University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

For University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill

May 17, 2009

 

 

Psalm 98:1-9

¹O sing to the Lord a new song,

for he has done marvelous things.

His right hand and his holy arm

have gotten him victory.

²The Lord has made known his victory;

he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.

³He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness

to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen

the victory of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;

break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

⁵Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,

with the lyre and the sound of melody.

⁶With trumpets and the sound of the horn

make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

⁷Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

the world and those who live in it.

⁸Let the floods clap their hands;

let the hills sing together for joy

⁹at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming

to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with equity.

 

 

Acts 10:44-48

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.

 

 

This passage from Acts, our lectionary reading for today, is more than the five verses we just heard.  Much more.

 

It is really an installment in the story of Cornelius.    Cornelius, the centurion who had begun to believe in God.  The one God.  He feared God, the text tells us, and it was changing the way he lived his life.  He gave alms generously.  He prayed. 

 

But he was not a Christian.  Cornelius had not been baptized.  Because he was not Jewish.  And in the early church, before you could become a Christian, you had to become Jewish.

 

We tend to ask the question of salvation in terms of those who are not Christian, but it is important to remember that for most of the time in the Bible that question traveled in the opposite direction: can you be in relationship with the one true God without being a part of the community of God’s chosen people?

 

But Cornelius believed in Jesus Christ, and one day, as he prayed, a vision came to him, and an angel of God told him to call Simon Peter, the apostle.  It was all leading towards baptism.

 

It was a big deal, this baptism. The game-changing deal.  According to Acts, it was the first Gentile baptism.  It turns the course of Christianity.    And it all begins with Cornelius.

 

And so, this chapter of the book of Acts, chapter 10, is all about Cornelius.

 

Of course, it wouldn’t have happened without Peter.

 

Simon Peter.  Rock of the church.  Disciple of Jesus Christ.   Now apostle.  And Jewish.  Fully and completely.

 

Just after Cornelius’ vision, we are told that Peter has his own vision, a dream, in which foods appear before him, foods which the dietary laws of his faith and his Lord prohibited him from eating.  Peter hears  a voice tell him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” (Acts 10:15)  The vision repeats itself three times, but nonetheless, Peter is so grounded in his faith that he cannot figure out what it means.

 

Peter is then summoned to Cornelius’ house, where he finally puts two and two together and understands that his vision was not about a meal but about a man.[1]

 

Peter is changed.  He understands now, in his words, “that God shows no partiality.” (Acts 10:34)

 

Peter knows that it is a message he will not, cannot, keep to himself.  It is a message for the entire community.  A message which he will bring.  The central point of this chapter from Acts is the story of Peter, as his understanding of God and faith grows and expands.

 

Of course, as you know from today’s reading, Peter and Cornelius aren’t the only ones being converted here.  After their epiphanies their revelation travels out into the community of believers, leading the church to a new place of openness.  To the welcome of Gentile believers as Gentile believers.[2]  It is a huge shift.

 

 It’s understandable why the earliest believers didn’t think that Gentiles were included in God’s message of salvation.  Jesus was, after all, Jewish. 

 

And in the Jewish tradition, there is a long history of faith and practice telling them that they were God’s chosen people.  They were the people of The covenant.  A long history of practice and ritual which was the foundation of their prosperity in good times and their very survival in the bad.   “It pays to remember what you learned at home”[3] were the words sung by the children and youth choirs in a musical a couple of weeks ago, as they told a story about how God’s people remembered who they were in exile.  They were God’s people.

 

Jesus preached and practiced “love your neighbor,” (Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31) but even he seemed to struggle at times with where the Good News was intended to take root. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," we are told in Matthew 15:24.

 

To accept Gentile believers as Gentile believers, was not just a shift, it was a huge shift.  An about face.  A massive change from almost everything they had heard and believed for centuries.

 

How did it happen?  In no small part it was facilitated by the hospitality of the Gentiles towards the Good News and the hospitality of the early church towards these believers who had come to faith by a different way.

 

When you look at it this way, this chapter of Acts is bigger than Peter and Cornelius.  It is really a story about community and the ways in which their hospitality shaped them and shapes us, today.

 

It was something that these communities had in common.  They had slightly different practices and traditions, but both Gentile and Jewish cultures held hospitality up as a central tenet of their community life.[4]

 

Hospitality.  It is a word with skyscraper possibilities, but on the ground floor, hospitality speaks to not just letting new people come in the door, but opening that door for them.  Helping them find their way.  Acquainting them with customs and traditions with which they may not be familiar.

 

For no matter how open a community thinks it might be, there are still things which newcomers will need to have decoded.

 

I offer you, as an example of this, Spider Pig[5].   Yes.  Spider pig.  For some of you, I don’t need to say any more than that.  You know the reference.  For others of you, you need to have it explained, that Spider Pig is a character If you don’t know what I am talking about, if you don’t know what a spider pig is or why I would reference it here, you need someone to explain to you that it is a reference, a character, in fact, from the Simpsons movie.  The cartoon Simpsons.  Considered by some to be the most faithful family on television. 

 

But it has to be explained.  Just saying “Spider pig” isn’t enough for everyone to understand.    And while all Christian communities have their own practices and terminology, they are not to be held close, they are to be shared.   Christianity is not a place for inside jokes.

 

What are the Spider Pigs here at UPC which we need to explain?

 

If you will allow me to preach to the converted for a moment…

 

It’s more than speaking with the people you do not already know, it’s paying attention to someone’s body language and structuring your welcome accordingly.

