Dear Rose Park,
Acts is an important book of the bible and Acts 15 is an important chapter of the bible. If you’ve never read it before, I highly recommend you read it as soon as possible. In short, chapter 15 is about a meeting that took place in Jerusalem. This meeting essentially centered around the question: what do we do about all these new people?
By “new people,” I mean the Gentiles. The Gentiles are everyone who is not Jewish. Let’s rewind in the book of Acts to more fully understand. Acts 2 highlights the coming of the Holy Spirit. The next several chapters are the stories of healings and miracles the apostles participated in towards the Gentiles by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then in Acts 15, known as the Jerusalem Council, Paul, Barnabas, and Peter are questioned about the Gentiles and circumcision (remember circumcision was the traditional sign as being a part of God’s family). So, the question at the Jerusalem council is do the Gentiles need to be circumcised to be a part of the family of God? Amidst discussion, Peter finally speaks up and says:
God knows people’s hearts, and He confirmed that He accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts through faith. So, why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus. Acts 15: 8-11
As many of you know, I attended the General Synod meeting of the Reformed Church in America this past weekend in Tucson, Arizona. Much like Acts 15, General Synod was a meeting and much like Acts 15, there has been a sense of anxiety and division among our denomination. And much like Acts 15, the essential question is what are we to do with people that think differently, believe differently, and do church differently than us? And I wonder if the answer to these questions is like the answer at the Jerusalem council. Jesus accepts the Gentiles. Jesus accepts people who look, think, believe, and act differently. Jesus makes no distinction between us and them. And as the General Secretary of the RCA, Eddy Alemán, reminded us with candor, “Jesus was always hanging out with the wrong people.”
So, can we be a denomination, a church, and even a family who embraces Acts 15 as the vision for the future? Can we adopt a profound sense of humility to accept others just as God accepted us? And can we resist the temptation to make distinctions between us and them? Instead, let us remind ourselves that each and every one of us has been cleansed by faith and saved by the undeserved grace of Jesus.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark