Making no distinction
Commentary
We are a people who love to differentiate ourselves from others. Youth certainly do this to the older generation by means of fashion and music. Businesses do this with other businesses through advertising of their products or services. Politicians make an art of it during campaigns, although often the picture on the canvass is rendered in mud. In the normal course of daily relationships with family, friends, acquaintances, and the masses, we understand ourselves by distinguishing ourselves over against others; we esteem ourselves by elevating ourselves above others; we comfort ourselves by appreciating ourselves and what we have juxtaposed to what others do not have.
God's ways, however, are not our ways. God sets down another standard for us by which to be measured. That measure is God's equal love for all of us and God's valuation of our lives as equally important. Peter learned this in his vision and consequent encounter with Cornelius. The suffering Christian community was comforted with this during their time of trial. Jesus demonstrated this by washing the feet of his disciples and establishing his self-giving, sacrificial love as the model for them to follow.
Acts 11:1-18
In the development of Christianity, other than the conversion of Old Testament Jews to New Testament Jews (i.e., there were those who actually believed that the Messiah had come!), the next most significant event was the spread of the faith to the Gentiles. Acts records this monumental event through the experience of Peter at first, and then of Paul. For this expansion of the gospel to take place, Peter needed a vision to set his sight upon broader horizons. Cornelius also needed a vision to draw him into the Christ-center of the truth he was striving to live in (Acts 10:1-2). The Holy Spirit was busy preparing both to receive the will of God -- Peter to preach Christ to the Gentiles and Cornelius to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. Acts 10 records the event, while Acts 11 reflects upon it in the context of convincing other Jews that the Gentiles are entitled to hear the gospel also.
In addition to this focus on Peter and Cornelius, there is provided in Acts 11 evidence that the Holy Spirit is indeed behind this boundary-crossing event. The response of the Gentiles in Antioch to the preaching of the gospel is offered as evidence that "the hand of the Lord was with them" in this venture (Acts 11:21). Plus, the generous response of the newly converted (Gentiles among them!) to the needs of the saints in Judea is another indicator that this is in accord with the will of God. See also 2 Corinthians 8, where Paul lifts up the value of the Gentile Christian response to the Jewish Christian needs in Judea as a sign of the oneness of the faithful despite their differences.
It is geographically interesting to note that the location of Peter's ministry to the Gentile world began in Caesarea, a city named after Caesar, emperor of the Gentile world and political lord over Israel. Peter literally entered into Caesar's world by going to Caesarea. He came there from Joppa, a city known from the story of Jonah. It was to Joppa that Jonah went to catch a ship bound away from God's call. Now, it was from Joppa that Peter went on to answer God's call to embrace the Gentiles on behalf of Christ.
Revelation 21:1-6
The last book of the Bible is perhaps the most colorful, creature-filled, sound-intense book written. Of course, it was not meant to be a literary masterpiece; it simply became such because it spoke to people in a variety of situations that called for a word of comfort, a word of hope, a word of peace, and an ultimate word for the satisfaction of good. All this comes about due to the definitive action of God. It is God who prepares a new dwelling place for his people and deigns to tent (tent, booth) with them. This is the source of comfort, hope, peace, and satisfaction for a people enduring trial at the present time.
After seeing the many hues of heaven and after hearing the many anthems sung in praise of God and the Lamb and after witnessing the victory of God and the hosts of heaven over the forces of darkness, the reader who has engaged the vision with faith now is treated to a glimpse of what God is shaping for the epilogue to history. There will be newness (new, used four times in these six verses) all around -- a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new everything! As heart-breaking as current reality may be to bear, it is nothing compared to the joy that shall be for the people of God in this new creation. Hoping in this final promise provides a proleptic peace with which to bear the present discomfiture of persecution. The promise is that these things, as vexing as they are now, will indeed pass away. Paul uses different words in 2 Corinthians 5:17, but expresses the same thought. It was Isaiah of old who set the tone for this confidence, when hundreds of years earlier he declared about the intentions of God, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17). The next injunction then was to "be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create" (Isaiah 65:18); so, too, the recipients of this vision, made public through the printed word we call the book of Revelation, are to rejoice and be glad even in the face of nefarious dealings from Caesar and the world. Sorrow will be turned to joy, pain to peace, and death to life. See 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 for how Paul applies this to his predicaments.
