Acts 11:1-18 Now the
apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also
accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised
believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat
with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “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. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed
animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice
saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord;
for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time
the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call
profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to
heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the
house where we were. The 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. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his
house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will
give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And
as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at
the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If 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?” When 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.”
John 13:31-35 When he had
gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been
glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him
in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a
little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to
you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that
you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one
another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love
for one another.”
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I wrote a column for this month’s newsletter about America’s history of a
phenomenon we call Great Awakenings – moments when the church has experienced
some kind of shift in religious practices or even beliefs, and when there is a
lot of energy around these shifts. Some people
are energized to move toward some new direction, others are energized to
actively resist the new direction, maybe even to move backwards. Nat Davis talked about this a bit when he
preached here a few weeks ago. And I
will have more to say about it in the May issue of the Disciple, which I hope
you will read. There is a great history
of religious awakenings in America, and there is no reason to think that there
will not be more of them.
But religious awakenings are not only an American phenomenon. In the two thousand year history of the
church there have been many periods that might be described as awakenings. You can even go back farther, into the
history of Israel before Christ, and find evidence of awakenings. In fact, the birth of the church was part of
an awakening – an awakening that pivoted on the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
There are certain things to look for when an awakening happens.
When awakening happens there is upheaval. There is always a strong, passionate movement
forward into a new realm. But not
everyone is quick to see and endorse the new thing that is happening. This is what was happening in the Acts story,
where Peter addressed the Jerusalem church about his revelation in Joppa. This was a major event in the development of
the church – so major, the story had to be told essentially three times. The
passage we heard today is the third and final telling of an event that led
directly to the opening of the church to the gentiles.
It was a major turning point, but it wasn’t a sudden change that came out
of nowhere – there was a trajectory leading to this moment that can be
traced. Earlier, there had been some
conversation among the followers of Jesus about who was to be included in this
new movement. Their initial
understanding was that it was meant only for the Jews because up until that
point the God we know through Christ was understood to be the God of Israel
alone. But now the Holy Spirit was at work
amongst them in a new way, nudging them in the direction of greater inclusivity. And perhaps they were remembering that Jesus
had not limited his work to the Jews. There
were stirrings of a new openness. But up
until this moment, the old guard was holding the line on tradition: Jesus was
the messiah to the Jews; the mission work was to be concentrated on the
Jews.
This story Peter tells about his vision and experiences in Joppa is the
tipping point. Afterward, this young and
growing institution shifts in a new direction: the church moves out into the
larger world. Although the apostles don’t
turn their backs on the Jews, there is finally a recognition – an awakening to
the fact – that the good news of Jesus Christ is for the entire world.
When awakening happens it leads to a new thing being born. And it usually results in the new thing
breaking off from the old thing, separating into two entities, because there
are some who dissent. They don’t want to
get on this train because they prefer things the way they were before. They reject the notion that the rules of the
game might somehow change. No one
appreciates it when the rules change in the middle of the game.
I am sure it seemed to many at that time as though the rules were
changing. The idea that the Jewish
messiah would be a savior for the whole world was a radical notion. And not only did it mean giving a nod of
assent, perhaps grudging assent. It
meant embracing those whom they have previously called unclean. “What God has made clean you must not call
profane,” Peter hears in his vision. And
I assure you; he was not just talking about food.
From this point on, peoples and nations who had been called unclean would
now be called brothers and sisters. And
consequently, requirements for membership would change, normative practices
would change, beliefs would change because this tent has become a much bigger,
more inclusive, tent.
This story of the church reaching a tipping point is one that was
repeated again and again over the centuries, and it is one that is repeating
itself right now. We have seen a great
deal of strife over the past few decades related to issues of inclusiveness and
the limits of salvation, the limits of love.
We see it reflected in the culture as well as in the church: a shift
toward greater and wider love. An
understanding that the love that Jesus called us to is greater than anything
else and there are no rules that bind love – love is the rule.
When awakening happens love expands.
This all reminds me of that old saying, supposedly an ancient Chinese
curse: May you live in interesting times.
No one can deny these are interesting times for the church – times when
we could use a word of encouragement from the Apostles. So let’s open up the letter from our imagined
Apostle, the letter that we have been reading for the past few weeks. Just as the apostles wrote letters to the
churches of the first century, we can imagine what they might say to the church
of the 21st century.
Chapter 3:
I think you
know well that our Lord Jesus loves you – you have a song you like to sing that
says so. And you teach it to your
children, for which I commend you. Jesus
loves you; God loves you; the Bible tells you so. You know this, yet I see you are still on a
learning curve in this regard.
There is much
discussion amongst you about who is encircled in Jesus’ love, and what exactly
that means for them and for you and for the church as a whole. Is everyone included? Can you extend the love of Jesus to everyone?
Can you love them just as they are, or must they change somehow before they are
eligible for this love?
The most effective lessons are learned by
experience. There are moments when you
find yourself confronted with a decision – a decision that would have been
easily made at an earlier point in your life – but now surprising questions and
reservations pop into your head.
We know of a woman who feared for the
life of her teenage daughter. She
watched the girl grow increasingly withdrawn; she seemed to be hovering at the
edge of a great abyss. This woman was
deeply afraid she would lose her daughter to suicide, an accident, something
tragic. One day the girl came to her and
said, “Mom, there is something I need to tell you. I’m gay.” And the woman found that she was greatly
relieved. Her daughter wasn’t dying –
she was struggling to figure out her identity.
She was going to be all right.
A few years later, the daughter came to
her mother again and said, “Mom, there is something else I need to tell
you. I am transgender. In my heart and soul I am a man.” This was harder for the mother to accept, but
she loved her child and her child loved her; love led the way in their
relationship.
The boundaries that you observe need to
be based in love. When you draw a line
and say that the people on one side are acceptable and the people on the other
side are not, I urge you to look at the people on the other side of the line
and see them as individual, full flesh and blood, human beings. Take the step of getting to know one or more
of them, seek to know who they are. Then
decide if the line ought to be there or not.
Certainly, some of the bigger questions
of your day revolve around sexuality, but the matter of inclusive love extends
to many other questions as well. For example, when you older members find that
you are judging young people for their failure to join you at church worship
and activities, and become active members, imagine walking in their shoes with compassion,
with love. Or when you younger folks
find you are reluctant to sit at the Bible study with the oldsters because they
know so much more than you – well, think about that: They know so much more than you, you might
learn something valuable from them.
I remind you again that Jesus gave us a
commandment – he said it was new, but it was actually a very old commandment
for a new day: Love one another as I
have loved you. Such wisdom is in this
commandment! Jesus knew the upheaval to
come would bring trials for this community.
But if love comes first, whatever happens next will be better because of
it.
We live in interesting times, that is for sure. And at times it feels like someone has changed
the rules of the game. But let us
remember the rule is love, as it has been from the beginning is now and ever
shall be. Amen.
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