Sermon - Acts 11.1-18 An Extraordinary Development

Acts 11.1-18

Something EXTRAORDINARY happened in our reading from Acts, something you very rarely see happen today. Did you notice it?

·         I’m not talking about the apostle Peter having his deepest prejudice challenged and his mind changed by a combination of the Holy Spirit’s prompting and a pastoral encounter – that happens.

·         I’m not even talking about God reaching out beyond and ahead of the church to pour out his grace and mercy on outsiders – that happens too.

·         The thing I occasionally see happening in local churches but hardly ever in the national or denominational headquarters of churches these days is the extraordinary thing that happens in Acts 11.18: the church changes its mind on a fundamental matter of membership and the sacraments.

The change from this:

When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticised him and said, ‘You went into the house of the uncircumcised and ate with them.’ Acts 11.2-3

… to this:

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.’  Acts 11.18

… is a big and a hugely significant change. For the first time, non-Jewish people are accepted as having a rightful place in the church. The church has changed its mind and redefined itself and its membership criteria.

If we look only at Acts 11 the change appears to have happened easily and quickly. We know from Acts 15, the account of the Jerusalem Council, that there was in fact more resistance to the change and more debate, but the decision of that Council confirmed that Gentile members were not only welcome but that membership was to be made easy for them; rules and definitions were altered to accommodate them.

What I would like to do this morning is to encourage you to think about why and how this remarkable change happened as easily as it did in the early church. Then I want to go on to contrast the way in which a comparable issue is being faced by the Church of England today: the issue of whether or not marriage should be redefined to include same sex partnerships. If time allows I will be happy to respond to a few questions, before winding up with some conclusions and suggestions.

First, the easy part …

·         Peter was praying in the middle of the day when God gave him a vision which opened his heart to the possibility of taking the good news to a Roman centurian’s house. Even though Peter was enjoying great success as an apostle, including the healing of a paralysed man and the raising to life of a dead woman, which we heard about last week, he still gave priority to prayer and not just asking prayer but waiting, listening, meditative prayer (10.9ff). This made him open to being instructed by God, even as far as being challenged at the level of his deepest beliefs and prejudices.

·         Peter thought about the vision God gave him and on his way to Cornelius’s house he realised God was not just showing him something about food but about people:

“You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles” he told the crowd of gentiles assembled by Cornelius, “But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” Acts 10.28

·         God did the rest and it became obvious to Peter and his Jewish Christian companions as soon as he began to speak about Jesus, that God was already baptizing the whole crowd with his Holy Spirit. Peter and those with him recognised straightaway and without doubt that the same gift which he and the apostles had received on the day of Pentecost had already been given by God to these people, without the church’s prior authority.

·         Now even though in Peter’s own sermon at Pentecost he had proclaimed that God was at this time pouring out his Spirit on all people, fulfilling the prophecy of Joel 2.28, as far as that prophecy applied to Gentiles, he had to see it to believe it. He remembered that Jesus had said “John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1.5) He concluded “So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

·         So the Church’s baptism in water was given after the Spirit baptism given by God – the Church’s representatives responding to what God had done (Acts 10.47-48). Peter may well be considered to have been overstepping his authority, and indeed was initially criticised by the other leaders of the Jerusalem Church. But crucially, these Church leaders recognised God’s hand in what had happened and gave their approval, affirming that God had clearly given salvation and new life to Gentiles.

·         If we were to look ahead to Acts 15 we would see how the church even eased its membership requirements so that Jewish festivals and food laws and ritual washing laws and even the rite of circumcision were dropped to make it clear that Gentile Christians did not also have to become Jewish.

In Contrast – the current crisis over same sex partnerships

·         Let me make a comparison with the way the Church is currently handling the crisis over same sex marriage. There is a crisis because nation after nation are passing laws redefining marriage to include same sex partnerships. Spain was one of the first countries to do so, New Zealand the most recent. Similar legislation is currently passing through the UK Parliament.

·         The problem with this for the Churches, including the Church of England, is that Christians are deeply divided on this issue. Some of the most vociferous opponents of this change in the law are Christians, and some of the strongest voices in favour are Christian voices.

·         You can make a biblical, Christian argument either way. People I love and respect can be found on opposite sides on this issue.  Personally, as I’ve made clear before, I have become convinced that the Bible passages traditionally thought to  condemn homosexual orientation and to prohibit same sex partnerships actually do no such thing, when properly understood.

·         If we look at the message of Acts 11, we see God changing things while the church was cautious. I wonder if we aren’t being overcautious today? Is the Church of England, despite our new Archbishop’s comment last week that he supports loving, stable same-sex realationships, just too bound by its traditions and political divisions?

·         Perhaps the Church needs to take Gamaliel’s approach – if this movement is from God, it won’t go away; if it isn’t, it will fail.

·         If only we were facing this dilemma in the 1st Century and not the 21st Century perhaps we would be more flexible, less inhibited, and more in agreement about what the Holy Spirit is saying and willing to respond.

·         The fact is we are not in the 1st Century and we can only start from where we are, with all the baggage that we individuals, our church and our society have. Even so perhaps we can at least try to recover the priority of prayer, real, open, meditative prayer.

·         And perhaps we can open our hearts and our churches to give love, friendship and support to everyone who comes in response to God’s love, without being judgmental.