Exclude or Include?

This week and next we read from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.  This book tells the story of the early church, the spread of the gospel, the movement of the Spirit and the travels of Paul.

There are two main characters in this story, Peter and Cornelius.

Peter was one of the twelve who had travelled with Jesus. The twelve are known as the disciples when they were travelling with Jesus - disciples means learner or follower. But after the ascension, they are apostles – which means a messenger, one who is sent on a mission. So, they moved from being fellow travellers to being messengers.

Peter was one of the people who travelled with Jesus, and one who was commissioned to go and spread the gospel or good news.

Cornelius was a Roman Centurion, which means he would have been despised by Jews. While Cornelius worshipped God, he was not a Jew. Rome was the occupying force, associating with them would make a religious Jew unclean and therefore unable to participate in religious ritual.

Two men who worshipped God,

two men from very different backgrounds

two men who experience God.

In this passage we hear how an apostle and a Captain in the Roman occupying force are both moved by the Holy Spirit.

As a result of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these two men, Cornelius and his household hear the good news of Jesus and are baptised.

Last week we heard the commission and promise from Jesus:

Jesus came to them and said:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Here we see Peter doing just that, telling the good news and baptising.

In the first Century, tradition was important. Jews followed the food laws and purity laws form the Torah, mainly Leviticus. Here we read about Peter being challenged to accept a challenge from God that went against the exclusiveness of Jewish people.

The people with Peter were shocked that the Holy Spirit was given to non-Jews, the same as they had been touched by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

When are we shocked at who Jesus includes?

Who would you exclude from faith, from church?

This is a confronting passage for me.

Do I act on what I sense to be the presence and challenge of the Spirit in my life when it disagrees with tradition?

What if I get it wrong?

How do we respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives and our community?

With enthusiasm?

Or suspicion?

Or denial?

As the message of Jesus spread, the early church had to work out how to be the church of Jesus Christ, not only a part of Judaism. The question of circumcision, of what foods to eat, questions about the place of non-Jews within the church all needed to be addressed.

Today our questions are different, we no longer query if people are Christian based on racial background, but it is not that long ago that many churches were suspicious of anyone who was divorced, or a single parent or worked in a pub. There are still churches where a woman preaching is considered to be outside of the Biblical witness.

I have heard people query if someone is really a Christian when the person has different beliefs or tattoos or gambles or ….

The Uniting Church, as well as other churches, are looking at what are called Fresh Expressions, these are new ways of telling the story of Jesus, of helping people connect with the spirit in their lives, and they are rarely on a Sunday morning and often not in a church building.

As Christianity spread beyond the confines of the Jewish community, Christianity is spreading beyond the established church.

A few days ago was Holocaust Memorial Day and tonight is the beginning of Ramadan.  We live in a time when violence against people of faith is increasing, how do we respond? Can we take it from Peter’s experience and accept all people are acceptable to God?

Peter had his horizons broadened, to include gentiles as well as Jews.

Where do we need to expand our view?

Who do we exclude?

What would it take for you to include them?