“Power to Stifle or Transform”
April 25, 2021
Acts 4:5–12
The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is “the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.” There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’
About ten years ago TIME magazine covered a story of some 100,000 former Christians who have downloaded “certificates of de-baptism” in a bid to publicly renounce the faith. The website is sponsored by the National Secular Society of London which promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. Since 1866 it holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it.
The NSS started the online de-baptism initiative to mock the practice of baptizing infants too young to consent to religious rites and provide liberation from the “original sin you never had.” Those who complete the request are permitted to print out a paper certificate that uses quasi-formal language to “reject baptism’s creeds and other such superstitions.”
Given that God takes on different forms for different people, the NSS has been approached by non-believers as far away as Australia, Romania and Saudi Arabia requesting certificates tailored to their former faith. “We’ve had Jewish people write in asking, ‘Can I have a certificate to undo my bar mitzvah?.’” And while the group considers those requests, there is at least one recurring query they are certain they cannot undo, symbolically or otherwise: “How can I get myself uncircumcised?”1
The NSS president believed that churches have become so reactionary, so politically active, that people actually want to make a protest against them now. He says that every time a preacher or religious leader says something outrageous, like hateful comments about Muslims, or calling gays an abomination, or blaming the poor for their poverty, they get another rush on the demand for certificates.
Many critics of the church make valid points. History is dotted with examples where the purity of dogma has been placed ahead of the integrity of love. It is also true that Christians throughout history have taken the rich, sparkling wine of the Good News of Jesus and turned it into the dull, dreary dishwater of everyday culture, reversing the gospel, misusing faith as a substitute for thought.
So, perhaps it is fair to say that the stumbling block for most sensitive nonbelievers is not Christ, but Christians. Especially when Christians become tied to issues of control and power that they do not allow room for the Spirit of Christ to liberate lives and even institutions.
It was Annie Dillard who quipped “What a tragedy that so closely on the heels of Christ come the Christians.”
Which leads to our scripture from Acts. Peter and John had been heading up to the Temple in Jerusalem at about 3:00 pm when they saw a man who had been lame since birth begging by the Gate. Peter says, “I have no gold or silver, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk!”
And the man not only stands and walks, but starts leaping around in exultation and delight. One would think that the whole community would start leaping around as well, and they might have, had Peter been able to keep his mouth shut. He starts preaching. “I wasn’t the one who did this. It was not our power at all that caused this healing. It was the power of God, and the power of faith in the name of Jesus. (v. 3:12–16)
Well, he kept on preaching until finally he and John were arrested. Then they appear before the big guns. These are the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, and they are not singing hallelujahs because a desperately needy man was healed. They are angry. And the reason for the backlash becomes clear in their question: “By what power…did you do this?” See how adept they were at reframing the issue? The issue was no longer healing, resurrection, and the mercy of God. Now the issue is power.
They did not ask “How did this happen?” or “What is the meaning of this?” They asked “Where did you get the power to do this? Who authorized you to do and say these things?” They wanted people to be faithful and prayerful, but to do so only under the exclusive banner of the temple and its protocols.
But what we find in these stories of the early church in Acts, was a first century post-resurrection pandemic of the Holy Spirit that spread like wildfire. The followers of Jesus could not be contained by normal channels or regulated by rules, dogmas and structures.
Luke wrote the book of Acts with a particular view on religious authority and institutional structures. Right after Pentecost, with the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church, he writes that followers of Jesus spent much time together in the temple. (Acts 2:46) Recall that Peter and John were going to the temple to pray when they came across the beggar.
And in these early chapters of Acts depicting the first century church, we find that the Christian movement already had an organizational structure. They would have Bible study, meals, fellowship, and prayer, and evangelism programs and outreach to the poor.
The issue in this Acts passage is not anti-institutional in nature. Something else is going on. And it applies today’s Church. Tom Long, professor of preaching at Emory University in Atlanta, hits the nail on the head when he asks the question: Is the institution responsive to the Spirit, or is it curved in on itself? Listen to how he puts it:
“Whenever political or religious authorities set themselves up as the only legitimate broker of what people need and defend that authority, inevitably, the Holy Spirit breaks down those structures.”[ii]
You see, the temple authorities in Acts were not interested in the Spirit. They were interested in temple authority for its own sake. “By what power do you do these things?” they wanted to know. “Who told you to do this?” The message was clear: If the disciples wanted to do religious business in Jerusalem, then they needed to get a license from the temple power brokers. But Peter and John were not diminished: “By the power of the name of Jesus,” that beggar was healed.
The religious authorities questioning Peter and John were not out to get them. They wanted to protect their culture, way of life, tradition, and faith from the threat of corruption that new ideas and new practices could bring about. So, they insisted on hanging on to the established dogmas and rules that had been handed down through the centuries in order to keep things stable and orderly.
But the resurrection of Jesus initiated a radical departure from the status quo. This Acts passage reminds us of the power to transform, but also the resistance to that change from those with a stake in the status quo.
Peter called upon the power to heal, not in a mental exercise or a doctrine or dogma that separates those who believe from those who do not, but in the transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. His distinction in his speech in Acts 4 was between the stifling power agenda of the rulers and the transforming power of God through the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus.
Today, like never in our lifetime has the good news of Acts been needed to guide us. Changes have come upon Christianity and its churches and until structures, power centers and dogmas that exclude or judge people give way to a reformation, the trends are bleak.
Still, Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 70% in 1999. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has grown from 8% to 21% . [iv] The reasons for these statistics deserve intensive study and conversation.
Where does this leave us? Might it be that in the Spirit of the Risen Christ we need to take up the energy and enthusiasm of the church we see in Acts, being willing to shake off some off the structures, laws and dogmas that have divide people and kept us from being responsive to the Holy Spirit? Or will we hold to what Peter and John encountered with the religious leaders who sincerely wanted people to be faithful and prayerful, but to do so only under the exclusive banner of the temple and its protocols?
I do not know if the National Secular Society is still issuing de-baptism certificates. But I am heartened when I hear the words proclaimed over a child: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” which reminds us of the truth that God is never through with us. The God who created us in God’s very image and loves all people, the Son who came not to condemn but to bring healing and salvation, and the Holy Spirit which challenges and confronts even long held assumptions — is still looking for us to leap and dance with the transforming power of the resurrection for new generations.
That is a power that cannot be thwarted, even through a certificate.
[i] “De-Baptism Gains a Following in Britain,” TIME, April 14, 2009.
[ii] Tom Long, Feasting on the Word, Year B, vol. 2. David Bartlett and Barbara Brown
Taylor, editors. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2009. P. 432.
[iii] Tom Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part 1, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press,
2008, p. 63
[iv] U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time by Jeffrey M. Jones; Gallup News brief, March 29, 2021
