Can Anyone Withhold the Water? Acts 10:44-48 Sunday, May 13, 2012 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching

Transcription

1 Can Anyone Withhold the Water? Acts 10:44-48 Sunday, May 13, 2012 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Scripture. Prayer. Opening. In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson, Calvin approaches his mother and says: (Calvin): Can Hobbes and I go play in the rain, Mom? Mom: No. Calvin: Why not? Mom: You'll get soaked. Calvin: What's wrong with that? Mom: You could catch pneumonia, run up a terrible hospital bill, linger a few months, and die. Calvin, looking out the window at the rain, says to Hobbes: I always forget. If you ask a mom, you get a worse-case scenario. Hobbes replies: I had no idea these little showers were so dangerous. Mom s care about us, and sometimes they take it to extremes! They imagine all possible worse-case scenarios. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells two different stories about the first Gentile conversion to Christianity. Last Sunday we looked at Luke s story of Philip and the conversion of the Ethiopian court official. Today we look at the story of Peter and the conversion of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his entire household. The story of Peter and Cornelius is longer and more 1

2 complicated than the story of Philip and the Ethiopian. It serves the purpose of showing how the church leaders in Jerusalem are finally convinced to accept Gentiles. Philip gets it from the outset everyone is welcome in the family of God. Peter and the Jerusalem church take a bit more convincing. They are reticent to offer baptism and full membership to Gentiles, to people who are not-like-us. They keep imagining worse-case scenarios regarding the Gentiles. In today s reading from Acts, the Holy Spirit tells Peter to stop his worrying. Peter responds, baptizing Cornelius and all the people in his household. I. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit, even on the Gentiles (vv ). Nowhere else in Luke s writings does the Holy Spirit come first, before the baptism. It seems that, in this instance, the Holy Spirit is required, to convince everyone present that baptism is intended not only for Jewish Christians but also for Gentiles who love Jesus. In verse 45 Luke records the amazement of the circumcised believers. These Jewish Christians call it a miracle, that God pours out his Spirit, even on the Gentiles. Peter asks a rhetorical question: Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? Of course not! If folks have received the Holy Spirit, Peter will not deny them baptism. The controversy is that this group of folks is not like us. This group of folks are Gentiles -- not good, faithful, circumcised, upstanding Jewish citizens. Believe it or not, mothers can sometimes feel like they are different from other folks. Hear this story about Tony Campolo s wife, Peggy: Dr. Tony Campolo is a well-known and highly-respected, inspirational speaker. Over the last several years, Tony Campolo has spent much of his time traveling around the world on speaking tours. 2

3 Meanwhile, his wife, Peggy, has chosen to stay home and give herself and all that she has to the Bringing Up of their two children, Bart and Lisa. On those rare occasions when Peggy does travel with Tony, she finds herself engaged in conversations with some of the most accomplished, impressive, influential, sophisticated people in the world. After one such trip, Peggy told Tony that sometimes as she visits with these powerful people she finds herself feeling intimidated and sometimes even questioning her own selfworth. Tony said to her: Well, honey, why don't you come up with something you could say when you meet people that will let them know that you strongly value what you do and you feel that it is dramatically urgent, and crucial and important. Well, not long after that, Tony and Peggy Campolo were at a party when a woman said to Peggy in a rather condescending tone, Well, my dear, what do you do? Tony Campolo heard his wife say: I am nurturing two Homo Sapiens into the dominant values of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in order that they might become instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia God envisioned from the beginning of time. And the other woman said: O, my, I'm just a lawyer. (adapted by James Moore). People can feel different out of place in so many ways! In today s 21 st century culture, the question we must ask ourselves is this: Are we ready to welcome Gentiles folks who are not-like-us into our church family? On the surface we say, Of course! Everyone is welcome! Open doors! We re the friendly church! But fully accepting the different, the not-like-us, into the inner circle of the fellowship of faith this is not easy. In many subtle and not-so-subtle ways, we withhold full belonging from 3

4 folks who are not-like-us. What are some of the ways we withhold full belonging? II. The ways we withhold full belonging from the not-like-us. (v. 47) There are many examples. One classic is the pew space issue. Have you ever noticed that folks tend to sit in the same place every Sunday? It s a comfort thing. We all like routine, especially when we re going out in public. I know myself, when I attend the first meeting at a conference, I choose a seat in the plenary room. Then, I return to it for every plenary gathering thereafter. It s my seat, and no one else better sit in it! I used to sing in a choir in L. A. called The Angel City Chorale. One year we did a singing tour of Ireland. It was great. Touring around Ireland with friends who love to sing I can t imagine a more fun experience. But if you ve ever been on a tour, you know that friends can quickly become enemies, mostly due to living in too close of quarters. One day, my best friend in the choir mentioned she d like to sit further towards the front of our bus. So, at the next stop, I happily moved our belongings closer to the front while the choir went off to roam through some shops. Well, when we all returned to the bus after the break time, you d ve thought I was a murderer or something. My crime, of course, was that I had taken someone else s seat on the bus. And you guessed it! she had claimed that seat for her own, and considered it to be her own, for the duration of the trip. There was a happy ending to the story we eventually made up and continued to be friends. But it took a few days for her to get over the fact that I had stolen her seat on the bus. We like the security of knowing where we will sit, don t we? -- and who we ll be sitting next to. 4

