PRAYER

Gracious and Loving God,

We come before you today as we really are—not as perfect believers with perfect lives, but as a community of people still growing, still learning, and sometimes still struggling. Thank you for welcoming us—mess and all. Thank you for the gift of your grace that meets us in our doubt, our conflict, and our mistakes.

As we remember the story of the early church, remind us that your love does not require perfection. Teach us to be honest with ourselves and with you. Give us the courage to keep showing up—to keep loving one another, to keep forgiving, to keep reaching for the way of Jesus even when it’s hard.

Open our hearts to your voice this morning. Help us to listen well—to your Word and to each other. Work in our broken places and use our struggles as soil for new growth.

Shape us, God, through your Spirit and through our life together, into a people marked by humility, hope, forgiveness, and love.

In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.

SERMON

POINT: Flawed, but hopeful.

POINT: Community is what happens when imperfect people refuse to quit on each other.

Acts 15:1-11 NRSV
Then, certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

1 Corinthians 1:10-13 NRSV
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Galatians 2:11-14 NRSV
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned, for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the others joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?”

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 NRSV
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.

POINT: Reconciliation isn’t ignoring problems; it’s working through them—together.

POINT: You don’t have to be perfect to belong here.

POINT: Stay in the community, especially when it’s hard.

POINT: Keep turning back to Jesus.

POINT: Practice grace and forgiveness.

POINT: You’re not too late, too messy, or too doubtful for God’s table.

LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.