What’s Okay To Pray? More to the Point, What is NOT Okay to Pray?

             Pastor says, “Everything is okay to pray.” Not only that, but Pastor says it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to prayer. There are threads coming together here. First, we just came off Pentecost Sunday, the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Next, this concludes our look to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which has been our focus in May. Our focus is through the lens of the Holy Spirit’s integration into the early church. Thirdly, the implication is that the integration of the Holy Spirit into the early church was not a “one-off”, but ongoing, that the Holy Spirit’s work has, is, and will work in the church till Jesus comes back. The final thread is understanding what the Holy Spirit is for us in our God. 

            The Holy Spirit is Jesus with us. So Jesus promised in John 14, the Holy Spirit is our Advocate, our Counselor. At His ascension, Jesus commanded the disciples to go hang in Jerusalem to await something Wonderful (Spoiler: the Holy Spirit).

            SIDEBAR-You know how at Christmas, we have the list of titles for Jesus from Isaiah, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Couple of those cross over between Jesus and God the Father. "Wonderful Counselor" crosses over between Jesus and God the Holy Spirit. 

So, what I am claiming as Pastor is that we can pray ANYTHING to Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit/Jesus. Now, when anyone, including-maybe especially-a Pastor makes a sweeping statement about the faith, there are words from John's first letter to lean into, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out."

How do we ‘test the spirits to see whether they are from God’? What does the Bible say? Like, what does the Bible have to say about prayer? Or, more to the point, how are prayers prayed in the Bible? They are all over the place, but there is one book in which they are concentrated. Concentrated and, from what we best understand, meant to be prayed with music. I speak of the Book of Psalms. 

The Book of Psalms is a Kingly book and a kingly book. Upper case “K” stands for God. Lower case “k” stands for king David. He is credited with writing 73 of the 150 psalms gathered in this book of prayer and music.  

So our preaching in June will be from the book of Psalms. The working ‘title’ for the month is “Feelings of Summer”. This will be our lens for the book of Psalms. When wondering what is okay to pray, what emotions are okay? To answer that, we will ask from what emotional points of view are these psalms, these prayers, being expressed? To further focus, we will use "the" Psalm writer, on King David.  

Anger, vengeance, joy, grief, despair, these are just some the feelings from which David wrote. For the Sunday’s in June, we will draw out Psalms that are express these feelings. What did David pray? How do his prayers speak to us? How do they illumine how to speak to God?

This will only begin to address the implications of Pastor's universal comment about prayer. The focus is on one man's intimate relationship with the Almighty. We will look to his voice as an example of what is okay to pray.

Peace,               Pastor Peter

 

Receiving the Holy Spirit: Acts 2 The Scripture and Sermon for May 28, 2023 Pentecost Sunday

 Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ 22“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 25For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; 26therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope. 27For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. 28You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ 32This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. 34For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 36Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Sermon for Sunday, May 28, 2023  "Receiving the Holy Spirit"

For the last few weeks, we have been looking at the integration of the Holy Spirit into the early church. We have seen the Spirit directing the work of the Apostles-as with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, we have seen the Spirit going to whole new populations-as upon Cornelius and family, and we have seen the Holy Spirit at work among God’s people in time of contention-at the Council of Jerusalem.

In trying to understand God the Holy Spirit, we considered the image of God walking with us. First as God the Creator when God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day in the garden of Eden. Jesus then is God made flesh, God incarnate, who did indeed walk among us. Yes, Jesus is God, but the hymn “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” helps us to understand where God exists with us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, still God. Yes, Jesus is our King. But more our friend.

And today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God within us, God walking metaphorically, literally, and spiritually, in our shoes. In years gone by, it has been my challenge to wrap my head, my intellect, around God the Holy Spirit. How do we understand this presence of God as descended upon the apostles, continuing to descend upon us? As Presbyterians, our consideration of faith does lean into the intellectual. Seeking to understand our theology, our ways of thinking about God and what God has done. Experiencing the Holy Spirit, we can presume that follows. We do not go out of our way to seek the more wholistic potential of the Spirit.

And therein is the rub. I believe the Holy Spirit dwells within me. I do not know how I could attempt to write a coherent sermon without that presence that is simply more than I am on my own. But it seems to me that, while we read about Pentecost, while we can accept and assent to and attest to the presence of God within us, we have not gotten the full experience of what the Holy Spirit can do for us.

I mean, look at the story of Pentecost. There is a fireworks show, maybe not Disney brand fireworks, but tongues of flame upon the heads of the apostles? That translates into the ‘halo’ in Christian art. Like Jesus as King between his top apostles to my right behind us. It is like being backlit by a hundred plus watt bulb. 

Then there is the gift of language. How many apostles present? How many ways was the gospel shared?  It is truly impressive to look at a Bible map that lists all the places Acts lists as the places from which these Jews traveled to gather in Jerusalem. It is not like these Jews gathered in Jerusalem could not understand the Apostles. They held Aramaic and Hebrew in common as Jews, Greek as citizens of the empire. 

But this is the gift of first person, first language direct communication. It means nothing lost in translation. But there is so much more than that. Have you ever traveled in a foreign country or in a place where no one knows your language? Or had it happen right here in Perth Amboy? It is easy to feel cut off when not understood, but when you catch that one voice that speaks words you recognize, someone whose first language is English. How that Aloneness can melt away like snow in a rainstorm. How powerful must it have been for the people gathered in the streets of Jerusalem, witnessing something of such profound spiritual importance taking place and there are apostles, speaking the word of the Lord to them in their own tongue? 

Then the gift of the message itself. Peter, that rough fisherman from Galilee is quite the eloquent speaker. I found myself wondering as I was reading the passage this time around if Peter just had the full audience of the gathered Jews in one common language or if this was what each of the apostles was sharing in the varied languages of everyone gathered there? 

And the sum result of the work of the Spirit is something for the hopes and dreams for this congregation. Day by day, the Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved. 

So what is there in the story of Pentecost, the story of the Holy Spirit coming down upon the apostles, their inspiration to go out into the streets and share the Good News of Salvation that we have in Christ Jesus, that speaks to us, to who we are. 

I am not sure I am ready to put on a Pentecost red leisure suit and head us out into the Market Square to share the good news with the random passersby who might just be coming back from the grocery store down where the King High Garage used to be. 

But maybe our experience of the Holy Spirit is something else. Maybe it finds expression in the gift of relief and intimacy that came when the Spirit gave the apostles the gift of languages for their first outreach into the people around them. What do I mean by that?

Let's take last Sunday’s time of joys and concerns. For the last few weeks, we have been remembering especially a certain church member and her family.  We have measured the progress of the work of the Lord in her life. The first press of the Spirit is in our prayers for her and her family. We remember them publicly and privately. 

I would suggest that the inspiration, the request, the opportunity to pray for someone, to intercede on their behalf with our God, that is most often the first touchpoint of the Holy Spirit in the experience of our lives. Our growing awareness in the Spirit is to seek those moments, to be aware of them. It is not often that when you ask someone if you can pray for them that they will refuse. 

Naturally, there is an exception to prove this rule. When I was training to be a pastor, part of that work was “clinical pastoral education”, working as a hospital chaplain. There was a young man I had been speaking to, it was obvious that he was not a person of faith and not interested in a faith message from this chaplain. But he was appreciative that I was there to talk to him and there in a supporting role to listen to him (I had the impression the medical professionals were doing more talking “at” him than to him). It was a mandate of the program that we offer, key word offer, a prayer to conclude a visit. He did not so much accept the prayer I was offering as giving me permission to pray on my behalf, for him, since this was important to me. 

And honestly, prayer is one of those places where one does not have to honor the request of the person to be prayed for. I would respect the request not to pray on the spot, but would certainly make a special note to bring him to the Lord in my private prayers. 

To return to the work of the Holy Spirit, let us focus on the comfort that those visitors to Jerusalem felt in the ‘personal’ touch of the gospel in their own language. Our personal touch extends beyond our prayers to our dear sister. The opportunity to talk to her directly, either on the phone or with a visit to the hospital, some may declare that simply to be the ‘proper behavior of decent people’-which is true-but is so much more in the Holy Spirit. It is community building, the Holy Spirit at work in our midst, building faith upon faith, when we reach out to someone in need.  

