Burned at the Stake

I finished teaching a mixture of Polish and Czech young people at the Word of Life Camp north of Brno in the Czech Rebublic by 10:30, Sunday morning (April 27th). The next morning I needed to be back in Hungary to teach Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. This left only the afternoon to try and see where Tom Cruise was sitting in Prague when the entire front of the restaurant blew up in Mission Impossible.

Joseph Baucum, one of our Midlothian young people teaching ESL north of Prague, met us at the base of the Charles IV statue, and we began our walking tour. Of course we needed to see the astronomical clock on the South wall of the Old Town Hall in Old Town Square.

Built by Mikulas of Kadan in 1410, the clock brings in every hour with statues of the Twelve Apostles making their appearance in the windows, a skeleton, representing death , shakes an hour glass at an angry Turk. "Vanity" is a statue of a man with a mirror, and "Miserliness" is a man with a money bag shaking a stick. After the Apostles complete their tour, a golden rooster crows and gathers its wings at the top of the clock, the bell rings, and then finally the chimes record another hour. Down the street only a brief walk away is Bethlehem Chapel. It's foundations were laid 19 years before the clock, and it's the place where Jan Hus began to preach in 1402 more than 100 years before Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg door.

As I sat in the large, but plain rectangular structure, and looked forward to the center of the church-- a pulpit instead of an altar-- I thought about a humble Charles University professor who, after reading the writings of John Wycliffe, was enflamed to preach in his native language. He encouraged Czechs to read the bible in their own tongue. He stressed the priesthood of all believers, and he attacked a professional clergy decaying in immoral materialism and wordly power. It didn't take long for the religious authorities to rise up to silence Jan Hus.

On December 20, 1409 the Pope issued a bull committing all of Wycliffe's books to the flames and his teachings declared to be heresy. He excommunicated the entire city of Prague, and on October 14, 1414 Hus, surrounded with thirty riders, began his journey to Constance in what is now Germany. Emperor Sigismund had promised him safe passage, but after only three weeks in Constance, Hus was arrested, thrown chained into a prison next to the sewer. He neared death in the stench.

Thirty charges threatened his life and in a Franciscan monastery he was asked to recant. "Unless I am convinced from the scriptures of my errors, I will not recant." Remember Luther's words later at the Diet of Worms--powerful words of trust in Scripture and not religious tradition or human authority. Hus did not recant. He was stripped of his priestly vestments, and burned at the stake.

Today he is a national hero in the Czech Republic. His statue was just refurbished and rules the large square just a stone's throw away from the clock, but today less than two percent of his people believe in the need to trust in the cross that he preached or read the bible he died to proclaim.

I sat in His Bethlehem church and prayed that I won't become weary in opening the Scriptures and teaching them in the power of the Spirit. I prayed that I would not become a professional churchman who inhibits the gifts of all my brothers and sisters, and I prayed that I will never believe that politial power and Jesus' power should be mixed as one. Finally, I prayed that the young people that just heard me teach about wise living from Proverbs would allow the Spirit of Jesus to help them create another movement for evangelical faith in this land that now worships materialism.

As we drove back through Moravia toward Hungary, my friend said, "Communism couldn't force atheism on this people in over fifty years, but western materialism as done it in less than ten.' On Truth Encounter the next few weeks we are going to be teaching a series titled "Dethroning the Goddess of Money." Pray with me that the Lord will help all of us, including myself, to internalize and then practice what Jesus told us, "You can't serve God and Mammon."

By the way the restaurant that blew up in Mission Impossible was created just for the movie. Everything looks fine in Old Town Prague, although a horrible flood did threaten the Medieval buildings. With the Spirit's power it is not a Mission Impossible for us to see a fresh movement of the Gospel throughout Eastern Europe. Pray!