April 28, 2013
Easter 5
Acts 11:1-18
John 13:31-35
(prayer)
For this seven week season of Easter, the Revised Common Lectionary offers us a reading from the book of Acts as the first reading: in place of what is normally a Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) lesson.
In these weeks after Easter, we get to follow a bit of the development of the early church as a gospel historian in about the year 75 looked back on the first few decades after Jesus' resurrection.
Today is the fifth Sunday in 2013's Easter season (The Season of Easter is the great 50 days between the day of resurrection and Pentecost Sunday). Three weeks from today (on the Victoria Day long weekend, this year), it will be Pentecost.
Here's a heads up: on that day, we will also be reading from Acts - an account of what happened to Peter and the others during the spring harvest festival: only seven weeks after the Passover festival when Jesus was arrested, crucified and resurrected.
I won't foreshadow the whole story, but “something happened” that expanded the number of people who were interested in Jesus' Way and the work of Jesus’ disciples in the wake of Jesus’ death: there was a particular expansion among Hebrews from places other than Galilee and Judea (the so-called, Jews of the Diaspora)
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It is fair to say that (certainly the early chapters of) Acts are a story of the growth and influence of the young Christian faith.
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Jesus first followers were pretty much exclusively Hebrews from first Galilee and then Judea (the traditional lands of Israel).
After Pentecost, there was the inclusion of Diaspora Jews.
This growth required an expansion of the leadership as the numbers of people within the movement were more that the twelve disciples could manage (the original 11 plus Matthias who was selected to replace Judas): even just carry for all of the widows was challenging – it led to some complaints that the newest disciple’s needy were being ignored. I’m prepared to give Peter and the others the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were simply overwhelmed by the growing popularity of the Jesus Movement.
So, seven men from among the diaspora believers were commissioned to care of the greek-speaking Christians. [the numbers here are symbolically significant - 12 was the number of the original tribes of Israel (a number of completeness within Judaism); 7 served a similar complete, perfect connotation within the wider greco-roman world.]
One of these seven was Phillip who played a central role in the next expansion of the church. On the main highway between Judea and Eqypt, Phillip met an Ethiopian, who was a convert to Judaism (a so-called proselyte). The man was new enough to the faith that he asked Phillip for help in understanding the book of Isaiah. It is likely that (as they talked about the servant songs in Isaiah) Phillip brought Jesus into the conversation.
"There is a pond here. Is there anything stopping me from being baptized here and now?", the Ethiopian asked. With a joyous splash, the once uniquely Galilean movement, which had expanded to Judea and then out in to the diaspora (including Phillip, himself), now welcomed foreigners who believed in the Jewish God, Yahweh.
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Peter's actions at the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, however, may have gone too far. These were complete strangers to the faith which the others held, the faith Jesus himself held. These were foreigners, gentiles - beyond all but the most basic charity of Judaism. How could they become part of Jesus' Way? How could non-Jews believe in the Jewish messiah?
When Peter got back to Jerusalem (after his rural check-ins at places like Lydda and Joppa), he was asked to explain himself to the others.
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Peter noted that he understood the concern; he admitted that his initial reaction was that the gentiles should be considered unclean and were beyond their 'mission field' (so to speak). If they converted to Judaism first, fine, but not if they were still ‘uncircumsized’.
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Then, Peter told them about his hungry vision of unclean foods and his vision-based conversation with God that convinced him to be open to something beyond his traditional beliefs - and he told them about that curious holy command, “Do not call profane what I have declared clean!”
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Peter explained that he did not expect it but that after the vision, he was utterly convinced that God wanted the gospel spead among the gentiles - even to those who were not proselytes to the faith.
So that's why (Peter said) that he accepted Cornelius' invitation, why he ate and drank with them as he would anyone else in all of Judaism and why he shared the good news about Christ Jesus with Cornelius and the people of his host's household. Peter was open to the possibility that his instincts about God’s desires for a wider church would be right.
But it was when Peter saw these gentiles had similar spiritual experiences that the saints in Jerusalem had known, Peter knew that God was indeed at work in Caesarea: Who am I to hinder God?
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After Peter was finished with his report, and after the story sunk in, they all agreed that the membership criteria for People of The Way had expanded once again.
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The obvious question became: Was there anyone beyond the 'spirit-filled life' in Christ?
