Are we nearly there yet?
I don’t know about you but if I want to
wind up the adults I’m travelling with I can mimic the question the youngsters
started asking no sooner than we had just set out.
Are we nearly there yet?
Is the question we might well ask of all
the changes we have been putting together for the church here at Highbury.
Yes, we’re getting there.
Since our last Church meeting we have had
interviews for all our Ministry Leaders and we will be sharing the fruits of
those interviews at Thursday’s Deacons meeting.
Then at our Church Meeting in December will be an opportunity to hear
each of those who have come forward sharing their vision for the worship, the
discipleship, the mission and outreach and the youth work we do as a church
family.
Things are falling into place as then we
turn to our Deacons elections and maybe most for our prayer the post of Church
Secretary to fill in March.
Come our Annual Meeting things will be in
place – and the end of this process will be the beginning of new things to take
us forward into the future ahead of us.
And in it all we seek to root all that we
do in the Scriptures, in the Bible.
That’s why in this period we are reading
through the Book of Acts – to get a sense of what church is all about.
There was a time when I thought that our
Congregational Way of being the church was the authentic New Testament way of being the church. I have boks that demonstrate that the
Congrgational principle is the New Testament principle – and many of those
books excite me. In some ways I am quite
passionate about believing that. And yet
in other ways I have come to feel that’s the wrong way of thinking: not just
unhelpful but also damaging.
It’s very easy for me to say, I’m right and
to Methodists, or Anglicans, or Roman Catholics, or Pentecostals, or
Charismatics – you are wrong.
As I read the scriptures I think there is
rich diversity in the church of the New Testament – as followers of Jesus who
stay in Jerusalem continue to value the worship of the Temple with its high
liturgy so Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends will find warrant for their
worship and their understanding of priesthood in those parts of the Bible that
speak of temple and its worship. As
followers of Jesus spread out into the Jewish diaspora of the Mediterranean
world they take much of what became the synagogue tradition and make it their
own – and we find warrant for our worship and our understandings of priesthood
there. And as followers of Jesus made contact
with the cosmopolitan world of the great cities like Corinth
What’s important for us, I believe, is not
to say our way is the right biblical way and yours is wrong. But instead what is important for us is to
say this is where we find warrant for our practices in the Scripture – these
are where our roots are in the Bible.
It was when my supervisor and principal of
our Theological College in North Wales,
a prolific writer and thinker in the Welsh Language, Tudur Jones spoke at one
of our early assemblies here in Cheltenham he quoted a seventeenth century
thinker who suggested that when it comes to matters of church and the way we do
things unless the roots of it are in the Bible then it will come to nothing.
That was the inspiration my father had for
the cover design of his little book on the first years of the Congregational
Federation. A tree growing with roots
in the Bible.
IT’s as we come to Acts 15 that we
encounter another of those glimpses of the life of the early church where I
would maintain I find warrant for the way we do things in our Congregational
Way of being the Church. And yet is also
a chapter that others will find warrant for the way they do things.
That too is to me not a threat, but a
reminder that all our structures have partial value and none has the perfection
some long for.
You only have to look at the headings in
many a translation and commentary for this chapter to realise how straightaway
the translators are putting a slant on things.
It’s one of those moments when the Good
News Bible excites me.
The NRSV goes with the heading that many a
commentator will use – so much so that I find myself referring to what happened
in this chapter by this heading.
The Council at Jerusalem
Call what happened in this chapter ‘the
Council at Jerusalem’ and many Anglican and Catholic and orthodox friends will
say – this is the first of those gatherings that later were to develop into the
great Ecumenical Councils of the church – the Council of Nicea, the Council of
Chalcedon – and then that tradition comes into the parlance of the Catholic
church in the Council of Trent, the 1st and then the 2nd
Vatican Council.
You get all the trappings of bishops coming
together to ‘define’ the faith.
But wait a moment.
Look at the Good News Bible and what do you
find as the heading for this chapter.
The Meeting at Jerusalem
That’s interesting.
That’s a reading that draws my attention.
What’s going on here?
This is the point when things come to a
head.
There is a significant difference of view
among the followers of Jesus.
The issue has been simmering away from the
early chapters of Acts.
It’s all to do with the relationship
between Jews and Gentiles in the church.
Given that Jesus is fully Jewish, and those first followers of his we
read of in the Gospels and the early chapters of Act are for the most part
fully Jewish, what expectations should be placed on Gentiles who come to follow
Jesus?
Peter has had his moment of inspiration
when in that vision he hears the voice of God telling him to get up, kill and
eat all manner of living things that are banned in the books of the Law. The vision prompts him to visit Cornelius, a
Centruiorn of all people of the Italian Cohort, who is based in the seat of
Roman power over Judea and Samarai, Caesarea
Maritima.
And he discovers that wonderful
breakthrough moment that ‘God shows no partiality’.
Barnabas and Paul then find thesleves with
a commission to take the Gospel, this wonderful good news to the Gentile world.
There is a wonderful rhythm as in these
last few chapters of Acts we have seen the reach of the Gospel going into the
Mediterranean world and then coming back to touch base in Antioch, and then to
touch base in Jerusalem, as if the followers of Jesus are touching base with
their roots in the place where the death and resuurection of Jesus happened, in
the place where the Holy Spirit of God was let loose in the world.
There’s tension when people from Judea maintain that you cannot be saved unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of Moses.
