Our passage on Sunday was a very long one. It was inclusive of all of Acts 10 and half of Acts 11. To provide some perspective, it was considerably longer than the Prayers of the People also printed in the Sunday bulletin. As a pastor, I understand the dangers of dozing during the sermon. I must admit, as I weighed just how much of this passage to include, I was aware of the real danger of adding biblical Ambien to the service. But this passage is one story.
The center of the passage was the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the centurion Cornelius and his household. The Spirit descended upon them and then Peter made the point that, in light of this Godly witness, the waters of baptism could not be withheld. With Peter were a half dozen circumcised ‘brothers’ who could attest to everything that was going on.
That is the center of the passage. Before, God appears to Peter in a vision about all that is ceremonially unclean according to the law of Moses is now made clean by God, who gave the law. The passage opens with an angel of the Lord appearing to Cornelius, a man of faith, to go and get Peter to come share a message of hope. The close of the passage is practically a trial conducted in regards to Peter’s conduct in going to Cornelius at all, much less offering him baptism. He needed to walk them step by step through the vision sent by God.
All because Cornelius was a Gentile. Yes, he was also an officer in the foreign army of occupation dominating the Jews, but he was also a man of faith who gave much to the support of the people of Israel. The “gentile” bit was the hardest to overcome, by the very tenets of God's law given to Moses. That may sound ludicrous to us because the vast majority of people in the faith, including the tiny slice who have found their way to reading this, are also Gentiles.
However, the Jewish law was very clear in regards to the absolute division between Jews and Gentiles in matters of personal interactions, including eating meals together or visiting each other’s homes. God has just blown the doors off how church is ‘supposed’ to be done. I do not know if we can wrap our minds around just how revolutionary this was. To this point, the "Jesus" movement is called 'the Way' in Acts and is still very much within the Jewish faith. According to Acts, it is not until the later part of Acts 11 when they are called “Christian” for the first time.
What this means is that the call of Jesus is now realizing the promise to be universal ("to the ends of the earth"). There is nobody unworthy of the grace we have received through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is especially true in OUR generation for anyone we might deem 'unclean'. Yes, Christians, as a body, acknowledge the universality of sin, but as sinners, there are in every generation, including ours, those singled out as "especially" sinful. "Especially" unblessed. "Particularly" unclean in God’s eyes.
That was us, 'especially' sinful, 'especially' unblessed, 'particularly' unclean, until God made things clear. Then God came to Cornelius and EVERYONE was called. We are called to be Christ's ambassadors to EVERYONE. So, if we are going to judge someone else, even if we think our understanding of God’s rules are crystal clear that 'those' people are particularly sinful, we have to be SO careful. Is this God's rejection? Or is this MY rejection? Am I hiding behind God in my own biases?
A rule of thumb might be that if my fellow people of faith are there, reaching out to 'them', do they have revelation I do not? Am I confusing a sin and the sinner? Is what I call "sin" repugnant to me for other reasons? Cultural reasons? Political reasons?
I do not know if we can fully comprehend just how HUGE it was that the church opened to the Gentiles. So much is made of the people working to keep the church closed to those people. They were wrong, the Holy Spirit made that abundantly clear to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.
So when we call for the church doors to be closed to somebody, anybody, how careful we better be. It could be very clearly demonstrated by the Holy Spirit that 'those' people should be welcomed, but we have dared to close our eyes and ears to the Savior. Remember, we are still sinners, still leading a lifetime journey of opening our eyes to the wonder of our Lord and Savior. There is no moment this side of heaven where the Holy Spirit cannot surprise us.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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