May 6, 2007: Fifth Sunday of Easter

Have you ever discovered something really wonderful, or amazing, and you just want to tell everyone about it? A great book? A new restauarant? A gadget that makes a task easier? Well today's reading from the book of Acts is that kind of discovery for me. As we in the church work through some of the thorny issues we don't see eye to eye on, issues like homosexuality, women pastors, or whether a person's salvation requires a conscious acceptance Jesus Christ as their Savior --today's account of how the early church weathered its first fight gives us help and guidance.

Today's reading from Acts is just one scene in a loonngg story that begins in Acts Chapter ten and ends in chapter 15. It's the story of the church's first major fight over what is necessary for salvation? How do Gentiles know they are saved? Will it be strictly on belief in Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, or must Gentiles be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses? Or stated another way, would tradition and an existing understanding of scripture govern, or would something else be the deciding factor? In these five chapters of the Book of Acts, Luke tells us how the early church went about recognizing and acknowledging that the dreams and experiences testified to, and interpreted, were God's work that would take the church on a new path. A path contrary to both tradition and the church's current understanding of what scripture requires to be in Covenant relationship with God.

We do not have time this morning to review all five chapters of the story and how at each turn Peter reinterprets his dream about the sheet of unclean animals, revising the particulars of his dream in light of his ongoing experiences of coming in contact with Gentile believers. But in condensed form, Peter begins in chapter ten being greatly puzzled by his dream and refusing to obey the Lord's command to eat unclean animals. As he recounts his dream to Cornelius, in a passage we read at Easter, Peter interprets his being summoned to Cornelius' house as proof his dream means that God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. Now this is not literally what the voice in the vision said, or what Peter saw in his dream, but rather this is Peter's interpretation of his dream's meaning in light of what he now understands, in light of his subsequent experience with gentile believers, Cornelius and his household.

And now in today's text Peter further modifies his understanding of his dream. No longer is he greatly puzzled. He states the Spirit told him to go to Cornelius and not to make a distinction between them and us. Peter adds he took along with him six brothers from Joppa. It's not just Peter's witness, but other witnesses that compels belief in what God is doing in the lives of Gentiles. It is also important to notice that when he's criticized for going against long standing scripture and traditional prohibitions, Peter does not invoke his authority as the first apostle, the primary keeper of the keys to the kingdom. Nor does he cite scripture or tradition. Rather he recounts his experience and the credible congruent witness of other community members. Peter's recounting of his experience causes others to accept and affirm his violating what scripture commands of Jews—not to eat with Gentiles. His fellows Jews, the text tells us, were silenced in their criticism and agree with Peter's conclusion: because Gentiles have been given the same gift of the Spirit, Peter was compelled to baptize them for “ who was I that I could hinder God?” God's work in the lives of Gentile believers is affirmed by Peter's experience of meeting with them. Even though scripture and tradition teach something more is required-- the keeping of the law about circumcision, what food to eat, how to prepare it, and so on.

Throughout this whole narrative of Acts chapter 10 to 15, as Jewish believers either come in contact with Gentile Believers, or hear accounts of such experiences, they rejoice that the Holy Spirit has come even to Gentiles and given them the repentance that leads to life.

Yet, not all Jewish believers are swayed by the evidence. Instead they continue to hold to the explicit teaching of scripture and tradition--to be within God's covenant you must conform to the signs of the covenant. So here in today's reading from Acts Peter is criticized for breaking the unambiguous command of scripture about eating with non Jews. And later in Chapter 15 of Acts, and also in Paul's letter to the Galatians, we hear Jewish Christians telling non Jewish Christians:

“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Or said another way, unless you first become Jews, you cannot be one of the chosen people of God. Jesus was a Jew, and unless you become like him, like us, you cannot be saved. You must conform to what scripture and tradition tell us is a pre-requsite to being in Covenant relationship with God.

This story in the book of Acts, about the first time the church decided to overturn long held traditions and understandings of holy scripture, gives us 21 st century Christians a blueprint for how we should go about deliberating and deciding whether our experience is such that a long standing tradition and scriptural interpretation should be altered or overturned. This is a very important need in the Christian church today. Across denominational lines we are fighting, arguing over whether salvation is available only to people who have made a conscious decision to accept Jesus Christ as their savior; whether same sex erotic behavior is always a sinful act; and still in some denominations whether or not women can be ordained and serve as pastors. All three issues challenge our traditional understanding of what scripture teaches us. Growing up, weren't we adults all taught that only Christians would be in heaven? Of course for me that was limited to just Roman Catholics. And everyone knows same sex relations are an abomination before God!! Ordain women? Women be pastors? You've got to be kidding!! Why haven't you read what Paul says about the place of women in the church? Women must be silent in the churches!

Now it's not my intention today to champion one side or the other of any of these issues, but rather to point out how today's passage from Acts, when set within the larger story in chapters 10 to 15, gives us, the church, a model for deciding whether our traditional understanding of scripture ought to be kept or modified. That while scripture does not change, how we read and understand scripture does change in light of our experience of the Holy Spirit moving in our midst, telling is truths we can just now bear to hear.

