“Who is Welcome at God’s Table?”
Acts 11:1-18
Well, I’ve been given some difficult news from a Facebook community group, of which I have been a part for the last four-plus years. I have been officially banned from the group known as “Colecovision Lunatics.” This worldwide group of well over 1,000 old video game enthusiasts has been a fun connection as we discuss our old collections, play games together, and get excited about new releases for our favorite old system from the early 1980s, the Colecovision game console. Why was I banned? I had the audacity to tell someone they needed to pick a different game for a scoring contest. My concern was that you could not keep score in a contest with the game in question because it was possible with this game to get 1 million points and then keep playing as the score went back to zero. It is known as “flipping the score.” So there was no way to keep track of who scored what because you literally could score millions of points, but it would not show in the score. That was all I said. The administrator for the group, who is not a nice person in my book, said this request was rude and that I was no longer welcome. So a digital wall of separation has been put up, and I can no longer connect with the Colecovision Lunatics. I am no longer welcome in this group. I cannot even see any of their posts anymore. Alas.
I share this tale of woe not to all make you feel sorry for me (but hopefully you do a bit 😊) because today’s passage is all about who is welcome and who is not in the early church. Up until the ministry of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the mission of the early Christian church was limited in its focus. Converting other Jewish people to follow Jesus was the emphasis by those who called themselves “Christian.” The main reason for this had to do with purity laws.
Purity to the people of God was very important. Anyone outside of the Jewish people was considered unclean in the 1st century. What does the term “unclean” mean? Moral impurity was the cause of physical impurity. The moral imperfection represented a defilement from within, a rebellion against God’s law. Gentiles were therefore morally and physically unclean because they did not know nor follow God’s laws. They were not allowed into the inner courts of the temple in Jerusalem. There was an outer court where they could gather. Their presence in the inner court, however, would have been an affront to God and to the Levite priesthood.
Reaching out to Gentiles, those who were not Jewish was not allowed due to these purity laws. Consider these texts in the Apocrypha, books of the Bible included in Roman Catholic, Greek, and Slavonic Bibles.
Jubilees 22:16 And you also, my son, Jacob, remember my words and keep the commandments of Abraham, your father. Separate yourself from the Gentiles, and do not eat with them, and do not perform deeds like theirs. And do not become associates of theirs. Because their deeds are defiled, and all their ways are contaminated, and despicable, and abominable.
Tobit 1:10-12 After I was carried away captive to Assyria and came as a captive to Nineveh, every one of my kindred and my people ate the food of the Gentiles, but I kept myself from eating the food of the Gentiles. Because I was mindful of God with all my heart…
What changed to bring down this wall of separation? If you remember where we ended up last week, after Peter’s healing of Dorcas the Disciple, Peter stayed in a particular place while he remained in Joppa. Acts 9:43 reminds us that “Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.” Peter went and stayed at the home of an unclean Gentile who worked on getting the skin off dead, unclean animals for some time. Something caused him to stay there of all places. I believe that was the beginning, the setting of the table, if you will, by the Holy Spirit to eventually give Peter the vision he had in today’s passage. There was one other event that helped as well.
In chapter 10, we hear about another Gentile, a Roman guard named Cornelius, a devout man who gave to those in need and prayed often to God. He lived in Caesarea, about 39 miles from Joppa. At three in the afternoon, Cornelius was in prayer (3 pm was known as the hour of prayer in 1st-century Jewish practices). He had a vision of an angel telling him to send two men to get a man known as Simon Peter, who was staying in Joppa at the home of a tanner by the sea.
Cornelius sent three servants to Joppa to find the man mentioned in the vision. Meanwhile, Peter went up on the roof of Simon the Tanner and began to pray but got distracted by his hunger. While waiting for someone to bring him something to eat, Peter had a vision, as recounted in today’s passage. Peter must have really wanted some meat! Perhaps there was a good barbecue joint in Joppa. His vision was of a large sheet being sent down from heaven, and upon it were all kinds of four-footed animals, both clean and unclean per the list of unclean animals in Leviticus chapter eleven. He even envisioned all kinds of reptiles. (A brief aside, I have eaten Iguana while on a mission trip in Nicaragua. I’d have to be really hungry to eat that ever again!)
