The Gospel Spirit (World Communion Sunday) + Peachtree Presbyterian Church October 1, Dr. Victor D. Pentz Senior Minister +

Transcription

1 The Gospel Spirit (World Communion Sunday) + Peachtree Presbyterian Church October 1, Dr. Victor D. Pentz Senior Minister + Scripture Lesson: Acts 10:11-23 Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests (Acts 10:23). Text: We shall be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will (Acts 15:11). This morning, I would like us to look together at a pivotal moment for the Church of Jesus Christ. The tenth chapter of the book of Acts describes an event which made it possible for many of us to be here today. If you are not genetically Jewish, a man named Cornelius is your great, great, great, great, great-grandfather in the faith. Cornelius, a Roman soldier, opened the way for us to come to World Communion this morning. Acts 10:1 begins: At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, Cornelius! Cornelius stared at him in fear. What is it, Lord? he asked. The angel

2 answered, Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa (today s Tel Aviv) to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. (Peter) became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, Get up, Peter. Kill and eat. Surely not, Lord! Peter replied. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. (Peter had kept kosher and followed Jewish dietary laws his whole life.) The voice spoke to him a second time, Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times, (Peter is a notoriously slow learner...he has a lot of three-time experiences) and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. -2-

3 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them. (At this point, Peter couldn t believe his ears. To enter a Gentile home was to be contaminated.) Peter went down and said to the men, I m the one you re looking for. Why have you come? The men replied, We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say. Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. The sound we hear is the shattering of a thousand years of ancient barriers! Peter then went with the men, entered the house of Cornelius, and said, I now know that God does not have favorites! There, Peter baptizes Colonel Cornelius, Mrs. Cornelius, and probably all the little Corneliuses, too, as we re told he baptized all the family. The rest is history, because once one Gentile got his foot through the door, behind him came another and another and another. Finally, the dam burst: the global Christian movement resulted in the world we know today. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. -3-

4 Would you join me in prayer? Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts prove acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Through Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, Peter got into trouble because of Cornelius. When word of his actions got back to the powers that be in Jerusalem, Peter was called on the carpet. He was asked, Peter, we can understand why you would want to preach to Cornelius, but what is this about breaking bread with a Gentile? The church of Jerusalem wanted no part of world communion. The polar opposite of the church of Jerusalem was a young, radical church in a place called Antioch. This church went out and actively recruited Gentile converts. You know, many times we get the idea that for the early church it was just blue sky up above and everyone s in love. In fact, there was conflict. In Jerusalem they even formed an investigative committee and sent it to Antioch to investigate and to put an end to all the madness. The only problem was, they picked the wrong man to chair the committee! Barnabas went down to Antioch and saw evidence of the grace of God. He promptly resigned his chairmanship of the investigative committee and joined the pastoral staff at Antioch! This multicultural church at Antioch was exploding, and they needed more pastors. So, Barnabas recruited one of his friends, someone you may have heard of, Paul of Tarsus, to serve at Antioch. We are told that the pastoral staff consisted of Paul, Barnabas, Simeon (who was probably Simon of Cyrene, who was called Niger, which means black a black African), Lucius of Cyrene (another black African), and -4-

5 Manaen, a member of the personal staff of King Herod. The pastoral staff of the church of Antioch was two jews, two black Africans, and a Roman! It was in Antioch that a cross-cultural gospel was born and the seeds of world communion were planted. Where do we live this morning? Do we live in Jerusalem or do we live in Antioch? Do we live in an insular world of people just like us, or do we live in a world communion of all who know and love Jesus Christ? We all have a little bit of Jerusalem in us, don t we? A pastor friend told me of an incident that occurred in a large, conservative, well-heeled Presbyterian church. One Sunday morning, a young street kid wandered into the church. He had technicolor hair and enough metal piercing his body parts that you would want to stand clear of him in a thunderstorm, and he was somewhat disoriented. He arrived late and walked down the aisle of the jam-packed sanctuary looking for a place to sit. People began nudging each other. Ripples of tension spread throughout the congregation. The kid, with his wild hair and tee shirt full of holes, came down to the first row without finding a seat. Finally, he squatted down on his haunches beneath the pulpit just as the pastor was getting ready to preach. The pastor knew there was no point in starting to preach, because no one was listening. Then everyone noticed the usher. It was not just any usher: it was the Dean of the Usher Corps, a man who had been ushering since just after the earth s crust cooled! Eighty years old, proper as a procession of bishops, wearing a three-piece suit with a pocket watch and a cane, he was moving quickly toward the kid! Everybody wondered what he was going to do. They all held their -5-

