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Easter 6
Lesson: Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
Epistle: 1 John 5:1-6
Holy Gospel: John 15:9-17
I speak to you in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
When I read today’s lesson from the Book of Acts, what I immediately thought about was M*A*S*H. I do not know how many of you are M*A*S*H addicts the way Bill and I are, but anytime there is a rerun on, chances are that we will be watching it. It was really nice when they had them on at 10:00 at night, which was a great way to relax and get ready to go to sleep – just sitting there and laughing at M*A*S*H episodes that we knew well enough that we could say the lines before the actors did.
One of my favorite shows involved Major Charles Emerson Winchester III. He was the snob of all snobs – a Boston blue-blood who looked down on the Cabots and the Lodges as newcomers and n’er-do-wells. He thought of himself as better than anyone, and continued to prove, at least to his own satisfaction, that he was. In this one episode, he gets a letter from his sister saying that she is engaged to an Italian. Winchester goes ballistic. He rants, he raves, he telegraphs her, he writes to her, he even goes to the Colonel asking for compassionate leave so that he could go home and put an end to this marriage. “No swarthy, Mediterranean is going to marry my beloved sister,” he says. In the end, the marriage does not happen because the man’s family disapproves of his marrying a woman who is not Roman Catholic.
Part of what is so funny about this particular episode is the universality of it. M*A*S*H was aired starting in the early ‘70s. One of the other lines from this episode was Winchester saying, “At least she’s not marrying an Irishman.” But when you think about it, it was an era that saw a loosening of roles and status. It was not very many years before that we had an Irish, Roman Catholic President from Boston. African Americans such as Andrew Young were being elected and appointed to high office. But every step toward minority participation was met with resistance and hostility.
The situation was even more universal than that. One might say that there is evidence of it today in today’s Gospel and today’s first lesson. Prior to where we start, Peter had been summoned to the house of a Roman Centurion by a name named Cornelius. Cornelius was a devout man and though he was not a Jew, he was a friend to the Jewish people, and he prayed and gave alms, and acted in a way that reflected the ideals of Jewish tradition. Cornelius had a vision of an angel who told him to send to Japha, to the home of Simon the leper, and have Peter come to his house.
While Cornelius’ servants were on their way to Peter’s, Peter went up on the roof of the house at noontime. He was very hungry. He fell into a trance, and there he had a vision of a large sheet being lowered to the ground; in it were all kinds of creatures. A voice told him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”
But some of the creatures were unclean according the Jewish law, so Peter refused to do it. (Just as an aside, some of you may remember the clergy rendition of “The Weasel Cantata.” It went something like this:
The Weasel Cantata; it’s not a sonata.
You shall not eat weasel though it may taste fine,
Or lizard or vermin, ‘cause they commence to squirmin’;
Leviticus 11, verse 29.
So if you want a list of those foods that were unclean, it is Leviticus 11:29.
Meanwhile, the voice talking to Peter on the roof said to him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
That is the introduction to one of the major events of the early Church. While Peter was still talking, or rather preaching to Cornelius and his household, the Holy Spirit descended on them. All of a sudden, they began to speak in tongues and to praise God.
Up until that moment, there had been no indication that Gentiles – non-Jews – were welcome to become Christians. Put another way, in the days and weeks following Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples had seen the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. They expected that as the Jews were the chosen people of God, so the good news of Jesus would also be uniquely for the Jews.
As Charles Emerson Winchester was astounded to hear of his sister’s engagement to an Italian, the disciples who were with Peter were even more astounded to see and hear the manifestations of the Holy Spirit coming from Gentiles.
Now, there had been Gentile converts before, the main one being the Ethiopian servant of the Candace, but they had followed a particular pattern -- first the person heard the Word of God, then they repented, then they were baptized, then they received the Holy Spirit. We use that same progression in the way we welcome adults into the Church.
But these Gentiles received the Holy Spirit first, before any profession of faith or repentance. The Holy Spirit is not limited by our categories or our prejudices. God gives God’s gifts in God’s time. And so the world was changed. You and I would not be here now were it not for the Holy Spirit descending on Cornelius and his household.
And so, they were baptized. Cornelius invited Peter to stay and visit a while; although it was against the Jewish Law, Peter did.
I would like to believe that I am unprejudiced and hold no one in the kind of contempt the Jews felt for the Gentiles. But all of us, in some degree, have a sense of superiority and chosen-ness. God has made it clear, however, that the message of the Gospel is for all people, and that all people are welcome in the community of faith. So now it is up to us to make that a living reality in this place. Amen.
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