For me, the visitation and outreach that I do in the pastoral care of this community extends the prayers of intercession that I first offer. 

Within our church, we have a core of people here who have known each other for years. For the majority here, we have the common ministry of the Presbyterian Women that bound them and continues to bind them. And not just the women of the PW, but a shout out to the gents who has been a faithful member of the Men’s Auxiliary for as long as I have been here. And while the structured organization may be lessened, the fellowship and friendship certainly are not. From there, how many other lives, of caregivers and friends, have we been given opportunity to touch by the Holy Spirit?

There are many examples to be lifted from our community. We all have people in our lives where the love of Christ is needed. We all have lives we can touch. That’s the joy of the faith I have seen and continue to see in this congregation. The Holy Spirit finds expression in our care one for another. 

And what a consideration if we know the Holy Spirit as God’s presence, as the presence of Jesus walking with us? When we come alongside someone, in that moment, we have the heavenly opportunity to be as Jesus alongside of them. We are not coming to ‘save a soul’ or ‘score a point for heaven’. Instead, we are simply doing what Jesus did, sharing the power of love-love backed by the power of God-with someone else. 

And that can be huge. We have the evidence of that from the Pentecost reading we have in Acts. And that can be intimate. We who are here right now. We who know someone who could use a good word. We who let the Spirit inspire us to say something, to do something. We, who for the first time in a very long time, could take a step outside of ourselves and, looking in, come in prayer to the Lord to reveal the leading of the Spirit. 

We have spent our time in the book of Acts looking to the integration of the Holy Spirit into the church. The Holy Spirit, the promised one from Jesus who would take the gift of salvation that we have received through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to God’s plan from before creation and brings it to blossom in our lives. To give us reason to get up in the morning and look around for where the grace of Jesus is needed. And to bring it. May we embrace the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost once again. May it flood our lives with the power of Jesus and the desire to love God and neighbor. May it lead us ever onward in a joyous life in Christ Jesus.

Consider this for a moment. When Jesus was asked to summarize the whole law of God, the law that had governed God’s relationship with humanity from the time the people were called out of Egypt to that moment, remember how he did so? Two commandments. Love God with all we have. Love our neighbors as ourselves. 

The story of Jesus in the gospels is the flip side of that first commandment. Love God with all we have because God first loved us. It was in love that God send the only begotten Son. It was in love that He gave himself over to death, even death on the cross. It was in love that God brought Jesus back and, in Jesus, brings life back to every one of us for our sins. This is not a love that is earned because, through Jesus, we have received the free gift of salvation.

Which brings us to “Part 2”, as the Acts of the Apostles is, in fact, the direct sequel to the Gospel of Luke and the historic sequel to them all. The second commandment of the law is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Which is the premise of the book of Acts. They waited in Jerusalem till the coming of the Holy Spirit, then it was all about loving their neighbors as themselves, carrying to their neighbors, out to the Gentiles and beyond, what the apostles had themselves received, the gift of salvation, the gift of God’s love made manifest in Christ Jesus. 

For some churches, what this translates into is a call to work with people to believe the right thing, to profess the right thing, their acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior. But the work of the Holy Spirit is more fundamental than that. It is God’s presence in our lives that we may ever more powerfully love our neighbors. Please understand that I am NOT saying that someone coming to belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior isn’t to be celebrated. What I am saying is that the love of neighbor, our outreach to the world, our fulfillment of the Great Commission, our allowing the Holy Spirit to come out in our lives, is just so much more. 

What I am saying is that where there is the need of love, there the work of the Holy Spirit can be done in our lives. It might be one of our own, it might be someone we have never met before. Our neighbors are everyone. Our opportunities are everywhere. Our possibilities are like God’s love, endless. 

This is the day when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the whole church. It is a natural day and opportunity for us to renew our commitment to the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. May we be so blessed. May we embrace this gift anew.