6 breath. He made his way down the aisle, threw his cane down on the carpet, and with great difficulty eased himself down on the floor beside the young man. Later, he said he sat down because he did not want the boy to be alone in worship that morning. With his gesture, that congregation took one step closer to Antioch! Here at Peachtree, think of all the people who might be coming down our side aisles looking for a place to sit. We re on television; we re on the internet; we re saying, literally, to every human being in the Greater Atlanta area, Come down to Peachtree, and we will welcome you with open arms and the love of Jesus Christ! Think of what that means. You got up early to go to church some of them have not been to bed yet! What if they came down here? It does not matter what motivates a person to come to church on Sunday morning. A Presbyterian pastor friend of mine in West Los Angeles said I have an incredible influx of young college males attending my worship on Sunday morning! (I thought I had better get hold of his evangelism program!) I said, What brings them? He smiled and said, Well, Cindy Crawford is worshiping with us these days. It doesn t matter what brings you here, and I must say our Peachtree women can hold their own against any Hollywood starlet! Are you watching us on television this morning and feeling confused? Then come to the Peachtree Presbyterian Church. What better place to come in confusion than to the church of Jesus Christ? Are you lost and lonely this morning? Come to us! Are you looking for business contacts? We ll start there and hope to change your motivation for visiting. Are you a single -6-

7 person looking for that special someone? You ll find the love of your life right here at Peachtree I refer, of course, to Jesus Christ! You can make friends at our singles worship, called the Lighthouse, on Tuesday nights in the Kellett Chapel. Whatever motivates you to come, you are welcome here at the Peachtree-Antioch Presbyterian Church. But in Jerusalem, they said, No, if you re not like us, we don t want you here. A showdown was inevitable; Acts 15 is like high noon at the O.K. Corral! The bigwigs in Jerusalem proclaimed, If you want to become a Christian, you first must be circumcised if you are a male; youl must follow our dietary laws, our customs, and our traditions; you must dress like us; and you must look like us. But it was then that Peter delivered one of his greatest one-liners in all the Bible, second only to when he says, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He said, Guess what, folks? They ARE like us! They shall be saved by the grace of God as will we! In other words, Don t kid yourselves. We were carried to Sabbath school since we were little kids, and we have the law tattooed to our brains, but folks, we don t keep the law! We have no place to stand but on the grace of our God just like THEM! It is only at the foot of the cross that we are made one as we come to this table. A friend in my former congregation in Houston once went on the vacation of her lifetime to the South Pacific Islands. This was a trip she had long dreamed of taking. She traveled with a friend who had attended the same prep school and elite college she had, and who served on several civic boards with her. They were two magnificent women. The traveling companion was not a Christian. My friend said, Vic, it was the most amazing experience. I went on the trip, and I felt very -7-

