The Church Universal - Acts 10: 34-43

Throughout the summer months we are going to spend time focusing on the book of Acts,  the part of the New Testament that tells the story of the early church. While it may seem that we are far removed from what happened 2,000 years ago with the movement of the Holy Spirit, as we study these texts together, it is my hope and prayer that we discover that the Holy Spirit is still moving among the church of Jesus Christ today, calling us forward as disciples.

In order to understand today’s scripture passage we need to go back a bit. Back past Peter’s speech on Pentecost, back past Jesus’ ascension to be with God in Heaven, back to Peter’s struggles in the gospels. Peter just never really seemed to get it together, did he? Every time he seemed to be moving forward in his faith he would do or say something that Jesus would just shake his head at. Peter just could not grasp what Jesus was trying to teach him, especially this business about Jesus, the Messiah, being crucified. Maybe Peter didn’t believe it because he just couldn’t because he lacked the faith to understand, or maybe he just didn’t want to believe it because it was too hard to fathom, but in any case, Peter could not believe that Jesus would be crucified and then raised from the dead.

Then after the glorious day when Christ was raised, after all of the events leading up to Pentecost, Peter was struck with unbelief and misunderstanding again. He could not believe that this good news of Jesus Christ was for everyone. Surely it was just for the Jews, since they are God’s covenant people. Surely it is just for people like him, not the Gentles whom he had been taught were not quite as good as the Jews. But just as God turned Peter’s world upside down with the resurrection of Jesus, God shattered Peter’s beliefs  by giving him a dream whose message was clear - no one whom God deems to be clean was unclean just because Peter believed it to be so. Just to solidify the point, God sent Peter to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, someone whom Peter would not have previously interacted with, to declare the good news of Jesus Christ and baptize his entire household. 

Peter’s speech comes out of the context of struggling to figure out just who Jesus came to save. Just who was worthy of God’s love and attention. And after this experience with Cornelius, Peter proclaimed that God shows no partiality. None. Anyone who fears God and does what is right in the eyes of God has claim to be a child of God. He understood in his head and in his heart that Jesus, this man and Messiah who he had spent three years with, was sent by God through the Holy Spirit with a powerful message for all people. That God was not just the God of Israel, but the God of all nations. And Jesus has been appointed to be to one to judge and offer forgiveness to all people. 

God is big enough not to just be the God of those who proclaim to believe. And Jesus is the Lord not just of those in a certain century or a certain place or a certain ethnicity. Jesus is and will continue to be the judge of the living and the dead. Of our world and everything outside of our understanding and worldview. Not just of those who believe, of those who describe themselves as Christians, but of all. 

And all is a really scary concept for a world that likes to segment itself. This time and attention belongs to family, this to work, this to what I believe. Compartmentalizing and labeling just doesn’t work any longer, because Jesus Christ is Lord of all. All encompassing. No one or thing outside the perimeter of his love and power. And that makes Jesus Christ also the hope of all people. Universal. 

All and universal. Something that our nation and world also find scary. The idea of everyone being on equal footing with us doesn’t sit well. So we strive to separate people, to put them down, because of their gender, race, and ethnicity. The money they make or the family they come from. The language they speak or the place that they live. We need to prove that we are better then someone, anyone, and the more distance we can create between ourself and the next person in the name of achievement and success, the better.

But the problem with that is that it doesn’t reflect how God sees us and how God wants us to see each other. For God shows no partiality. For just as Christ is the judge of all people and Lord of all, he is also the source of peace for the world. And we cannot have peace with and through Christ if we constantly try to separate ourselves from the ones that Christ loves. Perhaps there is no better time to be reminded of that then this Sunday, Peace with Justice Sunday. A special Sunday that exists to remind us how God wants us to treat other people. That the Lord requires us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. That the Church is not just those here in this place or this nation, but people around the world. That the Church is Universal, because Christ came for all. 

When Peter entered into the home of Cornelius things changed for him. The doors of his mind and heart flew open and he got something right - this message is not just for him and this movement is going to reach far beyond the people he thought deserved it or were chosen for it. This was a break through moment in the book of Acts because the Church truly became something for every person seeking to be transformed. Are we still giving that same message today? Or has the Church become something that we only offer to those whom we deem to be worthy or those whom we are comfortable with? 

I don’t think that Peter made distinctions about who Jesus came to save or what this new movement was to be about because he was mean or a horrible person. I think he was acting out of fear. Fear that if it truly was bigger then what he thought it was that it could not be contained. Fear that he was not good enough. Fear that he did not have an automatic in or status. But the perfect love of Christ casts out fear, and calls us to step forward in bold hope because of the message that Jesus proclaimed, even to the point of hanging on the cross. We too are called to set aside our fears and notions about what the church should be like and embrace the freedom to be whoever God calls us to be and to include whomever God brings our way to include. That may mean stepping away from what we have always done or known in light of Christ’s love for all. It may mean being very uncomfortable at times. But Christ did not promise his disciples, including Peter, that they would be comfortable, and he does not tell us today that this will be the case. Because the message of today’s scripture, and really the point of this entire sermon series, is that the Spirit calls who the Spirit calls and the Spirit will not be contained or silenced because of our fears. Rather the Spirit moves in power despite our attempts to contain her. For no matter how we try to separate ourselves from others, God will always draw us back together, make us look each other in the eyes and say, “this is my child. Love as I have loved. Love all.” Amen.