 

 Let us pray…

A Neighborhood in the Suburbs of Heaven

Heaven is the realm of God. God lives there, Jesus went there, at the Final Trumpet, the faithful are to be gathered there. “Heaven sent” is a good thing. I am engaged in a personal struggle to do an “attitude and expression swap”. Instead of saying something like “what the H-E-double hockey sticks is going on?”, I am working on “what the Heaven is going on?” It might be that the "motivational" intent of my saying is more 'H-E-double hockey sticks' than it is the home and place of our beloved Lord, but I am, as are we all, a work in progress; change the language, change the motivation.

So our church is, in my mind, an extension of Heaven. It is, as well, a work in progress, as all churches are. But it is also a neighborhood. And it is God’s. For the longest time, the expression in my mind has been that we are “a Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God”. The Kingdom of God versus Heaven’s suburbs? It is another attitude and expression swap, but maybe not on the level of trying to govern my mouth with some of the more ‘colorful metaphors’ of the English language.

And Kingdom of God, there is a phrase of, pardon the pun, Biblical proportions. So why appear to "water" it down? Or maybe hose it down? Well, the more I come understand about kings, the more I come to understand about humans who pile up power, the more this term disturbs me. I know, I get it, Jesus is King. Yes He is. That is not the problem. The problem comes from the humans who seek to put on that mantle. Yes, calling themselves ‘king’ is a throwback in history, but the power that people seek to gather and wield, that is very real. The ‘divine’ right of kings, claiming Jesus’ authority to cover whatever behavior is done with that power, the 'king' part may have slipped away, but claiming Jesus' authority? That is alive and well in the world today. 

Everybody who aspires to the power and authority of Jesus, in whatever role, is going to fall short. Even those who do so legitimately. And we live in a generation where a lot of people manipulate the name and authority of Jesus for their own gains. They could care less what Jesus did, except for what faking Jesus can do for them. So, I find it appropriate to back off the language of personal authority-even authority laid into the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I am going to take some flak for that. People are not going to like my choice. They will think I am backing off the authority of Jesus (instead of the language), that my language is getting weak, diluted by ‘political correctness’ or some current linguistic equivalent. But for me, it is coming to see how the misuse of power and authority in this life, in God’s name or not, is hurting people. Yes, we all sin, but this kind of sin is next level. And the image of a neighborhood in the suburbs, the image of a neighborhood of a small town, the image of where all God’s people live in peace and equity before our Maker, that brings comfort. There is nobody out there but Jesus that I want to have as my king.

Well then, some might argue, that is not a sin thing, that is a ‘lack of faith’ thing. I don’t have enough faith to be able to distinguish the Power of Jesus and the power in Jesus given to humanity. Then I would point to the letter that comes out of the Council in Jerusalem. It instructs the Gentile Christians not to eat meat offered to idols. Now, God’s authority is absolute and those other gods do not exist. But humans are not so powerful.

So, God’s authority is absolute and good and God does not abuse power. But humans are not so good, and are incredibly abusive. So what does it serve me to do something that may cause a foot to stumble? Better not to eat the food offered to idols. Better to put some distance in from language that may swell somebody's head into thinking they have what it takes to wield the authority of Christ. Better to know we are all sinners, we are all equal in God's eyes, we are all in need of forgiveness. We are all one in the Lord.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

As Jesus Welcomed the World

On this Sunday among all Sundays, we welcome you on behalf of our Lord Jesus into the fellowship of our congregation. This is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming down upon the Church. It has been ten days since Jesus ascended to heaven. It is fifty days since Jesus rose from the dead, since Easter. It has been somewhere around three years since the Holy Spirit first came down upon Jesus at His baptism to mark the beginning of his ministry among us. This Sunday marks the continued presence of the Holy Spirit coming into the hearts and minds of every succeeding generation.

The Scriptures for the month of May have been from the Acts of the Apostles, focusing on the integration of the Holy Spirit into the establishment of the church. We have considered the Spirit as it directed Philip to seek out the Ethiopian Eunuch. We have celebrated the Spirit as it came down upon Cornelius and his household, extending the work of Jesus to the ‘ends of the earth’, beyond the Jews to the Gentile world. We have remembered how the Holy Spirit is integrated into the work of the church as its leaders gathered in Jerusalem to consider how best to proceed in a whole new world of faith of Jew and Gentile together in Christ.

