May 15, 2022 Sermon
Sermon title: "Even the Gentiles!"
Scripture: Acts 11:1-18
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, and John 13:31-35.)
Acts 11:1-18
Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem
1Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" 4Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' 8But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' 10This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' 15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" 18When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."
To you and me, today's Scripture reading from Acts probably seems like not a big deal. I mean, most of us eat just about everything, right? I realize that for health reasons some of us are trying to eat less red meat, for example, and we probably ALL should cut back a little on sweets! (Show of hands: is there anybody in this room that thinks he/she should weigh MORE and not LESS?! Never mind! We may try to eat less of certain foods to maintain our weight, NOT because of religious conviction.)
At the time Peter had his vision that we heard about today, most of his fellow Jews followed strict dietary laws. They may have started as good healthy practices because way back then they did not have the refrigeration that we have today. Also, it just could be that in Old Testament times, somebody got sick after eating pork or some other food - so those foods became "TRAFE", as the Jews say today. That word means NO GOOD, FORBIDDEN. So, what at first became a health reason soon became a RELIGIOUS reason. Also, the ancient Hebrews felt that God had called them to be a special people, and a sign of their being special was the foods they ate and the foods which they did NOT eat. But that idea of being a special people had the effect of shutting some people - such as Gentiles - OUT. So, Peter's vision gets rid of the Jewish dietary laws in one fell swoop. And think about it: this is after the time of Jesus, after the Resurrection and the Ascension. And wasn't Jesus all about INCLUSION and not EXCLUSION? So, the Apostle Peter almost HAD to have that vision if you think about it. And even HE was resistant at first. Did you hear what we read in Acts? "Oh, no, Lord! Nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth!" And what happens right after that? Peter says the Spirit told him to go with some men and make no distinction between them and us.
What is happening here? Two things: no more Jewish dietary laws that keep people separate, and the mostly Jewish followers of Jesus feel called upon to include EVEN the GENTILES into the Jesus movement. I would suggest that these two things - the getting rid of the Jewish dietary laws and the welcoming of NON-Jews into the Jesus movement - made the young church no longer a sect of Judaism but now something completely different.
You probably recall that the Book of Acts is thought to have been written by the same guy who wrote the Gospel according to Luke. And sometimes the two are put together and called "Luke-Acts". The Scottish scholar William Barclay, who died in 1978, makes the argument that the author of Acts thought this story was so very important that he mentions it TWICE in Acts! Says Barclay, "Luke was right. We usually do not realize how near Christianity was to becoming only another kind of Judaism. All the first Christians were Jews and the whole tradition and outlook of Judaism would have moved them to keep this new wonder to themselves and to believe that God could not possibly have meant it for the Gentiles. Luke sees this incident as a notable milestone on the road along which the Church was groping its way to the conception of a world for Christ."
There is a Lutheran minister in Northwestern Wisconsin by the name of Jeanne Warner, and she calls her sermon on today's Scripture reading, "Changing Times". She even quotes Bob Dylan and his song from the 1960's, "For the times they are a-changin". She says, "The story of Peter and Cornelius is a crisis. A crisis can be described as a moment or event that changes everything. In other words, once you have moved through a crisis, things cannot be the same as they were before." Well, that's kind of scary. For Peter and the other disciples, if they eat so-called "unclean" foods and associate with so-called "unclean" people, they risk being ostracized from their community because they can no longer be considered "good Jews". "They will no longer be welcome in the synagogues. They will no longer have the protection from the Roman rulers that was allowed to the Jews.....The established way of doing things will all be open for debate. There is a lot at stake. Instead of expecting new believers to come to them, they will have to go where the gospel is needed."
But the truth is that the Spirit of God has been moving in amazing and surprising ways. The Resurrection has already happened, and so has the Ascension. Also, the Holy Spirit has descended upon the young church at Pentecost - which we'll celebrate on June 5. Saul of Tarsus has been converted on the road to Damascus, and now calls himself Paul. Says the Rev. Jeanne Warner, "The evidence was piling up that God's plan was to burst across boundaries in amazing new ways. God's influence was spreading in wider and wider circles."
As we heard in today's reading, Peter felt compelled to take the Good News even to the Gentiles. What that means is "that God has redefined who belongs to God's chosen people. Everything that 'had always been done that way' was fair game for change."
What does all this have to do with us? Maybe we are in a similar situation in that perhaps we don't recognize that the Spirit of God is trying to create something new right now in our century! Says Jeanne Warner, "We can no longer assume that 'if we build it, they will come' when it comes to churches. We are confronted with the question of who are and who are not the chosen people of God, just like Peter and the early church. We are confronted with the question of where God is at work in the world and how to recognize God's activity, even outside the walls of our buildings.....We are confronted by how to answer God's call to be involved everywhere God is involved. Frankly," she says, "we are confronted with exactly the same frightening, unsettling, redefining changes that Peter" faced in what we heard from the book of Acts this morning.
And the Rev. Ms. Warner ends her sermon with this prayer: "Gracious God, give us courage to let go of our need to value traditions, buildings, and creeds over the needs of our brothers and sisters who have not found a home in your church. Grant us eyes to see new ways of being your body, active in mission and ministry to your world. Grant us hearts to embrace everyone to whom you give the breath of life. Make us instruments of your love, O Lord. Amen."
Pastor Skip