John 13:31-35
Jesus had entered Jerusalem for the last time. The crowds were quite receptive, but that would change in a matter of days. It was important to spend some quality time with the disciples to give them "last minute" instructions and explanations. Perhaps the best way to teach them was by example; so, Jesus washed their feet as an act of servanthood (not servitude) to serve as an example for how they were to live their lives. Judas must be dealt with in some way. At least identify him, perhaps more for his own sake than for the other disciples. It must have given them some relief not to receive the morsel from Jesus, which was a sign of the betrayer. It seems that the disciples did not quite understand what that exchange was really all about; they did not have any clue as to what Judas was going out to do that night.
Then, before Peter's denial was plainly foretold, Jesus spoke rather cryptically about glorification (honor, praise, glorify -- used five times in 13:31-32). Now, one would normally think that to be glorified would be quite a living honor and quite desirable. However, Jesus was speaking of the glorification of himself through his death. Again, the theme of servanthood is implied here, given the context of the foot washing and his repeated comment on love. (In John 12:23f., Jesus speaks analogically about his death in relationship to a grain of wheat and relates it to the theme of servanthood.)
Since it was the Father's will that Jesus come to earth to sacrifice himself for the sins of the people (John 3:14-15), it would be natural that the Father would be glorified through the Son's obedience. After all, it was the Father's plan that was being carried out, reflecting his great love for the world (John 3:16). When the Father is glorified, the honor will reflect back upon Jesus, giving glory even to the very wretched wood upon which he would be crucified, as the hymn expresses it, "Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim!"
When Jesus attempts to talk about his departure, the disciples, no doubt, have a hard time understanding him, as revealed by Peter's remarks in John 13:37. The synoptic Gospels have a much clearer expression of the passion predictions of Jesus (e.g., Matthew 19:17-19, Mark 10:32-34, Luke 18:31-34). Fortunately, Jesus does not wait for his disciples to understand or even approve of his actions before he proceeds. However, he does speak clearly about the new commandment that he leaves with his disciples and all who would follow him. That commandment is one of love. He gives himself as the model by which to mold one's attempts to live well in relationship with God and humanity. In John 15:12f., Jesus speaks further about this love which is demonstrated in life and death action on behalf of one's friends.
As this servant, self-sacrificing love is expressed, it will be a public witness, for others will be able to observe it and make the connection that the disciples are simply doing what the Master demonstrated in his life and death and then told them to likewise do. This was a distinct quality that the populace noticed in the life of the early church. This carried persuasive weight in drawing many into the fellowship of the Way. Paul lifts this up in his letters, as he exhorts his fellow Christians to follow the lead of Christ in their relationships with one another (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25).
Application
Every group of people has those against whom they hold strong prejudices. The Nazis against the Jews; Vietnamese against Amerasian children; light blacks against dark blacks; white supremacists against just about anybody else; males against females; murderers against child molesters; straights against gays. And for the most part the prejudices are reciprocated in some way. It is an amazing feat of human psychology that every group that does not like to be prejudiced against can turn around and treat others in some like fashion. Obviously, we all need a vision like Peter's in which we come to see that "what God has cleansed you must not call common" (11:9). True religion will not act as a dividing wedge in God's created community of humanity. True religion holds the vision that we are all created by God's goodness and mercy and that it is God's will that we are united together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Granted, the world view that posits "Jew" and "Gentile" has the potential of being divisive from the beginning; and the story of God's people can certainly be told from the vantage point of struggle between God's people and the rest of the world throughout the ages. But, the prophetic voice cuts through that with the image of Israel being a light to the nations to draw them into the oneness that God intends under his sovereign will and design. (Jonah missed this at Joppa and had to learn it at sea!) Peter's message to Cornelius contained the good news that death itself was overcome by God's great love through Jesus Christ (Acts 10:34-43). If death, our last enemy, can be defeated, then the earlier enemies with which we live -- like prejudice -- can also be overcome. Peter's vision was essentially to let God have his way. This vision holds true for us today, as we are called upon to let God have his way with our hearts also, turning our human distinctions which divide into God's embrace which unites. The Holy Spirit can work this in us!