The issue is, and I want to be very clear about this, the issue is what are the guidelines given us in this account of the church's first fight that can help us make decisions today? How should we in the church allow “alleged” experiences of the Holy Spirit telling us truths we can just now bear to hear—reverse centuries of understanding about what scripture says God requires of us? For scripture has prophetic authority for Christians and the church in every age and place. Scripture is not just what happened in the past.

So how do we read the unchanging words of scripture with eyes that are in dialogue with our life stories, our experiences of possibly the Holy Spirit blowing in our midst? Our Moravian Ground of the Unity states holy scripture “is the sole standard of our doctrine and faith” and “shapes our lives.” Thus, we Moravians ask: how congruent is what we are experiencing now with what the early church affirmed as God's activity in scripture? Scripture and tradition provide a starting point, a “standard,” by which we “test the spirits” to discern if what we and others are experiencing and testify to---does this witness proclaim core, unchanging, and timeless biblical truths about who God is, what Goes does, and what God commands of us? The first and foremost standard, I submit, is the commandment for us to love of God our neighbor and ourselves, as Jesus reminds us in today's gospel lesson “love one another as I have loved you. As I have shown you by my example.” This is a core, unchanging and timeless biblical truth. Others include God's desire to be in covenant relationship with each of us; God's work and desire for reconciliation, for salvation, healing, wholeness and well-being, peace and justice for all people and creation. You can probably think of other core and unchanging biblical truths.

So this morning I offer you six observations, or guidelines, gleaned from how the early church handled this first church fight that can help us today when long held traditions about what scripture teaches us are challenged.

First decisions to change take time and are ultimately based on the evidence of God working in the lives of both those who challenge the norms, and the experience of Christians who witness and participate in what God is doing in the lives of the challengers. For example, what's the evidence the Holy Spirit has given women the gifts for ordained ministry?

Second, we see that Peter and the Jerusalem church, are first rightly skeptical of what they experience and hear about the Gentiles, but they do not close off dialogue, denounce and judge the challengers without meeting with them. They go and see for themselves in obedience to Jesus' command to love one another, treating others, as they would like to be treated. They look for “signs and wonders of God” working in the lives of the challengers, not for confirmation of their presuppositions. Or said another way, they look for how and why a professed disciple of Jesus Christ would think and do this, rather than looking for what they can find to criticize in the challenger.

Third, through Peter's successive recounting of his experience among the Gentiles, we see that he is led to a deeper and fuller awareness of its meaning—God is impartial between Jew and gentile! Yet we also know from Paul's account in Galatians chapter 2 that Peter will later back track from table fellowship with the Gentile Christians in Antioch for fear of the circumcision faction. Integrating and incorporating lasting change of long held beliefs is often a two-steps forward, one step backward process, not a one-time event. The pull to safety, the comfort of the routine and familiar, haunts even the most committed followers of Jesus.

Fourth, a wide diversity of people recount their experiences, and their testimony is heard in an atmosphere of silence and prayer. Respect is a given when discerning whether an experience is of God or not. And those who do not see the working of God in the experiences described are free to express their honest disagreement and the reasons why.

Fifth, discernment of God “doing a new thing,” “making al things new” is a communal process, not left up to the church's leaders. Both Peter and Cornelius bring a supporting community to witness their respective responses to their vision. The whole church hears the controversy when it is aired in assembly in Acts chapter 15. The community approves the decision of its leaders. It is engaged in the process, and therefore is in a position to buy into the outcome, rather than having it imposed by fiat. Only a group of diverse Christians, representing all parts of the Body of Christ, can recall the multi-vocal record of scripture and therein discern the living Word of God. Otherwise we risk privileging one scriptural text over another, and heeding only the experience of certain members, generally those members in power.

Sixth, the experience of hearing the controversy about what Gentile believers must do to be saved prods James, leader of the Jerusalem church, to reexamine scripture. In Chapter 15 James lifts up new scripture verses that are congruent with what he has witnessed. He now understands the unchanging words of scripture differently. This is what the Moravian church has done with women's ordination—lifting up the scriptural witness of women as disciples, apostles and leaders in the early church, and understanding the prohibitions against women's leadership in scripture not as universal and timeless, but as part of the movement in the early church to be more acceptable to the larger culture.

The decision to give Gentiles full status in the Church, without becoming circumcised is not simply a historical record, or a decision we explain now with 20/20 hindsight. Rather, the book of Acts records the PROCESS of church's decision to fully accept Gentiles on terms contrary to their understanding of both scripture and tradition. Today's text shows us that if the church recognizes God working in the church, in the world, in a new way, our obedience to God demands we alter our tradition of what it means to be faithful people of God. We cannot forget the words we hear God proclaiming this morning in John's Revelation, “See! I am making all things new!” The living God is active in our world. The Spirit blows where the spirit wills, and through our experience we come individually and corporately to a fuller understanding of God's revelation. God's activity in the world continues today, intruding into the comfortable spaces we cling to. God speaks through people, through events, and through the circumstances of our lives. Let us all have eyes to see and ears to hear and testify in love to what we have come to believe are signs and wonders of the living God sweating and pushing to bring about reconciliation, salvation, healing, wholeness and well-being, peace and justice to all people and creation. Amen. Thanks be to God!