Visions From Our Story: the Promise is Shared

So who ought to be invited? Anyone who has every gotten married, had a birthday party or graduated from high school or college knows the dilemma. Who are we going to invite? Do we just invite immediate family? Do we invite our extended family? Do we invite close friends, business associates or the entire world? The answers are always different depending on the event, seating availability and the cost involved. So unless we are simply going to invite the entire world, a choice has to be made as to who is welcome.

This question of who is invited was one of the first issues face by the early church. It was an issue because Jesus and all of his followers were Jewish. It was an issue because the messiah was someone expected by the Jews and not by anyone else. It was an issue because Judaism was a faith that had protected its identity by being separate from the society around it. It was an issue because Jews understood Gentiles to be ritually unclean and unworthy to receive the grace of God. Therefore following Pentecost the answer to "who is invited" was very simple. Jews alone were invited.

The issue of who is invited however soon became more complicated. It became more complicated because the disciples remembered that Jesus had told them to go into all of the world, proclaiming the Good News, making disciples of all nations (meaning Gentiles as well as Jews) and then teaching them all that Jesus had commanded. The issue because more complicated when Peter was given a vision by God essentially declaring that Gentiles were no longer ritually unclean and should hear the Good news about salvation in Jesus. It became even more complicated when the Saul of Tarsus (whom we know as Paul the Apostle) was converted and believed his mission was to Jews and Gentiles alike.

This transition from a message for Jews only to a message for the world was never smooth. There were great debates in the first 50 years of the life of the Christian community over the inclusion of Gentiles into the People of the Promise. How was it to be done? Did men have to be circumcised (the mark of entry for men into the Jewish community)? Did men and women have to follow all of the Jewish dietary laws? Did people essentially have to become Jewish in every way in order to be part of the Promised people?

The final answer arrived at by the Apostles, elders and other church leaders was that Gentiles did not have to become Jewish in order to be part of God's people of the Promise. As the Apostle Paul taught, we gain entry into the People of Promise by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Granted, the leaders of the community desired that members still obey some of the Jewish rules, but the leaders were willing to open the doors of the church to the wider world and allow Paul to preach to anyone who would listen.

In terms of our visioning process I believe this is a powerful reminder that there are still those around us who feel as if the Good News is not for them. They see themselves as outsiders looking in at the church. If we are to be the church that reaches out to the entire world then we need to continually examine how we reach out to those who are marginalized in our society, that they too might discover their place as People of the Promise.