Sunday, May 25, 2025

Sermon Notes

Last week we heard from the book of Acts about the Council of Jerusalem, which gathered leaders of The Way in order to discern what to do about Torah observance (specifically circumcision) and the growing number of Gentile believers. According to Acts, Simon (a.k.a Peter, a.a.k.a. Cephas), James (brother of Jesus), Paul (a.k.a. Saul), Barnabas (a.k.a Joseph), and some other apostles and elders gathered to listen to what the Holy Spirit has been doing among the  gentiles. The council sent an open letter to the Gentile believers saying,

“it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled* and from fornication” (Acts 15:28-29)

*this is the one that I forgot in my sermon.

I noted in my sermon that this account and ‘essentials’ from Acts differs from the account from Paul’s letters. In Romans, and other places, he suggests that eating meat sacrificed to idols is no big deal, provided that your faith is strong enough, and you are not causing a sibling (whose faith may not be as strong) to stumble. In addition, the translation the Greek word pornia (usually translated ‘fornication’ or ‘sexual immorality’) is notoriously tricky. I imagine that if you asked different people in our congregation what it meant, you would get very different answers. From Paul’s letters it seems that he was far more concerned with exploitative sexual practices (using ‘inferior’ slaves, children, and temple prostitutes as ‘vessels’) than the things that modern Christian ‘purity culture’ would have us believe. Paul’s own account of this council, found in-between our readings today, says that the only ‘essential’ was to care for the poor.

This week we begin to make our way through one of Paul’s letters, The Letter to the Galatians, where we will remain through Pentecost. Galatia (located in the highlands of Anatolia, modern day central Turkey) had been invaded by Gaelic Celts in the 3rd Century (which gave it it’s Greek name, meaning ‘land of the Gauls’) and was made a Roman Provence in 25 BCE. According to Acts, soon after the Council of Jerusalem, Paul and Silas established churches in there.

Paul is now writing a letter to these churches because it seems that some from the ‘circumcision faction,’ who continue to insist that Gentile believers follow Torah, have come to preach a ‘new gospel’ to them. The Galatians have (foolishly) believed them, and Paul is writing to encourage them to believe in the gospel of the grace of Christ which he originally brought to them.

In this week’s text, he relates his own journey of faith: from zealous persecutor of the church to apostle of Christ. He also talks about his calling out of Peter/Simon/Cephas when Peter buckled to the pressure of that same ‘circumcision faction.’ Paul continues to proclaim a righteousness that is outside of and beyond our human efforts, grace not works. As we continue in this letter, we will explore the radical gospel that Paul proclaims, one that tears down the dividing walls of good works, ethnicity, and even gender.

Questions

How have you grown in your own faith, what obstacles have you overcome, what mistakes have you made?

What do you do when you see yourself or others ‘falling back’ into old patterns?

How can this story inform our current differences in theology and practice?