Equal Love

"What God has made clean, you shall not call profane."

Today's Readings: Acts 10: [1-43] 44-48; John 15:8-17

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On the church calendar, we are still in the season of Easter. After Jesus was resurrected he spent some more time on earth and had many conversations with the disciples. Before he ascended into heaven, he not only promised he would return someday, bringing the kingdom of God (which we only now catch in glimpses) to fullness – but he promised that although he would no longer physically be on Earth, God would still remain present and active through the Holy Spirit. In just a couple of weeks then we will have Pentecost; which signifies that moment when the Spirit takes over, catching fire in the hearts of the disciples and many many more.

Our readings this morning sort of straddle that line, between Jesus’ farewell discourse to the disciples in the Gospel of John to the book of Acts where we see the Spirit falling upon Gentiles. We hear Jesus explaining radical love to the disciples and then in Acts, Peter also trying to speak of that radical love before the Spirit interrupts his sermon and shows what that love truly entails. This story in Acts is so powerful, I hate that they only give us the last few lines. It’s as if we have chosen a great book and then only read the last page! So let’s back up a bit:

This is the story of Peter and Cornelius the centurion. Now, let us remember that Jesus was a Jewish man, as were all of the disciples and apostles, they were of the Jewish faith AND believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Now they are wrestling with the fact that they are being kicked out of their synagogues and are forming a new kind of community from scratch. They are wondering what the rules are and who is in and who is out. They are still following the Jewish law of circumcision and eating a kosher diet, which leads them to question, do others who believe Jesus to be the Messiah need to adhere to these Jewish traditions? What in the world are the NEW requirements?!

God enters the scene (thank goodness) to try and clear some things up. Cornelius, who despite being a centurion for the Roman Empire is a devout, God fearing man! God comes to him in a vision and insists he call for a visit by Peter. God also then goes to Peter and through a vision shows Peter a bunch of animals Jewish followers were forbidden to eat, for they were unclean. Yet God tells Peter, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened 3 times before the Spirit alerted Peter to Cornelius’ men who were at his door with an invitation.

When Peter arrives at the home of Cornelius, he names the absurdity of the situation declaring, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile, BUT” he goes on to say, “God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So why have you sent for me?” Wow. This is a breakthrough moment. Not only has God shown Peter not to call certain creatures/food profane, but not to call other PEOPLE profane! In this very moment, walls are being torn down, borders are being crossed, lines of divisions are being erased! This alone is enough to produce goosebumps, but Cornelius goes on to invite Peter to proclaim whatever message God had “commanded him to say.”

Peter then begins his sermon with “I truly understand that Gods shows NO partiality!” He goes on to speak of the peace of Christ, how Christ is the true ruler of all, and how this message may have started in Jerusalem with the Jewish people, but has spread and will spread throughout ALL nations! Then we finally get to the excerpt we heard in our first reading this morning, as the Spirit interrupts Peter mid sermon to descend on all who were listening! The circumcised believers (Peter and the Jewish men who came along with him) were astounded that the Spirit fell even upon these Gentiles. Even after admitting God shows no partiality, even after admitting that we cannot call what God created profane, they are still ASTONISHED to witness the Spirit falling upon this centurion and his gentile family and friends! They all began to speak in tongues and praise God and Peter exclaimed in holy wonder, “Can anything keep these people from being baptized right here, right now?” And not only did he baptize them, but he decided to stay awhile.

I could preach on this story alone for WEEKS. Wow! Just wow! What a way to bring Jesus’ commandment of love to life! “Love one another as I have loved you, not as your master, but as equals.” This is a beautiful sentiment I do believe as Christians we know, but may remain unclear what it might actually look or feel like. Don’t worry, even the original disciples were uncertain. We humans typically learn best by example or experience. Peter is a great example: He heard the words directly from Jesus’ mouth! He watched Jesus mingling with the outcasts and loving all the wrong people to the point where the state put him to death! He heard the words again in his vision and believed them enough to go to the home of Cornelius.. but it wasn’t until the Spirit actually descended and filled the Gentiles in the room that Peter’s heart was truly transformed.

As Christians today, on the surface we’ve heard the words of Christ, we recognize that we ARE the extension of the Gentile community, we know the love of God has no boundaries. We at least, like Peter, show up. We put ourselves out there and I honestly don’t know of a Christian community that doesn’t say ‘ALL are welcome.’ Yet, what the majority of these communities really mean is: “All are welcome to come and conform to our ways and our standards… You are welcome to come, to need us, and let us shape you into the person we think you should be.” This is harmful and not how God is calling us to love. Peter showed up at a Gentile’s home still unclear about the new faith requirements, still unsure if these gentiles needed to follow Jewish customs and laws in order to be fully welcomed into God’s community. The Spirit uses this opportunity to swoop in and leave no room for doubt: clearly God is present within and among these people and there is NOTHING that can keep them from being baptized into God’s family.

We, like Peter, may find ourselves surprised when the Spirit shows up in people we once called profane. Instead of showing up and demanding Cornelius and his crew be circumcised, change their diet, and study the Torah, Peter was shown that NONE of these things were stipulations for exclusion from God’s love. And THEN Peter does not merely tolerate that God loves these people and turn to go back home grumbling about how this could be… but he chooses to stay for awhile.

Peter is called to be hospitable, just like we are still called to be hospitable, but how often do we allow ourselves to experience the hospitality of others? To do this means to stay awhile.. to take a seat at someone else’s table, eat their food, smell their smells, hear their mother tongue, and listen to their stories and experiences. Peter not only tolerates God’s love for people only 24 hours earlier he would have called profane, but he gets to the know them and therefore gets to experience and understand just why God loves them so very much. He is transformed.

The Spirit calls us to go beyond love as niceness, as tolerance for the other. The Spirit calls us to radical, mutual love of all that God has made, because what God has made clean we shall not call profane. This love is not a love that says we can share the same space, the same font, the same bread and wine – but a love that goes so far as to say I will lay down my life for yours. Why? Because God created you in the image of God and called you GOOD. Because the Spirit of God is within you. Because I am open to loving you as GOD loves you. Because I am open to not only tolerating your existence, but getting to know you and be transformed by your story.

Thank God for the Spirit which remains among us and within us because we cannot do this on our own, we cannot do this apart from our source – GOD. God has chosen us. God is the vine and we are the branches. May we abide in the Lord and learn to stop calling what God created profane. May we abide in God’s love, allowing it to flow out through us to the love of neighbor, calling us to sit and stay awhile. May we be open to wherever the Spirit wind is blowing and even be surprised by the ways in which God continues to shape our world. Amen.

*(Gentiles are anyone who is not of the Jewish faith)

Reflection questions: Who and/or what do we call profane today that God may be trying to tell us is clean? What stipulates do we and/or our community put on people before they can truly be known as a member of God's Beloved Community? Where might the Spirit be at work in and among us, breaking down walls/barriers/divisions between ourselves and the (seemingly) profane?