This morning's Bible Reading was probably the best so far. A really interesting exploration of Acts 15. We explored the 3 principle characters, Paul, Peter and James and how they all responded to the changing boundaries that the gospel introduced to their worlds.
The church, we were told, is called to faithful improvisation, most easily understood as doing something new in the context of what has already been done, or out of what God has already done. In other words we are faithful to the past but not so locked into it that we cannot move out of the context it creates.
The challenge is expressed in a simple prayer: Holy Spirit show us what may change, what must change and what must not change.
Acts 15 is all about how the early church responded to a moment of significant change. What do you do with Gentiles who have no experience of Jewish spirituality? Do you make them Jews or not. The early church's solution was to look to the past (why burden them with a yoke we couldn't manage), look to the present (what is God doing now) and look to the future (what does the gospel ask of us). The decision they made, a decision that swept away hundreds of rules and regulations, opened the door to major expansion of the kingdom.
The gospel both affirms and challenges every culture. What the early church's response to the Gentile conversions shows us how they handled this in their day. So how should we handle it in our day? What are the distinctive marks of a Christian community in the 21st century? That's a question worth considering. If the Early Church decided that circumcision was no longer a necessary distinctive of the emerging church, what might the 21st century church need to set aside in order not to exclude or hinder people coming to faith?
Much to consider.
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