Class Warfare---A Sermon

Class Warfare
Text: Acts 13:42-52
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
September 2, 2007

Every so often in political debates one person or group usually steps up and claims that another person or group is engaging in class warfare. It is almost as if this is a new thing that someone just dreamed up.

Class warfare is obviously one class of people in conflict with another class of people.

It can be a conflict between rich and poor.

It can be a conflict between races.

It can be a conflict between ethnic groups.

It can be a conflict between political parties.

Virtually anyone, at any time can claim that they are in a conflict with any one else and claim it to be class warfare.

We have this kind of scenario in our passage today. Paul and Barnabas are preaching to both Jews and Gentiles. The Jews reject the preaching of Paul and Barnabas as blasphemy and sinful whereas the Gentiles embrace it. Paul and Barnabas further say that they were commanded by God to preach first to the Jews and since the Jewish community would not embrace the Gospel, they were pushed aside for the Gentiles. In how they are speaking, they are not saying that God is rejecting them, but that the Jewish community was rejecting what God had laid out for them.

In that realm the Jews saw the Gentiles as unclean heathens and to be pushed aside for unclean heathens was just more than they could handle.

God does not bring about conflict, people do. Conflict is not from God, but often comes as a result of people’s reaction to God or God’s way. And people react in very different ways to God.

In the time leading up to the Civil War and through the war itself Christians, from both the North and the South firmly believed that they were doing God’s will. From the pulpits in the South, their Bible told them that God not only permitted slavery, but expected it and blessed it.

From the pulpits in the North, their Bible told them that God hated slavery and expected all people, of all races, to be a free people.

Of course, the Southern Bible and the Northern Bible were the same Bible. It wasn’t the Bible that caused the division, it was people’s response to it.

During World War II the average foot soldier of the American Army and the average foot soldier of the German Army found that they had something in common.

The average soldier in the German Army, and I’m not talking about the radical Nazis, believed that they were fighting for God and country and that God wanted them to fight against the godless Communists. Most could not understand why the Americans and the British did not join them to fight against the Soviet Union because this was something that God truly wanted.

Among the German soldiers were many religious medals, were Bibles, and copies of prayers that they carried in their pockets. When they began to lose the war many of them wondered aloud whose side God was really on.

The average soldier in the American Army was fighting against the evils of the Nazis. They were fighting to keep freedom alive in nations where the Nazis had conquered and terrorized the population. Among the American soldiers were many religious medals, were Bibles, and copies of prayers that they carried in their pockets.

The God of the German Army and the God of the American Army was the same God, the one God we all Worship. It wasn’t God who caused the conflict, it was people.

When we read this passage from Acts of the Apostles we see conflict among the people. It’s important to recognize that God is not the one who caused the conflict; it was the reaction of people to God.

People’s divisions over God and their response to God is always tragic. Jesus had several fervent prayers in the Bible. One of the most fervent was in John 17 when Jesus prayed that all may be one. I often think that when Christians decide to fight one another, to become hostile with one another, we ought to read and reread that prayer and ponder if the conflict is worth defying Jesus’ prayer for. I greatly suspect that if we truly did that, God’s people would fight a lot less.

There is a second aspect to this narrative. Paul and Barnabas were humble and practiced humility. They did not engage sides, they did not engage the conflict, they simply and humbly preached God’s Word.

The leading cause of conflict among Christians does not come from the Bible and does not come from God. It comes, as I said before, from people’s response to God and God’s Word. The bigger problem however, the thing that colors that response almost more than anything else, is spiritual arrogance.

Spiritual arrogance comes when we believe that our view, our perception, our response to God is the right one. And, if we are right, that means they are wrong. No matter where we are coming from, when we begin to go down this road, we are dancing in the world of spiritual arrogance.

Almost twenty years ago I was reading a book by a theological historian named Malachi Martin. Martin is one of those people who weaved history and theology together in some remarkable ways. He made an observation about 20th century Christianity that was really interesting at the time and I didn’t totally get it back then. But his observation stuck with me.

He said that the two most lethal words that were being bandied about in Christianity were the words liberal and conservative. His use of the worth lethal in regards to these two words really jumped out.

He pointed out something pretty interesting.

First, the words liberal and conservative are not Biblical words. Neither word shows up in the Bible.

Secondly, he observed that the words liberal and conservative did not show up in church history until very recently.

The conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches was theological and about where authority resided in the church. The words or concepts behind liberal and conservative never entered the debate.

During the time of the Protestant Reformation Luther did not use the words liberal and conservative in his writings, his preaching, or his discussions. His issues were very precise, very theological, and very much core issues of faith. Was he liberal because he wanted to change Christianity or was he conservative because he wanted to go back to ancient Christianity? We don’t really know because he never really engaged the words liberal and conservative.

Martin makes the observation that the reason the words do not show up for most of the history of Christianity is because they are not theological, Biblical, or spiritual words. They are political words. They are words, be design to form a wedge.

For better or worse, our democracy is based on wedges. We have multi-party government to intentionally have differences of opinions and wedge issues. It, in so many ways, keeps us safe from tyranny.

But the Gospel, by design, is not about wedges. It is, by design, a Gospel which shares the belief that God loves us and wants to be loved back. The Gospel, by design may lead to people responding in wedge-like fashion, but it isn’t, by design, intended to drive wedges. It is intended to live out Jesus’ prayer that all may be one. When we use political words, wedge words, we actually promote a spiritual arrogance more than we share the Gospel.

Paul and Barnabas preached and there was conflict. Let us know, however, that God does not promote conflict; God’s people in how they respond to God, often do. When we fight, it is not God’s will, but our will. We need to learn and live the humility that God challenges us to embrace. God’s people do, on occasion fight. We need to recognize that the fight comes not from God, but from within ourselves, and is not to be exalted, but is to be recognized as tragic.