Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, UCC
May 2, 2010
Fifth Sunday of Easter

Scripture Lesson:  Acts 11:1-18

New Rules

"... If then God gave them the same gift that
God gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I that I could hinder God?"
(Acts 11:1-18)

Prelude

The books of Acts is a narrative of the early

church and its growth.  In this material, we

read of the church being gathered and scattered,

the church making and breaking its way into the world. 

There are but a few moments that speak

of pause and provide for rest.  For the most

part, it's all petal to the metal, a rapid

acceleration of the church making far reaching

advance with the love of God.

A fundamental issue facing

the early church was simply this: 

was Christ and gospel for some? 

Or for all? 

For us?  For others?

This is the question being hammered out

with the help of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts we are brought to see the determination of God

to pollinate the world with grace and mercy,

the spirit and truth of Jesus.

This advance, though, met with stubborn resistance;

the conflict that flared is most evident

in the lesson we heard this morning. 

The story begins in chapter 10 with a man by the name of Cornelius,

a centurion of the Italian cohort stationed in Ceasarea,

the Roman provincial capital in Palestine.   Cornelius was known

to be a devout man, a generous and benevolent steward, a man of prayer. 

Cornelius is given instruction to send for Simon Peter, who was spending

time in Joppa, who would render him spiritual guidance and counsel.

Peter, for his part, had a strange experience during his noontime prayers.

He had a vision in which he was informed, "What God has made clean,

you must not call profane."  What was seen in the vision was a

restaurant menu that listed as entrees a lot of items that Peter

long had been taught were appropriate for a faith-based diet.

God had spoken.  It was well known what was gastronomically

permitted and what was prohibited.  The vision, though, is urging

a new understanding, a radical amendment of the tradition

Peter practiced. 

The menu came in the form of a sheet,

sent down from heaven above.

It was a four-cornered sheet that covered the face of the ground,

a picnic blanket we might say, full of delectable things,

a virtual cafeteria, with meat of beasts and birds.

Pick and choose as you will, the Voice states,

kill and eat.  Permission today cancels yesterday's prohibition.

Peter doesn't simply hesitate.  He resists. 

This goes against all previous instruction. 

The Voice though, repeats three times: 

What God has made clean, you must not call profane.   

Interesting theory, but how would one practice?

Peter was puzzled, as well we can understand.

Until Cornelius's servant showed, inviting Peter into his home. 

So Peter and his people meet with Cornelius and his people.

It is a meeting of folks who are not supposed

to potluck one with another. 

It is Jew and Gentile. 

It is Christian and pagan. 

It is breaking with tradition. 

It is following new rules. 

It is the formation of a new community,

defined not by ritual and tradition,

but by spirit doing a new thing.

Peter was courageous to advance, to step forward.

He preached.  Cornelius was receptive to the message and eager

to embrace, to open his heart to the good news Peter shared.

And then, lo and behold, Peter baptized Cornelius. 

The story might well end here. But it doesn't.  Word traveled fast to

Jerusalem, and there folks were left scratching their heads.  What in the

good name of the Lord was Peter thinking.  And they criticized him, and

demanded an explanation of just what he was doing in Jesus' name,

for recklessly tampering with a tradition that established

religious heritage and distinction.

So, in chapter 11, verses 1-18, we have a retelling of the story. 

Peter is on trial in a way.  He is offering his defense. 

Step by step he rehashes all that has happened. 

He speaks of his vision.

He reports on the voice, all three verses

he heard from heaven: 

"What God has made clean,

you must not call profane." 

He further remembers the words of Jesus about the Holy Spirit.

And he observes:  If God gave to them the same gift given us,

the gift of life in the Lord Jesus Christ,

who was I that I could hinder God?" 

Those who listen, the same who seek to reprimand

and constrain, conclude:  "God has given even to

the Gentiles that repentance that leads to life.

This is the huge breakthrough, the broadening,

the enlargement of circumference that begins to

define the favor and love of God in the Christian revelation. 

God, through the Holy Spirit, pushing

to include yet more and more and more

          *****           *****           *****

Part of what we see here is the struggle to abide and to understand

a revelation that asserts new rules are operative in the life of faith

in the new creation. 

You have a circle that defines your life

and your relationship with God. 

There is comfort, peace, joy, challenge,

comfort, faith, hope, love -

all within your circle. 

Your circle is not the only circle.

God is with you in your circle. 

Yet God is with others in their circle. 

The circles may not have much in common. 

Status with God is not determined by

geography, biology, chronology.

Location.  Different ages, tongues, and races.

What is common is a shared understanding of grace,

and a shared vision centered in

the word and wisdom of Jesus Christ.

Every generation must grapple with this question:

who rules?  And if the answer is Christ, then

the question:  what new rules come into play,

and how do they change and alter my life in the world?

Note:  the issue was an internal issue for followers of Christ,

and whether they could affirm Christ operative in someone

other than themselves.  Through Peter, we are pushed to

consider the affirmation: 

God is working with others for good,

even as we hope, pray, and trust God to be

working with us.

          *****           *****           *****

Every generation is challenged to embrace and advance

the rule of Christ that is working for transformation.

It isn't enough to be on cruise control,

the church acts to accelerate the love and grace

it is apportioned.

It doesn't come easy. 

