A More Light Congregation

Bethany Presbyterian Church

Sermon

I was given a gift of a book of Large Print Bible Wordsearch puzzles.  I have never claimed to be a whiz at Bible knowledge in general, but the words in this puzzle book are not my usual wordsearch words.  For one thing, many of them end in -eth.  Leadeth, telleth, saveth.  Most of the puzzles have the word God, or Amen in them.  Each puzzle has a title that is a theme or a particular bible verse written out, with the words you search for in capital letters.  Here's an example.  This is a puzzle titled John 14:21-22.  You will hear the capitalized words.  “HE THAT HATH MY COMMANDMENTS, and KEEPETH THEM, HE IT IS THAT LOVETH ME: AND HE THAT LOVETH ME SHALL be LOVED OF MY FATHER, and I WILL LOVE HIM, AND WILL MANIFEST MYSELF TO HIM.  JUDAS SAITH UNTO him, not ISCARIOT, LORD, HOW IS IT THAT THOU WILT MANIFEST THYSELF UNTO US, AND NOT UNTO THE WORLD?”  And some are titled with a biblical character's name.  As you might expect, some of the names are Timothy, Luke, John, Tobias, Isaiah, and Zechariah.  But have you heard of these:  Zimri, Anakim, Milcah, Aholah, and Nahash?  While I wouldn't want to get my bible knowledge from a puzzle book, according to this puzzle, “The FIFTH king of the NORTHERN KINGDOM of ISRAEL was ZIMRI.  He DECLAIMED HIMSELF king by KILLING ELAH, THE SON OF BAASHA, and ATTEMPTED to HOLD ON TO HIS THRONE by EXECUTING ALL OF Elah's MALE HEIRS.  Zimri REIGNED ONLY SEVEN DAYS.”  See, only seven days.  No wonder I've never heard of him.


We remember things like character names if we have heard of them over and over, or if they have a story attached to them.  We remember their names if they have had a role to play in scripture that we do know well.


So today, I want to remind you of a God fearing, gentile, generous man named Cornelius who we meet at the start of Chapter 10.  He lived in Caesarea* which was a Roman city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  One day he was visited by an angel who told him to send to Joppa, a Jewish coastal city just south, also on the Mediterranean, to bring a man named Simon called Peter, to him.  Meanwhile in Joppa, Peter was resting, feeling a little hungry, when an angel came to him in an intricate vision and said, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”  But Peter said, “By no means Lord, for I have never eaten anything profane or unclean.”  The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” In true biblical fashion, the message was repeated three times before the vision left Peter.  Also in true biblical fashion, the obvious subject matter about eating, was not what the message was about.


Later then the men Cornelius had sent to Joppa arrived at the place where Simon Peter was staying.  Early the next morning all of them including Simon left Joppa to go to Caesarea.  Once they arrived and Peter was in the company of Cornelius and all his relatives and friends, Cornelius was overcome.  The angel that visited Cornelius made it clear that he was sending for Simon who was a man of God so Cornelius fell at Peter's feet to worship him.  Cornelius told Peter about the angel telling him to send for Peter.  Then, Peter understood his own vision about eating, in much larger terms than he had first understood it.  Peter, a Jew should not call Cornelius, a gentile profane, because God had called Cornelius holy.  Cornelius said to Peter,

“So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”  After which, Peter spoke by the power of the holy spirit, to all the gentiles gathered there


At this point in our proclamation and confession series, this backstory to the scripture highlighted for today about Cornelius, is more detailed than any we have read in the past few weeks, and the audience is greater and even more unexpected.  The text for the first week of this series began with the healing of a single person in a particular way.  The next text was a little more detailed and included a larger crowd.  Then the scripture the following week was even more detailed and the crowd was made up of people with power, also an unexpected audience.  Next the message was proclaimed to an outsider, a seeker, who's status in many ways would have prevented him from fully following his own spiritual path.  Following this progression, today's story of Cornelius in a Roman town with gentiles as his large audience except for the few Jews who came with him from Joppa, is the greatest expression of the good news of power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the impact of that message on the hearers.  Remember God's promise to send the good news to the ends of the earth.  It's happening.


