Lisaten to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-july-28-2023
Acts 15:1-14 and 19-21
The Council at Jerusalem
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself.
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
This passage is an important story, one that gives us a glimpse into the issues the young church was facing, and it shows us how they arrived at a decision about one of the most important of those issues. On the surface, it’s a story that deals with things we don’t think about much, but it provides some guidance on how disagreements should be handled among followers of Jesus.
You might remember that the original followers of Jesus were Jewish. And according to church historians, for the first fifty years or so of the church’s existence, a lot of those followers of Jesus still thought of themselves as Jews. Apparently it was common for these Jewish Christians to attend synagogue services on Saturday and then to worship together as Christians on Sunday.
That probably helps to explain why things got complicated when the church sent missionaries outside of biblical Israel. Then they were making disciples in a world populated by both Jews and gentiles. Some Jewish members of the church thought the gentile converts needed to become Jews before they could be Christians. After all, they thought, Jesus himself had been a Jew. So, of course, that meant male converts needed to be circumcised and everyone needed to eat a kosher diet, and so on.
That turned into a source of tension in some of the churches. Paul and Barnabas taught the gentiles they converted that observing Jewish customs wasn’t necessary. But then later, some other Jewish Christian leaders showed up and started telling believers that they did need to observe the traditional practices. That was a problem. Circumcision, especially, was considered an abomination in the Greek world.
So Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem, which was still considered the center of the Christian movement. That’s where the other main leaders of the church were based – including Peter and James. Our reading for today tells the story of the meeting they held to hash this out.
The first thing that’s worth noting is that when they got together to talk about the matter, everyone was heard respectfully. Some of the followers of Jesus were Pharisees, which might seem surprising at first, but the apostle Paul would fall into that category. The Pharisee Christians said that gentile converts to the faith should be expected to be circumcised, eat kosher, etc. Paul and Barnabas disagreed. But both sides were heard.
I suppose you could say this was the first time in church history that one side of an argument was saying “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Because to them, eating kosher and circumcising believers and such were non-negotiable marks of the people of God.
After all sides were heard, the leaders of the church came to a decision. They said that gentile followers of Jesus would not be expected to follow all the traditional laws of the Jews, with a few exceptions: They were not to eat blood or the meat of strangled animals, which apparently was a practice of one of the leading pagan religions of the time. They were also to refrain from sexual immorality, although the specifics of what was forbidden are not included in the record of the decision. (Which is too bad – the church is still arguing about exactly what “sexual immorality” means 2,000 years later.)
This story seems to show how decisions in the church are meant to be made collectively – by groups of believers together – based on respectfully hearing all sides of an issue. For us as Presbyterians, this is a central element of our way of doing things. Our decisions are always made collectively and never by individuals – there are no Presbyterian officials who have the authority (like bishops) to make decisions that are binding on others.
We’re probably also meant to notice that in this case, the Holy Spirit led the church to a decision that represented a compromise, rather than one side getting its way entirely. Compromise has become a dirty word in our time, and maybe especially among people of faith. We have a tendency to believe that our opinion represents God’s truth, and that those who disagree with us are just wrong. So any compromise just represents ‘selling out.’ But in this case, a compromise was reached that allowed people to stay focused on the main points of following Jesus.
When you step back and take a look at what happened here, this story seems to provide a model for followers of Jesus when we wrestle with questions of faith – listening for the leading of the Spirit through one another, and giving one another room to follow and serve Jesus as we hear that Spirit leading us to.
Let’s pray. Lord, you know that we sometimes disagree about things. When we do, help us to be listening for your word through one another, and to keep in mind that we might be wrong. Guide us in all our decisions, so that everything we do glorifies you and contributes to the building of your kingdom. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and worship God joyfully on Sunday!
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 99 and 100; I Samuel 31:1-13; and Mark 5:21-43. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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