In twentieth-century America, we have been teased with human visions for our life together. Roosevelt proclaimed a New Deal. Johnson had his Great Society. Bush announced a New World Order with 1,000 points of light. Now, we have entered into a new millennium and wonder if we are really any better off than we were before. In some ways, we would certainly say we are, from a human perspective. But, with every new positive development for which we can be thankful, there are shadows that creep alongside to keep us humbled by the way we can twist and deform any good thing. Though we surge ahead in some ways, we suffer for it in other ways. We are in constant need of hearing the plans God has for us, which in the end will override all our faltering attempts to build Babylon once again.
God's plans include the final end to temporary suffering. Christian wisdom will hold on to this truth, for it can strengthen one with patience and endurance, proleptic gifts from the ultimate peace that will be ours in Christ Jesus. Here is a definitive word of encouragement for everyone without distinctions when a common faith holds on to the one Lord, the Bright Morning Star (Revelation 22:16) who walks among the feeble light that the Christian congregations attempt to cast upon a darkened world (Revelation 1:12-20).
Because God is the alpha and the omega, all the details of our lives are in his keeping, like the bookends on the shelf keep the volumes from falling over into disarray. To believe this vision of God is like getting a cool drink in the heat of battle, a foretaste of the fountain of life that will quench all thirst forever.
Until that happens, the Christian community is to be characterized by that quality of love exemplified most explicitly in Jesus. He demonstrates par excellence the depth and breadth of love that is willing to go into the deepest and darkest valley on behalf of the beloved. It is important to note that the beloved is more than one's spouse or child or parent or best friend. The beloved, in God's eyes, is virtually everyone and anyone, without distinction. For, God so loved "world man," as the Chinese rendition of John 3:16 has it! This is one of the important insights undergirding the Bruderhof communities, founded by Eberhard Arnold in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century and now in the United States, England, and Australia. Initially, established upon self-surrender to God and then directed by work for one another and also the public community, the Bruderhof build their community of faith on God's love and with the people that God brings together. In other words, we do not choose who to love; God brings the beloved to us and our duty is to love! Love is not a sentimentality; it is an ethic! It is not so much a matter of the heart, as of the will. Arnold writes in his seminal essay Warum wir in Gemeinschaft leben (1925), "When working men and women voluntarily join hands to renounce everything that is self-willed, isolated, or private, their alliances become signposts to the ultimate unity of all people, which is found in God's love and in the power of his coming kingdom." (For further reading on the Bruderhof, see Arnold's Why We Live in Community [1999] and Markus Baum's biography on Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof Against the Wind [1998].)
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 11:1-18
There are groups among the churches these days who continually implore the church to define the "essential tenets" of the Christian Church. They want the church to set out what a person must believe in order to be a Christian. And usually each group has its own list of required beliefs which often are different from that of another group. Some say a Christian must believe in the virgin birth. Others insist on a substitutionary doctrine of the crucifixion or on the bodily resurrection of Christ. Still others want an insistence on creationism or the existence of the devil or the battle of Armageddon. And of course a number want to insist on the use of inclusive language, according to the dictates of modern feminists. If some person cannot agree with the group's understanding of one or another of those views or usages, then that person is decreed unchristian or at least deficient in the faith. Doctrines, beliefs, and language are used as the measure of Christian devotion and practice, and those who do not conform to the group's measure are shut out as unworthy. Indeed, sometimes the test is even extended to ask after a person's stance toward the ordination of women or homosexuality or divorce, or, in earlier times, smoking and drinking. From the time of the Spanish Inquisition on, the church has judged persons according to their conformity to some group's position.
Such judgments are inevitable in the church, however, because there are in fact central tenets of Christianity apart from which it does not exist. The earliest confession of the Christian Church, according to Paul, was "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11; cf. Revelation 22:20), and if there is no belief and no practical trust in Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son, whom God has raised from the dead to be Lord of all, then the very foundation of Christian faith has been lost. Jesus' question to Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29) and its answer still form the essential bases of our faith, and in its Nicene and Apostles' creeds the church has spelled out the necessary details belonging to those bases.
