Paul gives five formal defenses of himself and his actions in the Book of Acts. Today we read the fourth one which is the shortest of the five. By this point you should be recognizing many of the points that Paul makes. He, and the movement of which he is a part is no threat to the civil authorities. He is being accused by people who are disputing with him over particular points of what he claims as their shared religion. Paul is working out of a tradition in the Roman Empire that the State was very reluctant to be drawn into religious disputes internal to the conquered lands. This was a practical stance because the civil authorities sent from Rome could hardly be expected to have enough knowledge to rule wisely in such cases. And bad rulings led to more disturbance of the peace. (And that was bad for Roman business.)
The point being made in this chapter was that Festus thought this conflict was over one issue and discovered it was about something else entirely. The civil realm was unable to understand what was happening in the religious realm unless time was taken and an effort made to learn about the teachings of the faith.
There's a surprising resonance between this moment in the history of the Early Church and the situation in the United States right now. Much of the major conflict in society has to do with the places where the secular world and the religious world are in opposition. The secular world uses scientism as the primary source of its thought and the religious world doesn't. You can see this in operation in the present disputes between the pro-life and pro-choice (which is at its heart an argument over when life begins), in the dispute between evolutionists, creationists and adherents of intelligent design, and in the arguments over the rights of people attracted to others of the same gender and people who find themselves to be transgender. Scientific thought in this day says one thing, religious thought in this day says another in many cases, and the civil authorities are being drawn into the dispute between competing views. The problem, speaking as a scientist and theologian, is that most of the civil authorities don't know enough about either science or theology to be able to judge when good claims are being made by one or both and when they are being used badly.
Stirring the present volatile mix is the decreasing effectiveness of the media in informing society about the basic issues being disputed. The business models of the media are in a moment of rapid change and much of the institutional press is no longer viable. Religion reporters who are trained in religious teachings are very rare. Scientific reporting tends to the sensational. The civil authorities, locked in a moment of deep struggle to gain a definitive advantage over one and another, are not well-served by either.
Paul was facing death because the civil authorities who were trying his case simply didn't know enough about the Way to be able to judge well. Generally Rome would not be drawn into such a dispute. The Founders of this country took a book from that page when they passed the first amendment in our Bill of Rights. But there were times and there are times when the civil authority of a nation must act in such a dispute between differing beliefs. It becomes imperative for them to be informed. But who shall inform them?
In Paul's case, that responsibility fell to Paul. In our day, I wonder if it doesn't also fall to us. We have the resource of an active and well read laity. We have the resource of highly educated clergy. We live in a moment when we can very easily communicate with thousands of people whenever we want to. Who is there better suited or resourced to speak to the world about our faith today than us?
How willing are you to do that? How confident are you in doing that? What would you have to change in your life so that you would be more confident? I am so grateful that you've been faithful in this Lenten Journey this year. Reading the Bible, reflecting on the meaning of the words in their original and present context is the place to begin. Allowing God's Word to form you and the Spirit to transform you is the necessary step to begin this task. Look at how Paul was formed and transformed…
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