Stephen Baldwin
NT: Acts 5.27-32
As a
candidate for office, people often want to know my positions on issues. Organizations even send me questionnaires in
the mail and ask me to sign pledges not to raise taxes, not to take anyone’s
guns, and not to infringe on the right to drink raw milk! But recently a woman asked me my position on
sin. It was the easiest question I’d
received in months.
“I’m
against it,” I said…and sat down, because that was a running joke with my
grandpa ET years ago. When I first began preaching, he would ask me if I took a
position on sin. He would say, “Were you for it or against it? You better be against it, at least in
public!”
As you all know, because you are
gracious to endure my preaching week in and week out, I don’t preach on sin all
that often. Why is that? Lots of reasons. One, because it’s not interesting. If you lose interest in church because the
preacher takes the same position and says the same thing every week, then
that’s on me. Two, because sin is not the
central theme of the Bible. If you do a
comparison of how many times the word sin is used, it’s way down on the
list. Three, and this is the one we’re
focused on today as we celebrate Holy Humor Sunday, because I’m tired of
Christians only speaking up for what they’re against. We need to speak up in favor of things more
often. We need to be known for what
we’re for, rather than just what we’re against.
Today’s passage in Acts tells the
story of the disciples in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection. Now, the disciples had always been known by
what they were against. Right? They were against feeding the five thousand,
they were against healing lepers, they were against dining with tax collectors,
and in Jesus’ final days on the road to Jerusalem, they were against him. This marks their turning point.
They’re arrested and imprisoned by
the Sadducees, a group of religious leaders, for preaching the Good News. That’s right.
For the first time, they were standing up for someone or something. They were out
telling people that Jesus loved them, that they were all equal, that no
one should be hungry, that the sick should be cared for, and the least of these
should be greatest. They were telling
people what Christianity stood for. And
because of that, they’re arrested and thrown in prison.
They miraculously get out of jail
thanks to an angel, who tells them to go right back into the middle of
Jerusalem and preach the Good News again. Jesus loves you. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Care the widows and orphans.
The Sadducees find out about it and
are really peeved this time. So they
arrest them again and consider killing them.
Until one of their leaders says, “That’ll just make it worse. Let them spread their Good News, no one will
really do any of it, and they will die out on their own.” They all agree, so that’s what they do.
Fast forward over two thousand
years later, and Christianity is still alive and well. All of you got out of bed in West Virginia on
a cold Sunday morning to gather together in a community and celebrate the Good
News of Jesus’ resurrection thousands of years after his death and thousands of
miles from his home. They were wrong
about us! The Good News doesn’t die
out! It lives!
Why? Not because of what we’re
against; but because of what we’re for! Let’s
be known by who we’re for--Jesus--and what we’re for--God’s gracious love! Then we’ll be the kind of witnesses Acts
calls the disciples. Witnesses willing
to laugh and love and risk and live.
Amen.
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