In the season of Easter, we are focusing on key events in the early Christian church. Over the past few weeks, we have focused on the work of the first Deacons appointed by the Apostle’s. As the church grew, it became apparent that the leadership needed to make important decisions on behalf of the body of Christ. This morning, we will read about an important decision that was made and the process the leadership undertook to make the decision.
Let us turn to the scriptures and read the word of God. Our focus text is the Acts of the Apostles Chapter fifteen verses one through eighteen:
Scripture Lesson Acts 15:1-18
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
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.
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.
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.
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.”
The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
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.
God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
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?
No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
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.
When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me.
Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.
The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
“‘After this I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’—
things known from long ago.
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
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.
For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen
Let us pray….
Sermon Council At Jerusalem
When I was a teenager, my family travelled to French Polynesia. My mother had wanted to visit since the movie of the musical South Pacific came out – the whole family got to accompany her on one of her Bucket LIst trips. We definitely felt like we were in a foreign country – everyone spoke French, we were on a tropical island with volcanos and jungles, my siblings and I encountered the biggest bug of my life in our room. My mother had done a lot of research, so we went to museums and beaches and tried local delicacies like breadfruit and taro root. On the weekend of our visit, we went to worship at the local Protestant Church.
The Protestants in Tahiti mostly attend churches that were started by missionaries from the London Missionary Society. The London Missionary Society was interdenominational, but the majority of the pastors and supporters of its work were Congregationalists. Apparently, Congregationalist churches in the early 1800s all over the world were built in the same style – so, although we were worshipping in a Foreign Country on the other side of the world, the church we worshipped in looked like it could have been plucked straight from Connecticut or Wales. I have seen formerly Congregational UCC churches in New England that looked almost exactly like the church we were in.
At the time, I thought this was strange. We were in a foreign country but the church building was not foreign looking at all….why would churches look the same in England and Pennsylvania and Tahiti? Does it make sense to have churches look the same no matter where they are located and no matter what the weather or terrain is at their location?
Sometimes Christians have trouble with change. And, sometimes Christians want to replicate what is familiar and comfortable no matter where we happen to be.
In our scripture this morning, we study one of the earliest occasions when Christians were having trouble with change – and how they resolved the conflict that ensued has come down to us through the centuries.
The first Christians were Jewish. Jesus was Jewish. Initially, the people who embraced Christianity were all Jewish. But, the message they shared – that God loves us and has delivered us from our sins and wants all of us to love each other and get along – that message was for everyone, not just Jewish people. So, gradually, people who weren’t initially Jewish began to join the Christian community.
But, there were some problems. The people who were the very first Christians were Jewish, devoutely Jewish. They practiced the tenants of Judaism…..they followed the Torah laws concerning dietary practices and animal husbandry and cleaning and marriage. They were Jewish and they added Christian practices to their Jewish religious practices…. But, when Gentiles started to become Christian, the people were unsure if the Gentiles needed to embrace all of the Jewish practices as well as the Christian practices. Could they be Christian without being Jewish as well?
The major stumbling block for Gentiles was whether they needed to be circumcised or not. And, in the days before antibiotics and anesthesia and sterilized surgical theaters, this was a big deal. Most men are careful with the more delicate parts of their body, and this concerned the most delicate part of all.
So, after much debate, the Apostles came to an agreement. The Gentiles did not need to be circumcised to become Christian. They just needed to follow a few dietary restrictions and abstain from sexual immorality. The high bar to entry was lowered. The Christians didn’t need to do everything faithful Jewish people were required to do as well as everything Christianity required.
This decision of the early church impacts us today. One of the things ministers joke with each other about is that some churches get caught up in the problem of “We have never done it that way before…” and its converse … “We have always done it this way and we aren’t open to change.” Some churches get stuck in the past and have trouble navigating new realities. If someone suggests singing a new song or adding different instruments to support the worship service or painting the sanctuary a different color a huge argument occurs.
This morning, we didn’t park our horse and buggy in the stable next to the sanctuary building and we aren’t worshipping in the German language and your pastor happens to be a woman. So, Trinity has successfully made many changes in our almost 200 years as a congregation. We are part of a tradition that is able and willing to make changes that are sensible and timely while continuing to hold true to the truth of Christianity. Some parts of our faith are timeless and unchanging…. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…. And we are commanded to: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.: and to ’ ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’....The core truths of our faith are essential and unchanging, but many of the other things we do as Christians are flexible…..we can change our style of worship….we can sing new hymns…we can worship in our sanctuary or in our fellowship hall or in our parking lot or at the park….we can sit alongside Christians of every ethnic background and every age and every type of profession. An often-quoted line from 17th century by Marco Antonio de Dominis sums it well: in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.
The earliest Christians were able to work together to make changes for the future of their community, changes for the better. They decided that Christians didn’t have to continue to practice Jewish laws and traditions when they joined the church and became followers of the way of Jesus. The first Chrsitians were open to the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. Their openness in the first century reminds us Christians in the twenty-first century that we are also called to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and consoles us that sometimes, we are called to make faithful changes so that more and more people can experience the love of God and the love of the Community of Faith both in Skippack and in all the places God leads us.
May we work to be attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirits in our community and in our hearts. Amen.
Taylor PA
Moorea
Wales
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