May 5, 2024 homily on Acts 10:44-48 by Pastor Galen
Road Trip
Around the time I graduated from college, a friend of mine invited me to accompany him to a Christian retreat in Texas. The retreat was tailored to a specific demographic of people to whom I do not belong, but my friend really wanted someone to accompany him on the 22-hour drive (each way), and I was curious about what Texas was like. So we loaded up my friend’s Kia and headed off on a road trip adventure.
We didn’t want to have to stop and pay for a hotel room overnight, so we decided to drive straight through. The plan was for me to sleep in the passenger seat while he was driving, and then for him to sleep while I was driving. The problem was that for him to stay awake while driving, he wanted to either talk or turn the music up to full volume, which made it impossible for me to get any sleep. When it was my turn to drive, he wanted the music off so he could sleep, which made it difficult for me to stay awake at the wheel. The compromise was that he drove the whole way with the music turned up to full volume, and we arrived safe and sound, but incredibly exhausted.
But more important than the road trip itself was what happened at the retreat. Even though I was merely there as an observer, the retreat turned out to be a pivotal moment in my life, as I had a front-row seat to witness God work in and through a group of people who were very different from me. But more on that later…
Peter’s Vision
In Acts 10, the Apostle Peter was also invited to go on a road trip that ended up changing his life. And not only that, but it also changed the makeup of the Church going forward. And it all started when someone knocked on Peter’s door asking him to come to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion.
Actually, it started a little bit before then, when Peter had gone up to his rooftop to pray. While praying, he had a vision in which a large sheet came down out of the sky, filled with all sorts of animals that were not kosher to eat (a friend of mine calls this the “pigs in a blanket story.”) In his vision, he heard a voice instructing him to kill and eat the animals. Peter refused, saying that he had never eaten anything unkosher in his life. But the voice responded, saying, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10:15). This happened three more times. and that’s when he heard someone knocking at the door, asking him to come to Cornelius’s house.
That’s when Peter realized that the vision he had was maybe not just about what foods are OK for Christians to eat, but perhaps it also had something to do with people. You see, in those days, Jewish people typically did not enter the homes of Gentiles. Peter even said it that it was “unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile” (Acts 10:28a). But, as we find out in the next chapter when Peter retells this story to the other Apostles, Peter agreed to go because the Spirit told him to go (see Acts 11:12), and because, as he later told Cornelius and his family, “God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean” (Acts 10:29b).
Peter Goes to Cornelius’ House
And so Peter left to go to Cornelius’ house, not sure where the journey would lead, but following the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.
Now it turns out that Cornelius was a “God-fearer” — a Gentile who believed in the Jewish God, but who had not fully converted to Judaism. He prayed regularly to God and gave of his resources to help those in need, but he had not adopted all of the religious and cultural practices of the Jewish people, such as being circumcised or eating Kosher foods.
When Peter arrived at Cornelius’s house, he asked why Cornelius had sent for him. Cornelius explained that he too had had a vision. In his vision, an angel told him to send for Peter and to listen to whatever Peter had to say. While he was waiting for Peter to arrive, he had invited all of his friends and relatives to hear the message that Peter would give them. And so he said, “So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say” (Acts 10:33)
Peter proceeded to share the good news about Jesus Christ with Cornelius and all of the other Gentiles who were gathered (see Acts 10:24). And while Peter was speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon everyone who was gathered in Cornelius’ house, just as the Spirit had descended upon Jesus’ first disciples who had gathered in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost. Peter immediately baptized the new believers, and stayed with them for several more days, fellowshipping with them, and no doubt instructing them in their newfound faith in Christ.
The Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit
When the other apostles heard about what happened, they criticized Peter for even going and fellowshipping with the Gentiles in the first place. But when Peter shared with them the whole story, how the Spirit had led him to go to Cornelius’ house, and how the Holy Spirit had come upon everyone gathered there, the people who had previously criticized Peter “were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11:18).
Peter and the other believers initially thought that only Jewish people could be saved. At the very least, they believed that a Gentile would have to become Jewish first, and adopt all of the outward trappings of the Jewish religion before they could be accepted into God’s family. But when Peter and the other apostles saw undeniable evidence that the Holy Spirit was at work in and through the lives of these Gentiles, they knew then that God’s grace had been extended even to the Gentiles.
