Cheers

Acts 15:1-18

Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You want to be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same
You want to be where everybody knows your name

That is, of course, the theme song of the TV show, Cheers, that ran for 11 seasons, from 1982 to 1993. It’s ancient history for some, but few can deny the emotional appeal of that those words and that tune. In fact, this theme song was the inspiration for my first real conversation about ecclesiology – that’s one of those fancy words for “how we do church.”

It was Marlene, a kid in my first youth group, who said, “I think that’s what the church should be like.” I said, “A bar?” She said, “Yeah, well, no. I don’t mean the drinking part. I mean the part where everybody knows your name. I mean, like, a place you can go when nothing else is working out and it can still be okay because that’s where the people are who really know you and you don’t have to pretend… or you can pretend if you want. It doesn’t matter.”

I can’t tell you how many times since then that I’ve wanted to tell people who ask me what I do for a living that I run a bar just to see how they react and then say, “Well, it’s like a bar, except it’s a church.” It’s actually funny how some communities have referred to various bars and clubs as their “church,” especially in those communities that have experienced rejection from the Christian Church.

Today’s text is about that very idea, “How do we do church, and how do we include those that have been excluded when we realize that the circle of grace is larger than we thought it was?” Hidden in this discussion of ecclesiology is one line about salvation in v.11. It’s a line that cuts through the “us” and “them” of community formation and indoctrination to remind us that all this stuff that seems so important to us and to our identity as God’s people is just window dressing. It is only through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, and if we are then so are they – whoever “they” are.

Boom. Mic drop. In fact, the next verse says that everyone in the council was silenced by it before James (presumably James the brother of Jesus) speaks up in v.13 to agree with Peter and site the Prophet Amos in his defense. Now, before we get into all of that, we should note who this council is and just what’s going on. Up to this point, those who follow the way of Jesus have been primarily Jewish. Paul and Barnabas have been traveling far and wide to tell the good news of Jesus in the synagogues of those who have been displaced through years of war and occupation, and they are getting a better reception from those who are not Jewish. In fact, some Jewish leaders have run them out of various towns and Paul was even stoned and left for dead.

It’s important to check in here and say that we have to be careful, in fact, more careful than scripture, with our language about “the Jews” as a category of people. It seems odd to have to say that, but over the last four years we’ve seen an uptick in violence against Jewish communities, as well as other non-white racial-ethnic groups, and it is clear that, historically, the proclamation of the church has had an impact on the way that people perceive, justify, and ignore these actions – and that should not be.

Now back to the text – verse 1, “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.’”

The text starts with “then” so we already need to back up a bit and see what happened before it. This text follows a time when Paul has been traveling and preaching with some success and some resistance – even getting stoned and I don’t mean from the brownies – and things have kind of settled down in Antioch, which is in Northern Africa and was kind of a home base for the church. They had elected Elders and were building up the faith communities in the area, and some people came down with the best of intentions and told them they just weren’t doing it right.

The church said, “Ok, let’s get some guidance from the ones that actually walked with Jesus before his death and resurrection and see what they have to say about it.” They sent Paul to Jerusalem to meet with the 12 disciples (remember they replaced Judas with Mathias in Acts 1:23), and there were Pharisees and some Priests there as well. This wasn’t the Sanhedrin, the council set up by Rome with Temple Authorities, and the scriptures don’t really say where, when, or how they met. Recorded history tells us that the Temple was destroyed either before or just after Acts was written, and tensions between Jewish authorities and followers of “The Way of Jesus” was growing.

As those who followed Jesus began to include gentiles – those who did not follow the law of Moses and knew little to nothing of the Prophets – Jewish authorities began to distance themselves more and more from followers of The Way in order to avoid the attention of the Roman Empire. That kind of tracks with comments like in 14:2 about Jews coming in from other places to “poison the minds” of the believers.

Now at this point, Paul is in Jerusalem. He’s been sent by “the church” (which means those believers in Antioch) to settle the debate about the inclusion of Gentiles who are not willing to embrace circumcision. I do think it is interesting that the women that have embraced the faith during this time aren’t really a part of this conversation, and I wonder what their voices would be like if they were included. Of course, the early church was not real big on women in leadership, even though Paul meets and clearly encourages the call of several women along the way (Lydia, the businesswoman; Phoebe, a person of hospitality; and Junia who was the only woman named as an Apostle – Romans 16:7).

I suppose we can assume that this conversation on Mosaic Law includes women as well because we do see Paul continuing to argue that all are saved by grace equally in Galatians 3:28, even though he clearly believes that there are social expectations to uphold in the household codes in Ephesians 5.

Again, the root of all of this is the question of how to include those that have been considered to be outside of the covenant of God’s grace without losing a sense of what it meant to be God’s people. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Christianity is an exclusive claim about an inclusive faith.

In order to be the church, we have to say that we are identified and identifiable as a people who follow the way of Jesus Christ. Yet because we follow the way of Jesus, our goal is to be sure that everyone knows that they are not only welcome, but they have a seat at the table.

In fact, this morning I met with some of our children who are 6 and 7 years old to talk with them about the welcome that this table offers them. We talked about the way it connects to baptism and reminds us that what God started at the font, God nourishes at the table. We talked about the way that communion gives us the chance to experience God’s promise of love in a way that we can taste and see, and we talked about the way that this table encourages us to love as we have been loved.

We can talk all day about theologies of atonement and what it means to believe, but at the end of the day it comes down to an understanding of what has been done for us, and them, and the fact that there is only all of us and no real divisions apart from the ones that we set up.

If anything, our inclusion in the wider circle of grace should be a wake-up call to the fact that we set up divisions between us. Maybe it’s not something you feel that you have done personally, but the divisions are there. We have to name them in light of the gospel like Peter did when he said in v.10 that we should not expect others to do things to demonstrate faith that we are not willing or able to do. Now you can apply that to any of the issues of the day, but in the scripture passage, they were talking about what it means to follow Jesus.

The council decided to include non-Jewish believers based on the salvation offered by Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst. In vv19-20 they decide to give some guidance to the churches about how to draw the line between practice and belief. They elected Elders to instruct the church, and they went on their way. They still had some conflicts, but the Spirit of God had their back (as I said last Sunday) and there were believers that supported the work of the church as it spread.

Come to think of it, last week we talked about the way God helps us to say “Yes, and” as individuals because “God has our back.” Today is really more of the same, except this time it’s about being a community of believers who say, “Yes, and…” to one another and show each other how God has their back! We need that because the world outside those doors is nothing like the TV show, “Cheers.”

The church might be, but I think it’s more like we’re all getting ready to go parachuting, and we’re each packing each other’s chute. That may sound pretty dangerous – and it probably would be – but fortunately, we all know where we are going to land – in the loving arms of God. This table is the place that we feel it most as we taste and see the goodness of God laid out before us.

Here is where you are known. Here is where you find acceptance like no other. Here is where our troubles are all the same, and we are called by the name, “Beloved Child of God.” Amen.