What Tempests Can Teach Us
The Storms In the Book of Acts Can Teach Us How to Face Tempests Today.
People have been singing about storms for years. Lena Horne was famous for her song “Stormy Weather.” The Doors sang about “Riders on the Storm,” and Creedence Clearwater Revival asked us, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”
More recently, we’ve heard “Here Comes the Rain Again” by Eurythmics, “Raining on Sunday” by Keith Urban, “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons, and “After the Storm” by Mumford & Sons. We live on a stormy planet.
Emily Elliott is a University of Alabama scientist who studies ancient hurricanes. Not storms from last year or from the last decade, but from hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Long before Lena Horne offered her sultry rendition of “Stormy Weather.”
Driving tubes into the bottoms of lakes, she and her colleagues pull up sediment that contains evidence of deadly storms from the past. They have discovered that there were periods in which intense storms struck coastlines even more frequently than they do today. According to their studies, oceans can produce hurricane seasons even worse than the ones we have experienced in recent years.
These scientists are uncovering evidence of some terrible ancient tempests. We need to learn from them, especially if climate change continues to make storms more intense. Caring for creation is a priority for Christians, not only as we observe Earth Day every April. Caring for the environment is a way of caring for people, especially those in the paths of the most destructive of storms. If the past is any indication, says Elliott to The Washington Post, “our coastal zones are really vulnerable.”
This field of research is called “paleotempestology,” the study of ancient hurricanes. Scientists are trying to predict how hurricane patterns will change in response to rising temperatures. They do this by looking back at what happened thousands of years ago.
On a recent expedition in Florida, Elliott and her colleagues made some fascinating discoveries. Their research revealed a period of intense hurricane activity in the Gulf Coast region, worse than we see today. It lasted for centuries, and then it ended abruptly around 600 to 800 years ago.
So, why did the Gulf Coast have this long period of storms? Scientists think that a current of warm water flowed close to shore during that time, fueling the storms. Then the current shifted away and the water cooled. Paleotempestologists are worried that the Gulf’s surface temperature is now warming again, due to climate change.
We may face another period of terrible tempests. Intensely “Stormy Weather.” Especially if we keep turning up the temperature through fossil fuel emissions.
The truth about the first followers of Christ can also be uncovered through a kind of paleotempestology. Not by taking core samples in lakebeds, but by opening our Bibles to the Book of Acts. When we do, we learn about the strength of their faith in the face of some terrible tempests, as they encountered political and spiritual storms even worse than what we are seeing today. Call them: “Riders on the Storm.”
In first-century Jerusalem, the followers of Christ were meeting together, following the teaching of the apostles, sharing possessions, praying in the temple, and praising God. Because of this, the Christian community grew rapidly. Acts tells us that “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” (2:47).
One day, Peter and John went up to the temple. There, Peter healed a crippled man and spoke to the people about the power of Jesus to heal and to forgive. A group of religious leaders came to them, “much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead” (4:2). If Keith Urban had been present, he would have started to sing, “Raining on Sunday.”
The religious leaders arrested Peter and John and put them in custody. When questioned about the source of their power, Peter said, “this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (4:10). The leaders were amazed, and initially did not know what to do. But then they ordered Peter and John to refrain from teaching in the name of Jesus.
Stop, said the leaders. Nope, said the two men. No can do. Peter and John said, “we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard” (4:20). The leaders threatened them, but then let them go. They realized that they could not punish them because the people of Jerusalem were praising God for what had happened.
Back in the Christian community, Peter and John prayed with the other followers of Jesus, and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness” (4:31). The apostles went out, with great power, to give their testimony to the resurrection of Jesus.
But, as the duo called Eurythmics might sing, “Here Comes the Rain Again.” Because the apostles had success with healing the ill, the high priest took action. He and the Sadducees threw the apostles in prison, but in the middle of the night an angel of the Lord freed them.
The religious leaders rounded them up again and brought them back to the high priest and the religious council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us” (5:27-28).
Like a clap of thunder, Peter answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (v. 29). He knew that he was compelled to follow God by preaching the gospel — the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Peter was practicing what we would call “civil disobedience,” but his disobedience was directed toward ministry and mission, not toward politics.
Peter then offered a powerful statement of faith: “The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (vv. 30-32).
Three explosions of thunder can be heard in these words. First, “you had [Jesus] killed by hanging him on a true” — Peter was saying that they had lynched Jesus in an act of premeditated murder. Second, God exalted Jesus as “Leader and Savior” — this is the first time that the word “Savior” is used for Jesus in the Book of Acts. And third, “we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit” — the powerful breath of God has been inspiring everything that the apostles have seen and said.
Lynching. Savior. Holy Spirit. Three cracks of thunder.
The religious leaders were enraged by Peter’s words and wanted to kill the apostles. But a level-headed Pharisee named Gamaliel calmed the storm by saying to the leaders, “I tell you … let them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them — in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” (vv. 38-39).
If Mumford & Sons had been in the room, they would have played “After the Storm.” The leaders flogged the apostles and let them go, and they went right back to proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.
So, what can this tempest teach us? What can we learn from this exercise in paleotempestology? Like Peter and the apostles, we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard. We have to be honest about the presence of the Risen Christ in ourselves and in the church today, and be willing to speak about it. Jesus continues to forgive us and heal us, and to inspire the Christian community to act as his hands and feet in the world.
Like Peter and the apostles, we must obey God rather than any human authority. This means having the courage to put God first, not in terms of politics but in terms of ministry and mission. When we welcome strangers, visit people in prison, feed the hungry, and care for the sick, we are putting God first. When we cry out against injustice — against acts of brutal violence such as lynchings and beatings — we are part of the movement of God.
Finally, like Peter and John, we can trust Jesus to be our Savior, and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the one who saves us from sin and death, in every age and place. The Holy Spirit is the force that guides us into an uncertain future, giving us new understandings and insights.
The tempests of the first century have much to teach us. They contain a record of past storms that can help us to face the future with honesty, courage, and trust.