"O For A World"

A Sermon to Welcome and Affirm Gays

Rev. Doug Hodges

Interim Pastor

United Church of Christ of Fredericksburg  

Acts 10:1-11:18

 "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."  Acts 10:34

This text is part of a story called the Conversion of Cornelius which occupies all of the 10th chapter of Acts and the first 18 verses of the next chapter.  That's 66 verses, which makes this story the longest single story in the book of Acts.  Why does Luke devote so many verses to the story?  As far as Luke was concerned, this was not just another story of Christian conversion.  This was the story of the conversion of the first gentile.  This story marked a "C" change in the life of the church.

Let's begin the story with Peter.  He was the man who spoke those remarkable words that we used for our text:  "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."

But before Peter could say those words, he had a dream.  A dream that seemed to go against everything Peter knew was right and true.  

At the time Peter was visiting in Joppa—near the modern city of Tel-Aviv.  It was about noon.  Peter went up on the sun deck roof to pray as he waited for lunch.  There he started dreaming about food a large table cloth was let down from heaven filled with food.  Pork chops.  Virginia ham.  Stone crabs from Joe's in Miami Beach.  It was all free.  All Peter had to do was fix the meal.  In the vision God said, "Rise Peter, kill and eat."

But Peter was troubled.  This was not the way things should be.  Peter knew there were certain things you could not eat.  It was wrong to eat pig meat.  Pigs were unclean.  And shell fish.  "Anything in the seas or streams that does not have fins is detestable and you shall not eat."  It was right there in the 11th chapter of Leviticus, verses 7 and 11.  That was the proof text.  Plain and simple. 

Some foods were clean.  Some foods were unclean.  But it was more than a matter of food.  It was also a matter of people.  Take Jews and Gentiles for example.

There were Gentiles.  And there were Jews.  The Jews were God's chosen people.  And the Gentiles were not.  Jews ate clean food.  Gentiles ate unclean food.  And God only knew what other detestable things Gentiles did.  Yes, there were good Gentiles.  They believed in God and they tried to follow God.  But they were still Gentiles.  The law said that a clean Jew, who observed the law, could not enter the house of an unclean Gentile who did not observe the law.  The law also said that while an unclean Gentile could enter the outer court yard of the temple, the Gentile could not go inside the temple.  That was the law.  That was the natural order of things. 

Scripture doesn't tell us everything that was going through the mind of Peter as he sat there, puzzled, pondering the meaning of this vision.  But I can well imagine that he thought about a simpler time.  A time when he was only a fisherman on the lake of Galilee.  A time when the purpose of life seem to be to catch fish.  Then one day Jesus came along and Peter's life was changed.  Jesus called Peter to leave the fish nets and follow him.  Peter followed

But all that seemed so long ago.  Jesus had been crucified.  Then on Easter Sunday, Jesus had been resurrected from the death.  And that event transformed not only Jesus, but it also transformed Peter.  Forty days after Easter, Jesus went back to God.  But Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and give the followers of Jesus power.  Then ten days later, on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and the disciples were empowered to preach Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected.  The Church of Jesus Christ was born on that day.

And every since the day of Pentecost "the times they had been a changing."  First, the church was just, "our kind of people."  That meant Jewish people who had followed Jesus in Galilee and Judea or Jewish people who were visiting Jerusalem from other countries on the day of Pentecost.  But now the church was moving out.  Peter has already been to Samaria and baptized a man.  The man was probably Jewish.  But Samaritans were iffy people.  Sorta Jews.  Sorta not Jews.  And Phillip had baptized an official of the queen of Ethiopia.  Again this official had probably already converted to Judaism, so he was not in the strictest sense, a gentile.  But more than likely, he wasn't in the strictest sense, a descendant of Abraham, either.  The rules about who were God's people and who were not God's people were beginning to get a little bit fuzzy.         What about the Gentile question?  What about Gentiles who had no intention of changing their life style and submitting to kosher diet regulations and to circumcision?  Could God love openly and avowed Gentiles? 

Well, while Peter was sitting there pondering the meaning of this dream and all the issues it raised, someone yelled up to the sun deck, "Hey Peter, You've got visitors!"

Now I started this story in the middle of the tenth chapter.  Actually if I had started at the first, you would have learned about a man named Cornelius.  Cornelius was a Roman military officer—a Centurion, captain of 100 men.  And Cornelius was an openly avowed Gentile.  Luke also describes Cornelius as a good man, who feared God and gave generously to the poor.  And like Peter, Cornelius also had a transforming spiritual experience.  An angel appeared to Cornelius and told him to send to Joppa for Peter.  So Cornelius sent three men to Joppa to ask Peter to make a pastoral visit.  Now these men from Cornelius had arrived at the house where Peter was staying.

Remember someone was yelling at Peter to come down because he had visitors.  Actually that wasn't anyone in the house.  That was the Holy Spirit.  Now Peter is having another spiritual experience.  The Holy Spirit is speaking to Peter and telling him to welcome the emissaries from Cornelius and go with them to Cornelius, because Cornelius wants to hear what you have to say.

