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The Reading
Acts 11.1-18
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?"
Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But I replied, "By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But a second time the voice answered from heaven, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, "Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, "John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."
John 13.31-35
When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, "Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Scripture quotations are from: New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The Sermon
Prepared by Kath, Reader at St Mary's.
I’ve always wanted to preach about Peter but believe it or not this is the first time in 23 years that a suitable reading has coincided with when I’ve been down to preach. So as the saying goes, everything comes to he or she who waits and at last I get to do it. The reason I wanted to talk about him is that for someone who is a saint, the courageous leader of the early Christian Church and in the Catholic Church, the first Pope, he’s always struck me as the most down to earth, genuinely human character and thus someone the rest of us mere mortals can relate to. Time after time he got carried away with enthusiasm, acted impulsively, opened his mouth and promptly put his foot in it. He often got things wrong or missed the point but in spite of this I don’t think anyone who hears his story could ever doubt the depth of love and devotion Peter had for Jesus. In his own mind he would do anything for Jesus, indeed he gave his all; left his family, his home, his livelihood, his security. Having chosen to follow Jesus he sincerely believed that he would never let him down and indeed would sacrifice his life for him if needed. But when it came to the crunch he failed. For very understandable, human reasons, he was afraid and he fell short of his own high ideals by abandoning the very person he loved so much. As failures go this was truly heartbreaking. And yet we know what he went on to do and to be.
The Peter we meet in our reading from Acts is very different to the one who so often went off half cocked. He’s calmer and more considered, thoughtful and measured in his reply to the group of men who take issue with him about mixing with gentiles. He quietly explains the vision he saw and how he was called to share God’s message about salvation with gentiles. The men who had criticised him are silenced when he makes it clear that God’s church is inclusive, not exclusive and to their credit they accept what he says. After all, the phrase “If God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God” shows great humility. It’s pretty powerful and hard to argue with.
For all sorts of reasons individuals and groups seek to exclude others, sometimes understandably. To their way of thinking, they have paid their dues and others haven’t, they’ve done the training, the studying, put in the work and served their time and others haven’t, they’ve sacrificed and saved and others haven’t. Why should those others benefit when they’ve put nothing in? A not unreasonable point of view and maybe one we’ve all shared on occasion. But if we all thought and acted this way all the time the world would be a pretty harsh and horrible place.
Sadly the church is not immune from practicing exclusivity. Parts of it still seek to exclude women, gay people and divorcees to name but some. Children can sometimes feel excluded when they are not allowed to fully participate in services; I know mine did. Different denominations sometimes seek to exclude each other’s members from aspects of their worship. In the church and in other institutions, organisations and indeed any groups, including some and excluding others can lead to the formation of factions and cliques which are seldom good. If you’re “in” you get favoured, get to set the rules, call the shots, use power plays to impose your will on those who are “excluded”. If you are among the excluded you have less power, less autonomy, less freedom, less security and less ability to do anything about your situation. It can be very lonely and frightening and stressful. We’re seeing a lot of examples of this throughout the world right now and seeing how dangerous it is. Seeing how so much of what we value and thought was solidly established is being undermined, stolen and destroyed. As some you know, from time to time I write the intercessions for our services and for a while now I’ve been referencing the need for us pay attention to and defend what we value like democracy, honour, decency and compassion lest we lose them to apathy or taking them for granted, assuming that they are set in stone because they aren’t. If we are not careful we may find that we are among the excluded with no one to call on for redress.
In our Gospel reading we hear Jesus give his new commandment, that we love one another thus showing that we are his disciples. He doesn’t say it will be easy or straightforward and certainly there are all too many examples of situations where it is hard to even contemplate loving some people given what they do and say and the massive negative impact they have on others. But we are called to go on trying.
We all need at least a little help, compassion and kindness from time to time, especially when things are not going as we’d hoped and planned. After all, no one sets out in life to be homeless or a refugee or desperately ill or any of the other curved balls and disasters that life can throw at us. When these things happen we need help and understanding, not exclusion. When we are the ones in a position to do the helping perhaps we should remember the many gifts and graces we have been given by God and be willing to share them. We don’t have to be naïve or lacking discernment about this. Balancing generosity with not allowing ourselves to be taken cynical advantage of and responding to genuine need as opposed to opportunism is a path we have to learn to navigate. Getting this right is incredibly difficult and however hard and sincerely we try, we won’t always get everything right. So when we feel that we are failing, not understanding, falling short in whatever way as Christians trying to live out our faith, we should not give up. What better example could we have than Peter to encourage us. God can and does work with our imperfections, just as he did with Peter.
Amen.
The Prayers
Prepared by Joe, Reader at St Mary's.
Common Worship: Times and Seasons, material from which is used here is copyright (c) 2010 The Archbishops' Council