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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