The Church's First Big Decision

Thursday, July 26, 2007 -- Week of Proper 11
(Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

Audio Podcasts of today's "Morning Reflection" and those from the past week are available from http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html (go to St. Paul's Home Page stpaulsfay.org and click "Morning Reflection podcast")

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 976
Psalms 50 (morning) [59, 60] or 66, 67 (evening)
1 Samuel 28:3-20
Acts 15:1-11
Mark 5:1-20

(for a sermon based on Luke's version of today's Gospel, go to http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id248.html)

Jesus was a Jew. He remained a faithful, practicing Jew all of his life. All of the early Christians were Jews. Their community began as a reform movement within Judaism. Their teaching that the crucified Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah was not convincing to many Jews, however, and found more receptive response, especially for Paul, among the Gentiles who had some familiarity with Judaism and its traditions of monotheism and ethical religious behavior.

When Gentiles began to seek acceptance into the fellowship of the followers of Jesus, it provoked a crisis. Should they become "like us"? Should Gentiles be admitted into the fellowship? If so, should Gentiles be taught the traditions of Jewish practice and circumcised as a sign of their belonging to our tradition?

The traditional, Biblical answer would be that Gentiles should be circumcised and taught the traditions of Jewish faith, practice and obedience to the Torah. This has been the path of faithfulness and righteousness for Jews for centuries. But that was not the decision of the early church.

To allow Gentiles to become members of the Church without having to become Jews was the most significant decision in the early history of the Christian movement. Without that decision, the followers of Jesus would have remained a sect of Judaism, and might not have thrived.

Imagine the tension and debate that the story of Acts 15 represents. For some, the departure from tradition would have seemed like apostasy. The Bible is clear. The tradition is cherished. From Jewish perspective, God's relationship with God's chosen was sealed in circumcision and realized in obedience to the law given by God to Moses. It has been that way for all of our people's history. But the traditional argument did not carry the day.

What persuaded the early church to make such a radical change? Peter explains (as did Paul) that they had witnessed the same gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Gentiles that they had known among themselves. They also admitted humbly, that they had not been able to follow the law, why should they force such an expectation upon the Gentiles. This story from the Acts of the Apostles shows the church in deliberation making a radical decision of inclusion. It was a decision that changed the history of the church, allowing it to become an enduring religion rather than a reformist sect of Judaism.

Not everyone agreed with the decision. For the first couple of centuries we know of the presence of Jewish Christians, called Ebionites. Their writings have been repressed and destroyed. We know of their existence and teachings largely through the writings of the church fathers Irenaeus and Epiphanius, who branded the Ebionites as one of the heresies of the church.

The Ebionites followed the Jewish laws of kosher diet, sabbath and circumcision, and proclaimed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who was the savior of the Jewish people. They taught that Jesus had made the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, and therefore no further Temple sacrifice was necessary. They saw themselves as the inheritors of the tradition of James, the brother of our Lord, who was reputed to be a man of impeccable character among the Jews. They objected strongly to the teachings of Paul. They saw themselves as the authentic expression of Christian faith.

There have always been various interpretations and expressions of Christianity. I think it is significant that among the first decisions that formed the early church was a decision to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in the unexpected person and a willingness to honor God in a new way through a path of inclusion.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR

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