Gifts and Graces for Ministry
Something similar happened to me during that retreat that I attended in Texas with my friend twenty-some years ago. The retreat was geared towards Christians, like my friend, who experienced same-gender attraction. (Today we might say that they were members of the LGBTQ community.) The theme of the conference was “Finding your Identity in Christ.” The speaker encouraged the attendees to follow Christ above all else, and to find their identity not in their gender, or orientation, or anything else, but rather to recognize that their identity was rooted in God’s love, as children of God.
As I observed the retreat, I saw young people who were on fire for God; these were young people who were seeking to submit themselves entirely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and desiring to follow Christ in all that they said and did. They were seeking to honor God, and striving for chastity and purity in their relationships with others. For me, as I observed this retreat, there was no denying that God’s Spirit was clearly at work in that community of young people. I knew then that God’s grace is offered freely to all, irrespective of our background, gender, or orientation.
This truth was confirmed for me when I attended seminary alongside classmates of different genders and orientations, and I saw the gifts and graces God had given them for ministry. It’s been confirmed for me also as I’ve interacted with pastors and ministers here in our conference and in other denominations. I’ve seen the Spirit working in and through people, regardless of their gender or orientation, or who they love or are married to.
A Brand New Day
It was this recognition of the movement of the Holy Spirit that motivated the changes in our denominational policies and practices this past week at the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. The General Conference is made up of delegates from United Methodist Conferences around the world and meets once every four years to make decisions about the future direction of our denomination.
At this year’s conference the General Conference delegates removed the ban on the ordination of clergy in our denomination who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” — a prohibition dating back to 1984. Delegates also removed the penalties against clergy or churches holding same-sex weddings, and they exhorted the Council of Bishops to be inclusive of gender, race, ethnicity, age, people with disabilities, sexual orientation, and economic condition in naming representatives to ecumenical organizations.1
At the beginning of the week, our Bishop, Latrelle Easterling, described the Council of Bishops meeting, which preceded the General Conference, as being “empowered by a fresh wind of the Spirit,” and she likened the feeling in the atmosphere at the conference to the song from the musical The Wiz, “A Brand New Day.” She said, “That is exactly what the postponed session of the 2020 General Conference feels like — a brand new day.”2
Anchored in Scripture, Grounded in Love
Some in our congregation are rejoicing at this news from General Conference. Perhaps you have friends or family members who are part of the LGBTQ community, or perhaps you identify as part of that community. For many it comes as a relief to know that the ban against gay clergy and same-sex weddings has been lifted, while others are wondering why this didn’t happen much sooner.
Others in our congregation might be worried or concerned about what this might mean for our congregation or denomination. You might be worried that this change means that we are holding less tightly to Scripture, or that we’re allowing politics or society to influence our faith.
I want to reassure you that the United Methodist Church remains anchored in Scripture and committed to a discipleship that is grounded in love, and in the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ. This change is not a departure from those values, but rather this is an extension of the love and grace of God that has been extended to us, and this is in keeping with the trajectory that we see in Scripture. Just as in the previous chapters in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit was poured out first on Hebrew-speaking Jewish followers of Christ, then on Jewish people of every nation on the day of Pentecost, then the Spirit was poured on the Samaritans, and then (as we saw last week), the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Ethiopian eunuch. And the circle has continued to expand even to this day.
Just as Peter and the other Apostles could not deny that the Spirit was at work in the lives of those Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’ house, so too we are seeing God’s Spirit at work in and through people in our own day and age, irrespective of their background, gender, or orientation. And so we are simply drawing the circle wider in recognition of the the ways that we see the Holy Spirit is already at work.
My prayer for us is that we would we be open to this fresh wind of the Spirit and that we would remain rooted in God’s love. As we step out in faith and follow this movement of the Spirit, may we move forward with renewed hope, and a renewed focus on the mission and ministry that God has given to us–to be a church that exists for the community, and to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Amen!
Hampden United Methodist Church 