 

Knowing that an invitation to join the community of faith cannot be assumed, it must be stated.

 

It’s being able to tell someone how to get to the Stephen Ministry room.

 

Being able to explain why we pause, after the sermon, and so many other places in worship rather than leaping immediately into the next thing.

 

 Making sure a new family knows that after choir practice, the kids usually play on the playground for a little while, and that it’s a great connection time for parents, too.

 

And knowing to ask, if you do not know.

 

Hospitality.  On the most basic level, it is not just letting people come in the door, but opening it for them.  Not just letting them sit at the same table, but inviting them to the table, moving your own chair over, and getting another chair.    Helping newcomers and returning old-comers find their way.   

 

None of what we are told happens in Acts after this point would have been possible without the hospitality demonstrated by all those involved.  The Gentiles towards believers in The Way and the Jews towards the Gentiles.

 

And so this passage from Acts, when it comes down to it, is about the Christian Community.  That original community of believers that had to open their arms a little wider, and then a little wider still, and the community of believers of 2009, that still sometimes struggles with how to open its arms a little wider to God’s grace.

 

Of course, before we give ourselves all the credit, it is important to not that while Peter and Cornelius and the community are all a part of opening the faith to Gentiles, the real actor in the transformation is the Holy Spirit.  Who called Cornelius.  Came to Cornelius and Peter in visions with instructions about how to proceed.

 

It is the Holy Spirit that interrupts-  interrupts-  Peter’s sermon to come upon the Gentiles in their own Pentecost moment, helping to convince the skeptics, the circumcised believers, that God had called and chosen the Gentiles for faith and discipleship.

 

The Holy Spirit, which moves as it wants and not as we expect.  Who defies territory and boundaries and demands we look beyond our differences to see children of God.

 

The whispering, fiery, not-to-be-ignored spirit.

 

One commentary had this to say about the Holy Spirit in this event:[6]

“There is a sense in which this text instills a certain terror within the reader, in spite of its familiarity. For Luke makes it clear that it is the nature of the Spirit to remain unbridled, bringing to bear the intentionality of God in the most astonishing and unexpected ways. If those who were the bearers of the gospel then were unprepared for the Spirit’s fresh initiatives, how much less prepared are we?.... what—we may ask—might the Spirit have in store for us?

 

There is yet another sense in which the text—so terrible in some ways—liberates us and sets us free from terror. For this seemingly unpredictable Spirit is in very important ways quite predictable. Although we may not be prepared for the Spirit’s every expression, we may count on the Spirit to be motivated by no other concern than love for that humankind for which Christ died…. And so our astonishment at the Spirit’s power is accompanied by joy over the Spirit’s love.”

 

The Holy Spirit is that which is before and between, within and out with this passage.  It is the point.

 

I don’t know if you’ve been keeping track.  But there seem to be multiple central stories of this text from Acts.  Peter.  Cornelius.  Community.  The Holy Spirit.

 

Which one is it?

 

They are all the central story.

 

This passage from Acts, among other things, reminds us today that while it may be our tendency to seek definitiveness, definitions and boundaries, that is not the tendency of God.

 

The life of faith is not nearly so neat and tidy.  The Holy Spirit is not a fan of boxes or limits.  We worship a God who is The Holy Spirit, leading us in the creation of an ever expanding, ever widening circle of faith. 

 

The life of faith cannot be contained, the community of faith cannot be limited, either.

 

No matter how many words we come up with to describe God, God is bigger than all of them.

 

No matter how many ways we find to talk about God and God’s love for us, God’s love and grace are deeper and stronger.

 

And we need not be afraid of that.   Yes.  The waters of Baptism are precious.  But that’s all the more reason to share them abundantly.  We need not be afraid of the waters spilling out and onto our Sunday best, for the spilling out of these waters are the reason we are here in the first place, and we don’t need to be afraid about splashing them even further out into the world.

 

The Spirit cannot be contained much less controlled, so let’s not even try.   Our job is to be ready.  Ready to listen.  Ready to welcome.  Ready to believe.  Ready to worship.  Ready to be comforted.  Ready to be challenged.  Ready to be converted and swept away by the Holy Spirit.  Thanks be to God.  Thanks be to God.

 

 

 

 

Other Resources:

 

Leander E. Keck, New Testament Editor, New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume X, “Acts” by Robert W. Wall, (Nashville: Abingdon Press), 2002, pages 156-172.

 

Harold Dollar, "The Conversion of the Messenger," Missiology, 1993.

 

J. Julius Scott, Jr., "The Cornelius Incident in the Light of Its Jewish Setting," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 1991.

 

William H. Willimon, Acts: Interpretation, a Commentary for Preaching and Teaching, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988, page 95-105.

 

William H. Willimon “Led by the Holy Spirit,” in The Christian Century, April 17,1991 , page 427.

Evangelism:  

“not so much a matter of proper planning, guilt-building by bishops, presentations by experts and programs out of Nashville. Evangelism is a matter of a church in good enough condition to keep up with the frenetic movements of the Spirit without passing out.”

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[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_in_The_Simpsons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=714-Ioa4XQw

http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-According-Simpsons-Bigger-Possibly/dp/0664231608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242570882&sr=8-1

[6] Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R.Gaventa, and James D. Newsome.  TEXTS FOR PREACHING: A Lectionary Commentary, Based on the NRSV: YEAR B (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), page 319-320.