That has all been done to prepare our understanding in what it is we have received in the gift of the Holy Spirit. What is happening to us with this gift on Pentecost. How things will never be the same for the church again. 

As we welcome you to our church, we invite you to come into the wonder and the majesty of the Holy Spirit, to allow us to share Jesus with you, to bring to you the full measure of God's love.

As we welcome you back to our church, we invite you to renew yourself in the wonder and majesty of the Holy Spirit.

The call to wear red is to symbolize the flames that came down upon the heads of the disciples. The draperies in church will be displayed red for this day of celebration. 

But more important than the red, more important than the flames that were seen on the heads of the disciples, more important even than the coming of the Holy Spirit, most important is what began.

In that moment, the doors of the church were opened to welcome in the world. The love of Jesus was replicated with power in the hearts of Jesus’ followers. From that moment, the world has never been the same. What began in our Lord Jesus has been multiplied in all of us who have been blessed with the Holy Spirit.

Peace,
Pastor Peter

What Bugs Me: Why is There More Than One Way To List the First Commandment?

             In my church, I was raised with the Heidelberg Catechism. It is a teaching tool, drawing on the Bible to help people understand this most magnificent gift of the Lord. It contains commentary on understanding the Ten Commandments. But first, it lists them. This is how it lays out the first two:

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” 

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

They are found listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. But this is NOT how Jesus would have read them. Wait…what? To Jesus, they read as follows:

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” 

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Heidelberg lists a "Protestant" version. Apparently, there is also a "Catholic" version, the Roman Catholic church combining "both" Protestant commandments into the First Commandment. To restore the full Ten, Coveting, one commandment in the Jewish and Protestant understanding, is two in the Catholic understand. #9 is not coveting a man's wife. #10 is not coveting a man's stuff. But that is another story.

The takeaway is that the Christian approach to the Ten Commandments is united in that it differs from how Jesus read them. Attached to the Christian First Commandment is a prohibition. “You shall have no other gods before me.” That’s not how Jesus knew them. He knew them as a promise. “I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” 

Okay, but then what are we expected to do with that? The Ten Commandments, as we have them in the church, define what is expected from us. No other gods, no idols, no vain use of God’s name, keep the Sabbath, honor parents, and then the “shalt nots”-murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, and covet.

I wish I could say I was returning to a spirited Seminary debate on the history of understanding the Ten Commandments. I am not. I am reflecting on an episode of “The West Wing”, brought back to mind after the Texas Senate headline in regards to the Ten Commandments a couple of posts back.

I also wish I had a snappy answer on how we should go with this. Rather, what I believe is since these are the Commandments as Jesus knew them, and they are different from what I was raised with, there is a point here that is important for us. We have invested these verses with great significance, it behooves us to know them. 

What does pop out to me are the first two words, “I am…” When God appeared to Abraham in the burning bush, God gave the Name “I am…” (which is our most often used attempt to translate the Hebrew). Then, in the Commandments, "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." But Jesus has also spoken in this way. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light.” This is only one of several places where Jesus, in self-identifying, uses the phrase “I am…” “I am the bread of life.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” “I am the Good Shepherd.”

These are not orders on how we should behave, rather, they are offerings for us to understand and believe. Jesus did not say “I am the way, the truth, and the light, you shall have no other gods before me.”

In the very person of Jesus is the promise of our salvation. I think that is the power of the First Commandment as Jesus knew it. There were no prohibitions, no behavioral guides, nothing like that. There is God and the Promise implicit in who God is. In the case of the Hebrews, it was the God bringing them to the Promised Land.

For us, we have Jesus and the Promise explicit in who Jesus is. Look to where Jesus said "I am..." and embrace the truths of what that means for us. That is where our salvation begins.

Peace

Pastor Peter

So Exactly What Was The First Universal Decision of the Church for Christianity?

         In Acts 15, the “Council” of Jerusalem began with the demands of one group of Christians that circumcision was necessary for salvation to recommending the following: not to eat meat offered to idols; avoidance of fornication; not consuming strangled animals; and not eating blood.

