"Big Deal Questions" Renée Roederer, UPC
Acts 11:1-18
Well, this was a big deal. A Big Deal. The story that Peter tells is a big deal. The leaders’ reaction to that story is a big deal. The direction that the Church takes as a result was and is a big deal.
Yes, a big deal. Such a big deal in fact that Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, tells the story of Cornelius’ conversion (Or was it also Peter’s conversion. . .?) three times. The story is told first in chapter 10. Luke tells us that Cornelius prays and has a deep, spiritual vision, calling him to seek a person named Peter in Joppa. Meanwhile, Peter has a vision of his own on a rooftop, perhaps an odd one to our ears and imaginations, but a significant one. The Holy Spirit guides Peter into the house of Cornelius along with Cornelius’ family. And there, Peter tells the good news about Jesus. Could he have possibly expected to see what he saw that day and to leave that house with new convictions about God’s love and inclusion? Maybe he couldn’t have expected it. Yes, this was the conversion of Cornelius and his family, but it was also the conversion of Peter and the six men who traveled with him. It would also the conversion of the Church.
The meeting that happened between these people – the event, the mutual conversion – was not without controversy. The leaders of the church in Jerusalem were shocked – and perhaps appalled – by what Peter had chosen to do. So here in our scripture passage from tonight, we hear the story once again, from Peter’s first person perspective. ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ That was the leaders’ question of Peter. Peter tells them that yes, he had entered the home of a Gentile, someone who was not of Jewish origin, someone who was uncircumcised (the mark of one who was not Jewish) and Peter ate with the person and accepted his hospitality. This just wasn’t typical. Cornelius wasn’t Jewish, and more than that, he was a Roman soldier. As you may remember, during this time period, the land of Judea was under the occupation of Rome. Peter entered the home of someone who didn’t keep Jewish customs and who politically, could have certainly been considered an enemy of Jewish people. So Peter needs to defend his actions. The story is told here for the second time.
And then, just a few chapters later in the Acts (chapter 15 to be exact) we see again that the story is significant. It’s a Big Deal. The controversy goes on. Leaders of the Church gathered in Jerusalem to deal with an ongoing theological issue of doctrine and practice. And an important question was at the heart of the matter: Do Gentile believers in Christ need to become circumcised? In other words, do Gentiles – non-Jewish believers – also need to practice many of the particulars of Jewish law (including circumcision for males) to be faithful Christ followers?
This historical event as it’s told in chapter 15, is often called the Jerusalem Council. The story of Cornelius and Peter is told once again. This is the third time. Peter stands up and testifies to those who are present, saying, “God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
As a result, the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem wrote an important letter to the Gentile believers, saying that they would not require of them to be circumcised or to practice their faith according to many of the Jewish ritual customs as they were written in the law. Now it’s important to say that this decision was not making a claim for the church to be non-Jewish. The earliest Christian believers were Jewish people who followed Jesus, a Jewish teacher and rabbi who they believed to be the Messiah and the Son of God. I imagine that most of these Jewish early believers did keep Jewish rites of circumcision and kosher laws of eating. The Christian faith – then and now- is not called to be anti-Jewish. No, we believe God has made a loving, lasting covenant with the Jewish people – then and now.
But as we see from the this story, the Jewish leaders of the Church were making a claim that the Holy Spirit was calling them to accept and include people in their membership and fellowship who didn’t look exactly like them or act in ways that were equivalent to their own spiritual practices.
Now that’s a convicting story. And it’s a tough story. So the story of Cornelius and Peter is told three times in our New Testament, three times within five chapters. And when something is repeated in scripture we can know it’s important. As we can see, this was a big deal. It was a very big deal.
And I think it’s safe to say that we wouldn’t be sitting here and worshiping in the way we are apart from this decision – this important moment of discernment in the Church – that brought the message of Jesus and his mission into the Gentile world. We are recipients of this decision, as it was convicted by the Holy Spirit.
These early leaders were moved by the Holy Spirit, and it led them down some roads they might not have anticipated. Now here’s something that is challenging to us, and I’m sure it was challenging to them. The early leaders of the Church could have made a scriptural argument against the inclusion of the Gentiles – or at least, they could have made a scriptural argument that Gentiles must first adopt Jewish spiritual practices to become Christ-followers.
