The young church was up against the open door of the gospel’s call to all the people. They struggled to understand the expanse of God’s love. It is for them a time of choosing their pain. Who would be included in God’s redemptive love? We continue the celebration of Easter because poor on’ry people like you and like I have been included in the grace work of God.
John Jacob Niles wrote:
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.
It might not have been this way. At a pivotal moment there was a strong difference of opinion about whether we should be included or not. Our on’ryness had next to nothing to do with it. That may come as a wonderful surprise for a good number of you!
If a few had prevailed, we could have been left out. Old habits die hard. Peter had returned from a weekend of revival in the home of Cornelius doing what Jews just didn’t do. It was highly irregular. In fact, it just wasn’t allowed for them to visit and relax with people of another race. But God had shown Peter that no race is better than any other. The minute Cornelius sent for him Peter went with no questions asked.
We’re here today because he went. It’s another good story of what happens when Easter breaks loose in the church.
Ann Weems articulates the meaning of Christ’s story:
Christ’s name is not tradition. Christ’s name is newness.
Christ’s name is not Oppression. It is Justice.
Christ’s name is not Self-Righteousness. It is Humility.
Christ’s name is not Chastisement. It is Mercy.
Christ’s name is not Aloneness. It is Community.
Christ’s name is not Ordinariness. It is Life—
Abundant, plentiful, multi-flavored Life!
Christ’s name is Tear-the-Walls-Down.
That’s the vision shared with Cornelius when he sent for Peter. In Acts 10 Cornelius told Peter that four days ago he was praying. Suddenly a man stood in front of him flooding everything with light. The man told him, “Cornelius, your daily prayers have been heard, and your acts of kindness to the poor have brought you to God’s attention.” The man told Cornelius to send for Peter and to ask him to come. He did, and Peter was good enough to come. That may be an important missionary strategy. Who’s asking for you to share Good News with them? Begin with them. Be good enough to take the Good News to those who just straight out ask you to bring it to them.
Huston Smith reports a conversation with an Asian friend about the climbing of Mount Everest. The phrase used in the West to describe the feat was “the conquest of Everest.” His Asian friend commented, “In the East we would put matters differently. We would speak of befriending Everest…Ministry is the simple vocation of befriending the universe.”[1]
Cornelius immediately sent for Peter to come. Peter responded to the invitation and befriended Cornelius. Cornelius was receptive and ready to listen. Peter got straight to the point. “Christ’s name is Tear-the-Walls-Down. God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from. If you want God, if you’re open to God, God is ready for you.”
Cornelius believed they were there together in God’s presence. He was convinced that Christ’s name is Out-in-the-Marketplace. Peter believed that they had been commissioned to announce this in public. They had been chosen to tell others about him (Acts 10:41). But it would not be without risk.
No sooner were these words out of his mouth than the Holy Spirit came upon those listening. Some of the Jewish followers were taken by surprise that the Holy Spirit had been given to Gentiles. Peter asked if there were any objections to baptizing these friends in water. There were none, and they were baptized.
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins writes: “Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”[2] What would it mean for us to make a conscious choice to share for all that Christ’s name is Out-in-the-Marketplace?
[1] Alan Jones, Sacrifice and Delight (Harper: San Francisco, 1992), p. 187.
[2] Jim Collins, Good to Great (Harpers: New York, 2001), p.11.
Do we share a vision for both, male and female, Greek and Jew, slave nor free?
Many years ago a young lady on the search committee for the first Minister of Music of our nascent congregation said something that when I get quiet enough, I can still hear. She deserved to be a candidate. She had received a Church Music degree. Her love for Christ was deep. Her commitment was real and tangibly expressed. Her passion for music was alive and contagious. And if all of that is not enough, she was a Junior High School music teacher with rhythm and soul. It goes without saying she was courageous and brave and would have been a powerful minister.
And yet, this is what she said. “If I had been a man, I would have been a minister of music.”
At that time, I would have described myself as open to women in ministry, but after her matter-of-fact comment, women in ministry became more than a theological exercise. I was inspired and moved to see that women were called to serve Christ as co-laborers in the kingdom. Her experience would just continue to be repeated if we did not act with courage to take Paul seriously, “There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, male and female. You are all one in union with Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).
Poet laureate, Lucille Clifton, dedicated her poem, “Fury”, to her mother. Neither of her parents graduated from elementary school. Her mother was a very shy woman, a homebody. She wrote poetry mainly for herself. When she was invited to publish some of her poems in a book, her husband wouldn’t let her do it. Lucille is quick to say that it wasn’t because he was an evil man. It was because it was the 1940’s when husbands liked to tell wives what to do. Lucille recalls that she watched from the basement steps as her mother took her poems down in the basement to the coal stove and put them in the fire.
May our young men and women dream dreams and follow visions to wherever, whatever, and whomever, May Christ give us a vision for all!
Christ’s name is Risk.
Christ’s name is Giving.
Christ’s name is Healing.
Christ’s name is Accepting.
Christ’s name is Walk-the-Streets-and-Find-My-Hurting-People. Find on’ry people like you and like I! It was an on’ry thing for Peter and those with him to do, and when they got home they were called on the carpet. The news traveled fast. In no time, their leaders and friends in Jerusalem heard all about it. “Outsiders” were now considered “in.” When Peter got back in town some of his old associates were flabbergasted. “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited, and basically, just ruining our good name?” (Acts 11:2-3). Peter laid the whole story out for them, step by step, and made his understanding clear to them. God had given to these people the same gift that God had given to them. He asked them now, “How could I object to God?” (Acts 11:17).
Christ’s name is Walk-in-the-Streets-and-Find-My-Hurting-People.
We cannot move toward God without the gift of one another. We cannot be truly healed and free without the healing and freedom of all.[1]
This story becomes our message. Clear and strong.
Christ’s name is Changed Lives.
Christ’s name is New Creation.
Christ’s name is Love Them.
[1] Ibid., p. 188.