Acts 15:1-2, 5-11 (NKJV) 1 And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” 6 Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. 7 And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
How is it that the church is so often seen as a place of respectability rather than a community for the down and out? The church of Peter and Paul and Barnabas and James were facing this issue. Up until this time the church was made up of good respectable Jewish people. They knew the rules and had learned the laws of God, not only the Ten Commandments but also the six hundred thirty-three commands that governed their life. It was a good life. It was a stable life. They sensed that they belonged and they knew where they belonged. They knew their place in the scheme of things.
But now, as many Gentiles were joining the church, some objected. The predominant thought was that Gentiles could not be saved; they did not really belong and they should not belong to the community. A meeting was held in Jerusalem to discuss the issue, and Peter rose and said: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe…that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
The message and the ministry of Jesus had said that the love of God reaches out to all people regardless of how respectable or not they might be. The free gift of God’s love in Jesus was, and is, doing all this. We must not hinder that work with the rules of being respectable.
Do we come to church so clothed in respectability that we do not receive God’s love? Peter reminds us that we are saved by grace. We are saved by this moment of recognizing our real need and God’s generous offer. The problem with respectability is not what others say about us. The problem is that the rules of respectability bar us from a true sense of need, keeping us from truly sensing our need of God’s grace.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 2, 1999
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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