, Domitian, who found Christians in his own household and feared that his position was in jeopardy.
Some years back in El Salvador a group of Jesuit priests came under attack from the fascist leaning government because of their opposition to an unjust land reform scheme. Two priests were killed, the entire Jesuit community was threatened with liquidation by government guerrillas, and posters appeared in the capital city that said, “Serve your country. Kill a priest.”
But if we are a conspiracy, we’re certainly the strangest conspiracy the world has ever seen. Our revolution is a revolution of love, our most powerful weapon is our willingness to be servants to others, our strategy of world conquest is not through violent overthrow, but friendly persuasion. It’s good as Christians and Americans to ponder the Christian conspiracy as we Americans celebrate 229 years of independence. For the Christian conspiracy fueled the American Revolution, and without a solid understanding of Christianity, our understanding of our own American Revolution is profoundly flawed.
When we read about the Christian conspiracy in the book of the Acts, we notice some unusual qualities that make our conspiracy different from any other in world history. I’d like to highlight three. First, our conspiracy is an open conspiracy. Second, we conspire as Christians to show people the way to an abundant life. Third, we conspire to obey God rather than people.
AN OPEN CONSPIRACY
First, ours is an open conspiracy. When the angel of the Lord freed the apostles from prison, he didn’t tell them to go off and hide in a corner. He told them to go right back out into the open and preach the message that had gotten them into jail in the first place. We Christians have nothing under the table. We have no hidden agenda. We make no secret treaties. Our faith is the faith of the open book, and we make every effort to bring men and women and boys and girls to an understanding of that open book. The last thing in our mind is to conceal, the first item on our agenda is to reveal.
Howard Taylor wrote a biography of his father, Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China. He named it Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret. What was it that made Hudson Taylor such a powerful man of God? The title of the first chapter: “An Open Secret”! In other words, Hudson Taylor’s secret is available to anyone who wants to find out about it, free of charge. You don’t even have to pay $30 for the book, study guides, and the CD. Most churches would gladly give you a Bible free if you asked for one.
An open conspiracy. We Christians are encouraged to do everything right out in the open with the world looking on. We encourage our enemies to read our plans. We want those who oppose us to know our designs in the hope that we can turn our enemies into friends.
Back in the days of the Soviet Union a young Russian policeman named Sergei Kourdakov was assigned to a goon squad that went into Christian meetings to beat up the worshipers. One day after a raid he stuffed a couple of sheets of handwritten material into his pocket, even though he knew it was forbidden to read the Christian propaganda. It turned out to be a page from the gospel of Luke. And to Sergei Kourdakov’s amazement he found that this incendiary material that these Christians were reading together was easily the most beautiful thing he’d ever read, piercing his heart with its poignant message, waking a part of his humanity that he had almost killed. He found himself weeping with remorse for his violence against these gentle, good people. Ultimately Sergei Kourdakov became a Christian. The Communist revolution crashed and burned in the Soviet Union, turning out to be morally and spiritually bankrupt. The real revolution that frees people from spiritual and economic slavery continues to be Christianity.
So, our faith is an open conspiracy. It’s not a “specter haunting Europe” in the words of the Communist Manifesto, causing all the governing powers of church and state to tremble with fear. It’s not a spook to be dreaded. It’s the Spirit of our risen Lord Jesus who calls us out of our hiding places into the sunlight to walk openly with him.
A CONSPIRACY TO REVEAL AN ABUNDANT LIFE
Second, our conspiracy as Christians is to show people the way to an abundant life. Jesus said, “I have come in order that [you] might have life and have it abundantly.”1 Talk about conspiracies, who conspired to hide that good news? Could it be that the majority of American people have been sold a bill of goods about Jesus Christ? And could it be that we Christians are to blame for hiding that good news? I can’t understand anyone who says that Jesus Christ is a pale Galilean who wants to make people miserable. It’s just the other way around! Christianity is not a way of making people unhappy, it’s an invitation to life!
Do we Presbyterian Christians understand that? One of the strange characters in J.D. Salinger’s novels said that he had an unusual emotional disturbance. He was a paranoid in reverse. He was always suspecting people of plotting . . . to make him happy! The Christian conspiracy is God’s plot to make you happy! And when we’re Christians, we’re co-conspirators with God to make others happy. We want to share the abundant life Jesus gives us with other people. “Go stand in the temple,” says the angel to the apostles, “and tell the people the whole message about this life.” It’s Life that we’re sharing, the real thing, not any phony counterfeit. It’s the Life that triumphed over pain, over disappointment, even over death, and rose from the dead on Easter. That’s what we’re conspiring to show people.
