(Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.)
There was tension in the early Church. It was liberals against conservatives, Democrats versus Republicans, native Jewish Christians versus upstarts from pagan territories, and strict constitutionists versus broad interpretationalists.
The apostles had finished their first missionary journey. They reported to the Church leaders who had sent them off originally. The Church was happy with the good news of the spread of the gospel. Not all liked the fact that the Gentiles had been welcomed in so readily. Native-born Jewish believers, for example, could look back on their experience as Jews and conclude that the Gentiles should become Jews first, before becoming Christians. It would have been true that those Jewish people who came to believe in Jesus would have brought a much deeper appreciation of Jesus into their faith in Jesus than would a pagan with no such background,
Nonetheless, should pagan believers have to become Jewish in order to become Christians? The question was too large for one segment of the Church to resolve, so they sent delegate to the mother Church in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, the disciples found people who applauded the outreach to the Gentiles and others who advocated circumcision for the Gentile converts. Seeking a solution, the leaders in Jerusalem met to discuss the matter.
The meeting together, has received the title, the First Council of Jerusalem. It is treated in detail in the rest of this chapter 15. We shall hear the final decision in Friday’s reading. The final decision is the decision of the Holy Spirit ands the Church’s leaders. Now if the liberals and conservatist, the Republicans and Democrats, the strict- and the loose-interpretationalists, and the native and the immigrant groups would get together with the Holy Spirit in their discussions, we should find more peace and joy in the world and less hatred and warfare.