Epiphany, Acts 15, and How the Church Makes Decisions

Last updated on: January 7, 2017 at 4:09 pm by Kyle Roberts

Epiphany, Acts 15, and How the Church Makes Decisions 2017-01-07T16:09:42-05:00 Kyle Roberts

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On Epiphany Sunday, Christians celebrate all sorts of events related to the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus.

Image capture By Nina-no – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, via WikiCommons

But in the Christian (Latin) West, the celebration of Epiphany has primarily centered on the story in Matthew of the Magi, priests from the East who had heard news of Jesus’ birth and came to worship him and bring him gifts.

This story is celebrated as the very beginning of Jesus’ mission to the Gentiles, because the Magi, foreign Zorastrian priests, represented the non-Jewish world. From his birth, from his infancy, Jesus drew the Gentiles, those formerly considered unworthy and unclean, into the circle. From the very beginning of his life, Jesus intended his gospel, his salvation, to be all inclusive, universally expansive, non-territorial, not determined by ethnicity, skin color, nationality, or status. It was to be non-tribalist– radically open.

Acts 15 is also a great text for Epiphany Sunday, because it’s the story of the decision by the elders of the church in Jerusalem to include Gentiles into the Jewish Messianic fellowship (the church), without requiring they be circumcised (that is, become culturally Jewish in the strongest terms).

The elders sided with Peter, Paul and Barnabus over against the Pharisees, who had the “literal” reading of the Bible (see Genesis 17:9-14) on their side.

Luke Timothy Johnson, in Scripture and Discernment, suggests that Acts 15 provides the church (and theologians) with a picture of the “process by which the church reaches decision,” and a “paradigmatic story” by which churches even today can navigate difficult, complicated, and threatening events decisions.

I can’t recapitulate all his insights here, but the most important point Johnson makes is that the basis for the decision of the council of Jerusalem was not a literal reading of the authoritative text (i.e. the Bible), but rather a discerning attention to the ways and works of a redemptive God in the present of human experience.

This means that the church will often have to “catch up to God,” rather than to legitimate our present decisions by an ancient, textual authority.

As he puts it,

Will the church decide to recognize and acknowledge actions of God that go beyond its present understanding, or will it demand that God work within its categories” (91).

And again,

The only thing which could counter such a powerful precedent is the conviction that the God revealed in the past was active in these events now, and that God’s way of maintaining continuity in revelation may not be the same as ours. This, then, becomes the issue for the church’s discernment. Will it fall back on its deeply rooted (and revealed) perceptions of how God “ought” to act, or will it recognize that God moves ahead of its perceptions?

This is the challenge for the church in our day: how can we open ourselves up to the Spirit of God’s liberative action in the present, rather than remain captive to the categories our present — and past — understanding and expectations?

Previous Post

January 6, 2017

Theologians Opposing the Nomination of Jeff Sessions

Next Post

January 20, 2017 The Inauguration of the Gold-Crowned Jesus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2020 November 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 December 2018 July 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz