Acts 2:38-39
Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” Acts 2:38-39 (NRSVUE)
What do we do when scripture conflicts with itself or church creed? The Reformers of the sixteenth century thought they had the answer summarized as the Five Solas by those who argue about such things:
- Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.
- Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
- Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.
- Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
- Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.
But enjoined as I have been recently to take the Bible seriously, I am inclined to do so, and equally inclined as a long-time member of the Lutheran church to take the Five Solas seriously as well. Alas, I find them wanting.
Consider in particular ‘Peter’s’ call in the passage above from Acts 2. It seems pretty straightforward: you need to “repent and be baptized... in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. . . .” Sola Scriptura assures me of the validity of the line’s message, but sola fide and sola gratia contradict it. On reflection they seem to contradict each other.
So, given the Five Solas and Peter’s call to repent and be baptized, how may our sins be forgiven? Through repentance and baptism? Through ‘faith alone in Jesus Christ’? ‘By the Grace of God alone’? If Grace is conditional, is it Grace?
Like Jacob we are left to wrestle metaphorically and spiritually with both our ‘Reformation fathers’ and the God of our ‘fathers.’ Knowing neither Hebrew nor Greek we are dependent on English translations and the limitations of our linguistic knowledge:
- Is sola fide ‘faith alone’ or faith in Jesus Christ alone?
- Is sola gratia ‘grace alone’ or is it grace that comes from ‘God alone’?
The language is ambiguous
At Southwood we belong to a congregation of Christians that seems to give primacy to soli gratia and wrestles with the four other Solas as defined above. It is that stance that frees us to live, work, and grow together even when we disagree about things like the Five Solas and their historic pedigrees. We also focus on the commandment to love God with all our strength and our neighbor as ourselves. We believe in Grace and in Peter’s call to repent for repent, after all, means “to turn.” So, we repent and our faith/trust turns us to God and our neighbors in love and compassion.
Questions for Reflection:
The Gospel According to Luke and The Acts of the Apostles are thought to have begun as a single work later divided into the two books we know today. Generally dated to late in the first century the book(s) is very concerned with the context of its own day as much as the events of some two generations earlier. Chapter 2 tells the story of Pentecost and is set in Jerusalem after the Resurrection. Jesus followers (almost certainly all Jews) are gathered in one place when a rushing wind gives them the power to speak in tongues understandable to the polyglot community of Jews around them who marvel at this apparent miracle. Peter, ‘standing with the eleven’ addresses the crowd to explain what's going on, recounting the crucifixion and citing scripture to buttress his claims about Jesus. Again and again he addresses the crowd as ‘you’ and blames them for causing Jesus’s death “by the hands of those outside the law [of Moses].” He concludes, “Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made [Jesus] both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you [the House of Israel] crucified.”
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Go back and read vv. 38-39 above. Luke uses Peter’s address to the crowd and and his words ‘you,’’ ‘your children,’ and ‘those far away’ make a clear effort, effort to blame the Jews in both Jerusalem and the Diaspora for Jesus’s death. In doing so Luke is absolving Roman, and by extension, gentile guilt for Jesus’s death. Was Luke right in doing so? Are the Jews guilty for the death of Jesus? Are the Romans? Is “collective guilt” a reality? What contemporary events do we explain away as being the responsibility of others? How does that square with our public confession to God about not loving God with our whole heart, nor loving our neighbors as ourselves? Or about what we have done and what we have left undone?
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And yet. . . .at the end of Peter’s sermon Luke asserts that God promises forgiveness of sins even to those Luke identified as the killers of Jesus. Sola gratia, indeed. So, for us today, how does sola gratia inform our approach to issues even as relatively trivial as who gets invited to participate in communion, or whether we take communion in the pews or by walking forward to receive it?
Prayer:
Lord,
We thank you for the Grace that reveals your love, that reassures us that even when we misunderstand you and your word your love remains boundless. We see it in Peter’s words from Luke: that even those blamed for Jesus’s death may turn to God and have their sins forgiven. We pray too for our neighbors and ourselves, those suffering for whatever reason, especially hardness of heart, be it their own or that of others. Let all absorb your love and reflect it in our treatment of others.
Amen.
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