Identity and Transformation Sermon on Acts 10:33-45 by Berry BMPC January 12, 2014, Baptism of the Lord Sunday

Transcription

1 Identity and Transformation Sermon on Acts 10:33-45 by Berry BMPC January 12, 2014, Baptism of the Lord Sunday Introduction to the text Today s second New Testament reading is from the book of Acts, which tells the story of the beginning of the church. In Acts the first Christians are trying to work out what it means to follow the risen Christ, particularly in relationship to their Jewish heritage and to the outsiders of the Jewish faith the gentiles. Today s story is a pivotal moment of the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit converts the thinking of the apostle Peter, and through Peter the entire Christian church, to understand that Jesus came for the whole world and that God s grace through Jesus Christ extends past the Jew and to Gentiles. The idea that Jesus came for all is a given for most of us, but for the first Jewish disciples who followed Jesus, the assumption was that Jesus was the Messiah only for the Jews and there was no was way for a non-jew to follow Jesus. This is a watershed moment for the early church. Through the movement of the Holy Spirit, the early disciples are TRANSFORMED to believe Jesus message and church membership through baptism are open to non-jews. That s good news for all of us for from the Jewish perspective, we are all Gentiles: non-jews. So these Gentile baptisms opened the way for our baptisms. From the Roman centurion Cornelius baptism, the gospel spread to those outside the Jewish ethnic and religious people group to include all of God s children, and through the generations, eventually us. The conversation and action in this story takes place in the home of Cornelius, a gentile. We come into the story overhearing the end of Cornelius welcome speech to the Apostle Peter. 1

2 Text: Acts 10:33-45 Cornelius to Peter: Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say. Then Peter began to speak to them: I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 2

3 Sermon Who are we and why were we created? Or more personally: Who am I? What is my purpose? We all ask ourselves these questions at some point in our lives. Most of us ask these deep questions several times throughout our life, if not several times throughout each year of our life. What is it that our soul longs for? Our faith is or at least should be in conversation with these life questions. Our sacred Scriptures are certainly in conversation with these questions. Jesus was in conversation with these deep questions, and through his life story as recorded in the Gospels he invites us into these questions of the soul. At their core, these questions are about identity. Who are we? Why are we here? Never before have so many in our culture been willing to offer us an identity, but most often that identity is linked to a product that is being sold. For we live in a culture dominated by consumerism that promises acceptance only if we are successful enough or popular enough, only if we are rich enough or beautiful enough. i We are bombarded with marketing designed to convince us that we are not enough. As the gospels tell the story of Jesus baptism from their various perspectives, and as Matthew specifically tells the story, they are stories confirming Jesus identity. Jesus baptism establishes his identity as God s son. The Divine voice says: This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Just as Jesus baptism answers the deep questions of his identity, so too our baptisms establish our true identity. For we are first and foremost Children of God, beloved sons and daughters of our Creator, claimed as God s very own. The good news of the Gospel, the good news of baptism, is that God declares you are enough. God accepts us just as we are, and God desires to do wonderful things for us and through us. Friends, we would benefit tremendously from remembering and claiming that our true identity is established in God s good and gracious acceptance of us. You are my beloved child, and with you I am well pleased! 3