From the very first, however, church members have tried to go beyond the essentials to exclude persons from its fellowship on the basis of periphery and even unimportant matters, and that is what we find happening in our text for the day. The church had its beginning in Jerusalem, after the resurrection of Christ, and our passage tells us that in the circle of disciples at Jerusalem there was a group known as the "circumcision party" (v. 2). Because the gospel was carried first to the Jews, that party believed that every male who came into the Christian faith had to be circumcised, as all Jewish males were circumcised. Circumcision was the mark of entrance into the biblical covenant with God (cf. Genesis 17:9-14) -- a mark carefully preserved all during Israel's exile and dispersion -- and the church formed the continuance of that covenant. Anyone who was not circumcised was therefore not a member of the covenant and could not be a member of the church -- and that meant all non-Jewish Gentiles, who were deemed unclean, profane, unholy.
The Apostle Peter, however, has been given that strange vision of which we read in Acts 10, has been summoned to the group of Gentiles in Caesarea, has preached to them, and has baptized them, because he has discerned that God has poured out his Spirit upon them. He gives a summary account of that experience in our text in Acts 11. And it is because Peter has shared table fellowship and preached to and baptized such supposedly unclean Gentiles that the circumcision party criticizes him. Peter hasn't followed the rules! He has gone outside of the acceptable circle of believers to include uncircumcised and therefore unholy persons in the faith! But Peter's reply is, "If God gave the same gifts to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ" -- that is, the gift of the Spirit that the church received at Pentecost -- "who was I that I could withstand God?" (v. 17). Like Baalam of old, Peter refuses to curse those whom God has blessed (Numbers 23:8, 20). He will not set his own judgment and his own criteria of faith above those of God. Jesus Christ is truly Lord, and Peter will not contradict nor deny that which God in Christ in the Spirit has done. The church's mission to all people, even to supposedly unclean Gentiles, has been inaugurated by the Lord, and Peter will not countermand that mission. With that argument, the circumcizers are convinced, and they too acknowledge that the Lord has broken the bounds of Judaism to include non-Jews, and the world, in his gift of salvation through faith.
Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, portrays the formation of the first century church as quite harmonious, with the gospel spreading steadily out from a unified community in Jerusalem. We know, from the actual writing of Paul, however, that the question of whether Gentiles should be subject to circumcision and the dictates of the Jewish law continued to disrupt the church throughout its first years. In Galatians 2:11-14, Paul tells us that Peter (who it seems was often wont to backsliding and "petering out") went back on his original stance toward Gentiles and agreed with the circumcizers, so that Paul had to confront Peter personally and indeed separate from him. The New Testament church was never harmonious, despite our fantasized stereotypes of it, any more than are our modern denominations. All its life the church has wavered between those who judge others on the basis of their own convictions and those who submit their own views and will to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We all have a propensity for trying to replace the will and working of God with our own.
Perhaps that struggle of the New Testament church, mirrored in our text for the morning, teaches us modern judges some valuable lessons. There are a lot of people of our acquaintance whom we are sure cannot possibly be good church members and Christians. A poll was taken one time in which a majority of those surveyed were quite sure that they personally were going to go to heaven, but many were not sure that their neighbors were going to make it. We find lots of faults with others, don't we, because they do not do as we do and their piety and faith do not match ours? We are scandalized that some of them sit in the pews with us, and we think they do not belong there. "How can that man or that woman claim to be a Christian?" we ask, or "How can that person take holy communion when they do what they do or even look like they look or believe what they say they believe?" Sometimes we even go so far as to say we will split the church and form our own communion apart from such undesirable souls.
But of course it is God alone who sees the heart, isn't it? And it is the Lord alone who knows who are his because he has shed his Spirit upon them. Can we, in our sinful self-will, say that some person is outside of Christ? Yes, there are rightly requirements for membership in the covenant of the church, but I have often thought that when the final "roll is called up yonder," you and I are going to be very surprised about who is included and who is excluded. Our Lord wisely taught us to let the tares grow with the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30), because we honestly do not know who are weeds and who are grain. But the Lord knows. And he will judge as he will.
