Sermon Archive
The people of God
Sermon preached by Donald Reid at Holy Communion on 21 May 2006
A crucial moment is reached today in the story of the post-resurrection Jesus movement. Peter and some of the others are preaching to Gentiles - non Jews - and they make the astonishing discovery that the spirit of God which Jesus has made known to them is also present in the hearts of these "non-believers" (as they had thought of them). As a result Peter exclaims:
47"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"
This of course leads to a bust up with Peter's fellow apostles (the chosen 12 disciples of Jesus) some of whom wanted such 'converts' to become Jews and to be circumcised like Jews - but Peter and the 'liberal' faction won the day and it was agreed that since the Spirit was already evident in the hearts of these non-Jews, specifically Jewish rituals such as circumcision were not necessary to join what was becoming known as 'the church'.
So, what happened, if you like, was that the original disciples - and protectors - of the Jesus story had their vision of God's activity enlarged, to embrace people outside the scope of their previous assumptions.
This is the moment when the Jesus movement moves from being a sect of Judaism to being a world religion. This is, if you like the birth of what we call the catholic (small C) (or universal) church.
But although this story is recorded as part of the life of what we now call the "early church", there is the sense that we are still in this "early church" (or immature?) phase of discerning the boundaries of God's grace and God's activity.
Because the same questions still arise - we believe "we" have the message of God's love for "us" and presence with "us" - BUT there always seem to be those others beyond our institutional boundaries about whom we wonder: 'Do they 'know God' in any sense?' Do "we" not have to preach the message to "them" and bring "them" into the fold, our fold? Often, of course, requiring them not to be circumcised but to adapt their lives or their forms and rituals in some ways, to suit us - the same "us" who have written the theology up to now, of course.
Theology, like history, is usually written by the victors, or the strong. But God does not care much for 'victors', for the strong - God in Christ had a bias to the weak, the people outside the prevailing religious dispensations, the "sinners" and the "unclean" as they were labelled by (guess who?) the 'in group' of religious leaders.
So who are today's Gentiles, today's outsiders, those in whom (were we to look with more openness of heart) we might discover God is already present? I suppose we could think of gay people, since that is a typical 'early (immature?) church' type "are they in / are they out" controversy ripping apart our own denomination. Or on a larger canvass, we could think of people of other world faith traditions, who surely - if they are open to God, whatever they call God, and God is loving and active in the world - MUST have encountered the Spirit of God, the Spirit who blows where he wills. As the theologian Hans Kung tells us, we are on the cusp of new age of inter-faith ecumenism, faced daily the reality of people of other faiths and we are slowly discovering that the core message of God is with them too.
This is cause for rejoicing and perhaps in 2000 years time people will look back on us as the 'early church' and wonder why anyone could think otherwise than that a God who had created us all in God's image and likeness would not be discernible in the hearts of all men and women of goodwill, in all who in any way seek God in their lives.
But there are those who dispute this and perhaps precisely because we are crossing this boundary into a new ecumenical age, there are furious people, just as in the early churches, reacting. This is precisely why, though, we need to abide in one another and learn to follow Christ's commandment, to love one another - as he loved us. He loved us unconditionally, really, sacrificially. Truly, madly deeply. Not aggressively asserting himself but insistently seeing what was of God in each of us. That is what it means to love one another 'as he loved us'. We are To discern what is of God in other people, and bless it, just as Elizabeth blessed what was stirring in Mary's womb. Our mission is one of recognition and annunciation, not of coercive conversion.
Only thus, hearing one another speak of the things of God - and recognising the same God-inspired wisdom in others - can we celebrate the true Pentecost, the end of the confusion of the peoples and languages which has literally be-devilled us from our origins.
Only thus, seeing what is of God, can we truly distinguish what is NOT of God and unite to overcome the world ((as John puts it in todays other readings) - 'the world' being code for all that is corrupted, cruel and diminishing. We have much to do, better that we garner the wisdom of the peoples to do it.
So this is not a license for woolly liberalism. It is a Gospel of radical claims for right relations and radical commitment against all that is not life-giving.
Let me end with a story, also from the early church, about the mistakenness of our assumptions that we have God, and others do not:
Some church missionaries set out by boat to preach the Gospel to the world and they reach an island where they are well received by the [rather strange] inhabitants and teach them how to pray in Christian liturgical fashion. In due course the missionaries leave before they have sailed far they look back and see that there are 3 figures walking across the water to them from the island they've just left. When the three reach the boat they explain that they were just a bit confused about the precise wording of the Lord's Prayer and ask what is correct.
The church missionaries are of course astonished that these guys could walk on water, so they tell them - "perhaps you need not worry about the precise words you use; obviously whatever you're already doing is good enough. Just do that".
In this case, as in so many, who can say the Spirit of God is not already there, where we thought he was not. And what is to prevent these spirit filled people being acknowledged as being of the people of God? Nothing, only the paucity of our vision.
Lord, enlarge our hearts and our vision for your world and your love for all its people: and make us ready to love one another us you loved us. Amen.
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