May 9, 2021 Sermon

Sermon title:  "Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit"

Scripture:  Acts 10: 44-48

 (Other lectionary choices include Psalm 98, I John 5:1-6, and John 15:9-17.)

Acts 10:44-48

Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit

44While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

  With the sermon title, you may be thinking, "What's the big deal?" Well, if you were here last week, you heard a sermon about the disciple Philip being compelled by an angel to go minister to the Ethiopian eunuch. As was pointed out, the Ethiopian eunuch was an "outsider" in 2 ways:  he was an African and black, and he was somehow sexually different.

  In today's Scripture reading, we hear another attempt to reach out to so-called "outsiders". In this case it's the non-Jews who are the followers of Jesus......Gentiles, in other words.

The remarkable thing about the Christian faith, at least in its early days as we hear about it in the book of Acts, is how inclusive it was. Let me back up a bit.........when Jesus was born, he was born into a very legalistic understanding of Judaism. These are my thoughts, by the way.....not necessarily wrong, but still my thoughts. Instead of God's steadfast love, which you can read about in the Old Testament, the concern in Jesus' time was for RULES, at least among some of the Jewish population. It is my belief that Jesus tried to inject more COMPASSION into the Judaism of his day.

  Look at two of his parables found in the book of Luke:  the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. Both of those parables tell of remarkable COMPASSION, and sometimes from a surprising source! In the first story, the hated SAMARITAN showed compassion, and the two religious Jews passed by on the other side. They chose the RULES over compassion. In the Prodigal Son, the younger son breaks all the rules, and yet he is still welcomed back by his loving father:  again, love and compassion over the RULES! And the elder son? He was not coming into the party for his brother because the elder son chose the RULES over compassion!

  Back to today's Scripture........It is remarkable that Peter, a fisherman and an uneducated person (we think), stands up for the Gentiles and welcomes them into the young church. Remember that the first followers of Jesus were Jews, and therefore some of them thought that to be a follower of Jesus, one had to become a Jew first. This was a big battle in the early church:  those who said believers had to obey the RULES and become a Jew first - because that was what THEY did! - and others with the insight of Peter and the Apostle Paul who realized that we are saved by the grace of God, not by some act that WE do (such as males having themselves circumcised).

  Those who insisted on believers becoming Jews first are called Judaizers, or sometimes the Circumcision Party. Paul's letter to the Galatians deals with this issue at length. But before we condemn these early Christians for their rigid approach to the RULES, let us realize that their response was not new then, and it isn't new now. Many of us feel that since we had to do things a certain way, those coming after us should have to do those same things, too! In my former career as a broadcaster and TV news person, I remember people who thought you had to have PRINT experience first before you were allowed to be on the radio and TV. Makes sense, right? Edward R. Murrow was a print journalist first before he was on the radio, and the same for Walter Cronkite:  he was a United Press print journalist before Murrow recruited him for radio. So, the natural assumption then was for everybody to have print experience first. Also, WOMEN didn't have the easiest time getting into broadcast news, just as women didn't have the easiest time getting into the ministry. Why? Because we had never done that before! And back then the assumption was, "I want my news deliverer to be a MAN, not some pretty face!"

  So that was what was going on with some of those early believers:  it had never occurred to them that one could come to Jesus without being a Jew first. For me, it is not so remarkable that the Apostle Paul understood being saved by faith and grace. He was a smart, educated guy. But for Peter to have acquired that same understanding blows my mind! Maybe it shouldn’t because he was with Jesus and saw Jesus in action. But it certainly seemed to take him a long time to get there. Never mind! He GOT there! That's the point.

  Did you hear that verse from today's reading? "The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles"! Do you hear that? They are astounded that God's love could be shared with people who are not like us! Amazing! And then Peter says, "How can we withhold baptism from people who have obviously received the Holy Spirit the same as we have?" That's God for you. That's Jesus for you. EVERYBODY is welcome, not just those who have kept all the RULES! Thanks be to God! Amen!

 Pastor Skip