There’s a joke about belief:
Atheists don’t recognize the existence of a god.
Jews don’t recognize the divinity of Jesus.
Protestants don’t recognize the authority of the Pope.
And people who belong to faiths that prohibit drinking alcohol don’t recognize each other at the liquor store.
Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.
The disciples of Jesus did not think they were starting a new religion. They considered themselves Jews. For them, this was not a break with Judaism. It was moving to a new phase of Judaism.
There were a lot of Jews who disagreed, of course. And they did not recognize what these disciples were doing as part of their faith.
So we have Jews who are connected with the historical teachings, and these Jews who are disciples of the Way of Jesus.
And now Peter is going outside the community and eating with people who were not considered Jews, even by the disciples: people who never considered themselves Jews.
The boundaries of these groups are interesting.
Imagine three circles, getting bigger going outward, like ripples in a pond.
In the inside circle are Jews who think no one outside their circle are really Jews.
The next circle has followers of Jesus who consider themselves, and the people in the inner circle, to be Jews. They also consider themselves followers of the Way of Jesus, which the people in the inner circle are not. They don’t consider anyone outside this middle circle to be followers of Jesus, and they’re definitely not Jews.
And then there is this outer circle, where there are people who consider themselves followers of the Way of Jesus.
This sounds like that joke about people not recognizing each other. But it’s a problem, because it raises the question:
“Can a person be a follower of Jesus if they do not convert to Judaism?”
Most of the Jewish followers of Jesus say no. They say real followers of Jesus should not even eat with them.
But Peter tells of a vision that showed him he should not turn away gentiles. Not only that, but the gentiles had the Holy Spirit just the same as the Jews did.
There’s a logical fallacy called the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.
This is when someone makes a statement like “No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge”
Someone notes a Scotsman who does put sugar on his porridge.
The original statement is modified to say “No TRUE Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.”
You could have some Jews saying no Jews are followers of Jesus. When it is pointed out that followers of Jesus are Jews, they could say that no TRUE Jews are followers of Jesus.
You could have followers of Jesus saying no followers of Jesus are gentiles. When there are gentiles claiming to follow Jesus, they could say no TRUE follower of Jesus is a gentile.
People like to draw boundaries of who is in and who is out.
The church has done a lot of splitting over the centuries.
There was a point where doctrine became more firm, and those who fell inside the doctrine called those outside – the Coptic church, for example – not TRUE Christians.
There was a point where the church split over a number of issues – the Papacy, the nature of the Trinity – and the Roman church and Orthodox church parted ways.
In the Reformation the church split again, with a number of flavors of Protestantism coming into being.
Bloody wars were fought over which kind of Christians were TRUE Christians.
Today, we still hear these arguments.
- No TRUE Christian is gay.
- No TRUE Christian drinks.
- No TRUE Christian believes in evolution.
- No TRUE Christian is pro choice.
- No TRUE Christian uses a Bible other than the King James version.
But some of us also make the arguments
- No TRUE Christian is gay.
- No TRUE Christian drinks.
- No TRUE Christian believes in evolution.
- No TRUE Christian is pro choice.
- No TRUE Christian uses a Bible other than the King James version.
But the difference is, we’re right!
Aren’t we?
Yes, it’s important to talk about what distinguishes our church from other churches, but that doesn’t make other churches non-Christian.
It makes them differently Christian.
And if we don’t like it when other Christians say we’re not Christian, we should probably not call them unChristian either.
We might call a particular idea unChristian, but let’s not fall into the trap of drawing a line between us and others where we are Christian and they are not.
Believers are going to be in different places on a lot of issues. But if we focus too much on how others are following Jesus, we run the risk of not focusing enough on following Jesus.
As we read in the Gospel today, Jesus said
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another
– John 13:34-35, NRSVue
So my challenge this week is to be aware of when we move from noticing our differences to rejecting the faith of others.
We’re not going to show we’re followers of Jesus by the way we are baptized, the way we celebrate communion, or by the way we vote.
We’re going to show we’re followers of Jesus by the way we love each other.
Amen.
Let’s sing NCH 575 O for a World
* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.
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