Who's a stranger? (Acts 11.1-18, John 13.31-35)

 


When we think about our lives as Christians, I wonder what you think the most important thing is?

Is it saying your prayers? Is it reading the Bible or is it doing exactly what the Vicar wants you to?

All of those things are of course important, but the question is, what is it that sets us apart as Christians? What is the maker’s mark in our lives?

Today we’ve got two Bible readings all about discipleship, and what it means for us to be Christians.

There’s a division within the church in Peter’s time. I know it’s hard to believe but the church was divided over what men should and shouldn’t do with their willies… Couldn’t imagine such arguments happening now could you.

But behind this division was a bigger problem, something that the church was wrestling with. What does it mean to be a Christian? Who’s in and who’s out? What kind of purity laws should we be keeping.

It’s obvious to those of the circumcision party, though I doubt they’d win many local election seats… They wanted everyone to abide by the previous and traditional rules of Judaism.

While Peter explained through his story that actually, was that really necessary now the new covenant through Christ had been ushered in?

God told Peter, nothing is unclean. That goes for food, and it also goes for people too. There’s nobody that’s untouchable, nobody that isn’t included in God’s gracious promises to all humankind. Nobody who can’t be a Christian.

Back then Judaism was very based in not just physical purity, but ethnic purity too. What you did and who you were related to were really important.

But Paul and Peter began to sweep this idea away, with a notion that God is bigger than that.

Great stuff, you might think, but for those who had dedicated themselves to a certain level of purity, this must’ve been so difficult to hear.

I wonder if we’ve ever been in that situation? Where we believe in something, or have worked really hard on a project, and then someone just comes in and blasts it all open.

Perhaps you’ve had a friendship or a group that you’ve been part of, then all of a sudden other people join and it makes you feel a bit threatened, or perhaps resentful. This is my space, these are my people, I don’t want this interloper here. You in’t from round hare.

Sometimes we find ourselves surprisingly threatened by things, and our role as Christians is to often supress that urge to reject, and do what God does, embrace. Embrace wildly and compassionately.

Embrace others as God embraces who we are.

Peter’s message is an age old one, we don’t have to be threatened by difference.

I’ve found myself increasingly alarmed at the tone that’s coming out of Downing St recently. The anti-immigration rhetoric that is currently all the rage. It is damaging. It has emboldened racist discourse in this country. Nobody seems to be talking about the benefits of immigration. Nobody is talking about compassion for people fleeing war, famine or persecution.

An example from the past is in this great city of Norwich. In the 1500’s the Strangers came. Religious refugees who were fleeing persecution.

They made up about a third of Norwich's population. During this time it was just as common to hear Dutch or French on the streets of Norwich as it was English...and elements of the accents and the grammar of the strangers (not to mention the changing use of English plurals) have influenced the Norwich accent that we hear today. Even the fact that the canary is the symbol of Norwich is due to the Dutch and Flemish weavers who brought canaries with them.

With them they brought skills in weaving. There's still the "strangers church" in Norwich, where you can see the family names of the refugees as well as some of the weaves they brought with them. Skills which made Norwich the weaving capital of the country and the second city during this period.

When the Prime Minister complains about "an island of strangers" I think of the Norwich strangers. People who enriched the city, who influenced the accent and who made Norwich the second city.

We are not ethnically better than anyone else. We are not superior we’re Christian or we’re from here. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek. In Christ we love everyone, wherever they’re from.

The point of being a Christian isn’t about conforming to some kind of Godly rulebook, the point of being a Christian isn’t about purity, it’s purely about salvation and God’s love for all of us. Once we’ve got that the rest all falls in to place.

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: “John baptised with[a] water, but you will be baptised with[b] the Holy Spirit.” 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?’

Who was I to think I could stand in God’s way?

Our role as Christians is not to be some kind of holy gatekeepers, keeping some in and some out. We’re not a club, but a body of people. We are the body of Christ.

Who was I to think I could stand in God’s way? The Holy Spirit is spontaneous and contagious! She is part of the divine dance, and calls us into relationship with God and with each other. The Holy Spirit acts in unexpected ways, and definitely and always against prejudice and exclusion.

Slavery is biblical, it’s there in the Bible and it was fine for Christians to have slaves for hundreds of years. For over three hundred years we enslaved African people because of the colour of their skin. We beat and abused them, and made them work on the land for nothing.

Then, the Holy Spirit inspired a movement of British Christians to say no, this isn’t Christ-like. And society changed.

It used to be that women could not be ordained in the church, that this role was only to be fulfilled by men, because only they could be made in the image of Christ.

Then the Holy Spirit cried out, and within the church a movement started, and women were included. The Spirit has been lavished, poured upon women ministers in the Church and we’re all much better off for it, with the whole of humanity able to serve behind the altar of God.

Thanks be to God for change, for development, for growth. Our faith is a living and breathing thing, a spontaneous and joyful thing, a dance, a song, a path that we walk, a way of being. Which is far more important than memorising the book, or knowing all the rules.

The nice thing is that in this story from Acts, once the circumcised believers hear Peter’s testimony, they accept it. If only all arguments were as easy as that eh?

The point of this story from acts is that the Holy Spirit works in unexpected ways, and with the people we might not expect her too. God has given us gifts, all of us, of the Spirit, to share His spontaneous love with the whole of the world.

It’s hard to do that though isn’t it, in a world full of difficulty, conflict and betrayal. Jesus was no stranger to betrayal. Just before our Gospel passage today Jesus said to Judas: What you are about to do, do quickly.

Jesus knows what it feels like to be betrayed. But he gives them and us a new commandment. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Disciples are not made clean or unclean by whether they are circumcised or not. They are not saved by what they do, but by who Jesus is, and saved by this simple and yet incredibly difficult command. Love.

Measure everything with the yardstick of love. That’s how people know we follow Jesus. Through the love we exhibit, even in times of pain and betrayal.

Amen.

Photo by fauxels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-of-people-standing-indoors-3184396/

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