Who Then Are We? -- Acts 11:1-18 (4th Sunday of Easter)

Scott Clark
2 days ago
8 min read

Photo credit: Koen Emmers, used with permission via Unsplash

To listen to the sermon, you can click here.

One of the things I did while I was away this past couple weeks was to serve as part our denomination’s judicial commission – that weird gig I have. I say weird because when I say that to folks who ask what I’ve been up to – “I’ve been serving on our denomination’s judicial commission” – I often get strange looks:

“Your church... has a court... with like cases and controversies..?”

Well, yes, I try to explain. We’re human. We have disagreements. Like any community, we carry traditions that are based in important values – love, justice, human dignity. And when new situations arise, sometimes we disagree about how those traditions and values should be applied and lived out – in this moment, in our day.

For example, this time, the Judicial Commission heard two cases– one involved issues of language interpretation in a multicultural setting. There was a Korean-speaking community that had asked a lower judicial commission to help them resolve a dispute. The members of that judicial commission, though, were all English-speaking. And so the issue (when it was appealed to us) was: What is our responsibility – when we serve those whose language we do not speak – to make sure that everyone can be heard and understood? That’s important to figure out... for the sake of love, justice, and human dignity. And so we did our best to reason it out.

Hmmm. “So your church... has a court... with like cases and controversies...” What kind of church does that?

Well, the earliest church. The very first church. In those days after Resurrection, in the experience of Pentecost – that’s what is happening in this morning’s Scripture.[1] Peter is called in because he has broken a rule, and the leaders of the community want him to explain. There is a controversy, and the community gathers to reason it out.

Now, I should say two things up front. I’m hesitant when I call this “the early church.” Because what we now call Christianity was, at that time, an emerging movement – what they would have called “The Way.” What we see in this morning’s Scripture takes place, really, even before “the early church” had started to take shape. Everyone speaking in this story is Jewish. They are folks (1) who are steeped in the tradition, and (2) who are trying to figure out how the teachings of Jesus and their experience of Resurrection – how all that fits together.[2]

I should also say that the rule that Peter has broken is no small thing. It goes to the issue of identity.[3] We’ve noted this before: At the time of Jesus, the Jewish people had, for centuries, been a people living under the rule of successive empires. Their traditions helped them say and remember who they were – a people loved by God, even in the midst of a menacing world.

Those traditions included (1) keeping to strict dietary restrictions (eating only what was deemed “clean,” avoiding what was deemed “unclean”), and (2) marking their identity on the male bodies in the community through the ritual of circumcision. It was vital to protect that identity, and that meant that they wouldn’t have interacted intimately with those who were outside that identity. They wouldn’t have gathered at table with them for a meal; they certainly wouldn’t have slept under their roof.

Peter has just done all that. Peter has met with this Cornelius – not just a Gentile, but a Roman – a Roman soldier.[4] And, at the same time, this Cornelius is known as being a devout man seeking to follow the way of Jesus, one who gives to the poor, and is known for his good and gentle works. Peter has a vision; a voice from heaven tells him to go visit Cornelius. Peter has a conversation with Cornelieus, and as Perer is talking about Resurrection, he sees the Spirit descend on Cornelius and his household. And so Peter baptizes Cornelius and his household; he eats with them; and he then stays with them. Peter has broken the rule.

And so the leaders call Peter in, and ask him to explain. They are struggling to figure all this out... together. They have these traditions that have sustained them for centuries, and they have encountered the teachings of Jesus and experienced Resurrection.

The leaders who call Peter in – rather awkwardly called here “the circumcision party” – they hold that to enter into this Way of Jesus, folks most first embrace the traditions – they must keep the dietary restrictions, the men must be circumcised. Then, you can be baptized into the Way. You must embrace the things that embody for us who were are – a people beloved by God.

Remember: Just a week before this, Peter thought that too.

They hold those traditions dear. And this community has experienced Resurrection. Jesus himself had reached out beyond what was thought proper. He ate at table with those who were deemed unclean. He touched broken bodies. Jesus has been crucified, but then raised to new life. And, then, at Pentecost, the Spirit has descended, and they have heard the Good News proclaimed in all the languages of the world, and the empowerment of “all people.” And, then, folks keep experiencing this Spirit, and keep getting baptized – even folks outside the tradition, like an Ethiopian Eunuch. This guy Saul, one of the most zealous among them – now calls himself Paul – and says that God has called him to take the Good News to the Gentiles. It is a chaotic, challenging time.

The question before them is a serious one: What do we do now with our traditions in this experience of Resurrection and this wildly empowering Spirit? Who is now “in” and how?

The leaders call Peter in and they confront him for breaking the rules: Who are you? Who are you to unilaterally set aside our traditions? Who are you?

