“Oh my Lord,” said Peter, “it’s a second Pentecost! Didn’t God tell us through the prophet Joel, that God would ‘pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit,’ God said. And it happened to us Jews in Jerusalem, as we waited there, just as Jesus had told us to, before he left us for good. We were able to speak in the languages of the other Jews who were gathered there in Jerusalem – and they understood us! And now it’s happened again!” Peter and the rest of the Jewish disciples had indeed experienced in Jerusalem an unprecedented and astounding outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And then, just as the Spirit had driven Jesus out into the wilderness, the Spirit drove Peter and his friends out into the squares and synagogues of Jerusalem, and then, even further out, into the synagogues of other towns. At last they came to Joppa, on the coast, where Peter preached about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
A little ways up the coast, in Caesarea Maritima, a Roman city, the centurion Cornelius was praying. A “righteous gentile,” Cornelius had a vision of an angel, who told him to send for a Jewish fisherman turned preacher named Peter. Meanwhile, Peter was having a vision of his own. He saw a great sheet come down from heaven, filled with animals that Jews were forbidden to eat. “Take and eat,” a voice told him. “No, Lord,” swore Peter, “I have never eaten anything unclean.” To Peter’s astonishment, the voice replied, “Don’t call anything profane that God has made clean.” Three times this happened, and then the whole sheet was drawn back to heaven. Still meditating on this astonishing vision, Peter heard Cornelius’s servants knocking on the door. They asked him to come with them to Cornelius’s house. Now Jews and Gentiles were forbidden by Jewish law to associate with each other. By even accompanying the servants of a Roman officer, Peter was risking ritual defilement and exclusion from his community. Nevertheless, encouraged by the Holy Spirit, Peter set off for the Roman city. When Peter heard Cornelius’s story, he finally understood the vision that he had been given. He said, “At last I see that God shows no partiality – rather that anyone of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.” And he began to teach Cornelius and his household about the marvelous things that God had done in Christ.
Did Peter finish his sermon? No, as we discover in today’s reading, the last part of this wonderful story. The Holy Spirit had one more surprising trick up her sleeve. Before Peter could finish speaking, the Holy Spirit descended on all these Gentiles. It was astonishingly clear, even to these law-abiding Jewish disciples of Jesus, that the Spirit had come on the Gentiles as well. Out in the desert, the Ethiopian Eunuch, as we heard last week had asked Philip, “There’s water. Is there anything to keep me from being baptized?” In the same way, seeing the clear signs of the Holy Spirit among Cornelius and his family, Peter asked, “What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit, even as we have, from being baptized with water?” Not only were they baptized, but Peter and his friends actually stayed in the Gentile house forging bonds with these new believers.
It’s hard for us to appreciate what a frightening step baptizing and accepting these Gentiles as fellow followers of the Way was for Peter. The closest analogies we have in our own time perhaps are people who had the courage to leap over the rigid racial barriers of the pre-Civil Rights American South, the Hindu caste system, or South Africa under Apartheid. Inclusion of Gentiles in what was initially a Jewish movement was unprecedented in the ancient world. Unquestionably, the observant Jews among Jesus’ first followers were astounded that the Holy Spirit would command them to proclaim the good news to Gentiles. And we know from the rest of the Book of Acts that the earliest Christians continued to struggle with God’s command to include all ethnicities, genders, nationalities, and social classes in Jesus’ beloved community. Eventually, Paul, or perhaps one of his disciples, would write convincingly to the Christian community at Ephesus of the decision to reach out to Gentiles. “Christ is our peace,” he wrote, “who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart. In his own flesh, Christ abolished the Law…. Christ came and ‘announced the Good News of peace to you who were far away, and to those who were near….’” (Eph.3:14,17). However, it was through Peter’s first tentative and reluctant encounter with Cornelius, through the driving force of the Holy Spirit, that God laid the foundation for what God is seeking to create through the church in every age: a community bound together through allegiance to Christ, in which all divisions are forever broken down.
As we look around at St. Peter’s, do we see such a community? In some respects, we are a diverse community. And yet, as I look around me, I wonder who is missing from our community. Who is unable to share their gifts with us? Are we, for example, able to accommodate someone in a wheelchair? We know that some of our people have difficulty hearing. What are we doing to include them in worship? Can we do more for those who have limited vision? Are we adequately serving families with infants? Are there Anglicans from other parts of the world who can teach us different ways of following Jesus? Might we do more for those who live next door or who meet downstairs? Whose gifts and contributions are we missing, and to whom might the Holy Spirit want to send us, if only we were paying attention?
Mark Pinsky tells the story of the residents of a group home for people with developmental disabilities in western Pennsylvania.1 In their first attempts to attend church, the residents had been asked not to return: they were too noisy, they were disruptive, and their physical or vocal limitations made members of the congregations they were visiting uncomfortable. Finally, Pastor Sue Montgomery of Nickleville Presbyterian Church agreed to work with the group home residents. Nickleville Presbyterian was a small congregation with a profound sense of hospitality and inclusion. Not only had the congregation supported a family that had not institutionalized a disabled child, they had learned how to minister to “all sorts and conditions” of people, to people with disabilities, to those who wrestled with questions of sexual identity, to those who had been in prison, and to those who struggled with addiction. Four people committed themselves to a ministry with the group home residents that the congregation called Training Towards Self Reliance.
Within two years the group home residents were active members of the congregation. They are now full participants in Sunday morning worship and members of the extended church family. They read the lections, play instruments or sing, assist with prayers, and receive offerings. Now the congregation is ministering to residents of other group homes, with on-site services and worship in church. Even staff members, who had never before attended church, have blossomed in their participation as they lead the group home residents in proper worship behavior. People with disabilities have even participated in raising funds for the town’s food pantry. Pastor Montgomery admits that including people with developmental disabilities into their parish life has not been easy. The congregation has had to make changes to accommodate the group home members. Regular members have had to overcome their fear, uncertainty and discomfort. They have had to learn tolerance, understanding, and acceptance. They have had to come to see the group home residents the way Jean Vanier came to see the residents of the L’Arche communities: as beloved children of God, who have their own gifts to give us, their own joys to teach us, and their own deep sense of God’s love to share with us.
“At last I see that God shows no partiality…. What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit, even as we have, from being baptized with water?” Who is missing at St. Peter’s? I invite you to take the slip of paper in your bulletin right now. There’s a pencil in every pew. I invite you right now to answer these questions: who is missing from St. Peter’s? Who would I like to invite here? Where would I be willing to go and help lead a worship service? Put your paper in the offering basin. Sign your name if you can. And give thanks to God, that God shows no partiality, that Christ has broken down the barriers that separate us, and that the Holy Spirit is with us still, sending us out to share the Good News with all our sisters and brothers.
1. “A Spirit of Hospitality,” Alban Weekly, April 23, 2012, accessed at http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9913&utm_source=Alban+Weekly+2012+April+23+A+Spirit+of+Hospitality&utm_campaign=amazing+gifts+facebook&utm_medium=email on May 10, 2012. Adapted from Mark I. Pinsky, Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability, and Inclusion (Alban Institute, 2012).
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