What amazes me in my profession is the tremendous creativity that people demonstrate in developing counter-conspiracies to God’s grand conspiracy. What is it about us human beings that gives us such great satisfaction in making ourselves — and other people — miserably unhappy? You know, we celebrate the great works of human genius like the Mona Lisa or the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. I’ve had the thought that we could do the same for the monumental ways that people think up to make themselves miserable!
Do you remember Robert Ringer and his cynical masterpiece, Looking out for Number One? Ringer is supposed to be this supreme, hard-boiled realist who can relieve us of our neurotic guilt by his gospel of pure selfishness. He tells us not to be conned by those who urge us to find fulfillment not in selfishness but in service. Selfishness is where it’s at, says Ringer. The man’s a genius! He’s got to be! How could anyone think up so many brilliant ways to make himself and other people unhappy?
But we Christians don’t buy that bill of goods! The number one person in our lives is not ourselves but Jesus Christ. We take seriously his words: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”2
We believe Jesus when he says that he came to give us abundant life, and so we conspire with God to make this Good News known so that people can find real fulfillment in life.
CONSPIRACY TO OBEY GOD.
But there’s a third part to our conspiracy. We have conspired to obey God rather than people. And here’s where we do get into serious trouble with the authorities sometimes. It’s not that we don’t want to obey the government. It’s rather that we do want to obey God. When God leads us into a path where conflict with the powers that be is inevitable, then we must obey God rather than people.
I talked with a man once who told me that in his organization which does considerable business with city, state, and federal governments, officials are constantly asking him for bribes in return for getting government contracts. He said that the graft in government is appalling, and it’s everywhere. How many people can withstand that kind of pressure, especially in days when business is so competitive and giving a bribe might mean the difference between profit and loss?
But doesn’t God call us to obey him rather than people no matter what? Don’t we Christians set our faces to follow God no matter what? And don’t we experience, to our great surprise, tremendous relief, tremendous joy when we follow God no matter what? When the apostles were beaten for preaching without permission, they rejoiced! And when you have stood up for your faith and paid for it, isn’t it true that you experience a joy you can’t know any other way?
Lutherans in the 16th century sang with conviction, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever.” In the same spirit in our American Revolution, of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, more than half actually gave their lives or lost their fortunes because they were serious about their commitment to democracy.
There are Christians today that I know personally who have in the words of Luther’s hymn “let goods and kindred go,” sometimes voluntarily, because of a sense of God’s calling, sometimes involuntarily because of persecution by repressive governments. And the surprising thing about these Christians is their serenity, their peace, their joy. Some of these people are Americans. Most are not. Most of them are Ugandans, Ethiopians, Sudanese, Pakistanis, and many other nationalities could be added. There are Christians today who share God’s grand conspiracy to be completely open with other people, to share the abundant life of Christ, to obey God rather than people, and to do all these things no matter what.
The question for us is, of course, do we stand with them? Do we in Grants and Milan stand with them? Do we qualify to be called by the name “Christian”, if this is what being a Christian means? Are we indeed willing to let goods and kindred go, this mortal life, also? And if we are willing, how is our willingness reflected in the way we spend our money, the way we use our time, the way we speak to one another, the way conduct our businesses?
I’d like to challenge you with one small practical application of what we’ve been thinking about together. During this coming week I can almost guarantee that your Christian faith will be challenged at some point. The challenge will probably come in a small matter. Most challenges to our faith do. Perhaps it will be an insulting remark that someone will make about Jesus. Maybe it will be a request to look the other way when something slightly shady is going on in your business. Is it your custom to keep quiet when these things happen, out of politeness or a desire not to make waves? I’d like to challenge you to speak up, politely but firmly, and let it be known by your action and words in this small way that you are Christian committed to the Christian conspiracy.
I’m going to wear a little sticker on my wrist watch this week. It’s a little piece of tape with a cross drawn on it. I’m going to wear it to remind me that you’re all out there trying to bear a Christian witness in an appalling rat race. I’d like you to join me in wearing that sticker, just for this week. Let the sticker remind you to speak out as a Christian when your faith is challenged.
And one more thing. When you get a chance, tell me, or tell some other Christian friend, what happened to you so that we can share your triumphs, and your disappointments as well, and be a part with you of this magnificent conspiracy of God to make you happy and to give all people the abundant life of Jesus Christ.