Acts 15:1-18 on May 18th, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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In some Bibles, there are little headings over different chapters or sections. Titles like "Jesus heals a blind man" or "Peter denies Jesus." It's not part of the original text, but it helps us skim through and quickly find what story it is that we are looking for. So when I saw that today's reading from Acts 15 is titled "The Council at Jerusalem," I groaned a little bit. Oh, joy, a church meeting. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, Acts isn't always that much fun to preach on, and this chapter title does nothing to inspire. It's like preaching on synod assembly minutes. It's necessary? Sure. Inspirational, not so much.
But here's the surprise. This seemingly dry meeting turns out to be one of the most important moments in the early church's story. It may not have the fireworks of Pentecost or the drama of conversions, but the whole future of the church is on the line. Today, there is no gospel word that is proclaimed directly to us. There is no overt sweeping action of God, no proclamation of death, resurrection, and new life. What good news we squeeze out is convoluted and impersonal. It's kind of that generic "God loves everybody" theme that I mentioned last week.
But that is the very theme that's been running through Acts lately. A few weeks ago we heard about Stephen being stoned to death for proclaiming that God's love is wider than people were comfortable with. Then we heard about the Ethiopian unit, an outsider, and just about every way welcomed and baptized with no hesitation. But today we would get a bunch of church leaders talking, talking, and standing up in front of each other and giving little speeches. I see your eyes are glazing over already.
What this scene is kind of where the rubber meets the road, who should be included, who should be excluded, what moves one from exclusion to inclusion. The debate at the time was whether or not Gentiles, non-Jewish folk, needed to become Jewish before they became Christians. The law and being circumcised would be like a stepping stone, a prerequisite to being a Christian. On the other hand, it would be permissible to skip over that whole Jew circumcision part and still be welcomed fully into Christ's community.
Some said yes, the law comes first. There's a history to all this. They need to be included in that history, in the law that has been around for centuries. It's only then that they can be fully welcomed. Others disagreed. No, they said this is something bigger, more different, that those old expectations don't hold to what God is doing now.
Having the benefit of hindsight, we know that the early church decided that Christ's community can welcome any and every one without them adhering to the law first. Because those sitting around the table realized that they had been the beneficiaries of the wideness of God's mercy and they recognized that God is extending mercy to the Gentiles too. That is the good news in the passage. That same radical welcome includes you. It includes me. The Holy Spirit is poured out not based on who we are or what we've done or what laws we've kept, but on God's boundless love.
So let's be clear. Even though this passage doesn't have a direct word from Jesus or a lightning bolt from heaven, it still speaks personally and powerfully. Easter life is for you. God's love is for you. You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. Grace has changed to you. You are welcomed. You are loved. You are sent out into the world as a beloved child of God.
But the fact that we keep getting this message of welcome and inclusion week after week means that the good news can't stop there. It can't stop with you or me. If it's good only for you or only for me, then it is not the fullness of God's good news. This love and this welcome needs to go beyond you and me. It needs to go out this door across the world, to the ends of the earth and even all the way to the person right next to you, which is sometimes the hardest thing to do.
The sinful part of me and maybe you too is perfectly content to keep the good news close to home. If it's good for me, that's good enough. You're wired to think of ourselves first and maybe if we're feeling generous, we'll loop in a few others too. I think that's where the early church was. When we sense that God is doing something new, something that pushes us past what we know and like and prefer, our reflexes is often to hesitate. Sure, God, go ahead and do a new thing. Just don't mess with my thing. Let your spirit blow just not through my routines. Keep your wild grace contained if you don't mind.
Here's another twist. Maybe what feels new to us isn't new at all. Maybe this new thing is just a very old thing that the early church was just starting to pick up on. Because I'm not so sure that God is changing directions in Acts 15. I think God was continuing down the same path that God has always been on, showing mercy to all, inviting and welcoming all, gathering all people into relationship. God has always been about expanding love, mercy and relationship from the call of Abraham to the prophets to Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners. I mean, this is what God has always done. It's just that now the early church was catching up. The apostles were adjusting their expectations to align with God. They simply looked around and said, look what God's done. God chooses. God gives the Holy Spirit. God makes no distinction. And that's good news. We all received the benefits of God widening the circle. We are all included.
The council edged Ruslan looked to where God was moving and they followed. They didn't open up because they wanted to be trendy or cutting edge. They opened up because they trusted the Spirit. And that is our calling too. So as we worship plan, vision and hope through this summer and as our crossing thresholds team meets and listens, dreams and begins to shape new goals for St. Philip, we all would do well to remember that God is already moving, already calling, already including. And our job is to pay attention, to get ourselves in position, to be ready to receive, to welcome, to partner, to share God's grace with those who aren't here yet and maybe those who don't even know they're looking for a place like this.
Because that's what it means to be the church. That is the message that we carry, not that we've earned our spot in the circle, but that God in love has opened it wide. So expect God to work in us and through us. Expect God to speak to us. Expect God not to do something entirely new, but to keep doing what God has always done. Pour out grace upon grace. And with that grace, with the Spirit's help, may we as the church adjust, not to preserve what we've always done, but to follow the God whose love never changes and who always surprises us with who gets included next. Amen.