Another Church Meeting

Acts 15:1-12 Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, "It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses." The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

The first churchwide assembly was held in the first century, less than twenty years after Pentecost. The minutes of that meeting are recorded in chapter 15 of Acts. The issue the Spirit put before the church then focused on which people were, and which were not, acceptable in the Christian fellowship. Jesus had sent his apostles to make disciples of all nations. But the first Christians were all Jews and apparently thought Jesus meant to make disciples of the Jews in all the nations. He certainly couldn't have meant to include Samaritans, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And he certainly didn't mean to include the Gentiles, for Jews do not enter the houses of Gentiles or ever eat with them.

So what was the problem? Well, the problem was that the Spirit of God, without permission from the duly recognized apostolic leaders of Jerusalem, inspired a layman to preach the gospel and baptize some of the dreaded Samaritans. Only after the fact were the apostolic leaders brought in to evaluate those irregular baptisms. Worse yet, Peter, who was one of the apostolic leaders, and therefore should have known better, got into the spirit of things himself. Along with a couple of friends, he preached the gospel and baptized a Gentile. Only after the fact did he explain his unauthorized sacramental practice to the church. Amazingly, he did not justify his actions on either the grounds of scripture or tradition, but on a personal and subjective experience of insight from the Spirit of God. Finally, an outside upstart, ordained by God but not by the apostles, began making a habit of preaching to and baptizing Gentiles. The growth of Paul's congregations was so rapid the church could no longer endure these happenings without coming to some consensus on their meaning for its life and ministry. So the first churchwide assembly was called together in Jerusalem.

The question under discussion was essentially this: "Are Gentiles saved by the grace of God alone or do they also have to observe the laws of Moses?" Can you imagine the discussion which followed when the question before the house asked if it was necessary for Christians to obey everything written in their Bible: the Law and the Prophets? They had no New Testament. All they had was the gospel being orally preached and believed. The minutes tell us they settled the issue by a four-fold appeal: to the prophets of Israel; to the gospel; to reasoning from their own experience of the gospel; and to their own sense of being led by the Spirit of God. In the process, they used one part of the Bible to support their freedom from any obligation to obey other parts of the Bible.

The result was a decision that has been honored in the church ever since; Gentile Christians are not to be bound by every command in the Law of Moses. But, because that Law was being read every week in the synagogues, most Jewish Christians continued to attend; and because many of them had a lifetime of religious education and conditioning that would not quickly be overcome by the startling new standards set by the gospel and the Spirit, the Gentile Christians were asked to avoid a few practices which, however erroneously, were still widely believed to be against the will of God.

This momentous decision made by that first churchwide assembly required the reeducation of people away from some things their Bible and religious tradition had always taught them. Why? Because in Christ a new time had dawned and what was once not acceptable was now acceptable. How do we know? We know from our experience of the gospel and the leading of the Spirit of God among us as we dialogue openly with each other. What do we do? We change our policies from those of past times to those for the present time, asking people to be patient and sensitive to each other and hope for the level of certainty that first churchwide assembly reported in verse 28: It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.

I've reviewed this ancient lesson because the issue it raises is not ancient at all. It comes up in the life of the church repeatedly. Every generation has to learn it anew, often in relation to issues that were not faced before.

The grace of God comes to people through faith, not through their racial or religious genealogy! It comes to women as well as to men. It comes to Gentiles as well as Jews. In other words, the gospel breaks through all the boundaries human culture and religion have created. Christians are no longer confined to live within borders Christ himself has crossed. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to them.

Just as first and second generation Christians had to learn this lesson in their times, so every generation of Christians down through the centuries has had to relearn it in their time. Our grandparents had to learn it in relation to the race issue in America. My generation had to learn it in relation to the gender issue in America. Yet the Spirit drove us to a new understanding of the Word.

The people being placed by the Spirit before the church for full acceptance in our time are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons. If the Spirit is not facing us with this movement to welcome and affirm people in the gay community, why has every major mainline denomination been re-examining its policies in relationship to them? And why has there risen up outside the official structures, but within the fellowship of every major denomination, a cadre of persons to bear witness to the need for change? And why has there developed in every denomination a growing list of congregations willing to break the old traditions in the light of new leading from the Spirit by giving a public affirmation of welcome to gay and lesbian people? Each denomination has its own name for them. In Lutheran circles they are called Reconciled in Christ congregations, while United Methodists know them as Reconciling Congregations and Presbyterians call them More Light churches, the UCC churches Open and Affirming, and for Baptists, Welcome and Affirming.

If Christians in our time are to fulfill the Spirit's call to become a fully inclusive church then we can no longer omit gay and lesbian people from the list of those to be specifically identified for inclusion. In the early church it was not enough to say the gospel was for all, because all meant all Jews, but not Gentiles. So when the Word of the Spirit in that time was heard, those Christians made sure to specify that the gospel was not only for Jews but also for the Greeks. Paul's letters are full of those specific designations. So long as all is an exclusive word in our time meaning heterosexuals only, we will have to follow the New Testament's example, saying: and also for gay and lesbian folks.

Being part of a welcoming community places upon us a responsibility to share the experiences we have come to value. Our response to congregations and communities who are in an earlier stage of struggle with homophobia and heterosexism should not be one of smugness. Rather, it should be one of helping to bring others to the experience we have come to know. It has been said that evangelism is "one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." By the grace of God, we have found bread here. That places upon us an obligation to share the good news with others. We are called to say with Paul, "I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some."

The special character of our community as an open, inclusive, and reconciling community puts us in a crucial place to witness to a wider community and society that is being destroyed by bigotry and hate. To be a welcoming, reconciling congregation must mean for us that we reach out beyond our walls, reach out beyond ourselves, and reach out beyond our self interests to effect reconciliation and healing for all.

I believe that the ministry of welcoming and affirming communities must go even beyond being inclusive of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals in our ministry. And in fact we are, as demonstrated with our ministries with the homeless, with Habitat for Humanity, the Berkeley Food Project, and ministries with the elderly.

This morning we will celebrate communion together - receiving the bread and the cup, symbols of God's love. No one will be excluded, because at the feet of Jesus we are all sisters and brothers. And that is exactly the point of a ministry based on an inclusive theology - that is why we are open, welcoming, and affirming congregations. We are blessed to be a part of this ministry together. May God continue to strengthen and encourage us in that ministry.

The Rev. Esther Hargis
August 2, 1998

© 1998, Esther Hargis

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