DATE: April 28, 2013
SCRIPTURE:
Acts 11:1-18 – scripture reading follows sermon text.
© Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
Seabury Center
8 am Easter morning at the Peoples Church of Chicago: we all brought cartons of multi-colored hard boiled eggs to hide in the sanctuary. Once the kids had found them all, Grace (in her Easter hat and flowered dress) peeled and sliced all the eggs and laid them out on white bread spread with mayo. We gathered at two long tables, right there at the front of the sanctuary. Besides the egg sandwiches, we ate sticky rice cakes made by Marivic Manansala and store-bought bagels and cinnamon rolls brought by Bob. Louise got the donuts. Jon poured the orange juice. It was a sweet, sticky, starchy breakfast; we licked our fingers with gusto.
Around the tables there was Lucille, the Unitarian who skipped communion every month but ate those egg sandwiches; Lula, who was raised Baptist and prayed for us all every week; and the guys who had no home but the shelter that operated out of our basement. There was Grace the airline attendant, Susan the seminary professor and Iris who used to be homeless. There was Billy Hand Robinson: sometimes-recovering-addict, poet and community activist, who used to get up every Sunday and say, “If no one has told you today that he or she loves you, I want you to know that I do: I love you. I love you. I love you.” …We were African American, Filipino and European-American; a mish-mash of religious tribes raised in New England, Chicago, and the American South.
Our band fit none of the predictable categories, with our hodge-podge of backgrounds and perspectives. We were more like the introduction to a bad joke: “So, a Baptist, a Unitarian and a Congregationalist walked into this church…” What brought us together, in all our mismatched glory, was hunger – for breakfast or company (maybe both) – and a shared suspicion that God’s Spirit was up to something in our midst.
There was no other way to explain how we’d all ended up at The Peoples Church. In Peter’s words, it wasn’t really our idea at all; so it must have been God’s. That’s how Peter justified his actions to the members of his church back in Jerusalem. They’d heard that he’d been keeping company with some questionable characters: Gentiles. Non-Jews. Now, this was back when the early church was still a movement within Judaism, a way of life embraced by devout Jews who retained all their Jewishness even while they practiced the Way of Jesus. So when Gentiles started expressing interest in joining the movement, the call to share the Good News bumped up against a commitment to Jewish identity, leaving those early Jesus-followers in a bit of a muddle. You want to invite who to dinner? What if they bring pork? Or forget to say the proper prayers?
“I know!” Says Peter. “It’s outrageous. But here’s the thing: It wasn’t my idea. I was just napping on the roof, and God spoke to me in a vision.” ‘Peter,’ said the Voice. ‘I want you to meet someone. You’re gonna have to be a little flexible, maybe even try something new. But don’t fret: It’s all good.’
“No sooner had that picnic blanket laden with non-kosher foods been lifted out of sight then the doorbell rang. There stood three Gentiles with a dinner invitation for one Simon Peter to travel to the home of Cornelius, the centurion (a Roman soldier). The Spirit told me to go with them, so who was I to argue?”
Imagine what would have happened if Peter had refused to go, if he’d politely informed the visitors that he’d have to decline the invitation because he couldn’t possibly eat in a non-kosher home. What if he’d said: “I’ll go, but only if you and your household are circumcised first.”
For starters, Peter might never have learned that God’s Spirit was at work beyond the bounds of his own community of faith. Surely, his own life would have been the poorer for it. Had he never sat across the table from that Roman Centurion, he might never have seen the look of joy on the Centurion’s face, as Cornelius recounted his conversation with an angel, or the tears that welled up as he shared his new found sense of hope and wonder. Peter would have missed out on all the Centurion had to offer that fledgling church.
And we? We might not be here at all. If Peter had refused to go, if he’d missed the chance to see the Holy Spirit at work first hand and so had had no testimony to share with his folks back home, then that debate, about whether to include the Gentiles, might well have ended differently. The circle might not have widened. Surely, there would be no Peoples Church, no egg sandwiches and sticky rice cakes and bagels all at the same meal…No Baptist grandmother laying hands on this UCC pastor; no Unitarian rubbing elbows with a storefront Christian; no addict-turned-poet reminding the rest of us that God loves us, no matter what.
Thank God, Peter went. Thank God he had the gumption to step out, to hold his own tradition loosely enough to leave room for the Spirit’s leading. Thank God he figured out that his vision wasn’t really about food, kosher or otherwise; it was about people. All God’s people, Jew and Gentile, local and foreigner, sister, brother, stranger… all included within the vast scope of God’s amazing grace, all subject to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, each one with wisdom and a story to share.
Realizing that was a game changer. THE game-changer. That encounter between Peter and Cornelius broke the church wide open, set the tone for everything that followed. What happened there still matters, maybe more than ever. Because as far as I can tell, we still spend more time drawing lines in the sand than extending – or accepting – invitations to the table. We are a country divided a dozen different ways: by political party, region, race and religious flavor. We are urban and rural, tattooed and tinted; well-heeled and healing. We are holy rollers, high rollers and barely rolling; spiritual but not religious; religious but not spiritual; contemplative and full of contempt for those on the ‘other side’. As a nation, we are losing the capacity to listen deeply to anyone outside our own tribe. We need reminding that God shows up over there, on the other side.
Here’s the Good News: God IS up to something in our midst. I know, because God always is. When we get bogged down in our own way of doing things, God intervenes, sends us messengers and urges us to pull up an extra chair. See, God knows that when we gather at the table in all our mismatched glory, we realize that we are all hungry; we tell stories about how we’ve been fed – or not been fed. We pass the platters and rub elbows until our experiences of God rub off on each other. We find ourselves a little wiser, a little more blessed. That’s the Holy Spirit at work. At The Peoples Church, at Pivot Ministries in Bridgeport [our guests this morning] and right here at Saugatuck Church… and all the places in-between. I forget some days; I get distracted by the lines I’ve drawn in the sand, but then the doorbell rings and I remember that when God says, “There’s someone I want you to meet,” you go. No matter who’s at the table, no matter what’s being served, grace is always on the menu and it’s all good.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Scripture Texts
Introduction: The following story gets told three times in the Book of Acts – sure sign that the author thinks it’s important. This is the second time (the first is in Acts 10). Peter is surrounded by church leaders, confronting him because he he’s been hanging out with Gentiles, or non-Jews. They demand an explanation…
Acts 11:1-18
1 The apostles and the brothers and sisters throughout Judea heard that even the Gentiles had welcomed God’s word. 2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him. 3 They accused him, “You went into the home of the uncircumcised and ate with them!” 4 Step-by-step, Peter explained what had happened. 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying when I had a [vision]. In my vision, I saw something like a large linen sheet being lowered from heaven by its four corners. It came all the way down to me. 6 As I stared at it, wondering what it was, I saw four-legged animals—including wild beasts—as well as reptiles and wild birds. 7 I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’ 8 I responded, ‘Absolutely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 The voice from heaven spoke a second time, ‘Never consider unclean what God has made pure.’ 10 This happened three times, then everything was pulled back into heaven. 11 At that moment three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them even though they were Gentiles. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered that man’s house. 13 He reported to us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is known as Peter. 14 He will tell you how you and your entire household can be saved.’ 15 When I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as the Spirit fell on us in the beginning. 16 I remembered the Lord’s words: ‘John will baptize with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If God gave them the same gift God gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then who am I? Could I stand in God’s way?” 18 Once the apostles and other believers heard this, they calmed down. They praised God and concluded, “So then God has enabled Gentiles to change their hearts and lives so that they might have new life.”