“’We cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard…’ [Then they] began to speak God’s message with boldness.”                                                      (Acts 4:20, 31)

A young married couple had a 4-year-old son. During a thunderstorm the mother was tucking the boy into bed. She was about to turn off the bedroom lights when the child said tearfully, “Mommy, will you please stay with me all night?” Smiling, she gave the boy a reassuring hug. “I can’t stay,” she said. “I have to stay in Daddy’s room.” There was a brief pause, followed by a very shaky voice saying, “The big sissy.” 

There are no sissies in the story in Acts. Over and over again, Luke writes of the boldness of the Apostles.

• When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they were amazed. (4:13)
• With boldness, they spoke the word of God. (4:31)
• Barnabas spoke boldly in the name of the Lord. (9:27)
• Paul spoke with boldness and freedom. (28:31)

Interestingly, that last quotation is the very last verse in the Book of Acts. 

For the early apostles, “faith” and “fear” could not co-exist. 

Today’s story is the next day after the healing of the lame man. The lame man is healed and celebrating. Peter and John spend the night in the lock-up. The next morning they are challenged. Luke says, “They began to speak with boldness.” 

For me, these texts suggest we need to find our voices of boldness. In the New Testament time, the boldness came from announcing Jesus as risen from the dead. There was great controversy in proclaiming that, and it included some risk. Today the boldness comes in proclaiming Jesus as the Lord of life and of all that takes place—that Jesus is the one in whom all things hold together—that Jesus informs us even in difficult choices, even in controversy. 

Part of this is the purpose of the Wednesday night classes this summer—to challenge us and help us think through some of these issues. What might Jesus say to us about them? How bold can we be in taking a stand? 

This coming week the issue is capital punishment. Is that a political issue? Or a faith issue? Is it “politics” or is there a place to stand as a believer? 

Or take two issues that we are not covering this summer. One is immigration. Immigration has become a political football between the White House and Congress. It is also a political football between the two candidates for the United States Senate in Pennsylvania. Is it politics, or is it a faith issue? The Bible seems to be unabashedly pro-immigrant. The Bible says, “Do not mistreat the immigrant or oppress him.” (see Deut. 10:19; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2) So where is our place to stand on this issue? 

Or take the matter of global warming. Is that a political issue? Is it an economic issue? Or is it a faith issue? Genesis reminds us strongly to “Take care of the earth.” (see Genesis 1 & 2) The Psalmist reminds us that “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” (Psalm 24:1) 

I wonder if Acts is not telling us today that boldness is a necessary ingredient for mature discipleship. 

In fairness, I have wrestled with this my entire ministry. How does one speak with a bold, prophetic Christian voice today? How does one speak carefully, thoughtfully, reverently—without creating more heat than light? I have recently read repeated criticisms of the local church. Why doesn’t the church today speak out on Iraq? Why don’t we speak out on the issue of a unilateral decision that doesn’t care what the rest of the world thinks? Why don’t we address the issue of the just war, or the pre-emptive war, as the great 4^th century bishop Augustin did so long ago? I have wrestled with questions like this for 40 years, and there is no easy answer. 

A few months ago John Shaver and I went to Pittsburgh Seminary to hear a lecture on the prophetic ministry of the church today. We heard her first lecture. The basic message was this: “It is hard to be both priest and prophet.” I wanted to say, “Duh! Thanks, I knew that already.” I know that it’s hard to provide pastoral care and encouragement from the pulpit and speak with a prophetic voice to the great issues from the same pulpit. 

A few persons have made that leap over the past 50 years. A few churches have carried that legacy for decades. But largely the Christian pulpits have been less vocal since the 1970s. I remember reading that John Galbraith, the founding minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church, marched in Selma, Alabama while he was the pastor of the Westminster congregation. It made a statement about racial equality in a heated time. It was a bold statement to make. But that was 50 years ago. 

Today most of the prophetic voices are not in the regular pulpits. The people who are making prophetic statements are writers, lecturers, university chaplains, or have private podiums. I think of the late William Sloane Coffin, who just died a couple of months ago. He was a mentor for me in the prophetic voice of the church. Or I think of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the pastor of a local church mostly in name only. He was rarely in his pulpit in Montgomery.  

An Old Testament Professor by the name of Walter Bruegemann wrote a book some years ago called The Prophetic Imagination. His words in that book still challenge me today. He says this:

The task of prophetic ministry is nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. (p. 13) 

How do we exercise a bold prophetic imagination today? How do we evoke an alternative consciousness? Or is that a “road less traveled” these days? 

I have a few observations on this question. You may or may not agree with me. Let me just suggest two things. 