In the same way that the Christian Church must not be anti-Jewish, the faith of the Jewish people as it is found in our scriptures is not anti-Gentile. Not at all. There are beautiful scriptures in the Hebrew Bible that call Israel to be a beacon of hope and faith for the sake of the world. Exodus 23:9 says, “You shall not oppress a resident alien. . .” (that is, people who are not Jewish) “you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” And Isaiah 49:6 gives a beautiful vision: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Judaism was not inherently anti-Gentile. No, not at all.
But still, the church leaders could have made a scriptural argument to move in the opposite direction that they did. They are passages in the Hebrew Bible commanding circumcision as the mark of the faithful. There are passages commanding the faithful to avoid certain unclean foods. The Gentiles didn’t practice either of these things. If these were marks of faithfulness and God’s commandments, could God accept Gentiles into the fellowship of Christ-followers? Could God accept them as faithful if they weren’t keeping the commands of the law?
Obviously this wasn’t an easy question. It wasn’t cut and dry. So maybe it’s remarkable that the early leaders of the Church trusted the calling of the Holy Spirit to move in the direction they did. That decision seemed to fly in the face of many of the commands of scripture. That decision itself took faith. And as we’ve been saying, it was a big deal.
We often bring our questions to the Bible, and that’s a good thing. A more difficult thing – though it’s also very good – is that the scripture brings questions to us. Did you catch that question that Peter voices, his last words as he tells his story to the leaders in Jerusalem? “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?” Yes, that is quite a question. Quite a question to the church, then and now. Our controversies aren’t always cut and dry either, are they? Peter’s question is a question that we need to ask again and again. “Who am I – who are we – that we could hinder God?”
And so here’s a question: If this story is such a big deal – then and now – what might it say about the now we find ourselves in? How can it lead us to ask questions that are indeed a big deal?
Well, here’s one. This week in Bible Study, several of us watched a documentary that gave us lots of questions. It’s called The Bible Speaks To You. As you probably know, the Christian Church – of many denominations – is very divided these days about human sexuality in general, and about homosexuality in particular. Should we ordain gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people to offices of church leadership? Should we – in states where it is legal – hold marriage ceremonies for people of the same-sex? And in states where it is illegal, should we offer blessing ceremonies to honor same-sex partnerships? Not easy questions, are they? People on every side of these questions have strong emotions. The church is very divided. The Bible Speaks To You is a documentary that interviews individuals and families, as they talk about what their experience was like when someone close to them came out of the closet, particularly how that affected their faith life. Family members express different views throughout the film. But the film also examines particular passages in scripture and makes the claim that these scriptures aren’t ultimately condemning homosexuality as it’s understood today, and aren’t condemning monogamous, loving, committed, same-sex partnerships.
Just as the larger church is divided, I would imagine that there are different views in this room tonight. What I love about the documentary, is that it allows you to hear the stories about people. No matter what convictions people hold about these issues, we’re forced to move away from sound bites and to get out of our comfort zones. We must view these people as people. Thsee issues become personalized, and I believe that is an incredibly important thing for people who are on every end of the spectrum concerning these controversies.
Scripture guides our convictions, but even our scriptures are peopled. If we believe that our scriptures contain the Word of God for us, we believe that the Word is living and active. For that reason, it’s not two-dimensional. And incredibly, we discern it three-dimensionally, in community with others – especially in communion with people who have perspectives different than our own. We need convictions of others. Peter didn’t stand before the Jewish leaders and start throwing out sound bites. Can you imagine this? “Peter, why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” “Exodus 23:9! Isaiah 49:6!”
No. He told a story. He allowed his convictions to be peopled. Did these scriptures guide his convictions? Yes, I imagine they did. But to confuse the matter, in his vision, God commands Peter to kill and eat what was unlawful and forbidden in scripture. And yet God speaks through the Holy Spirit, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
Now did this story make us uncomfortable? Did this sermon make us uncomfortable? It makes me uncomfortable? I need to ask myself again and again, “Who am I to hinder God?” Who am I excluding? Who are we excluding?
If this story muddles things up, good. God, give us the grace to be uncomfortable that we might move into greater love for others, whomever or wherever they may be. Amen.