5 But have you ever witnessed a new person coming to our church and seen them sit in the spot that Jane or Joe Christian normally occupies? Have you ever seen Jane or Joe Christian chase the new visitor out of their spot, saying, That s where I sit! You ll have to move! Now our church is pretty good at being friendly. We re pretty welcoming of new folks. I am hoping that you will never witness anyone in our church chasing a new visitor out of their favorite pew. God uses a vision to convince Peter that Gentiles are to be welcomed into the church. In the vision Peter is encouraged to eat food that he considers to be against his religious values. Peter protests, I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean. But God says to Peter, What God has made clean, you must not call profane. Let s think about that for a minute. What is beyond acceptable for you and for me, in terms of what is allowed in this church and what is not allowed? Music can be a touchy issue in any church, and ours is no different. Is it ok for someone to sit in the pew next to you if they like a different kind of music than you do? What about politics? Can we love each other as Christian brothers and sisters, regardless of party affiliations? Can a Republican sit next to a Democrat on Sunday morning and share the peace of Christ with one another? What about the GLBT question? Is a gay person welcome in this church? What about folks of different racial-ethnic backgrounds? Or different economic backgrounds? Do we welcome black people, Hispanic people, poor people, wealthy people? Is it ok for someone who smokes to be a part of this congregation? Or is such a person on the B list? What if a person has a drug history or an alcohol problem? Do certain tattoos or piercings bother you? 5

6 What if a new visitor has done some jail time? Is it ok for an ex-con to sit in the pew next to you? What about a homeless person? Or a mentally ill person? Where do we draw the line in terms of who is acceptable in our church, and who isn t? Well, of course, it isn t our church at all, is it? God has poured out the Holy Spirit on all flesh and that includes people that we may not want to sit next to in the pew next Sunday. And believe me, there are folks who may not want to sit next to you or me, either. We re so good at liking people who are just like us, aren t we? We love to be around people who look like us and think like us and agree with us about everything. It s a challenge to be the church God wants us to be. Because God view of the church is so much bigger than what you or I think we are capable of. It s hard work to live together and reach out to each other in Christian love on a daily basis. I ll tell you a secret: even the people you think are just like you, sitting in the pew next to you they aren t. No one in this room is just like you. No one in this room is just like me. And none of us deserve to be a part of this church due to our own merits. Every person who is in this room this morning is here because God brought you here. The Holy Spirit was poured out on you, and somehow you followed the Spirit s leading and got yourself here. You might not even know it was the Holy Spirit. Since it s Mother s Day, you might think it was your Mother making you come to church that got you here. Maybe that s a part of it. Maybe that s a big part of it. We are all grateful for the mothers among us who have encouraged us in the faith. But the real reason you and I are here is the grace of God. The power of the Holy Spirit, quietly and gently working in our lives and in the lives of those around us. 6

7 III. The hospitality of God, mothers and Gentiles (v. 48) It says in verse 48 that Cornelius and the people of his household invited Peter and his entourage to stay for several days. These Gentiles, these newly baptized believers, offer hospitality to the Jewish Christians who have welcomed them into the faith. This is the test of how open we are to people who are not-like-us. Do we welcome them into our homes? Do we hang out with them and converse with them and spend our free time with them and include them in our lives at times other than this one hour on Sunday morning? In the Book of Acts, Luke shows us that God, through the Holy Spirit, has opened up the church to all people. Even Gentiles! Even people who are not-like-us. This sounds good in principle. In practice it is hard work. We do our best, day by day. A professor was giving a lecture on company slogans and was asking his students if they were familiar with them. Joe, he asked, which company has the slogan Fly the Friendly Skies? Joe answered with the correct airline. Brenda, can you tell me which company has the slogan Don t Leave Home Without It? Brenda answered quickly with the correct credit card company. Now John, tell me which company bears the slogan Just Do It? That s easy, John answered, It s my Mom. The shoe company surely stole their motto from someone s Mom: Just Do It! Why? BECAUSE I SAID SO! Most mothers know how to love their children, no matter how unlike themselves their children are. They spend time with their children, and their children s friends, and the parents of their children s friends, and their children s teachers, and so on and so forth. Today we honor all women who have touched our lives, all women who have been like mothers to us, who have accepted us and loved us no matter how different we are from them. These good mothers can be examples to us of how to be better people, and how to be a better church. 7

8 Closing. Peter asks, Can anyone withhold the water? The waters of baptism are a symbol of membership; a symbol of belonging. If you are feeling different this morning, like you don t belong here, listen to me: You belong here. God brought you here this morning for a reason. If some of the folks here this morning make you feel uncomfortable; if you wish they would not come here again, listen to me: God brought them here for a reason. And God brought you here for a reason, too. We can learn to get along with people who are different from us. If Peter and Cornelius could do it, we can do it, too! May the Holy Spirit fill this church with God s vision of hospitality. May we welcome all kinds of people -- like a good mother would! -- into this household of faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 8