Above all, our Lord instructs us in our Gospel Lesson from John to love others as he has loved us. Our Lord Jesus was criticized and finally crucified for accepting into his love the unacceptable -- the ragged poor, the sinners, the prostitutes, the quisling tax-collectors, the foreigners, the hated Samaritans. His love encompassed all, and so should ours.
God's ways, however, are not our ways. God sets down another standard for us by which to be measured. That measure is God's equal love for all of us and God's valuation of our lives as equally important. Peter learned this in his vision and consequent encounter with Cornelius. The suffering Christian community was comforted with this during their time of trial. Jesus demonstrated this by washing the feet of his disciples and establishing his self-giving, sacrificial love as the model for them to follow.
Acts 11:1-18
In the development of Christianity, other than the conversion of Old Testament Jews to New Testament Jews (i.e., there were those who actually believed that the Messiah had come!), the next most significant event was the spread of the faith to the Gentiles. Acts records this monumental event through the experience of Peter at first, and then of Paul. For this expansion of the gospel to take place, Peter needed a vision to set his sight upon broader horizons. Cornelius also needed a vision to draw him into the Christ-center of the truth he was striving to live in (Acts 10:1-2). The Holy Spirit was busy preparing both to receive the will of God -- Peter to preach Christ to the Gentiles and Cornelius to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. Acts 10 records the event, while Acts 11 reflects upon it in the context of convincing other Jews that the Gentiles are entitled to hear the gospel also.
In addition to this focus on Peter and Cornelius, there is provided in Acts 11 evidence that the Holy Spirit is indeed behind this boundary-crossing event. The response of the Gentiles in Antioch to the preaching of the gospel is offered as evidence that "the hand of the Lord was with them" in this venture (Acts 11:21). Plus, the generous response of the newly converted (Gentiles among them!) to the needs of the saints in Judea is another indicator that this is in accord with the will of God. See also 2 Corinthians 8, where Paul lifts up the value of the Gentile Christian response to the Jewish Christian needs in Judea as a sign of the oneness of the faithful despite their differences.
It is geographically interesting to note that the location of Peter's ministry to the Gentile world began in Caesarea, a city named after Caesar, emperor of the Gentile world and political lord over Israel. Peter literally entered into Caesar's world by going to Caesarea. He came there from Joppa, a city known from the story of Jonah. It was to Joppa that Jonah went to catch a ship bound away from God's call. Now, it was from Joppa that Peter went on to answer God's call to embrace the Gentiles on behalf of Christ.
Revelation 21:1-6
The last book of the Bible is perhaps the most colorful, creature-filled, sound-intense book written. Of course, it was not meant to be a literary masterpiece; it simply became such because it spoke to people in a variety of situations that called for a word of comfort, a word of hope, a word of peace, and an ultimate word for the satisfaction of good. All this comes about due to the definitive action of God. It is God who prepares a new dwelling place for his people and deigns to tent (tent, booth) with them. This is the source of comfort, hope, peace, and satisfaction for a people enduring trial at the present time.
After seeing the many hues of heaven and after hearing the many anthems sung in praise of God and the Lamb and after witnessing the victory of God and the hosts of heaven over the forces of darkness, the reader who has engaged the vision with faith now is treated to a glimpse of what God is shaping for the epilogue to history. There will be newness (new, used four times in these six verses) all around -- a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new everything! As heart-breaking as current reality may be to bear, it is nothing compared to the joy that shall be for the people of God in this new creation. Hoping in this final promise provides a proleptic peace with which to bear the present discomfiture of persecution. The promise is that these things, as vexing as they are now, will indeed pass away. Paul uses different words in 2 Corinthians 5:17, but expresses the same thought. It was Isaiah of old who set the tone for this confidence, when hundreds of years earlier he declared about the intentions of God, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17). The next injunction then was to "be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create" (Isaiah 65:18); so, too, the recipients of this vision, made public through the printed word we call the book of Revelation, are to rejoice and be glad even in the face of nefarious dealings from Caesar and the world. Sorrow will be turned to joy, pain to peace, and death to life. See 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 for how Paul applies this to his predicaments.