Then a voice told Peter to get up, kill and eat. Peter was instructed to do this three times (an echo back to his denial of Christ and reinstatement). Peter’s initial response was, “Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean!” Eventually, the sheet with all the meat was taken back up to heaven. Peter awoke from his trance and started to ponder the meaning of this vision. It just so happened right at that time(no coincidences with God) that Cornelius’s servants showed up. The Spirit then told Peter to go down and meet them, which he did. The servants recounted Cornelius’ vision. Peter went with them the following day back to Caesarea.
Peter went to the house of Cornelius and was met by a large gathering of Gentiles - more unclean people. He let them know it was against God’s laws for Peter to associate with anyone who was unclean. Yet this vision, as well as his time with Simon the Tanner, was working in Peter’s soul. He remembered God’s words as he met them all - “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Cornelius recounted his vision to Peter, and Peter now understood that the message of Good News was meant for all nations. Peter then told them the story of Jesus’ life, teaching, death, and resurrection. The Spirit then touched all the Gentiles gathered, and they praised God. Peter, often one to get caught up in the moment, saw the Spirit upon them and then went ahead and baptized every single one of them. He then spent several days with this Gentile family, breaking bread, sharing meals around the table, and getting to know them. Sharing a table with others holds great power. It indicates a level of acceptance, support, and partnership.
The act of baptizing the family, remaining with them, as well as Peter staying at the tanner’s home got him into trouble. He was summoned to Jerusalem, home of the mother church, run by James, the brother of Jesus and many of the original followers of Jesus. He was being “called on the carpet” to explain himself.
When he arrived, we read in verse two that the leaders of the Mother church went right after Peter. “So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?!” Peter’s careful, deliberate reply recounted “step by step” his vision from God and the events to follow, which then led to the key point of his defense: “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that could hinder God?” (verse 17). God did not wait for more to be welcomed at the table.
When Peter’s critics heard this, Luke tells us, “they were silenced.” Then the celebration that we might have expected back in verse 1 erupts: “And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’”
I have to admit that whenever I read this section of Acts, I think of it as abbreviated minutes from a session meeting. When our wonderful clerk, Marcia, writes accounts of discussions that happen during a session meeting, she does not include ALL the discussions and differences of opinion that elders may have regarding a particular topic. Her notes on meetings do reflect the spirit of the meeting but may be read as discussion and debate over an issue sounding a bit smoother than they actually were. I just do not see James and the other apostles suddenly making this HUGE cultural shift away from purity laws they had followed for centuries and all agreeing right at once that the mission to the Gentiles is all perfect and that God has granted the Gentiles repentance. But at some point, there was this huge shift, fueled by the Holy Spirit through Peter and Paul. It turns out that God wanted more people at the welcoming table.
How then does this broadening of who is welcome in the kindom, welcome at God’s table, apply to us today? I remember studying in seminary about the Presbyterian Church in the 1950s, hearing about some huge cultural shifts made by our denomination.
In the United Presbyterian Church USA, the first decades of the twentieth century saw a change in the denomination’s Book of Order, allowing women to be ordained as elders, but it was not until 1956 that the PCUSA ordained its first woman as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament, Margaret Towner.
Divorced people were another matter. That took a bit more time. Presbyterians began discussing the matter of divorce in 1647. In that year, at the humble advice of the Assembly of Divines, in Chapter XXIV, in addition to prohibiting marriage of believers to Catholics, idolaters and heretics, the statement permitted only two grounds for divorce: adultery and willful desertion. The innocent party could remarry “only if the offending party were dead.” The church didn’t budge much on that issue for a looooong time. A divorced person could join a congregation but was not allowed to serve as an elder or deacon. But then, the Spirit began to give people visions, dreams, and hopes.
