No Distinctions
Acts 11:1-18[1]
Last week we
talked about how the church in our day doesn’t exactly have a positive image,
at least in our culture at large. One of the things the church is known for is
being perceived as stuck in a rut. We are judged to be “out of date” in our
attitudes, in our thinking, and in our worship. Indeed, the basic order of
worship we follow dates back 1400 years! And, of course, it’s a curious fact
that when you walk into some churches, you can tell when they stopped adapting,
because their clothing, their hair styles, even their patterns of speech
reflect a particular time. Some of the most obvious examples are the Mennonites
and the Amish. But it’s found in churches of all stripes.
In this church,
however, we have embraced more than twenty significant changes or innovations
in the last 5 years! Of course, not everyone has been 100 per cent on board
with every one of those changes. But for a church, that’s a lot of change! And
I think it raises a question for us as a church: when is change something to be
embraced, and when should we stay with tradition? That’s not an easy question
to answer. I think most of us in the church have had to live with the tension
of wanting to change in order to grow, but also wanting to maintain traditions
that define the church for us.
In our Scripture
lesson from the book of Acts for today, we get to “listen in” on how the early
church dealt with change. In fact, I think calling it a “change” is a vast
understatement. The issue they were dealing with very likely felt more like an
earthquake that was shaking loose all the foundations upon which their faith
and their life were built! Peter had preached the gospel to Gentiles. For us
that seems logical, because we assume that was the trajectory of the Gospel:
from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But the
actual working out of that trajectory involved negotiating some very tricky
pitfalls surrounding the relationship between the Jewish people and those they
considered “Gentiles.”
By the time of
the New Testament, the Jewish people had been forced to find a way to interact
with Gentiles for several hundred years. They had been spread across the
Mediterranean world, beginning with the Babylonian exile 700 years before
Jesus. One of the ways that people groups survive being dispersed among other
cultures is to define certain “boundary markers” that are considered absolute.
For the Jewish people, they were circumcision (as a religious rite), keeping
the Sabbath, and observing the food laws regarding what was “clean” and
“unclean.” These were non-negotiable; they were the boundaries that protected
Jewish identity. The Jewish people viewed making distinctions between who’s
“in” and who’s “out” as a matter of survival.
In our lesson, we
hear about Peter’s experience with preaching the gospel to the household of a
Roman centurion named Cornelius. This constituted more than a logical next step
in the Christian mission. It was a blurring of the distinctions that secured
what it meant to be Jewish in a world where that seemed to be threatened at
every turn. So it should come as no surprise that when Peter’s actions were
reported in Jerusalem, the complaint against him was that he went to
“uncircumcised men” and ate with them (Acts 11:3). The primary concern was not
over the fact that he had baptized Gentiles as converts to the faith. Rather,
it was that he had broken the boundaries that protected their Jewish identity,
and they felt threatened by that!
Peter replies by
recounting, “step by step,” the process by which he had been led to do such a
“scandalous” thing. He begins by telling them about the vision he had of being
commanded to eat all kinds of foods that were considered “unclean” by the Torah of Moses. In response he objected,
“By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth”
(Acts 11:8). The answer he received was, “What God has made clean, you must not
call profane.” Obviously, Peter claims he was led to cross the Jewish boundary
lines by a vision from God. Beyond that, when the men from Cornelius came to
the house and asked for Peter, he tells them that “The Spirit told me to go
with them and not to make a distinction between them and us” (Acts 11:12).
Now, so far,
we’re completely in the realm of Peter’s own personal spiritual experience.
And, of course, relying on individual experience alone is not always the wisest
course. But Peter goes on to recount that as soon as he began to proclaim the
gospel to the Gentiles, “the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us
at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). Now we’re dealing with the experience of a
larger group of people. Beyond that, Peter used “the word of the Lord” to
interpret this boundary-breaking experience. He recalled that Jesus said, “John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts
11:16). Peter’s conclusion was straightforward: “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?” (Acts 11:17).
I know that
change is difficult for most of us. I’ve been through my fair share of changes,
both those I embraced and those I resisted, and believe me, I understand. But
if the church is to remain vital and relevant through changing times, we may
have to give up some of the “boundaries” and “distinctions” we have relied upon
to feel stable and secure. We will have to be open to the working of the Spirit
among us. As we together try to discern the guidance of the Spirit, we can
continue to look to the word of the Lord to guide us. With the guidance of the
Spirit, the Scriptures, and the community in which we seek together to discern
our path, we can learn to let go the human distinctions we may rely on for
stability and security, and trust God to lead us.
[1] ©Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm
on 5/19/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