PROBABLY NOT FROM THE SUNDAY PULPIT 

First of all, I think these things are probably not to be addressed from the regular Sunday pulpit. I may be wrong, but I reached this conclusion some years ago. In the first decade of my ministry I spoke out against the war in Viet Nam. I spoke on the issue of poverty and racism. I believed what I preached. But I was less than comfortable with the setting in which it was done. 

Occasionally today I will address some of the themes. I will talk about environmental concerns. I will speak to greed and consumption—both of which are well fed in America. I’ve talked about gambling and slot machines and such in Pennsylvania. And occasionally I talk simply about God’s concern for what is “just” and “right.” But I prefer to address the tougher issues in other settings. The “Confronting the Controversies” class is a good opportunity to think through those issues in that alternative setting. We have an opportunity for dialogue and respectful disagreement. And we can agree that Scripture does not always have the answers for us. For example, I can’t find anything in Scripture that addresses the issue of stem cell research or human cloning. Even abortion is not spoken to directly in the Bible. It is mostly inferential. The Bible simply tells us that life is sacred. How can we talk about, pray through, and think through these matters? 

I enjoy engagement in conversation about the major issues. But I’d rather make preaching address the issues of grace and hope. I’d rather preach about finding comfort in difficult times. I’d rather address the issues around when bad things happen to good people. I’d rather preach about forming disciples for the 21^st century, and suggest possible avenues for forming that kind of faithfulness. I don’t shy away from using some of the controversial issues as illustrations within the context of these things, but I’m not sure the pulpit is the place to him them head on. 

I don’t think this is a matter of nerve for me. Someone once said that the two people you should avoid at all costs are a timid surgeon and a timid preacher, since neither one can do you any good. I think the early apostles in Acts would agree with that! 

I remember reading a story about a pilot on a large airliner who was sitting with the plane at the gate, ready to take off. His voice came in over the P.A. system and said something like this: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be flying today at 35,000 feet. We’ll be traveling about 600 miles an hour. We have a full load of passengers and an extra-full load of cargo. This is a very heavy plane. We’re just about ready to take off.... as soon as I get up my nerve.” For me, this kind of preaching is not a matter of nerve, but more a matter of conviction. 

HOLY BOLDNESS 

Secondly, I appreciate the phrase “holy boldness” in this context. I believe this is the posture from which Peter and John and others in Acts spoke. They exercised a holy boldness. The term can mean different things. Let me tell you what it means for me. In addressing controversial issues I must always ask:

• Is there some authority in the Biblical witness?
• Have I been in prayer about this?
• Am I open to the honest opinions of others?
• Am I even willing to occasionally be convinced of another’s viewpoint?

It means a matter of humility. Holy boldness requires humility. There’s a story about a man in a small town who was given an award one day for being the humblest man in town. They gave him a special button to wear. Then they took it away from him because he wore it. 

Humility is an important dimension of boldness. I always get a bit edgy when a preacher holds up the Bible and says, “God says this.” God speaks through the Bible, but the Bible is not God speaking directly. In the Bible Moses speaks what he believes God is saying to him. In the Bible Jeremiah speaks what he believes God is saying to him. And in the Bible Paul speaks what he believes God is saying to him. Even Matthew, Mark, Luke and John speak what they believe Jesus was saying as a part of his earthly ministry. I am reasonably sure that if any of these authors knew how their books were being used in the 21^st century, they would make a few editorial changes. Discernment of what God is saying is not always quick or easy. 

Holy boldness is a worthy passion when it’s accompanied by a measure of humility. 

The United Methodist Church has a set of “Social Principles.” It’s a document worth reading and study. It covers almost every issue imaginable. But the issues are not written in stone. They are written in humility. What they say to us is, as United Methodists, this is our best wisdom on God’s intent at this moment in time. 

I think we need to ratchet up our boldness a notch or two. Several years ago I read the story of Lewis and Clark for the first time since high school—their “voyage of discovery” in the early part of the 19^th century. The book was by Stephen Ambrose, entitled Undaunted Courage. 

Maybe that’s what this story is saying to the church. We need a bit more undaunted courage. 

Last Sunday afternoon I met a man in the halls of a nursing center. He knew about Christ Church from the singles ministry, although he was not a member. He said to me in the hallway, “I admire your church a great deal. Your church takes on more issues and tries to solve more problems than any church I know.” 

Can we be a faithful people of boldness? Can we be a people of holy boldness? Can we be a community of undaunted courage? 

The bottom line for me is this: Jesus is the Lord of all of life. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the pivotal point upon which my life turns. He gives you and me a boldness to speak to all things—with courage, with conviction, and with humility.