Finally, in The Confession of 1967, marriage was framed in terms of compassion rather than discipline, saying, “[...]the church comes under the judgment of God and invites rejection by society when it fails to lead men and women into the full meaning of life together, or withholds the compassion of Christ from those caught in the moral confusion of our time.” Eventually, divorced persons were allowed full, inclusive participation in the Presbyterian church. Divorced pastors, however, were still another matter. According to our Stated Clerk of Cascades Presbytery, Paul Belz-Templeman, “Even in the late ’70s if a pastor got a divorce, presbytery had to examine them and sign off, approving the divorce according to minutes that I’ve read…” It wasn’t until a few years later that divorced pastors were freely allowed to serve in a church.
Regarding people from the LGBTQ community. I remember first hearing about a denomination specifically for gay and lesbian folks called the Metropolitan Community Church in the 1970s, during a time when Christian’s attitudes towards homosexuality were almost universally unfavorable. At the time, I wondered just how they could worship God while practicing their sexuality. But then the Spirit began working on me. It took time for me to understand and come around to that sexuality was not a choice but part of the created order of things. It took me time to realize that God was speaking to the LGBTQ community and that they were a part of the kindom. I met women at seminary who were amazing preachers but at the time could not be welcomed, ordained, or serve in our denomination, and they went elsewhere. After graduating, I met a number of people in various congregations who came into my office and told me their stories. “I have known I was different from an early age, am Gay or Lesbian or Bi- I love Jesus and want to be part of a church. Would I be welcomed in your congregation?” I have said up until coming to this call, “by some, but not by others.” The Spirit continues to work on us, just as she did with Peter, Paul, and the early church. In 2014 - PCUSA came out in favor of Same-Sex marriage.
God’s table is one of inclusion and based upon the principle of Agape, unconditional love. This table also includes the immigrants at our border seeking safety, food, and help. There is, of course, push back on the Spirit’s work in the church on this issue. I do not often like to give daylight to opinions that should remain in the shadows from which they came. Yet a current prominent outspoken politician is an example of such pushback.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene argued in a recent interview that “Satan is controlling the church.” The evidence she gave for such satanic control? Christian groups that provide aid to undocumented immigrants. Greene argued that these humanitarian efforts mean the church “is not doing its job, and it’s not adhering to the teachings of Christ and it’s not adhering to what the Word of God says we’re supposed to do.” She went on to argue, “What they’re doing by saying ‘Oh, we have to love these people and take care of these migrants and love one another. . .’ Yes, we’re supposed to love one another, but their definition of what love one another means it means destroying our laws.”
The definition being followed is God’s agape love, which has an open door and includes all of God’s children. It is a love that will, at times, question unjust laws and welcomes the immigrant with dignity. Regarding Satan, it was theologian Howard Thurman who wrote, “The hounds of hell are fear, deception, hypocrisy, and hate.” When the church puts up those kinds of walls of separation, we aren’t listening to the Spirit but someone else…. The church of Jesus Christ is meant to stand in opposition to the hounds of fear, deception, hypocrisy, and hate, countering them with Christ’s teachings of love, reconciliation, restoration, and community.
The church’s Spirit-led experience has brought new insights into who is included at God’s table. The Spirit has given new insights regarding reaching out to “unclean” Gentiles, pointing to the immorality and injustice of slavery, calling for racial equality and justice, full inclusion of divorced persons in the life of the church, justice for immigrants, the blessing of women’s ordination, and LGBTQ dignity. The church, led by the Spirit and the teachings of Jesus, must be about tearing down walls of separation and difference. We are called, like Peter, like the early church in Jerusalem, to follow the Spirit’s leading, who continues to push the church in new and astonishing directions. The Spirit always pushes the church into greater practice of God’s love for all people of the world. For everyone born, there is a place at God’s table. Alleluia. Amen.