8 lonely. I was there witnessing the most beautiful scenery I had ever seen the glorious butterflies in the jungle, the plumage of the tropical birds, the flowers, and the beautiful sunsets - - and I yearned to burst out in praise of God for all of this, but my friend wouldn t have understood. She said, I was there, lonely in paradise. On one part of the journey they visited Papua, New Guinea. While there, they attended a native arts exhibition; the Aboriginal people had come out of their homes in the jungles and exhibited their handiwork as they wove and created beautiful crafts. She walked by them, and they were listening to a Billy Graham Crusade broadcast on the radio! She was so excited that she broke with her tour group and ran over to the Aboriginal people, put her arms around them, and they sang some songs together. She said by the time she left, she had tears in her eyes. It was the highlight of her trip! You see, we can have world communion at any time, in any place, with anyone who shares the new life in Christ that we find at the foot of the cross of Jesus. In 1984 I had the privilege of attending the Los Angeles Olympics, just as many of you attended the Olympics in Atlanta four years ago was a year of intense American patriotism, and this was particularly evident at the games. Remember the famous cheer U-S-A, U-S-A that filled the air at every event? It was during these games that I got the greatest seats I have ever had for any athletic event in my life: for the women s swimming finals. It was like pool/fence/vic! I loved it! I remember watching American swimmer Mary Meagher in one of the events, when suddenly, a gentleman came down from the stands, crowded in right beside me and began screaming in French! French people tend to be pushy, you know? I was not appreciative of this, and I was about to show him that Americans had elbows, too. But my sister- -8-

9 in-law, who was sitting behind me, grabbed my tee shirt and said, Vic, Vic, that s his daughter out in lane 3! Everything changed. What followed was one of the golden moments of my life. As the thousands in the swimming pavilion at UCLA were screaming for our American swimmer, the lone voice of this dad was heard shouting for his daughter! We watched the drama unfold as this dad snapped a whole roll of film. At the end of the race, he began to cry because his daughter touched the wall of the pool second she had won the silver medal! The girl got out of the pool, looked in the stands where she knew her parents had tickets, but couldn t find them. Her dad, next to me, was yelling for her, and finally, she saw him. She flashed a smile that would shatter glass, and I was privileged to be the first one to congratulate him. I don t know French; I just said, Congratulations! He looked at me and smiled, pointed to the place where he was standing, and said, Thank you. Hey, I said, no problem! I suddenly realized that this man was no different than I. He was just another helpless dad who was wrapped around his daughter s baby finger. As the man went back into the stands, I felt myself move just a little closer to Antioch. We live in a world of fragmentation. We live in a world of splintered perspectives, a world of ethnic consciousness. Non-smokers, homeowners, racial ethnic groups, and various other groups band together against the world for their own self-interests. But, friends, the tribes don t matter anymore! Black or white, rich or poor, Protestant or Catholic, Presbyterian or Pentecostal even University of Georgia and Georgia Tech do not matter within the Church of Jesus Christ. -9-

10 The table before you this morning is the longest table in the whole world. It goes around the globe. In some places, this table is not made of beautiful, gleaming wood: in some places, this table is simply a bunch of bamboo poles laid across some sticks. In other places, it is suitcases stacked on top of each other, fruit crates that were found and brought inside a hut. In some places, there is no gleaming silver such as you see before us, only paper cups or even wine poured into the palm of a person s hand. There are countless faces around our table. There are black faces and brown faces and red faces and white faces, and there are blue eyes and brown eyes and almond-shaped eyes and round eyes. This morning, all of us are brothers and sisters, because we know and claim Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. In a moment, I will break this bread, but that bread doesn t stay broken any more than the body of Christ stayed broken in the grave, because when we partake of that bread with faith, it becomes one loaf again and unites us with every Christian around the globe. This morning, let s go to Antioch. Let s BE the church of Antioch today! Come to World Communion. Would you join with me in prayer? Our gracious God, we know that when you look down upon the churches of Atlanta, you do not read the signs out front. You see us all as one one in our worship of a common Father who made us, a common Savior who redeemed us, and a common Spirit who -10-

11 dwells within us this day. Lord, we pray for the Christian churches of Atlanta which minister to Koreans, to Thais, to Chinese, to Hispanics, to African-Americans, to Anglos, and to others. Oh, God, how we pray for the racial harmony which contributes to the greatness of our city. Lord, we around this table pledge ourselves to shattering barriers and to being instruments of your peace throughout this world. We pray for our missionaries: Jennifer Borders with Adventures in Mission, Jonathan Evans in Argentina, Elizabeth Jones in Ireland, Jeff Koning in Russia, Mike Shearouse on his way to Thailand and for all our PCUSA missionaries around the globe. Gracious God, break us out of our little neighborhoods and join us with your Church, through Jesus Christ. Amen. -11-