Celebrating the 4th of July comes with
fireworks. Fireworks is also a fitting description for reactions to the Supreme
Court ruling expanding the definition of marriage to include same sex
marriages.
Many follow-up postings and articles have
launched a barrage of fireworks where this single issue has become a test;
either you think like ‘this’ - or - you think like ‘that.’ It’s very divisive and whoever is asking the question is using it to determine for themselves whether or not somebody else is Christian.
The signing of the Declaration 239 years came
with ‘fireworks.’ It charged the king of
England with “the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
Yet 4 days after the signing, Boston townsmen
were told to report for the draft. The wealthy could hire substitutes; but the
poor had to serve. This led to more rebellion and shouts that “Tyranny is
tyranny, let it come from whom it may.”History records greater opposition to taking up arms against England than support for it. The beginning of these United States came amidst strongly divided beliefs.
Imagine the ‘fireworks.’
Maybe like the ‘fireworks’ at the birth of the Christian Church?
The first Christians were Jewish converts and
for them circumcision was the mark of being a proper Jew. As Acts 15 records
it, some insisted that one first had to be circumcised to become a Jew in order
to become Christian.
Paul, a leader of the early church disagrees.
His friend Barnabus joins in the protest and what followed was “No small
dissension and debate…”
They’re sent to Jerusalem to ask church leaders
there. On their way they’re converting Gentiles to Christianity; Gentiles -
people who were not Jewish - are now Christians.“
In Jerusalem and "after there had been
much debate,” Peter - the very man whose faith Jesus points to as the model for
building the Christian church - says:
“On the contrary, we believe that we will be
saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they [meaning the Gentiles]
will.”
Nowhere does it say that people had to abandon
their understandings, or that everybody came to the same conclusion.
What we do find is the very people that God
used to bring the church to life acknowledged their differences and refused to
let it divide them.
Instead they all submitted to God’s grace made
known in Jesus Christ; a gracious space where God holds righteous love for us
regardless of whether we have right or wrong answers.
Join us Sundays at 10AM in our chase for grace.
Together We Serve, Pastor Mike
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