St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – Fifth Sunday of Easter – May 2, 2010
“A New Thing: Love Fixing On . .!”
Text: Acts 11:16-18
When it comes to fixing fence; most farmers who raise cattle or sheep or have horses know the importance & the hard work that goes with fixing fence; making sure fence lines are in good repair; that livestock do not wander off; which goes a long way toward farmers being good neighbors. People get along better when fence lines & property lines are observed & maintained.
Fence lines & property lines & other lines help to define who we are & what we are responsible for. So The United States is one country but many states; and Nebraska is one state but many counties, and Kearney County is one county but many townships. State lines, county lines, cities & towns & townships are all political, geographical entities that have their purpose in providing good order, good services, and good record keeping for who owns what & determining who is liable or responsible for what.
Most people would say it’s good we have political & geographical boundaries that go back to the US Constitution & Bill of Rights.
What’s bad is when fence lines & boundary lines & citizens rights & responsibilities are used to build walls instead of bridges. When United States become Divided States; when discrimination triumphs over diversity; when people aim to be exclusive rather than inclusive that’s when people’s patience & kindness; when people’s sense of community & love for one’s neighbor is put to the test.
I tell you this, not just because it’s true, but because it’s a kind of mirror for what a challenge it is, what a challenge it has always been for Christians to honor people of every race & creed & color; to recognize different cultures & cultural boundary lines while at the same time fixing hearts & minds on living up to Jesus’ new commandment given at the end of John 13.
I give you a new commandment, Jesus said to his disciples not many hours before he was led out to be crucified on a cross for the sins of all mankind
This new commandment I give you, He said, is that you love one another! Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
In other words, when it comes to boundaries, important & necessary as life’s boundaries are - for people of God, boundary lines of race, color, creed are NOT to be set in concrete, not to become walls that separate people, not when Jesus says the most important thing is that By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Sometimes there’s an emphasis put on John 3:16 that is very personal “that God so loved you, put your name in __________, but that’s not to forget John 3;16 includes all people. God so loved the world that He gave His only be-gotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish have everlasting life.
1 Timothy 2:3 says “God is a just & merciful God who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
It’s important that salvation be personal; “that it be for you & your soul the highest good,” but that never means God’s wonderful gift of salvation is meant to be private or parochial!
What a defining moment it was for all mankind, when on the cross Jesus said, “It is finished; it is accomplished; the work of saving a sinful humanity is complete! And three days later He rose from the dead to assure all who believer in Him, IT IS SO!”
As for Peter! Peter had his eyes opened to the largeness of that phrase “all believers” in a special way through a surprising, divinely ordained set of circumstances with a gentile named Cornelius.
Cornelius was, a Roman centurion, a devout man who feared God with all his household who gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.
But Cornelius was a gentile, and prior to God sending Peter a dream in which the message of that dream was that it was all right for Peter to mingle with Gentiles; prior to that God-given, God-ordained dream Peter would have had nothing to do with Cornelius. In other words, Peter as a life-long Jew would not have crossed the boundary line separating Jews from Gentiles. Peter would never have thought of even sit-ing down at the same table with Cornelius lest Peter become unclean as all Gentiles were thought to be pagan, unclean according to Jewish law.
“In those days, admitting gentiles into a Jewish synagogue seemed like inviting foxes into the henhouse, and unclean foxes at that.”(from “Dreaming in Joppa, by Jon M. Walton, Christian Cent. 4/17/07)
So, what is here described in Acts 11 is what for Peter and the rest of the New Testament Christian church was a defining moment in God’s plan of salvation for all mankind, a moment that is to be the model for every Christians’ life – namely, to move from sectarian Judaism to a faith fixed on Christ’s life & Christ’s love open to all people whose lineage is not Jewish but Gentile.
Before Peter’s dream; before that encounter Peter had with Cornelius, Christianity was not available to those who were not born or not ritually inducted into Judaism. But now, after, ever since that day of Peter’s visit & witness to Cornelius & his household; ever since that day when the early church was opened to gentiles, ever since then Christians everywhere have this mandate, this Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations, to embrace even those we may think are unclean or unholy, or unacceptable but whom God declares clean & acceptable in Christ & through Christ.
All this is to say what has been said again & again down through the ages since that days of the early church; that if Christ’s death on the cross on Calvary was the day of reckoning for salvation of all mankind, then the day God sent Peter a vision of innumerable unclean creatures made clean in God’s sight is the day of reckoning for us also to believe, to see, to say, to sing, to serve, to stand our ground and do all that we can to make sure the door of salvation is open to all gentiles; to love others as Christ has loved us.
May it not be as the story goes of a junior high music teacher who had just organized a band in her school. The principle was so proud of the music teacher’s efforts that without consulting her he decided that the band should give a concert for the entire school. The music teacher wasn’t so sure her young musicians were ready to give a concert, so she tried to talk the principle out of holding the concert, to no avail. Just before the concert was ready to begin, as the music teacher stood on the podium, she leaned forward & whispered to her nervous Junior High musicians, “If you’re not sure of your part, just pretend to play.” And with that, she stepped back, lifted her baton and with a great flourish brought it down. Lo and behold, nothing happened! The band brought forth a resounding silence.
Sometimes we in the church are like that junior high band, unsure of our parts, tentative in our roles, very reserved, very conservative in our reaching out to others, especially others different than we are, reluctant to trumpet forth the music of faith that God desires of us. Writes Dr. Gerhard Frost, in a stinging rebuke of what still goes on in churches,
“Even today, after many courageous Peters have attempted to strike blows at racial injustices, the church continues to be one of the most segregated institutions in our society. We have impoverished ourselves and others by refusing to respect and enjoy the gifts of all people, regardless of superficial differences.”
Yards, fences, boundary lines, districts, clubs, associations, other side of the tracks, other side of town, civil rights, Muslims, Latin Americans, Hispanic Americans, Afro Americans, Oriental Americans, multi-cultural Americans, in Christ’s church, to sing “Brothers & sisters in Christ” means we all have our work cut out for us. It is God’s work, God working in us.
As Lutheran Christians, when a life-long Lutheran organist pulls out all the stops, and there’s a chorus of trumpets & stringed instruments joining in a majestic accompaniment, and we Lutheran Christians stand to sing from that great Reformation hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, “He’s by our side, that is, Christ is by our upon the plain, with His good gifts and Spirit,” may we never forget that Spirit is a spirit of love and the power of Christ’s love at work in us through the Holy Spirit, cannot resist, does not resist, drawing diverse elements together, opening doors, breaking down walls, bringing about unity without judging or crushing diversity.
Though there be great challenges in our society to be open to and accepting toward all who are different, let our hearts and minds be fixed on this: that God has established a great love and a great “oneness” for all in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son.
“If God then gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are we that we should stand in God’s way.” (v.17)