In so many ways, a contrary spirit has prevailed

through the ages.  The newness of which we speak,

and that which we seek, is met with tremendous resistance.

One doesn't need to go looking for it,

it will find you easily enough. 

We simply need courage to face it

with the faith we are called to advance.

Let me illustrate in couple of ways.

I was reading a reflection this past week of

Diana Butler Bass:

"We inhabit a post-traditional world - a world of broken memory -

in which some tell history badly, other do not know it at all, and still

others use history to manipulate people to their own ends."

She continues, asking the questions:

"What to remember?

What traditions can be retained?

What should we teach our children?"

(Diana Butler Bass, via Huffington Post,

4-28-10; see "A People's History of Christianity")

I advise:

• we remember, love is greater than law;
  
• we retain the tradition of breaking bread with open table -  
  as Jesus welcomed, so dare we welcome whoever would come;
  
• we teach to our children that the opportunity for a relationship

is more to be desired than a state of righteousness

that refuses to recognize the humanity of someone different

from who we understand ourselves to be.

We tell the story, God at work, always reaching beyond our grasp,

calling to see more than is evident to the eye; to live in our hope

for a better world.

We tell the story, resistance is a necessary dimension to the

life of faith, we must resist our own capacity to hinder God

in the desire to heal, reveal, and elevate our humanity.

We tell the story, and urge the understanding,

to seek truth in the traditions, but dare not limit truth to the

traditions, for the dynamic character of the divine will not be

confined to one way at the exclusion of all others.

Once upon a time in this great land

we were primarily defined by geography.

You were north or you were south.

That day has come and largely gone.

Once upon a time in this great land,

rule was exerted by the white male Protestant.

In 1916 Woodrow Wilson nominated the first Jewish Justice to the Supreme

Court, Louis Brandeis.  Heads snapped, and resistance arose.  Brandeis

was confirmed after a long battle.  One Justice, James Clark McReynolds

had a tremendous problem reconciling with the decision.  It is said he

refused to speak to Brandeis for three years,

refused to have his picture taken with him,

and often left the room when Brandeis was speaking.

McReynolds' defense of "tradition"

was equally applied to women.

Our Protestant tradition has often stumbled, kicking and dragging

into the changing landscape of this day.

Norman Vincent Peale, 1960,

"Faced with the election of a Catholic (JFK),

our culture is at stake."  He feared foreign control

and manipulation of domestic process, and

prophesied the loss of freedom of speech.

Peale had earlier offered election counsel in a

presidential year criticizing Adlai Stevenson

as morally unfit for office due to having been divorced. 

Stevenson got some mileage out of his response:

 "Speaking as a Christian, I find

the Apostle Paul appealing

and the

Apostle Peale appalling."

I mention this (because I really wanted to work it in!),

but also for this reason - much is at stake in our ability

to take the lesson from Acts and give it contemporary

application and relevance.  Will we define gospel by

its inclusive nature, or live in defense of who is to be

barred and what is to be restricted?

Peter wasn't in love with all the food on the picnic blanket of his

vision.  Good gracious, he had no clue what he'd been missing save

only if he had transgressed the boundaries imposed by the kosher laws.

What prompted Peter to move was his grasp of grace,

that having been a recipient of such mercy,

he could not in conscience deny to others what

God had willed for him.  They didn't share culinary delights.

They shared love, and joy, and peace in Christ.

Thank God.

          *****           *****           *****

The challenge continues for us, even today.

Late last year, Harvey Cox retired from Harvard Divinity,

and he published a part memoir, part reflection after

a lifetime of thoughtful, insightful teaching.

The book, The Future of Faith.  And in this work he divides

2,000 years of Christianity into three ages.

(1) the age of faith (1st-4th); spirit led, sustained by devotion

(2) the age of belief (4th-20th century), dogma/creed, duty bound;

(3) the age of spirit (cooperative, not competitive).

He writes:  "What does the future hold for religion,

and for Christianity in particular?"

He further states:  Christianity "in the past fifty years

has entered into its most momentous transformation

since its transition in the 4th century CE from

what had begun as a tiny Jewish sect into the religious ideology of the

Roman Empire" (p. 2).  

In our lifetimes - we are living in the "most momentous transformation"

of Christian faith in 16 years. 

According to Cox, fundamentalisms are dead.

They just don't know it yet.  But what will arise? 

Will it be appealing or appalling?

Will it be spirit led, dogma dead?

I pray we step into life where love,

charity, cooperation, acceptance prevail.

I pray we hold fast to Christ,

and that we accelerate!

          *****           *****           *****

There is an old prayer most fitting for this new day.

It comes from the 12th century, from the greatest of the

Medieval Jews, Maimonides (1137-1204):

Grant me the strength, time, and opportunity

always to correct what I have acquired,

always to extend its domain;

for knowledge is immense and the spirit of humanity

can extend indefinitely

to enrich itself daily with new requirements.

Today (we) can discover our errors of yesterday

and tomorrow (we) can obtain a new light

on what (we) think (ourselves) sure of today.

I think Peter would approve.

I think Jesus would approve.

It is a good prayer:

... always to correct ...

... always to extend ...

to discover today our errors of yesterday,

and trust that tomorrow we obtain new light

on the truth we claim today. 

That's most appealing.

Indeed, it is the work of the Spirit, born in our

hearts through the love of God and the grace of our

Lord.  May we all be so blessed.