John 13:31-35
Jesus had entered Jerusalem for the last time. The crowds were quite receptive, but that would change in a matter of days. It was important to spend some quality time with the disciples to give them "last minute" instructions and explanations. Perhaps the best way to teach them was by example; so, Jesus washed their feet as an act of servanthood (not servitude) to serve as an example for how they were to live their lives. Judas must be dealt with in some way. At least identify him, perhaps more for his own sake than for the other disciples. It must have given them some relief not to receive the morsel from Jesus, which was a sign of the betrayer. It seems that the disciples did not quite understand what that exchange was really all about; they did not have any clue as to what Judas was going out to do that night.
Then, before Peter's denial was plainly foretold, Jesus spoke rather cryptically about glorification (honor, praise, glorify -- used five times in 13:31-32). Now, one would normally think that to be glorified would be quite a living honor and quite desirable. However, Jesus was speaking of the glorification of himself through his death. Again, the theme of servanthood is implied here, given the context of the foot washing and his repeated comment on love. (In John 12:23f., Jesus speaks analogically about his death in relationship to a grain of wheat and relates it to the theme of servanthood.)
Since it was the Father's will that Jesus come to earth to sacrifice himself for the sins of the people (John 3:14-15), it would be natural that the Father would be glorified through the Son's obedience. After all, it was the Father's plan that was being carried out, reflecting his great love for the world (John 3:16). When the Father is glorified, the honor will reflect back upon Jesus, giving glory even to the very wretched wood upon which he would be crucified, as the hymn expresses it, "Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim!"
When Jesus attempts to talk about his departure, the disciples, no doubt, have a hard time understanding him, as revealed by Peter's remarks in John 13:37. The synoptic Gospels have a much clearer expression of the passion predictions of Jesus (e.g., Matthew 19:17-19, Mark 10:32-34, Luke 18:31-34). Fortunately, Jesus does not wait for his disciples to understand or even approve of his actions before he proceeds. However, he does speak clearly about the new commandment that he leaves with his disciples and all who would follow him. That commandment is one of love. He gives himself as the model by which to mold one's attempts to live well in relationship with God and humanity. In John 15:12f., Jesus speaks further about this love which is demonstrated in life and death action on behalf of one's friends.
As this servant, self-sacrificing love is expressed, it will be a public witness, for others will be able to observe it and make the connection that the disciples are simply doing what the Master demonstrated in his life and death and then told them to likewise do. This was a distinct quality that the populace noticed in the life of the early church. This carried persuasive weight in drawing many into the fellowship of the Way. Paul lifts this up in his letters, as he exhorts his fellow Christians to follow the lead of Christ in their relationships with one another (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25).
Application
Every group of people has those against whom they hold strong prejudices. The Nazis against the Jews; Vietnamese against Amerasian children; light blacks against dark blacks; white supremacists against just about anybody else; males against females; murderers against child molesters; straights against gays. And for the most part the prejudices are reciprocated in some way. It is an amazing feat of human psychology that every group that does not like to be prejudiced against can turn around and treat others in some like fashion. Obviously, we all need a vision like Peter's in which we come to see that "what God has cleansed you must not call common" (11:9). True religion will not act as a dividing wedge in God's created community of humanity. True religion holds the vision that we are all created by God's goodness and mercy and that it is God's will that we are united together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Granted, the world view that posits "Jew" and "Gentile" has the potential of being divisive from the beginning; and the story of God's people can certainly be told from the vantage point of struggle between God's people and the rest of the world throughout the ages. But, the prophetic voice cuts through that with the image of Israel being a light to the nations to draw them into the oneness that God intends under his sovereign will and design. (Jonah missed this at Joppa and had to learn it at sea!) Peter's message to Cornelius contained the good news that death itself was overcome by God's great love through Jesus Christ (Acts 10:34-43). If death, our last enemy, can be defeated, then the earlier enemies with which we live -- like prejudice -- can also be overcome. Peter's vision was essentially to let God have his way. This vision holds true for us today, as we are called upon to let God have his way with our hearts also, turning our human distinctions which divide into God's embrace which unites. The Holy Spirit can work this in us!
