The word "gospel" (in Greek, euangelion)means "good news," but the good news we proclaim is not good for everybody. There are many people who gain power and make money off the world the way it is. In this passage, the invitation for people to leave their pagan gods and follow Christ meant that those who benefited from that worship would lose business. Demetrius, the silversmith and his friends had a thriving business, felt threatened by a gospel that had as one of its major ideas, no worship of idols.
Demetrius stirs up a riot to protect his way of life. Reinhold Niebuhr, in his book, Nature and Destiny of Man, talks about “collective egoism.” For him, “egoism” (me choosing my selfish ways) is at the heart of sin and “collective egoism” is what happens when sin gets into groups. His thesis was that the sinfulness of groups is more than the sum of the sinfulness of the individuals involved. I regret to agree with him. When I have been involved in group misbehavior, most of us would not have had the courage to do it on our own. Add to that the energy and emotion of crowds and great harm can be done. I have seen it at athletic events, political rallies, and regrettably, at quite a few church meetings. In this chapter, the worshippers of Artemis are ready to lynch Aristarchus and Alexander, with Paul being unable to help them. Fortunately, the city clerk stepped in and most likely saved a couple of lives.
In this passage, the Christian movement is called “the Way,” considered at that time to be a Jewish cult. The reason for the rescue by the clerk was to keep the peace. One of the characteristics of oppressive systems is that they make “keeping the peace” the priority (part of the whole problem at Jesus’ crucifixion and Pilate’s dilemma). One of my favorite musicals is The Wiz, a modern version of the Wizard of Oz. The movie version starred Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the scarecrow, Nipsy Russell as the tin man, and Lena Horne as the good witch. The theme song for the wicked witch of the West in her sweat shop of mice was “No Bad News,” a show stopper that sang over and over, “Don’t give me no bad news.” Oppressive systems and systems that want to stay the way they are tend to stifle any criticism as “overly negative” or “bad attitude”. When Dorothy arrives and the wicked witch of the west is killed, ethereal music begins and each of the mice begins to take off his or her costume (the symbol of their slavery) and what follows is a ballet followed by an exuberant dance of liberation entitled, “Brand New Day.” You and I stand for that “brand new day” in Jesus Christ, and at times it will bring us into conflict with a “no bad news” world. The world prefers “don’t rock the boat,” tamed Christians that will speak positive words but never challenge the way things are. Sometimes we preachers have done that with lay people. And sometimes lay people have done that to preachers as well as to new people who have different ideas. What is this brand new day that God is calling to us as United Methodists?
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