To make a long, 66 verse story short, Peter went with the men to Cornelius.  He entered the house of the unclean Gentile and told Cornelius the story of Jesus.  When Peter finishes the story, Cornelius had an eerie experience and probably means Cornelius began to speak in a strange ruptured speech, we call "glossilia."  This strange speech, peculiar as it sounds to us, served for Peter as evidence that conversion of Cornelius was genuine.  The next thing we know, Peter was asking, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"  Then chapter ends with the baptism of Cornelius and his household. 

In the first century of the Christian church the burning issue of the day was the acceptance of Gentiles.  Could Gentiles become Christians?  What about the scriptures that say Gentiles could not enter the house of God?  Could the church except Gentile clergy?  Would Gentiles have to change their uncircumcised life style and become circumcised?  Where was the Holy Spirit leading the church?  What was God saying to the church about the Gentile issue? 

The tenth chapter of Acts, the chapters that follow and the epistles of Paul worked out these issues.  Gentiles became part of the Christian church.  Gentiles did not have to change their lifestyle—i.e. they did not have to give up eating pork chops and they did not have to become circumcised.  The church accepted Gentile clergy.  And the church even allowed Gentiles to marry. 

Today, as you and I hear this ancient story about Peter's growing faith and about the conversion of a Gentile named Cornelius, we can hear the story speaking to us in several ways. 

Yes, the story tells us that God accepts Jews and Gentiles.  Yes, the story gives us a remarkable insight into the struggle the first century church had with this issue.  And perhaps, as some people might argue, that's all the story tells us.  That's all there is, there ain't no more.  The church of Jesus Christ is a Gentile Church, not a Jewish church.  In that case the message of the story is almost a moot point. 

But many of us in the United Church of Christ believe there is more.  We believe in a God who is still speaking.  We believe in a God who is calling us to listen to that story through the hurt and pain of 21st century people who have largely been excluded from the life and work of the church.  You see, as I hear that ancient story, I hear not only God telling the church that Gentiles are included as part of the whole world that God loves and Jesus came to save.  But I also hear the Still Speaking God telling the church of the 21st century that many other people, including Gays, are included in the list of God's people.  

The United Church of Christ has come down strongly on the side of welcoming and accepting Gays.  Two years ago the General Synod of the United Church of Christ supported a resolution calling for gays to have the same equality in marriage as straight people have.  Many associations of the United Church of Christ, including our own, ordain openly gay people.  Many congregations of the United Church of Christ, including our own are designated as Open and Affirming, meaning that we welcome and affirm everyone regardless of sexual orientation, economic status, physical ability or mental ability, race, gender or marital status.  We say, you are welcome here regardless of where you are on life's journey.    

Now I realize that not all churches agree with the stance this congregation and many congregations of the United Church of Christ take.  I also realize that there are some within the United Church of Christ who do not agree with this stand.

Even as there were those within the ancient church who no doubt quoted scripture to Peter and said his stance on Gentiles was contrary to scripture, so there are those who would say that the stance of an Open and Affirming Congregation is against the stand of scripture.  It's true.  There are passages in Leviticus that condemn homosexuals.  There are also passages in Leviticus that condemn people who eat Maryland crabs and Virginia ham.  There are passages in the writing of Paul that condemn homosexuals.  And there are passages in Paul that require women to wear veils and not to participate in church services.  I'm not going to take time this morning for a detailed discussion of these passages, but I will include some of them on the web page in an appendix to this sermon. 

However, to me, one of the important issues to consider when interpreting any passage of scripture is the question "Where Did Jesus stand on this issue?"

 So what did Jesus say about homosexuality.  What strong language did Jesus use to condemn gays?  Now if you are hoping to sit here another hour and listen as I explain all the passages where Jesus condemns gays—you will be disappointed.  How many times does Jesus condemn gays?  Not one.  What Jesus says is that God loved the world---that's the whole world—rich and poor, black and white, male and female, gay and straight.  God loved the whole world so much that he sent his son that whoever believed in him –rich or poor, black or white, male of female, gay or straight—may have eternal life.

The tenth chapter of the book of Acts is a pivotal chapter in the book and Acts and indeed in the whole of the New Testament.  It's the story of the church officially reaching out beyond its own kind of people to welcome and share God's extravert love with Gentiles.  Long ago God was speaking through the writer of the book of Acts and telling the Church of the first century that God loves and accepts Gentile just as they are.  God did not ask the Gentile to change their non kosher lifestyle.  God only asked that they live good and upright lives and follow him.  For we believe as Peter said long ago,

"We truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone (gay or straight, male or female, rich or poor, black, white or brown) anyone who holds God in awe and does what is right is acceptable to God."

 O for a world where everyone respects each other's ways,

Where love is lived and all is done with justice and with praise.

O for a world preparing for God's glorious reign of peace,

Where time and tears will be no more and all but love will cease.