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.’ 2And after
Paul and Barnabas had no small
dissension and debate with them,
There’s interchange of
thinking between the church in Antioch and the
church in Jerusalem
– it leads to dissension and debate.
That’s important first
of all – it is not wrong to have dissension and debate. IT’s what you do with that that’s important.
Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were
appointed to go up to Jerusalem
6 The apostles and the elders met together to
consider this matter.
Notice the way they are welcomed by the
church and the apostles and the elders.
That’s the whole church.
What is happening here is not a council
bringing together representatives from lots of different churches are
geographical localities.
This is a meeting together of the church in
Jerusalem
The apostles and elders – those sent by
Jesus apostles. Were the elders those
who held an office – some argue so. Or
were they, the seniors, the older, wiser people who had more experience. That’s a looser number.
Then we see the discussion.
It’s interesting to see how the meeting
works – first, there is space for ‘much debate’
6 The
apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. 7After there had
been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,
Then after much debate – Peter puts his
point of view. Interesting he holds back
and lets everyone have their say first.
What he says is riveting, there’s a whole theology resting in these
words but that vision and the insight he has had before are re-stated.
It’s powerful stuff. That comes to an end in no uncertain terms.
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. 8And God, who
knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just
as he did to us; 9and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no
distinction between them and us. 10Now 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? 11On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,
just as they will.’
That’s a powerful conclusion.
Then there’s a wonderful moment.
The
whole assembly kept silence,
The value of pausing for a moment. Moments to let the heat go out of the debate.
There was a school of thought in the
nineteenth and early twentieth century that saw a massive split between Peter
and Paul. More recently that has been
underplayed. There is a consistency here
… a sense of progression as Paul and Barnabas now speak. Notice it’s not just Paul, but Paul and
Barnabas.
and
listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that
God had done through them among the Gentiles. 1
What they said is not recorded – it concurs
with what has been said.
Then comes a kind of summing up. Notice it is not Peter. It is James.
Not the James who was a son of Zebedee, a fisherman disciple. Another James. In all likelihood the James who was a brother
of Jesus who in Jesus lifetime had not undertood the message of Jesus but in
death and resurrection had come to see what it was all about. This James now speaks and seems to sum up all
that has been said …
13After
they finished speaking, James replied, ‘My brothers, listen to me. 14Simeon has
related how God first looked favourably on the Gentiles, to take from among
them a people for his name. 15This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it
is written,
16
“After this I will return,
and I
will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen;
from its ruins I will rebuild it,
and I will set it up,
17 so
that all other peoples may seek the Lord—
Thus
says the Lord, who has been making these things 18known from long ago.”
Again, in these few words there’s lots of
really important theology here. Not
least a reading of the Scripture that sees that from Abraham right through to
exile and beyond the Jewish people have been a people chosen by God that through them God’s blessing should
come to all the world. And this moment spoken of in the prophets, not least
prophets of exile, Babylonian Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel has reached its
fulfilment in Jesus.
Then it is as if for James to sum up his
sense of what this discussion has led to – the consensus arrived at by the
apostles and elders –
He comes up with a way forward that
involves writing a round robin letter setting out the principle but
accommodating those who have strong feelings … Gentiles will not have to be
circumcised but at this moment and at this stage they are to be asked to be
respectful of Jewish customs and practice.
19Therefore
I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are
turning to God, 20but we should write to them to abstain only from things
polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and
from blood. 21For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who
proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues.’
This is the point at which I find our way
of doing things has its roots in the New Testament and in the Bible.
You might have thought that the decision of
the apostles and elders would count. The
decision of James as the one presiding would count.
But no, something further has to happen as
well.
It is something we have seen in Acts 6 and we see it again now.
22 Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the
whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them
to Antioch
They seek the consent of the whole church.
That’s the bit where we find our roots in
the Bible for our Church Meeting.
We have had our equivalent of ‘apostles and
elders’ working away in groups, hammering out all sorts of things. But at each step of the way we have acted
with the consent of the whole Church – as we have sought it in Church Meeting.
This is a wonderfully exciting way of being
church to my mind.
This is where we find our roots in the
Bible.
‘The
brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin
in Antioch and Syria
and Cilicia , greetings. 24Since we have heard
that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions
from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, 25we
have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along
with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26who have risked their lives for the sake
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who
themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28For it has seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these
essentials: 29that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from
blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves
from these, you will do well. Farewell.’
This is not a decree of a council.
IT is a letter sharing insights from the
church in Jerusalem
There’s a wonderful description of the
decision – not just a matter of a vote but a sense of the guiding of the
Spirit.
28For
it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit
and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: 29that
you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what
is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will
do well. Farewell.’
We seek the mind of the Meeting, the mind
of Christ in what we do. That’s what’s
important for us together.
A brief letter with guidance.
And what happens when these people go off
to the church in Antioch
This is a glimpse of what happens with
these letters.
30 So
they were sent off and went down to Antioch
They gather the church at Antioch
Interesting that Judas and Silas are
described as themselves ‘prophets’ people who declare God’s word – and they are
in the spirit of Barnabas as they ‘encourage and strengthen’ the believers.
There is a sense of peace in the church now
in Antioch
And Paul and Barnabas remain, with many
others, teaching and proclaiming the word of God.
That’s the last we hear of Peter. And the focus now returns to Paul and
Barnabas, though as we see the focus in Acts shifts from Paul and Barnabas
simply to Paul for reasons that are really disturbing … but that we shall have
to leave for another time.
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