In twentieth-century America, we have been teased with human visions for our life together. Roosevelt proclaimed a New Deal. Johnson had his Great Society. Bush announced a New World Order with 1,000 points of light. Now, we have entered into a new millennium and wonder if we are really any better off than we were before. In some ways, we would certainly say we are, from a human perspective. But, with every new positive development for which we can be thankful, there are shadows that creep alongside to keep us humbled by the way we can twist and deform any good thing. Though we surge ahead in some ways, we suffer for it in other ways. We are in constant need of hearing the plans God has for us, which in the end will override all our faltering attempts to build Babylon once again.
God's plans include the final end to temporary suffering. Christian wisdom will hold on to this truth, for it can strengthen one with patience and endurance, proleptic gifts from the ultimate peace that will be ours in Christ Jesus. Here is a definitive word of encouragement for everyone without distinctions when a common faith holds on to the one Lord, the Bright Morning Star (Revelation 22:16) who walks among the feeble light that the Christian congregations attempt to cast upon a darkened world (Revelation 1:12-20).
Because God is the alpha and the omega, all the details of our lives are in his keeping, like the bookends on the shelf keep the volumes from falling over into disarray. To believe this vision of God is like getting a cool drink in the heat of battle, a foretaste of the fountain of life that will quench all thirst forever.
Until that happens, the Christian community is to be characterized by that quality of love exemplified most explicitly in Jesus. He demonstrates par excellence the depth and breadth of love that is willing to go into the deepest and darkest valley on behalf of the beloved. It is important to note that the beloved is more than one's spouse or child or parent or best friend. The beloved, in God's eyes, is virtually everyone and anyone, without distinction. For, God so loved "world man," as the Chinese rendition of John 3:16 has it! This is one of the important insights undergirding the Bruderhof communities, founded by Eberhard Arnold in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century and now in the United States, England, and Australia. Initially, established upon self-surrender to God and then directed by work for one another and also the public community, the Bruderhof build their community of faith on God's love and with the people that God brings together. In other words, we do not choose who to love; God brings the beloved to us and our duty is to love! Love is not a sentimentality; it is an ethic! It is not so much a matter of the heart, as of the will. Arnold writes in his seminal essay Warum wir in Gemeinschaft leben (1925), "When working men and women voluntarily join hands to renounce everything that is self-willed, isolated, or private, their alliances become signposts to the ultimate unity of all people, which is found in God's love and in the power of his coming kingdom." (For further reading on the Bruderhof, see Arnold's Why We Live in Community [1999] and Markus Baum's biography on Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof Against the Wind [1998].)
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 11:1-18
There are groups among the churches these days who continually implore the church to define the "essential tenets" of the Christian Church. They want the church to set out what a person must believe in order to be a Christian. And usually each group has its own list of required beliefs which often are different from that of another group. Some say a Christian must believe in the virgin birth. Others insist on a substitutionary doctrine of the crucifixion or on the bodily resurrection of Christ. Still others want an insistence on creationism or the existence of the devil or the battle of Armageddon. And of course a number want to insist on the use of inclusive language, according to the dictates of modern feminists. If some person cannot agree with the group's understanding of one or another of those views or usages, then that person is decreed unchristian or at least deficient in the faith. Doctrines, beliefs, and language are used as the measure of Christian devotion and practice, and those who do not conform to the group's measure are shut out as unworthy. Indeed, sometimes the test is even extended to ask after a person's stance toward the ordination of women or homosexuality or divorce, or, in earlier times, smoking and drinking. From the time of the Spanish Inquisition on, the church has judged persons according to their conformity to some group's position.
Such judgments are inevitable in the church, however, because there are in fact central tenets of Christianity apart from which it does not exist. The earliest confession of the Christian Church, according to Paul, was "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11; cf. Revelation 22:20), and if there is no belief and no practical trust in Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son, whom God has raised from the dead to be Lord of all, then the very foundation of Christian faith has been lost. Jesus' question to Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29) and its answer still form the essential bases of our faith, and in its Nicene and Apostles' creeds the church has spelled out the necessary details belonging to those bases.
