Loving God, you continue to surprise your people with the height and depth and breadth of your love.  Continue to renew us in that same love, that others might experience Christ through us; in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

    Today in our first reading, we hear quite a bit about the Gentiles.  Who are the Gentiles?  Who are we talking about here? [anybody who is not Jewish]  Gentiles were hated and despised by most Jews.  They were considered to be unclean and pagans.  They were considered to be outside of God’s covenant people and responsible for much of the grief experienced by the Jewish people.  Thus, it is not particularly surprising that in some of the Old Testament prophets we find the hope that the Gentiles would be crushed and that they would become servants of the Jews (Isa. 61:5-6).  In fact, it is in the middle of one of these Old Testament passages that we find the verses that Jesus read when he gave his very first sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth.

    Jesus read from Isaiah 61, where it says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Lk. 4:18-19; Isa. 61:1-2)

Interestingly enough, Jesus leaves out the next part, which talks about God’s vengeance and the Gentiles becoming slaves of the Jews.  Instead, Jesus tells them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4:21).

    However, you may recall that what Jesus says next almost gets him killed.  Jesus lifts up two stories from their own Scriptures in which Gentiles were honoured.  He tells them how Elijah was sent to a Gentile widow during the drought and famine, who then experienced God’s power at work through miracles.  Then Jesus also tells them about the Gentile army officer, Naaman the Syrian, who was healed of his leprosy by the prophet Elisha.  Simply the mention of these two stories makes them so angry that they try to throw Jesus off a cliff.  But he passes through the midst of them and goes on his way.

    I mention this other story, because it’s important for us to grasp how deeply the Gentiles were despised.  Did you notice in today’s reading from Acts that the believers in Jerusalem don’t even mention the fact that a whole bunch of Gentiles have just accepted the word of God?  One might think that this would be good news!  However, instead they go straight to Peter and say, “we heard that you were eating with Gentiles.”  Horrors!  Peter, though, does not defend himself.  Instead, he tells them all about what God has been doing.

    Peter, who has always tried to be a faithful Jew, has never eaten any food that is considered to be unclean.  However, then he has this experience where he has a vision while he is praying, and he sees this huge sheet that has all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles in it.  A voice from heaven tells Peter to kill and eat, but Peter is horrified.  He doesn’t want to defile himself by eating something unclean.  However, the voice says, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 11:9).

    The Holy Spirit then leads Peter to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion and a Gentile, whose house is full of people waiting to hear the good news from God.  This, too, is a big step for Peter, who has been taught never to enter the home of a Gentile or to associate with them.  However, because of the vision and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, Peter does speak to them about Jesus and about resurrection and about forgiveness of sins in his name.  And while Peter is still speaking, the Holy Spirit is poured out on these Gentiles just as it was on the Jewish believers at the very beginning.

    Do you see how God has gone to great lengths to change the perspective of these Jewish believers?  It took an angel appearing to Cornelius and a powerful vision given to Peter and then the Holy Spirit being poured out before these people had even been baptized!  And even after all this, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem were not convinced until they heard again from Peter all that God had done.  Then, they finally accept it, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18).

    Now, none of this is intended to point fingers at Jewish people, for no doubt we have our own prejudices and our own ideas about who should or should not be part of God’s church.  Who are the people today where we would say, “What are you doing associating with them?”  Who are the people who would not be welcome among us if they were to walk through the doors of this church?  Who are the people that we classify as profane and unclean?  Can you think of any? ...  “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

    The thing about this story from Acts, as well as our other readings today is that God is the one who acts.  God is the one who acts, coming down in Jesus Christ in order to give himself in love for the life of the world.  In Revelation, too, people don’t go up, but God comes down.  And then in Acts, God pours out the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles, and the church leaders are left trying to catch up.

    Actually, it is from this particular story in Acts that these questions come: What is God doing, and How can we help?  These are questions that allow God to take the lead and that invite us to be involved, not in our mission, but in God’s mission.  And so, here are a few things I have noticed lately that God might be doing:

    This past week, we heard about the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that killed a bunch of workers.  I do not believe that God caused this collapse, but I do believe that God mourns with all those who lament right now.  At the same time, could it be that God is working through the voices of those who are reminding us of the high cost of cheap merchandise?  Could it be that God is asking us to be aware of how our choices and our purchases here affect others around the world?  Could it be that we are being asked to value justice more highly than we value saving a few bucks?  What is God doing? And How can we help?

    A few weeks ago there was an article in the Free Press about the work that Joy Smith has been doing in the area of human trafficking.  She had been told along the way that such a thing didn’t exist in Canada, even as she drove to Saskatchewan with a friend to rescue a girl who had been kept in a locked room in a farmhouse in order to service the men who came by.  Girls from around the world continue to be lured under false pretenses and then brought to North America – essentially to be used as sex slaves.  More and more has been happening to make people aware of this.  Could it be that God is using this publicity to wake us up to what is going on?  What is God doing? And How can we help?

    One more example: This week it was announced that a new residence has opened up in Winnipeg for homeless people.  This is through Siloam Mission, and those who stay there must abstain from drugs and alcohol and keep a curfew.  The intent is to give people a place to stay while they get back on their feet.  Could it be that God is involved somehow in this?  What is God doing?  And How can we help?

    It seems that God continues to act, and even sometimes does a new thing!  May we be given the eyes to see and the ears to hear, as God continues to transform us into a new creation in Christ.  Amen.

Easter 5(C)                                    Acts 11:1-18
April 28, 2013                                Revelation 21:1-6
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church                        John 13:31-35
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2013 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved