The Anti-Empire

Here is the outline for what we discussed last Sunday night:

INTRO::

Why was Jesus crucified?
Why did the people in power crucify Jesus?
Why was the first community of followers of Jesus persecuted?

How many of you have seen the movie or read the book "The DaVinci Code?"
There is a tremendous popularity to alternative ways of understanding Jesus. The Gnostic writings, the Gospels of Mary, Peter, Thomas, Judas are being read and discussed (they aren't new, they have been around for centuries), and it is becoming popular to assert that they are a more accurate picture of Jesus than the one we have in the Bible.

This is an indicator of people's desire to see things change. People want to believe that there is more to Jesus than what they learned in Sunday School. People want to believe that a true understanding of Jesus would cause a radical upheaval to the status-quo, that following the 'real' Jesus would change everything...

...this is a wonderful thing!!!

The reason all of these new concepts about Jesus (that are really old concepts that were rejected by the people who knew Him) are being explored is because people rarely understand just how radically threatening the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, really are...

Why was Jesus crucified? Why did the establishment take Him out?

!!He was a threat to the status-quo! He threatened to undermine the system that allowed them to exercise control and dominance!

Why was the Church persecuted for the first three centuries of it's existence? They were a threat! They threatened to overturn the way of life of an entire Empire!

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THE SECRET COMMUNITY OF JESUS :: THE ANTI-EMPIRE

The First Church was:

POLITICAL::

By political we are refering to an awareness and interaction with the surrounding power structures not necessarily policy debates, elections, or offices; remember Jesus was crucified with a political title over His head.

"But our citizenship is in heaven"
Philippians 3:20

All within the Roman Empire were required once a year to enter the Temple to Caesar, burn incense in worship to Caesar, and proclaim, “Caesar is Lord.” It was a spiritual/religious act, but it was simultaneously a political/patriotic act.

In contrast to this, the first followers of Jesus said:

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:9

"Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus be cursed,' and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit."
1 Corinthians 12:3

What this ammounts to is that the first disciples of the Way of Jesus were saying, "We don’t belong to Caesar’s Empire, we belong to Jesus’ Empire."

In spite of the pomp and circumstance of Rome, the largest Empire of it's day, with the longest continuous reign in human history, excercizing power from Britain to India, Africa to France, the first Christians were convincingly proclaiming:

"Caesar is a play-king, Jesus is the real deal…"

JESUS THE SOURCE OF LIFE::

The first Christians looked to Jesus as both the perfect revelation of who God is, and also as the source of God's presence within their lives and their community.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 1:3-4

The first disciples of Jesus believed that God was in the process of putting the world back together through Jesus. They experienced the very Spirit of the Resurrection filling them and empowering them to live a very different quality of life.

These first communities were emphatic about the centrality of Jesus to the spiritual explosion in their midst.

INCLUSIVE::

The Jewish world, and the larger Roman world, were rife with distinctions between different types of people; hierarchies establishing the interactions between these people. Some people were taboo, others were inferior, others were less than animals. In many cases this systemization of people was foundational to the peace and order of the surrounding culture (slavery and women).

In the communities of The Way, however, one of the first leaders of the movement observes:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

The same individual elsewhere notes:

The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
Ephesians 2:14-18

The first Christian communities were notorious for setting aside the social divisions found within the wider culture. Women and slaves were considered the equals of men and citizens.

GRASS ROOTS::

The first church was decentralized, it was a people movement. The earliest accounts of the community life of the Church record:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he 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 2:42-47

There was something happening, and it was organic, people were simply passing to others outside of the 'official' means of communication. Something was happening in houses and public spaces, God was touching people. There was no 'central fund,' no organization, no clergy, no official building, there was just God and people.

No one was in control

SUBVERSIVE::

The first Christians were playfully rebellious in their approach to those in power. Inscriptions have been found proclaiming:

"There is no name under heaven by which men might be saved than that of Caesar."

To which the disciples responded:

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:12

Caesar was given Titles like "Son of God," the Christians however, made another use of those titles:

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
1 John 4:15

Even popular 'Christian' words have origins other than we might suppose:

The term for a community who had recognized Caesar's lordship, worshiping him, and accepting his rule, was called an 'ekklesia' which is the Greek word we translate into English as "Church."

