In yesterday’s reading from Acts, we learned about what may have been the single greatest crisis faced by the apostolic Church. How was it possible for Gentiles to become followers of Jesus – whom the first Christians believed was the Messiah and fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel – without first becoming Jews themselves and separating themselves from Gentile culture. We heard yesterday how the Apostles and the presbyters met together, in what we now call the Council of Jerusalem, to see about this matter.
Now we have heard the results of those deliberations [Acts 15:7-21]. Just as Jews could follow Jesus and become Jewish Christians, so too from now on Greeks, while still remaining Greek, could follow Jesus and become Greek – not Jewish – Christians. Likewise, Romans could become Roman Christians, etc. This radical decision simultaneously affirmed both the universal application of Christ to all peoples without exception, while also allowing for diversity within what, in today’s terminology, we would call a multi-cultural Church. Historically, it was this decision that made it possible for Christianity to expand throughout the ancient world and to continue to expand into a truly global community.
Thanks to that fundamental experience, which both Jewish and Gentile converts shared, of the new thing that had happened in the world with Jesus, they felt empowered to resolve the problem, recognizing that the Holy Spirit had really been at work in what was happening – Gentiles joining the Church – and so was with them then in their collective effort to make sense of that development and make it work.
The history of the Church was irrevocably shaped by this event. This “Council of Jerusalem,” as it came to be called, became a model for how to come to grips with new and pressing problems – neither never moving forward nor casually jettisoning the past, but rather carefully considering everything, in light of the fundamental experience of what the Risen Christ has revealed.
Homily for Thursday of the 5th Week of Easter, Saint Paul the Apostle Church, NY, May 11, 2023.
