No "them," there's only "us"

It was easy to lead worship this past weekend. Our congregation is working carefully through the book of Acts and Pastor James was preaching on chapter 15. In this text there are some Jewish believers who think that all of the Gentile believers must be circumcised to be part of the new movement called the church. It's a messy and confusing time of uncertainty and ambiguity. Christianity is in its infancy and the law of Moses is the only thing the Jewish Christians know. Should this be imposed upon the Gentile converts?

The elders gather in Jerusalem and listen at length to the counsel of Peter, Paul, Barnabas and others. In the end, the elders decide that circumcision should not be a requirement; it should not divide the two groups. They send a brief letter to the church in Antioch with the following instructions: "You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality."

It's odd that all kinds of things we would like to see in that list are not there: go to church, read your bible, pray every day, memorize the ten commandments, don't drink alcohol, don't watch R-rated movies, don't pierce or tattoo your body, don't... don't... don't.... The prescriptions the elders do make all relate to temple worship of non-Christian deities - they are already contextualizing the gospel. The greatest danger to the young believers would apparently be to syncretize their new faith with the gods of a pagan culture.

I wonder what requirements we impose on new believers in the name of biblicism? Are we sure we're not just justifying our "law of Moses?"

Again, it was easy to lead worship. The dominant message of the Acts 15 text is that of unity. Gentiles and Jews are brought together under the cross and through the creative power of the resurrection. A key moment in the text comes with verse 9. Peter declares to the council, "God made no distinction between us and them." This is a new humanity! (Eph 2:14-15) The result is not that all individual distinctiveness is removed, but that joy is found in what is held in common. God has replaced that which divides us with unity in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. As we prepared for communion we prayed, "There's no 'them,' only 'us'."

Of course I had this video in mind. It's a beautiful rendition of "One" complete with orchestration. Check for a couple of things as you view this U2 performance: watch the crowd at this opening ceremony for the 2003 Special Olympics, and "no 'them,' there's only 'us'."