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A singer-songwriter (whom I adore and will see play live in five days) once introduced his song “Beyond Belief”, by saying:
Expecting more from your relationship with the infinite than just some theological gated community: my love of this song comes from when I try and follow this crazy carpenter and he’s such a wily, sort of interesting [guy], well the funny part for me is that we just sort of build this religion around this person and then suddenly the gates are all closed and the fences are high and we look around and… he’s outside the fence and we say ‘hey wait a minute, your supposed to be’ and he says ‘oh no, remember the part about love your neighbour’ and we say ‘yeah, like us, right?’ ‘noooo…’ I love the confounding, sort of brave love … daring to follow.
I’m not going to play the song right now (I know I did so in a past sermon), but I will post a couple of links to YouTube videos along with the online sermon notes for today ("Beyond Belief" (live) and Interview with David Wilcox about "Beyond Belief").
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And so, on the night he would be arrested (according to the Gospel of John), Jesus invited his disciples to “love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus notes that having love for each other will be an obvious sign of their discipleship. In other words, being a follower of Jesus is all about peace (getting along) and compassion (loving each other) – and so it was essential that Jesus’ disciples lived this out amongst themselves.
Hypocrisy really gets in the way of gospel. Coincidently, the first verse of Wilcox’s ‘Beyond Belief’ is:
Jesus called me a hypocrite
when I said that “I believe”.
He said “How can you follow love
without a willingness to leave?”
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As the definition of who 'another' is in ‘love one another’ expanded, the possibilities for new disciples expands beyond belief.
We see that process within the stories in Acts.
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Can we believe that this invitation of Jesus was not just for the disciples in the upper room, but for all the followers of Jesus for all time to come?
If so, as modern followers of Jesus, let us love as Jesus loves.
That begins by admitting that God is too big to be limited to one church or congregation – one way of being faithful. Jesus cannot be contained within the walls of the safe places of denominationalism or theology.
This has always been true. In the post-Acts time of the church, Christianity has a long and repeated history of coming up against the next ‘wall of exclusion’ and we have had to ask ourselves – who are we to hinder God?
Just beyond the wall is a worthy disciple of Jesus – one whom we are challenged to ‘welcome in’.
Every time we try to say:
Surely not this one too, God. Surely, you can’t expect us to welcome and accept ‘this one’ into your grace and love. We thought they were beyond your compassion.
Every time we try to say that, we eventually have to ask, who are we to hinder God?
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Sometimes the wider society had to lead the church into inclusiveness. Sometimes it has been the other way around
We accepted slavery until less than 200 years ago; we are less than 100 years away from when we acknowledged women as persons.
There is a line in the Oscar winning movie Lincoln where the politicians voting on the 13th Amendment to the US constitution: asked how inclusive were they expected to be:
“What’s next? The Vote for these freed slaves. Then what, The Vote for women?”
It was 1919 that women in Canada were declared persons. The United Church of Canada didn’t ordain its first woman until 1936.
Even today, some church denominations have not evolved to the point of seeing women equal enough to be ordained (most notably the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Church-Canada; you won’t be seeing a female minister at St. Michael’s RCC or St. Peter’s LC in Leduc anytime soon).
Slavery was abolished in the US in the 1860s, but a bold Civil Rights law was still needed 100 years later. Christian people of faith led that movement. And a struggle with racism towards African-Americans is still a present-day issue south of the border.
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The most modern example of this struggle with inclusiveness is that Christianity and Western society are finding it harder and harder to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.
The UCC clarified the issue in 1988. Other churches are having to address the issues because of pressure from within.
Society too - just a few days ago, France approved same sex-marriage,. Becoming the 14th country to do so.
Loving one another as Christ loves is a process that must evolve. Unconditional love and compassion are gaining steam once again.
And that is a good thing, except for those who desire hatred, destruction, fear, genocide, revenge?
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Love finds away.
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Society and the church will not be able to hinder the desire of God to reach ever deeper into the human experience – that is true even though we have been down this path before of finding a worthy disciple on the other side of the wall we have built.
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You know, it would be a lot easier if we just tore down those walls entirely and embraced the vast potential of the gospel of Jesus’ love.
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“Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Let us pray:
God, give us a vision of the world and its people as you see it in all its strange beauty and wonderful variety. Amen.
#145MV “Draw the Circle Wide”
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