Before we get into the sermon today, I want to give a bit of back story on the reading from Acts. One of the big questions the Apostles wrestle with in Acts, is who is this good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection for? Is it just for the people of Israel? Or are they supposed to tell everyone about Jesus? This is actually kind of a tricky question. On one hand, we see Jesus in the Gospels practicing radical welcome; he was always eating with sinners and tax collectors, healing the sick, traveling through Samaria. Caring for everyone was pretty much his thing. But, by the same token, Christian community isn’t a free-for-all, right. Everything doesn’t go. There are still rules for how we live together. The gospel reading for this morning talks about keeping Jesus’ commandments. So, how do we bring these two things together?
Acts chapter 10 is all about Peter wrestling with that very question. In the beginning of the chapter, we are introduced to Cornelius. And Cornelius does all the sorts of actions you’d want in a follower of Jesus, the bible says “he was a devout man who feared God, he gave alms generously, he prayed constantly.” All the right actions. Except for this. Cornelius was “a centurion of the Italian cohort, as it was called.” Meaning, Cornelius was a gentile, there were things Cornelius didn’t have right. He wasn’t circumcised, he didn’t eat the right foods, he didn’t have the right parents. So the question then: is the good news of Jesus for Cornelius or not? He’s doing all the right actions, but he’s not a Jew, he’s not in the community, and there are some not insignificant things he has wrong. What would Jesus say about this guy?
Acts then cuts to Peter having this crazy dream. The kind of dream that you wake up the next morning and wonder what you ate. Peter dreamed that a giant sheet descended from heaven, and on the sheet were all the foods good Jews weren’t supposed to eat. And then this voice from heaven said, “Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter is like, no way am I going to eat that. I keep the rules, I do the things, I’m not breaking your word for shellfish. But the voice says in response, “what God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Peter’s not quite sure how to take this, but the next day Peter met Cornelius and all of a sudden it clicked. The dream wasn’t about food at all; it was about people. If God called a person clean, who was Peter to decide that person was not. The good news about Jesus and his death and resurrection was for all people because Jesus had come for all people. So then Peter started giving this amazing sermon. Acts ten, thirty-four to forty-four, check it out; it’s great. It’s so great that right in the middle of Peter’s preaching, the Holy Spirit showed up.
That’s where we entered into the reading this morning. “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles…[But Peter, who finally got it,] said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Peter ordered that everyone could be baptized. Even if they were a Gentile, even if they were outside the law. What Peter realized was that God’s grace was wider than Peter’s understanding, and who was Peter to try to contain God.
Now, at this point, I could give a really great lecture on radical hospitality and welcoming people who are different. And it would be, if you don’t mind me bragging a little, a really great lecture because I’ve done quite a bit of reading on the topic, and we would probably learn some interesting and helpful stuff about how to be more welcoming. But it would be a lecture, not a sermon, because I don’t think that is the point of this story. I don’t think Peter came to understand God’s expansive grace because he was more welcoming than the other believers, because he had a better understanding of hospitality. I don’t even think Peter came to understand God’s expansive grace because of the crazy dream. I think Peter came to understand God’s expansive grace because he had experienced that kind of grace himself. I think Peter came to understand because of what happened to Peter in the Gospel reading.
Our Gospel reading finds Jesus and his disciples gathered in the upper room on the day before his crucifixion. Knowing these were the last moments he would spend with his disciples, Jesus washed their feet. Which was an act of radical servitude. Washing feet was so low it wasn’t even slave work. And then, after he washed their feet, he told them about love. “As the Father has loved me, so I love you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you abide in my love.” So what then does it mean to abide in Christ’s love? It seems there are conditions, right, there are commandments to be kept, but what are the commandments? Just this one: “Love one another, As I Have Loved You.” Love one another, as I have loved you. It’s that second part, that’s crucial. Before you can love one another, you have to know, you have to understand, you have to experience what it is to be loved by Jesus. That, I think, is what set Peter apart from the others in Acts ten, he had experienced, he had internalized, the love Jesus had for him, and it changed everything.
So I guess what I think these readings have to say this morning is that this love that Peter showed the Gentiles, this love that Jesus had for the disciples, this love is for you. This message is for you. This grace is for you. Not when you get it, but, like Peter, before you can get it, you can know, understand, experience that Jesus loves you this much. Enough to love you before you can comprehend it. Enough to love you until you comprehend it. Abiding in Jesus love means Jesus loving you into comprehension. Loving you until this grace of God changes you. And then continuing to love you as you show that love to others.
This is hard, this is super hard. It is way easier start the other way. It is way easier to base our value on how well we love each other than it is to love ourselves, than it is to realized that Jesus loves us and to live our lives as an expression of the love that we have experienced. We are way better at loving others, way better at being welcoming, than we are at recognizing that this love and this welcome is for us too, for all of who we are. But that’s what this Gospel is about.
Jesus said to the disciples, “I no longer call you servants, but I have called you friends.” And we’re not talking Facebook friends here, we’re talking like, if you watch Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith Grey / Cristina Yang friends. The kind of friends who will go to bat for you, who will be there no matter what, who will love you enough to tell you when you are wrong, and to stick it out with you until you figure it out again. That is the kind of friendship Jesus is talking about here. That core, soul friendship that knows every little part of you, even the parts you don’t like, even the parts you try to hide, and loves those parts too.
Jesus calls us friends. And because we are Jesus friends, we can do what he commanded us, which is to be loved by Jesus. To be loved by Jesus so we can love one another. To be loved by Jesus because only in the experience of being loved, can we understand how to love.
Jesus calls us friends. Why? What did we possibly do to deserve this? It’s the question the circumcised believers are wrestling with in the Acts reading, what does it take to be in, what does it take to welcomed into the family of Jesus. What do we have to do to choose Jesus so we can be his friend? Jesus answered that question in this Gospel reading as well. “You did not choose me but I chose you.” You did not choose me but I chose you.
Brothers and sisters in Christ we are chosen by Jesus. We are chosen by Jesus, we are loved by Jesus. Who we are, exactly as we are, all of who we are. Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, who was with God from the beginning, who was God, chose you, called you friend, loves you. You are God’s chosen. Amen.
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