Thermostats

Acts 19 tells the story of the early church in the ancient city of Ephesus. The abstract of the summary version is this: Paul and some other leaders begin to preach and dialog with those in Ephesus and grow a small band of followers. A contingent of local merchants, who make their money in the crafting of physical idols and replicas, become upset and lead a riot against the nascent Christian movement. The riot is quelled and Paul continues his ministry in a new region.

What most strikes me about this narrative though is the strong reaction of those in Ephesus against the Jesus followers. They are so upset, their values are so threatened, their source of idolotrous income is so imperiled that they take to the streets with rage. At one point the text says they chant a single phrase in anger for over two hours. 

Today, though our economy could still be described as being built on idolatrous values, we don't see riots in the streets against Christians. 

A couple facts. 

1. Depending on how quantified, somewhere between 35%-75% of Americans identify themselves as followers of Jesus. 

2. We all know that there are practices that take place in our businesses that belittle people, oppress workers overseas, and take advantage of the poor. And we'd be right to identify these practices as unchristlike.

Most often our answer to why we allow it would be that its just the system we have or the cost of doing business, but someone, somewhere is signing off on these decisions. And if the statistics are to be believe there is at least a 1/3 chance and likely a much higher one that the corporate manager or the Board members approving these choices also would identify as Christians.

So what happens here? Why the disconnect? Why does no one stand up and say, "No."?

I think it is this. When they (or we) walk into that boardroom, we carry a primary identity of something other than Christian (a little Christ in the original language). We might be thinking of ourselves as an employee, a shareholder, a steward of company wealth, or any other number of things, but when we chose the practices (in ways great and small) that don't line up with the way of Jesus, we expose where our true allegiance lies.

I write all this with humility, knowing I also feel these pressures pull at me in their own ways. No, I don't sign off on any sweatshops across the ocean, but the allegiance confusion strikes me all the same.

In his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr hit this chord asking:

“There was a time when the church was very powerful. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being ‘disturbers of the peace’ and ‘outside agitators.’ But they went on with the conviction that they were ‘a colony of heaven,’ and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be ‘astronomically intimidated.'”

Oh, that we too might be so defined and filled by God's Spirit that we would change the temperature by our mere presence and voice.