From the very first, however, church members have tried to go beyond the essentials to exclude persons from its fellowship on the basis of periphery and even unimportant matters, and that is what we find happening in our text for the day. The church had its beginning in Jerusalem, after the resurrection of Christ, and our passage tells us that in the circle of disciples at Jerusalem there was a group known as the "circumcision party" (v. 2). Because the gospel was carried first to the Jews, that party believed that every male who came into the Christian faith had to be circumcised, as all Jewish males were circumcised. Circumcision was the mark of entrance into the biblical covenant with God (cf. Genesis 17:9-14) -- a mark carefully preserved all during Israel's exile and dispersion -- and the church formed the continuance of that covenant. Anyone who was not circumcised was therefore not a member of the covenant and could not be a member of the church -- and that meant all non-Jewish Gentiles, who were deemed unclean, profane, unholy.
The Apostle Peter, however, has been given that strange vision of which we read in Acts 10, has been summoned to the group of Gentiles in Caesarea, has preached to them, and has baptized them, because he has discerned that God has poured out his Spirit upon them. He gives a summary account of that experience in our text in Acts 11. And it is because Peter has shared table fellowship and preached to and baptized such supposedly unclean Gentiles that the circumcision party criticizes him. Peter hasn't followed the rules! He has gone outside of the acceptable circle of believers to include uncircumcised and therefore unholy persons in the faith! But Peter's reply is, "If God gave the same gifts to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ" -- that is, the gift of the Spirit that the church received at Pentecost -- "who was I that I could withstand God?" (v. 17). Like Baalam of old, Peter refuses to curse those whom God has blessed (Numbers 23:8, 20). He will not set his own judgment and his own criteria of faith above those of God. Jesus Christ is truly Lord, and Peter will not contradict nor deny that which God in Christ in the Spirit has done. The church's mission to all people, even to supposedly unclean Gentiles, has been inaugurated by the Lord, and Peter will not countermand that mission. With that argument, the circumcizers are convinced, and they too acknowledge that the Lord has broken the bounds of Judaism to include non-Jews, and the world, in his gift of salvation through faith.
Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, portrays the formation of the first century church as quite harmonious, with the gospel spreading steadily out from a unified community in Jerusalem. We know, from the actual writing of Paul, however, that the question of whether Gentiles should be subject to circumcision and the dictates of the Jewish law continued to disrupt the church throughout its first years. In Galatians 2:11-14, Paul tells us that Peter (who it seems was often wont to backsliding and "petering out") went back on his original stance toward Gentiles and agreed with the circumcizers, so that Paul had to confront Peter personally and indeed separate from him. The New Testament church was never harmonious, despite our fantasized stereotypes of it, any more than are our modern denominations. All its life the church has wavered between those who judge others on the basis of their own convictions and those who submit their own views and will to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We all have a propensity for trying to replace the will and working of God with our own.
Perhaps that struggle of the New Testament church, mirrored in our text for the morning, teaches us modern judges some valuable lessons. There are a lot of people of our acquaintance whom we are sure cannot possibly be good church members and Christians. A poll was taken one time in which a majority of those surveyed were quite sure that they personally were going to go to heaven, but many were not sure that their neighbors were going to make it. We find lots of faults with others, don't we, because they do not do as we do and their piety and faith do not match ours? We are scandalized that some of them sit in the pews with us, and we think they do not belong there. "How can that man or that woman claim to be a Christian?" we ask, or "How can that person take holy communion when they do what they do or even look like they look or believe what they say they believe?" Sometimes we even go so far as to say we will split the church and form our own communion apart from such undesirable souls.
But of course it is God alone who sees the heart, isn't it? And it is the Lord alone who knows who are his because he has shed his Spirit upon them. Can we, in our sinful self-will, say that some person is outside of Christ? Yes, there are rightly requirements for membership in the covenant of the church, but I have often thought that when the final "roll is called up yonder," you and I are going to be very surprised about who is included and who is excluded. Our Lord wisely taught us to let the tares grow with the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30), because we honestly do not know who are weeds and who are grain. But the Lord knows. And he will judge as he will.
Above all, our Lord instructs us in our Gospel Lesson from John to love others as he has loved us. Our Lord Jesus was criticized and finally crucified for accepting into his love the unacceptable -- the ragged poor, the sinners, the prostitutes, the quisling tax-collectors, the foreigners, the hated Samaritans. His love encompassed all, and so should ours.
