For many of us at The Story, the last month has been frustrating, to say the least. The church we love has experienced its first existential challenge, and we will soon be leaving the campus of our mother church, St. Luke’s United Methodist, to go out on our own. At times like these, it’s easy for those of us who are already skeptical about organized religion to grow deeper in our cynicism and mistrust.
That’s why, especially at times like these, it’s critical that we distinguish between the Gospel of Jesus and the religions of men. What Jesus came to do far exceeds every religion and denomination, so when the Church begins to lose our way, we must keep going back to the New Testament to rediscover the original precepts of Jesus and his Gospel. Let’s remember how the Church looked at its inception:
Acts 2:43-47 – All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 4:32-37 – All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales…and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
So the Holy Spirit showed up, and everybody shared everything. Generosity was the first byproduct of the Spirit’s presence among the people. And to this day, the best way to know where you really stand with Jesus is how willing you are to part with your stuff. Jesus talked more about money and stuff than any other topic. In Matthew 6:24 he said, “No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The first Church was very simple: a few hundred people laid down their lives for each other. They laid it all down: their property, possessions, their time, their homes, their food, and their money. People have pointed out that the early Church sounds a lot like socialism. Just to be clear, while socialism is, by definition, state-run, the government had nothing to do with what happened with the first Christians. Their generosity wasn’t legislated or enforced. It was freely given. They chose to give themselves away because Jesus gave himself away. A Jesus-centered church is always interested in the redistribution of wealth while also insisting on free will. In the early Church, sharing wasn’t the law; it was a choice.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the American people are divided into two camps – conservatives and liberals – and sadly, this has been true in churches as well. In the last few generations, American Christians have surrendered our mission to places like Washington, Austin and City Hall. Without a mission, churches are resigned to institutional survival, so we create programs that entice people to come and give money so we can stay alive. But the Church does not exist to keep the Church alive. The Church exists to make the world alive through Christ. Jesus said we’re the light of the world and the salt of the earth. And Richard Stearns wrote, “When our churches become spiritual spas in which we retreat from the world, our salt loses its saltiness, and we are no longer able to impact the culture.”
The Christian worldview isn’t just sentimental, political, moral. It’s theological. We take care of each other because Jesus took care of us. We’re not motivated by ideology. We’re motivated by our relationship with the man who said, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance…[f]or I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:34-35)
The first Christians were so inspired by Jesus’ words that they actually started living by them. The Roman Empire in the first century was savage. It was every man for himself. The Romans ruled by force, humiliating the people they conquered, and crucifying up to 500 people per day. The normal human response to that sort of treatment would be either total rebellion or total surrender. The Christians did neither. They chose the way of Jesus.
Love one another; outdo one another in showing honor. Never be lazy in showing such devotion. – Romans 12:10-11
At first, no one in Rome really noticed the Christians, but the way of Jesus was so compelling to so many people that the Church grew like crazy. From 500 people to 10,000 in just a few days. By the end of the first century, there were over a million Christians following Jesus in the Roman Empire. Every time Roman Emperors tried to kill the Church, it grew because the world was so amazed by how the Christians loved everyone.
And what resulted was a total transformation, not just in the hearts of the Christians, and not just in the Church, but a total transformation of the Roman secular way of life. In the 4th Century, after 300 years of crucifying Christians and feeding them to hungry lions, the Emperor Julian, who hated Christians, wrote a letter to his pagan priests saying, “Why do we not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of the dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause? Each of these things ought to be practiced by us… It is disgraceful when no Jew is a beggar and the Christians support our poor in addition to their own…”
Then the Emperor Julian, the most powerful man in the world, spent the rest of his letter plagiarizing Jesus, that poor nobody from Nazareth who died on a cross. He told his pagan priests to “Erect many hostels in order that strangers may enjoy my kindness,” which sounds a lot like, For I was a stranger and you welcomed me…
Next, he wrote, “I have ordered grain and wine be distributed from me to strangers and beggars in my name…” which sounds like, For I was hungry…I was thirsty…
“I believe even prisoners deserve the same kind of care.” For I was in prison…
“Do not therefore let others outdo us in good deeds, while we are disgraced by laziness.” Outdo one another in showing honor. Never be lazy in showing such devotion.
“We ought to share our goods with all men.” All the believers were one…they shared everything they had.
The most powerful man in the world, the man they called a god, the emperor of Rome found all his best ideas in the New Testament, and then he acted like they were his own. In the film Inception, a group of agents secretly plant ideas in a person’s head while they sleep. Something similar appears to have happened in Rome because, while Caesar slept, the Christians, with every act of love, created a shadow Empire that conquered Roman culture without violence or force. They changed the world, one act of kindness at a time.
The same thing can happen here in America. Regardless of your politics, we can all agree that Washington, Austin, and City Hall aren’t going to fix anyone’s problems anytime soon. America doesn’t need more ideologues, even ones who call themselves Christians. America needs Christians who share life together, open our homes to each other, feed each other, and give our money away. Every time we do these things in Jesus’ name, we are rebuilding the shadow Empire that will change America, not from the top, down, or from the bottom, up, but from the inside, out.
Dallas Willard said, “The world can no longer be left to mere diplomats, politicians, and business leaders. They have done the best they could, no doubt. But this is an age for spiritual heroes – a time for men and women to be heroic in their faith and in spiritual character and power. The greatest danger to the Christian church today is that of pitching its message too low.”
Amen. No matter what our next chapter together looks like, I’m beyond excited to be the Church with you, my Story fam!
