Acts 11:1-18. This is the Word of the Lord, (Thanks be to God) John 13:31-35

Transcription

1 Acts 11:1-18 Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them? Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, Get up, Peter; kill and eat. But I replied, By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a second time the voice answered from heaven, What God has made clean, you must not call profane. This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God? When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life. This is the Word of the Lord, (Thanks be to God) John 13:31-35 When he had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. This is the Word of the Lord, (Thanks be to God) 1

2 Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars. Those stars weren t so big. They were really so small. You might think such a thing wouldn t matter at all. But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches would brag, We re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches. With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they d snort We ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort! And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking, They d hike right on past them without even talking. When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball, Could a Plain Belly get in the game? Not at all. You only could play if your bellies had stars And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars. When the Star Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts, Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts, They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches. They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches. They kept them away. Never let them come near. And that s how they treated them year after year. - The Sneeches by Dr. Seuss We re good at us and them. Classic literature, Pop- Culture, ancient and modern history, local and global politics, clicks in elementary schools.these all tell the story of the human race and our tendency to categorize ourselves and others into them s and us s. Montague and Capulet, Capitalist and Communist, Republican and Democrat, Star Belly and Plain Belly, Rich and Poor, Jew and Gentile, Christian and not-christian. I appreciate the simple social commentary offered by Dr. Seuss s books. He has an uncanny way of stripping reality down to the bone. The Sneeches is one of my favorites. It sheds light on the kind of things we think separate us from other people. As human beings living together, we re good at making categories and placing ourselves within those categories - and we re good at building walls between those categories- between the us s and the them s. The categories we make are as silly as star bellies and plain bellies and it something we need to get over. 2

3 Our scripture today from the book of Acts tells the story of the early church s struggle with categories: Jews and Gentiles; Clean and Unclean. This story encourages us to make no distinction between the categories that we make to make no distinction between the them s and the us s of our daily lives. In the story you just heard Peter is defending his actions to a group of angry Jewish converts. These Jewish Christians are angry that Peter baptized Gentiles into the Christian faith. The passage you heard a moment ago is actually the end of the story. The story actually begins in chapter 10, where we meet a man named Cornelius who is a centurion from Caesrea. As you will remember, centurion means he was a member of the Roman army in other words: NOT Jewish. Cornelius has a vision where God tells him to go to a place called Joppa and seek out Peter. God tells Cornelius that Peter has a message for him. So Cornelius goes. Meanwhile, in Joppa, Peter has a vision the vision that he re-told in our passage for today. This was a weird vision where a sheet came down from heaven as if it were held on the four corners carried inside this sheet were all kinds of four footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Peter hears a voice from heaven say, Get up, Peter; Kill and eat. Pause Remember that there were very strict dietary restrictions according to Jewish Law. Jews were very careful about what they ate, so as to honor God s commandments. So this command in Peter s vision is startling. God is telling Peter to eat animals Jewish law deems unclean. Unpause Peter says to God, By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean. The voice replies, What God has made clean, you must not call profane. This happens three times and then the sheet goes back into heaven. Peter is confused about this vision and while he is musing the Holy Spirit says 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 So Peter goes down and meets Cornelius who has traveled to see him. Cornelius tells Peter about what the Lord told him to do, and that Peter has a message from God. So Peter tells Cornelius all about Jesus. While Peter was telling Cornelius the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit falls upon all who were there Jews and Gentiles alike and Peter baptizes all of them in the name of Jesus Christ. The message in Peter s vision becomes clear in the events that followed with Cornelius the Gentile. The message is this: there is nothing and no one that is unclean in the eyes of the Lord. In the blood of Jesus Christ all are called and welcomed into the family of God. Jews and Gentiles alike. In the eyes of God, there are no starbelly Sneeches and plainbelly Sneeches just Sneeches. 3

4 Now we get to the portion we read for today. When the Jewish converts in Judea hear that Gentiles had been given and accepted the Word of God and that they have been baptized, they were not happy. The Jewish converts felt that they had a hold on truth: they alone were chosen of God and they were angry that Peter was breaking down the wall between the us of Jewish believers and the them of Gentile believers. So Peter tells them of his vision and ends with this whammy: Peter says: If God then gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God? Scripture says that when they heard this, they were silenced. When they found their words again, they praised God, saying, Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life them and us. star-belly and plain-belly. God makes no distinction. Neither should we. Just as these first Jewish converts in Judea, we are called to make no distinction between them and us. Jesus says: Love one another. Love your brother and your sister as yourself. Is that all we have to do? Love people? That sounds easy enough to do: break down barriers. Love other people..but our own experience in the world tells us otherwise. It is not easy to treat everyone as equal, to refuse to make distinction between ourselves and others. It is much easier to go on living in our little boxes separated by sturdy walls. It s much easier to separate ourselves by economic status, race, sexual orentation, religious belief, geographic location, or any of the other ways we categorize ourselves and others. Us and Them. Clean and Unclean. The first way to break down the barriers we ve created is to stop thinking about ourselves in categories. When we think about ourselves in these stark dualities the us s and them s become obscured the us s and them s cease to be people and families and become abstracted into monoliths: THEM and US STARBELLIES and PLAINBELLIES SINNERS and THE SAVED 4

5 Creating categories of us and them creates fear and arrogance. That fear and arrogance inspires us to build fences and walls. These walls keep others out, or in the case of the famous Berlin wall keep people in. Walls make us feel safe. Walls give us the false impression that we are in control and we can control our world. Where have you built walls in your own heart? Are those walls keeping you safe? Are you trying to keep people out, or keep them in? What are you afraid of? Just like those first Jewish converts, Christ calls us to break down all barriers that separate us from other people. Christ calls us to trust that God knows what God is doing. Our job is not to make judgments, but instead to love our brothers and sisters. Jesus says, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. From whatever perspective you come from: take a good hard look at the way you view this community, how this community views itself. Do we have us s and thems here at Oneida First? Do we view ourselves as the us and others as the them? Do we make a distinction between us and the people in the larger community? Do we make distinction between God s money spent here at home and God s money spent somewhere in the larger ministry of the denomination? Who are the us s and the them s in our community life? As a community, and individuals of this community, we need to be aware of barriers that exist in our midst, and enlist God s help to break them down. We break down barriers by loving other people unconditionally. We break down barriers by welcoming all who come through our doors and by treating every person we meet as we would our brother or sister. We break down barriers by reaching out with our actions and our dollars to do mission work in the community of Oneida AND committing ourselves to pay our portion of the larger mission of the United Methodist Church through shared ministry. We break down barriers by trusting God and loving other people. Hopefully, with God s help, we can consistently make the hard choices and choose to build bridges of love over the barriers that exist between us and other people. If we do this, hopefully our story will end like the story of the Sneeches: 5

6 But Mr. McBean was quite wrong. I m happy to say. That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day. The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches. And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether They had one, or not, upon thars. Jesus Said, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Amen. 6