And Peter says, “Who am I?” Well, let me tell you about this vision I had. Peter has had a vision of a sheet descending. In worship team, I said I thought this sheet was like a movie screen. Someone else said it was like that blanket or parachute that we’d hold and wave up and down when we were kids. I read scholars who liken it to a picnic blanket.[5] Who knows – it’s a vision.

And there are all these animals – all the ones you’re not supposed to eat. And Peter hears a voice from heaven say, “Kill and eat.” (OK, not the most gentle vision.) Mitzi Smith calls this “ a carnal feast of scavengers and bottom feeders” – all the things you are forbidden to eat.[6] But the voice from heaven basically says: Break the rule. Or better yet, There is no rule. There is no distinction. The voice from heaven says: “Do not call impure anything that God has made clean.” The voice from heaven says, “No more separation.”

And Peter is perplexed. What could this wild vision mean? He’s perplexed... until he meets Cornelieus, and it all becomes embodied.[7] Peter realizes that this vision is about people, and he says, “I see now that God makes no distinction. God accepts people from every nation.” And so he starts to share the Good News of Resurrection with Cornelius and his household, and Peter watches as the Spirit descends on them, just like it has on everyone else at Pentecost – no distinction, no separation – one Spirit, one Body, one people – every one of them a beloved child of God.

Peter tells the religious leaders all this. You say to me, “Who are you?” The question for me is really this: “Who am I to hinder God? Who am I to say “no” when God says “yes?”And the Scripture says, that to that, the room fell silent. [SILENCE] And then everyone rejoiced.

It probably won’t surprise you that all this reminds me of Janie Spahr’s court cases. Years ago, Rev. Dr. Janie Sphar started celebrating the marriages of same-gender couples – embracing their families in the name of Jesus. And the denomination, this presbytery, the court I now moderate – they called Janie in, and they said, “Who are you?” We have rules. We have, for years, described marriage in one particular way – one man, one woman. Who are you to say that this blessing might include families different from that?

And there were trials (I was one of Janie's lawyers). And Janie said, again and again, “These couples have come to me and asked me to celebrate their love and their family. You ask me, “How could I say yes? I ask you, “How could I say no?” We follow Jesus. God’s love for us in Jesus Christ is for all people, and God calls us to celebrate, embody, and support love that reflects God’s justice and love for all people. Janie said, essentially, “Who am I to hinder God?” And Janie said yes, and we know the rest of the story.

This Scripture presents us with these two questions: (1) Who are you? Who are you to expand the things we have thought to be true for so long? And, (2) Who am I to hinder God? Who am I to say no, where God says yes?

Who are you? Who am I? Underlying those two questions is the even bigger question: Who are we?

And to that question, this Scripture points us to a vision and a sacrament.

This Scripture opens up for us this vision where no one is called unclean; no one outside of God’s love; no one outside the embrace of community. This vision and Peter’s embodied experience of Cornelius tell us that there is no separation, no dividing wall, no out and in. God makes no distinction. The Spirit falls on everyone – all nations – all genders – all people. Everyone is welcome in – all the way in – to the waters of baptism.

Today, we celebrate baptism. Baptism is where we enact and embody this vision in our bodies and in our lives – where we name and remember and celebrate God’s loving embrace of all people. In baptism, we tell the Good News of Resurrection, as in the waters, we enter into the death and rising again of Jesus Christ. The living waters of baptism remind us all over again that everything that lies ahead is life. We experience the gift of the Holy Spirit breathed into all people. In the waters of baptism, we say to each other: This is who you are... a beloved child of God... all of us together the very body of Christ, created and empowered to love and serve and heal a hurting world.

Today, we are going to baptize Rylee Sue Perez. Baptizing a little one reminds us that in baptism we are saying something that is already true. This is all about God’s grace – God’s unshakeoffable love – that comes to us long before we can name it or understand it. This is not so much about our choosing, as it is about God’s choosing – God’s choosing us and everyone and every bit of creation.

There is no separation, no distinction. Everyone is welcome in. God loves everyone. No exceptions. That is the truth that we celebrate today.

Now, I’ve said before that one of my preaching mentors – Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr. – says that every sermon has to give us “something to do.” So here’s our something to do: Let’s baptize Rylee Sue Perez. Let’s claim these promises for her, and for us, and for all creation. God’s unshakeoffable love is for all people, everywhere, all the time. It will be so for Rylee every moment of her life, and for all of us, forever.

We are enacting and embodying something that has always been true, as we experience – right here, right now – that love coming to life all over again.

To that good news, let what we do here be our Amen.

[1] For general background on this text and the Acts of the Apostles, see Marianne Blickenstaff, Commentary in Connections, Year C, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), pp.251-52; Gary W. Charles, Commentary in Connections, Year C, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), pp.249-50; Justo L. González, Acts (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001); Mitzi J. Smith, Commentary on Working Preacher at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-111-18 ; Robert W. Wall, “The Acts of the Apostles,” New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary, vol. x (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002).