Which is quite a jump. It is one thing to be circumcised at eight days old. It is quite something else for a grown man to be told this is a precondition for joining a faith supposed based on love.

For the vast majority of Christians now, the question of following the law as given to Moses is a non-issue. Loving one another, sharing faith in Christ, reaching out to those in need, it is in principles like these that we govern how to ‘do church’. Being like Christ is done in gratitude for the salvation we have received. It is not mandated that we do the proper ‘works’ in order to earn our way into heaven. Rather, in the thinking of the apostle James, our faith is made alive in the works we do in Jesus’ name.

But in the book of Acts, until the Gentiles were accepted, the non-issue for the church was following the law of Moses. The congregation of the church was Jewish, like Jesus. The defining standard of Jewish behavior was the law as given to Moses. That is where these believers from the Pharisaic sect are coming from. Circumcision was THE command given by God that marks out God’s Chosen People. That is not just the law as given to Moses, it predates Moses to the covenant God made with Abraham. 

It makes sense as an understanding of continuity. Jesus gave us the sacrament of baptism but he did not tell us that it marked the discontinuity of circumcision. It was, in fact, a mark of renewal in right faith in God, not something new. For the Gentiles, this is all new.

So what is essentially a surgical procedure was not necessarily the ‘welcome mat’ the church wanted to put out to new believers. But beyond that, Peter makes a powerful point. The Jews have been following the law since it was given and failed in keeping it. Thus, Jesus. His death and resurrection brought renewal. Is it truly a good idea to burden people who have never seen this law, much less been raised in its traditions, as an introduction to life in Christ?

Jesus came to fulfill the law (and unpacking that is a BUNCH more entries into this Daily Feed). But a few things in the law given to Moses were left over. What about those?

The first was meat offered to idols, as in, don’t eat it. That makes sense. For the mature Christian, the truth we have in the Bible is that idols were just pieces of art in wood or stone or metal. But for Gentiles coming into this new faith, who used to invest their faith into those idols, who used to give them religious authority over their lives and practices, it can be a barrier to full acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior. Paul develops this theme in his writings. So step away from this practice.

The second is fornication. That means people having sex with people who they are not married to. It goes hand in hand with adultery, people who are married not having sex with others they are not married to. But these are not simply cultural norms established in the Christian faith. In the time of the Romans, there were a lot of deities for whom 'worship' included sexual behaviors. This is a call to separate Christian practices from those practices of worship.

The third, not eating strangled meat, and the fourth, not consuming blood, are connected to one another. In the law given to Moses, life is viewed to be in the blood. The way that meat was prepared was commanded so that the blood was drained. The prohibition to strangling for the preparation of meat was precisely because the blood is not drained.

        There is a strong worship aspect to this. In the offering of sacrifices to the Lord, it was the offering of blood that was the sacramental center of the animal sacrifice. For example, at Passover, it was the blood of the lamb spread on the outer edges of the doorway that led the Angel of Death to pass over that house when carrying out God’s final plague upon the Egyptians. It is the blood of Jesus that has been shed for us for the remission of our sins. 

So, the blood is the life. So, it is the life of Jesus that has been given in place of us giving our lives to pay for our sins.

These were the ‘takeaways’ from the law given to Moses that the Council in Jerusalem decided should continue in the practice and worship of the church among the Gentile population. On a brief sidebar, there is nothing here that speaks to the Jewish believers in Jesus stepping away from the law as given to Moses. Even Peter speaks to it as a burden for those newly coming into the church, not for those raised with it.

So are these still binding on the church today? I see two questions here. The first is whether our salvation rides upon these practices, as the Pharisaic sect Jewish believers said salvation was dependent on circumcision. I have to answer no, salvation is not dependent on doing these things, I do not believe it ever was. But for the healthy practice of our faith? For the mature living of our lives? These are questions of idolatry and sexuality and right living. There is a whole lot more than I can begin to address here.

So, let me leave with a short answer. I think taking the dictates of this "consensus decree" of the Council of Jerusalem continue to go far in helping people not putting extra demands on the forgiveness we have received in Christ Jesus. 

Peace,
Pastor Peter