4 Our reading from the book of Acts is also about questions of baptism and identity. The whole story revolves around the question of who can be included in this new movement of Christianity. What will the identity of the new church be will followers of Jesus be Jewish, or will the Christian faith move outside the boundaries of the Jewish cultural tradition? What individuals can be claimed by the Triune God though Baptism? Thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit moved in such a powerful way that transformed the early church s identity to include all God s children. Let me retell the story surrounding Peter s monumental speech to the Gentiles gathered at Cornelius home. The story begins with an angel of God coming to the non-jew Cornelius in a vision during Cornelius prayer. As Cornelius is introduced, the lines of who is in and who is out are already beginning to blur. Cornelius is a Roman centurion he is a leader in the army that occupies Israel. But he also is a devout man who practices prayer and gives money to the poor, and we learn an angel visits him in a vision. The Holy Spirit tells Cornelius to send for the apostle Peter and tells him exactly where they will find Peter. Meanwhile in the town of Joppa, Peter also has a vision while he s praying. Peter is up on the roof praying about noon while his hosts is preparing lunch. Peter is very hungry and falls into a trance. In Peter s vision there is a large sheet lowered from heaven and in the sheet were all kinds of animals notability many animals that were unclean animals that all Jews were forbidden to eat. Yet Peter heard God s voice saying: Get up, Peter, kill and eat. Peter, the good Jew, basically says No way. These are unclean animals, and I would never dishonor my religious beliefs or my God by eating what Scripture commands me not to eat. And yet the Devine voice responds What God has made clean, you must not call profane. This whole scenario happens 3 times God says eat, Peter says this goes against everything it means to be Jewish, then God responds What I have made clean, do not call unclean. Then the sheet with the animals is taken back up to heaven. It s a bizarre dream. I imagine it was just as bizarre for Peter as it sounds to us. The text says Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision, when suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. 4

5 So Peter is trying to make sense of this vision where God asking him to go against a core belief about what it is to be Jewish, and these Gentile men show up and tell Peter an angel of the Lord told their boss to send them to come find Peter, and bring Peter back with them. Just to make sure everyone understands that this is the Holy Spirit is at work, Acts tells us: While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation, for I have sent them. ii So Peter and some of his Jewish companions go to Cornelius home, a twoday journey by foot. By the time Peter arrives, Cornelius has gathered his friends and family to hear Peter s word. When Peter shows up, he starts by saying Just so everyone knows and to name the awkwardness, it is unlawful for me to be gathered with all you gentiles, but God told me to come, and so I have come. So, why did you send for me? Cornelius says basically well I sent for you because God told me in a dream to send for you. So Peter, here we are gathered to listen to what God has commanded you to say! Still trying to process this unfolding spiritual experience, somehow Peter speaks with amazing clarity: I truly understand that God shows no partiality! But ANYONE who fears God and does what it right is acceptable to God! And then to top it all off while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit falls upon everyone gathered even the gentiles! And just as had happened at Pentecost, now the Gentiles began speaking in tongues! And then Peter does the only thing he could do, they d already been baptized by the Spirit, so he says to his fellow Jews who traveled with him: let s baptism them with water in the name of Jesus Christ! And so with those first non-jewish baptisms the Holy Spirit transformed the early church s understanding of their identity, from a faith lodged in Jewish culture to a faith open to all Jew and non-jew. God s wild Holy Spirit is and always has been in the business of transformation. Throughout this story, Peter, the Rock, one who walked with Jesus through his earthly ministry, is yet again transformed and with him and through him, the whole church experiences transformation and conversion into a new identity rooted in God s acceptance of the other. 5

6 For the Christian faith is a journey. There is no arriving, not even for Peter, the Rock. We don t arrive at our baptism, we don t arrive at our confirmation, we don t arrive when our children are baptized, there is no arriving. We journey and thank God we journey with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God accepts us as we are and loves us for who we are. And then God invites us into deeper faithfulness prodding us along by the wild and unpredictable Holy Spirit. Biblical scholar Will Willimon says: Faith, when it comes down to it, is our often breathless attempt to keep up with the redemptive activity of God, to keep asking ourselves, What is God doing, where on earth is God s Spirit going now? iii Friends, May God continue to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us so that we learn to expand the boundaries of who we understand to be loved and accepted by God. For the good news is that WE are accepted and deeply loved by God, and that THEY also are accepted and loved by God. So Who are we? Why are we here? We are first and foremost God s beloved children, claimed as God s very own through our baptism. We are here to know and enjoy God s love and we re also here to love on God s children around us and remind them that they too are deeply loved by their Creator. May we all be attentive to the nudging of the Holy Spirit in our own lives so that we may be continually transformed into the people God created us to be and hopes that we become. Come, Holy Spirit, Come! Amen. i David Lose, Baptismal Problems and Promises article at ii Acts 10:19 iii Will Willimon, Interpretations, Acts. Page 99 6