Bodies, Belonging, and Growth

Acts 15:1-18

15Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. 3So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

6The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. 7After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. 8And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. 10Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” 12The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers, listen to me. 14Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. 15This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written, 16‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up, 17so that all other peoples may seek the Lord— even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things 18known from long ago.’

 I want you to identify one thing near you/on you that says something important about who you are….

…….Where did that thing get its meaning or where does that significance come from?

Keep that reflection tucked to the side of your mind for now.

In my experience, church folk have a tendency to romanticize the early church and the promise of beloved community. We get real excited about the part of the book of Acts where “all of the people were of one heart” and “they held everything in common.” It is a beautiful and inspiring vision, but it’s only one part of the story.  

There is incredible blessing that unfolds from the empty tomb that births an ever-expanding community rooted in transformative love…but it also brings us to big questions and the hard work of deconstructing aspects of how we understand ourselves and our relationships, in order to live into who we are becoming in and through God in the light of Resurrection.

This community, the early followers of the Way have been blessed by the Spirit to grow and expand and now includes: people of Jewish heritage who still see themselves primarily as Jews continuing their faith in the Messiah, people who are Gentiles (not of Jewish ancestry – perhaps like many of us), Greeks and Romans who have been steeped in the religion of empire and many Gods, people from nearby and far away, people who have everything they need, and people who are just barely getting by.

The people of God, which has historically meant the Jewish people in most of scripture, have endured many attempts at annihilation, exile, and the threat of disappearing as a people through assimilation for millennia. One thing that had held them together is the ritual of circumcision as a holy mark of God’s covenant with Abraham to be with and among the people forever. It is more than a religious tradition, it is a part of their identity and a sign of their belonging to God and one another. But now, as the tent of God is shown to include people beyond that identity, people for whom this expression of faith would be a barrier….what is to become of their understanding of belonging and of being a part?

I used to be more flippant about this question. In the past I’ve pretty much blown it off as an addiction to nostalgia and rule-keeping, probably because to do so benefits me as a Gentile. Probably because as a white woman in the United States, I have not been subject to the same depth of experience in having important parts of my identity diminished or dismissed. But this question hits me differently in these days when black kids are sent home from school or chastised in professional spaces simply for wearing their natural hair, particularly in traditional ways like dreads, afros, wraps, and braids that connect them to their ancestors when those connections have already been limited. It takes on a different significance for me know as I watch the French government explicitly ban young Muslim women from wearing hijabs, a sacred reflection of their relationship with God and their identity as a people.

I realize now that the question of how the people understand and express who they are in God and in community is not as frivolous as I have often been tempted to make it. For the first time, when I read this text, I began to wonder what it means for the sacred gifts that I hold dear in my own faith tradition. If circumcision, the sacred tradition of holding God’s covenant in our bodies is not ultimately essential for all people in all places, what does this mean for our understanding of the gifts of baptism and communion – the sacraments which reflect God’s covenant to us in our bodies as Lutheran Christians?

Did your breath catch just now or do you feel a tightening in your muscles? Then perhaps we’re ready to draw close to the heart of this sacred story. Perhaps, we too, can dive into the question of what it means to be the people of God now, at the core of our being, in this time and place, among the people that God has called us to be now.

This community of the faithful doesn’t stay silo-ed as they wrestle with this question. They don’t leave one another to figure it out for themselves or just let it be a “you do you” kind of faith that avoids processing these significant questions together. Instead, they gather together and reflect on what they’ve been taught, what they practice, and what they’ve experienced. There’s still room to learn from what is has meant to be the people of God before, but they also recognize that that they, as a people, are not the same as before. To figure out and discern who God is calling them to be, they look to the witness of scripture, they look to what tradition has held, but also to what the Holy Spirit is doing currently all around them.

Sometimes in an effort to be faithful, we spend so much energy looking to who God has been for us before that we don’t spend enough time and energy looking to how God is moving among us now, or we see it as a lesser authority than what has been.

Along the way, Paul and Barnabas have been telling the stories of what the Holy Spirit has been doing recently in the lives of the people around them.  They think back and speak to the holy signs and wonders they’ve experienced among these people. Together, they point to and reflect on where they have noticed God’s presence and gifts and movement in order to understand and affirm what God is up to now. This doesn’t diminish tradition or scripture, but places all these holy gifts alongside one another in conversation.

I wonder…what have you noticed or experienced recently that felt holy and sacred?  I wonder how this may reveal what the Holy Spirit is doing among you now?

Ultimately, for those gathered in Jerusalem, it points them forward in a way that includes without imposing. The ways of being in covenant with God and one another still matter, but so does the unique identity of each person that is creating this new community, this growing family of believers. Who are they as a people, if not the things that have practiced before? What will hold them together with God and with one another going forward?

Turns out it will be the same thing that has always held them together. At the end of the day, the only thing that holds us in God, is God.  It is God’s ongoing word and work that blesses, shapes, and moves us.  We, who by this grace may call ourselves God’s people, are invited to pay attention and follow God’s leading so that all people may know their deep belonging.

Even as the church shifts and moves, it is the Holy Spirit that stays constant, pointing us to who we have truly been all along.  The book of Acts gives us a witness to an ever-changing people figuring out who they are and what resurrection life means. They are met with struggle and with all kinds of conflict, within and without. And through it all, the Holy Spirit abides among them and all they are becoming.  The Spirit continues even when the people aren’t sure what it looks like for them to continue. Steadily and surely, She shows up all around us to return us to our true selves and to one another in God. Beloved, Belonging, and Becoming. Thanks be to God.