“Who was I, that I could oppose God?” 

                          May 2, 2010,

              Rev. Sharon James Fazel

“To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life." (Revelation 21:6)  “So if God gave them the same gift that God gave us…Who was I that I could oppose God?” (Acts 11:17)

SHOW UCC “Language of God” video CLIP - What does this video message say to you? What impressions or images do you have from seeing it? (Congregation answers) 

Now hear this story from the biblical book of Acts, written by the same author who wrote the Gospel of Luke. Acts 11: 1-17(New International Readers Version):

 1The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles [the non-Jews] also had received the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers [the Jewish followers of Christ] criticized him 3and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."

 4Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: 5"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'

 8"I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'

 9"The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' 10This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

 11"Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. 13He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.'

 15"As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with[a]water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"

Traditionally, this is a story about the conversion of a gentile man, Cornelius, a Roman infantryman. Now remember, the Romans had persecuted the followers of Christ. Yet, here is Cornelius, who in the previous chapter’s firsthand account of the same story, kneels at the feet of Peter, and asks to be baptized. As such, this story is considered a story of conversion, and yet – William Willimon, author of the Interpretation Series volume on Acts has quite a different take on the word “conversion,” and on what this important story, which consumes a large chunk of the entire book of Acts, is actually about.

Is this story about the conversion of a gentile (a non-Jew) or the conversion of an apostle? Willimon says it’s both. And “both” stretches beyond the experience of two men. “Both Cornelius and Peter need changing if God’s mission is to go forward…Through the dialogue of Peter and Cornelius Luke creates a scene in which old divisions are broken down and these who once were at odds -- Jew and gentile – chat amiably within the home that had been off limits to Peter. “ (Interpretation: Acts, pp. 96-97)

Remember, this interaction of Jew and Roman does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in the context of a recent and brutal history of persecution, in addition to Jesus’ crucifixion. And of the apostle Stephen’s recent murder by stoning, as well. The tight-knit crew of Jewish followers of “The Way” remained tight-knit partly out of their need to survive. So, when Peter followed the call of the Spirit to go to the home of a Roman centurion, and to baptize that same man as a fellow member in the church of “The Way” – it was no simple nor easy accomplishment. It’s not just a moment of “nice” on Peter’s part – it’s a risk for the entire church, and it involves a change in both the Roman Cornelius, and in Peter, as well. Notably, and not to be overlooked, both men begin their journeys with a vision. Willimon concludes that this story of these two men is more importantly and more accurately a story about the early church itself, rather than a “come to Jesus” story of personal salvation.

“Like the rest of Scripture,” he says, “Acts is the church’s attempt to understand its experience of God,” he says, “an experience which can be quite confusing when it leads us toward people whom we had not expected to meet.” (p. 94)

              Drawn toward what and whom the early church, and the church of today, does not expect to meet, such stories as the one about Peter and Cornelius become templates for the church’s stories of new beginnings. New beginnings in the life of the church, to which we are all being called, for the benefit of the growth of the gifts of the Spirit, rather than an increase in individuals who declare the adoption of a personal savior. In the conversion stories of Acts, the chief actor is God, not humankind (Willimon). “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 11:9 )  

In the church of today, as in the church of the Book of Acts, we are asked by God to move beyond our comfort zones, not in order to recruit more and more people to our side or to our kind, but rather to invite those who already see themselves when they look at us, to enter our midst in safety, and in comfort. We are asked by God to stretch ourselves beyond our usual sense of what is safe and secure, rather than prove we have been saved. To risk practicing the radical hospitality of those early Christians whose stories are recounted in Acts, who stepped beyond tradition and custom and practice, and safety, because they were called by a greater vision of God’s love. “…conversions in Acts are stories about beginnings…stories about vocation… [and] stories about the gifts of God.” (Willimon, 103). 

What would it be like if the church of today acted as if called by a vision to spread stories of new beginnings, stories of God’s call to justice for all, and stories of God’s gifts for all of us? Would we be willing to say in answering that call, both  as individuals and as the church, “Who was I, that I could oppose God?”

PLAY CLIP, AGAIN, if time.

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