I'd like to read today's text again, to remind us where we are in this story.  We begin in verse 44, “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.”  We needed to understand all about Cornelius and the setting of Peter's discourse to understand how shocking it must have been for those who witnessed this coming of the Holy Spirit.  All who heard the word in this case were gentiles!   Then in verse 45, “The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.”  We are invited in to their amazement as we too can imagine the love of God spreading farther than we ever could have imagined.  This text has been called the Gentile Pentecost.   And finally in verse 47, Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”  Just as we have.  That was the shocking part to those who had received the Holy Spirit back in chapter 2.  In chapter 2, “all who were there” were Jewish.  


This is the final text that we will look at before next week when we will celebrate the Ascension of Christ, and the following week, Pentecost.  This means that our texts thus far have been out of time order.  But for us, I believe the order is just fine.  We have been able to see just how far the holy spirit was able to spread the good news about the power of the name of Jesus Christ.  It is important to remember how astounded each audience was each time the gospel was proclaimed in a new way.  It's important to remember that amazement now because we are in a completely new time and space right now.  More than one year into the pandemic, with some places experiencing a light at the end of the tunnel, but not all, we are about to witness yet another amazing way to spread the good news.  We don't know what that way is yet, but we are living into it as we speak.  Remember the most amazing thing the holy spirit did was break boundaries.  Whether those boundaries were geographic, ideological, physical or economic, the holy spirit got the message across.  


The worship committee and session have decided to open the church building for worship, with protocols, on September 12th.  We will work up to that date with three in-person outdoor services first.  Knowing that some will still not feel ready to go out into the world, or into a building with others, as my colleague Tara Spuhler McCabe writes, “We can acknowledge that in-person worship will not be accessible for all people.  And, we can accept that we will need to provide several stages and phases of reentry in the coming months.  A welcoming church will offer multiple entry points to rituals, Bible studies, Christian education, mission engagement and other ministries of the church.  We need to be present wherever the people are and accepting of where they are coming from.  With this in mind, we can develop and provide welcoming options.”1

I think the idea of multiple entry points makes sense.  Instead of doing things one way and missing some people, let's do things a few different ways and try to meet people where they are.  


We as a community at Bethany have a unique opportunity to explore just where God's mission will take us now.  We have no choice but to think outside the box because the box is gone.  The pandemic has taken away the “how” of many of the things we do.  Worship, meetings, social events and activities, dinners, skits, music, etc.  But the pandemic has not taken away the “what” of our church mission.  We are still called to minister to the world not only on our own patch, but to wherever God is calling us.  There are more seekers out there than before, looking for a place to be grounded, looking for a spiritual explanation to their trauma and experiences of the past year.  You and I are probably seeking differently ourselves.


I hope that by keeping open to God's word in our personal lives, we will gain insight into God's hope for our community life.  Someone asked me once if I was a “color inside the lines” kind of a person.  I felt a little non-brave when I said “yes.”  But then I said, “although I do like to move the lines.”  Let's draw some new lines, let's leave lots of openings, let's live like the Holy Spirit has been proclaimed even to us!


As we are invited to listen to God's movement in us and for us, let me close with this blessing from John O'Donohue.


Blessed be the longing that brought you here

And quickens your soul with wonder.

May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire

That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease

To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.

May the forms of your belonging -- in love, creativity and friendship --

Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.”2


______________________________


1 https://pres-outlook.org/2021/05/get-outside-the-box-becoming-a-welcoming-church-during-this-time-of-reentry/

2 JOHN O'DONOHUE, Excerpt from the blessing, 'For Longing,' found in his books: To Bless the Space between Us (US) / Benedictus (Europe), Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store Connemara Spring Blooms, Co. Galway - Ireland

"Proclamation and Confession Part IV"

Reverend Debra McGuire

May 9, 2021


Acts 10:44-48