When Caesar would conquer new territories, or accomplish civic victories he would send out proclamations announcing this: "Caesar has brought peace and prosperity to yet more people, he is the bringer of peace and the source of life, etc. etc. etc."
These proclamations were called in Greek "euangelion" which means "good news" and is translated into English as “Gospel.”

The first Christians were saying, in effect, it is NOT good news that Caesar's armies have brought 'peace' through bloodshed; at the point of a Roman spear and by way of the Roman cross, that is not "good news;" the King of the Universe, the Creator of Everything came and brought peace by bringing bloodshed upon Himself, bearing the brunt of the world's brokenness, being nailed to a Roman cross, and so providing freedom and life to us, THAT is "good news!"

THE WAY OF LOVE::
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
17-18God is love.
20-21If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
1 John 4:7-21

The first Christian community was offering an alternative Empire within the Empire, and alternative society with the society; ignoring the attempted control of the dominant society, but still serving the needs of the other society.

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There iLee Harvey Oswald renouncing citizenship as an act of antagonism

What if becoming a disciple of Jesus was no less (but rather more) a defection from citizenship in this world, and this nation. This amounts to 'traitors in the midst' to the government in Rome! This is why Rome destroyed so many Christians they were a political threat...

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What do you do with people who have dedicated themselves to the overthrow of the established order? They propose an alternative way of living that is based around loving service instead of power and control. Their lives are so beautiful and attractive that they (by simply being who they are) are inviting people to ignore the status-quo and shift into their paradigm... But they aren't approaching the city with swords or threatening to nail people to crosses, nor are they attacking with diatribes; they don't wish to leave and start an alternate community but proclaim, rather, their intention to subvert this one from the inside, and they are unwilling to compromise, they won't bow to threats of death, nor cave in to promises of reward... such a people must be eradicated, or else they will be the cause of the greatest political/social/economic/spiritual upheaval in world history.

THREATENING :: Economy, Military, Taboos, Religion, Politics, Social

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There is a long period of history between the first centuries after Jesus and today, but interestingly enough, we find ourselves in a similar place. The church for over a thousand years was granted the place of honor in society, the Church was the center of culture and power, influencing political, economic, social, and even military structures. This is no longer the case.

THE CHURCH BELONGS ON THE MARGINS, IN THE GUTTER, ON THE EDGE

We can no longer rely on people coming to the Church, or desiring to participate in the vision Jesus' has of the world. I believe that this is an exciting thing! It means that we are back on familiar ground! The church is where it belongs, in the margins, collecting the people on the outside looking in! I think the Western world is moving to a place where the Church can once again offer a compelling and beautiful vision of an alternative reality. We are going underground, we are a part of a secret movement plotting to overthrow the established order!

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So where do we take this?

19-22That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Ephesians 2:19-22

Jesus is Lord U
Community I
Subversive/Inclusive O
Grass Roots F

Small communities of people, who are willing to accept anybody!!! into their midst, and are genuinely seeking to experience the life of Christ within, in a way that offers the world a radical alternative of love and service instead of dominance and manipulation. Meeting in bars, libraries, homes, parks, restaurants, wherever... but seeking God's Kingdom together, learning what it means to renounce our citizenship in the kingdom of self, and how we can become as a community a dwelling place for God's spirit. Welcoming the marginalized, serving the poor, standing up for the oppressed; because that is who God is!

CITIZENSHIP IN HEAVEN

This will cause us to be subversive, to challenge the way things are. As followers of the Way of Jesus, we should be challenging the 'Caesar' of our day. I know some would be tempted to see a specific person as our contemporary Caesar, but there is something more insidious going on here. We are talking about systemic problems. Economic systems that essentially force poverty on people in other countries, world banking systems, international lending, environmental degradation, materialism that grips our culture, a breakdown of simple human relationships, people treating each other as means to an end in terms of sex or control, systematic racial inequality,

Practical:

Renounce our citizenship, pledge our allegiance to the world's true king and loving servant, Jesus; listen to His vision for the universe, (prayer, re-reading the story of God); truly belonging to one another at a deeper level than simple affection; taking responsibility for the spiritual community (Leadership); creatively subverting the way of the world. (RED) Creative acts of power and beauty, that through love and service, pull down the way of the world and replace them with the way of Jesus.

The intersection of Heaven and Earth, the people in whom God's Spirit lives and makes himself known.