5 Easter C May 19, 2019
What if you woke up from a Trance Dream and suddenly realized: God has given me permission to eat alligator meat or at least accept people into my fellowship who do? How would that make you feel?
It has taken the church many years to accept that the Christian mission in the world became much different than the mission of Judaism in the world. When the followers of Jesus were trying to co-exist in the same community as those who lived in the Temple and synagogue traditions, significant disagreements arose.
The disagreements became pronounced. People who disagreed with each other began to persecute and excommunicate and separate from each other.
In a significant way, the entire New Testament is a book of writings about how Christians left the house of Judaism, or were asked to leave. But when Christians left, they took with them the Hebrew Scriptures and they understood them and interpreted them in new ways, ways that were foreign and unacceptable to those who remained within the synagogue.
What were the issues of separation?
The issues were issues of belief and practice in ritual and personal behaviors. A big issue was evangelism.
Christians and Jews separated over the feasibility of Jesus being the Messiah. Jesus was not a Messiah expressing the kingly and military strength like King David, the chief proto-type for the Messiah for members of the synagogue. Jesus was the suffering servant Messiah, seeming to be an apparent loser when he died upon the cross.
Another issue was the meaning of being an observant person of faith. For members of the synagogue, faith meant that one separated oneself from the world by important Jewish identity features, like the dietary rules and the requirement of circumcision. The dietary habits, circumcision and other ritual purity habits were completely foreign to the Gentiles who surrounded the Jews in the Roman Empire.
So, how was the evangelism of the synagogue different from the evangelism of the Jesus Movement? Could a Gentile person become a member of the synagogue? Yes, indeed. They could undergo a proselyte mikveh or baptism and if needed, be circumcised and then observe all of the ritual purity rules. How many Gentiles in the Roman Empire were likely to become observant members of the synagogue? Very few.
The leaders of the Jesus Movement believed that they received divine permission to admit Gentiles into their faith community without being ritually observant in all practices of the synagogue.
This made the message of the Gospel more accessible to more people. Why did Peter and Paul made these compromises in not requiring these very traditional requirements that were central to Jewish ritual practice. Why did they do this? Was Jesus not quoted in the Gospels as saying, not even an accent mark of the Law should be changed until the Law was fulfilled?
The age of the time of Jesus on earth was different from the age of the Risen Christ and the Holy Spirit. The age of the Holy Spirit was a different spiritual age than those which preceded it. Why did Peter and Paul and others let the Gentiles into the fellowship of the church? They saw evidence of moral behavioral changes in the lives of Gentiles who had this experience of God's Holy Spirit. What was this behavioral change that was evident? It was that new commandment behavior which Jesus gave to his disciple at the Last Supper. "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you." There is something really winsome about love and kindness.
Being on the receiving end of love has really changed my life and my previous legalism. I was raised in a rather narrow Christian community and we thought we knew who was going to heaven and hell. But when I went to places far from home, I encountered people who were different and yet who were kind to me and who loved me. How could these people really be valid people of faith? Why were they kind and loving even when I doubted their valid faith?
By this you will know that you are my disciples; if you have love for one another.
The age of the Risen Christ, the age of the Holy Spirit is the age of the new commandment. It is the age of love. You and I know love and kindness when we experience it and we know that friendship and community are really special when love is expressed with comfortable mutual reciprocity.
What will change our traditions and our theology? When we experience the reality of the new commandment. Peter and Paul and John the Divine knew that the New Jerusalem was not the old Jerusalem. The residence, the home of God on earth among us is the omni-presence of Love, because God is Love. And that is what Jesus came to declare. And what is the main ritual requirement of Jesus? The practice of love. Or as Paul wrote, "Love fulfills the Law." Today as we might worry about Christian success in our parish, let us ask the most relevant question. Have we found the practice of love in our midst? If so, God in Christ has been here. Amen.
Acts 11:1-18 Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6 John 13:31-35
What if you woke up from a Trance Dream and suddenly realized: God has given me permission to eat alligator meat or at least accept people into my fellowship who do? How would that make you feel?
It has taken the church many years to accept that the Christian mission in the world became much different than the mission of Judaism in the world. When the followers of Jesus were trying to co-exist in the same community as those who lived in the Temple and synagogue traditions, significant disagreements arose.
The disagreements became pronounced. People who disagreed with each other began to persecute and excommunicate and separate from each other.
In a significant way, the entire New Testament is a book of writings about how Christians left the house of Judaism, or were asked to leave. But when Christians left, they took with them the Hebrew Scriptures and they understood them and interpreted them in new ways, ways that were foreign and unacceptable to those who remained within the synagogue.
What were the issues of separation?
The issues were issues of belief and practice in ritual and personal behaviors. A big issue was evangelism.
Christians and Jews separated over the feasibility of Jesus being the Messiah. Jesus was not a Messiah expressing the kingly and military strength like King David, the chief proto-type for the Messiah for members of the synagogue. Jesus was the suffering servant Messiah, seeming to be an apparent loser when he died upon the cross.
Another issue was the meaning of being an observant person of faith. For members of the synagogue, faith meant that one separated oneself from the world by important Jewish identity features, like the dietary rules and the requirement of circumcision. The dietary habits, circumcision and other ritual purity habits were completely foreign to the Gentiles who surrounded the Jews in the Roman Empire.
So, how was the evangelism of the synagogue different from the evangelism of the Jesus Movement? Could a Gentile person become a member of the synagogue? Yes, indeed. They could undergo a proselyte mikveh or baptism and if needed, be circumcised and then observe all of the ritual purity rules. How many Gentiles in the Roman Empire were likely to become observant members of the synagogue? Very few.
The leaders of the Jesus Movement believed that they received divine permission to admit Gentiles into their faith community without being ritually observant in all practices of the synagogue.
This made the message of the Gospel more accessible to more people. Why did Peter and Paul made these compromises in not requiring these very traditional requirements that were central to Jewish ritual practice. Why did they do this? Was Jesus not quoted in the Gospels as saying, not even an accent mark of the Law should be changed until the Law was fulfilled?
The age of the time of Jesus on earth was different from the age of the Risen Christ and the Holy Spirit. The age of the Holy Spirit was a different spiritual age than those which preceded it. Why did Peter and Paul and others let the Gentiles into the fellowship of the church? They saw evidence of moral behavioral changes in the lives of Gentiles who had this experience of God's Holy Spirit. What was this behavioral change that was evident? It was that new commandment behavior which Jesus gave to his disciple at the Last Supper. "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you." There is something really winsome about love and kindness.
Being on the receiving end of love has really changed my life and my previous legalism. I was raised in a rather narrow Christian community and we thought we knew who was going to heaven and hell. But when I went to places far from home, I encountered people who were different and yet who were kind to me and who loved me. How could these people really be valid people of faith? Why were they kind and loving even when I doubted their valid faith?
By this you will know that you are my disciples; if you have love for one another.
The age of the Risen Christ, the age of the Holy Spirit is the age of the new commandment. It is the age of love. You and I know love and kindness when we experience it and we know that friendship and community are really special when love is expressed with comfortable mutual reciprocity.
What will change our traditions and our theology? When we experience the reality of the new commandment. Peter and Paul and John the Divine knew that the New Jerusalem was not the old Jerusalem. The residence, the home of God on earth among us is the omni-presence of Love, because God is Love. And that is what Jesus came to declare. And what is the main ritual requirement of Jesus? The practice of love. Or as Paul wrote, "Love fulfills the Law." Today as we might worry about Christian success in our parish, let us ask the most relevant question. Have we found the practice of love in our midst? If so, God in Christ has been here. Amen.
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