Going to Them
Preached at Hanover Street Presbyterian Church
On August 21, 2005
By Pastor Thomas C. Davis
Texts: Acts 10 read in three sections, verses 1 to 35:
Reading 1 (God reaches out to Cornelius, a Gentile):
1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3 One afternoon at about three o'clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius." 4 He stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" He answered, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside." 7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8 and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.
Reading 2: (Through a dream, God prepares Peter to reach out to Cornelius):
9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat." 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean." 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
Reading 3: (Peter begins to obey the dream by going to Cornelius)
17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon's house and were standing by the gate. 18 They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Look, three men are searching for you. 20 Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them." 21 So Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?" 22 They answered, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say." 23 So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. 24 The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 On Peter's arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. 26 But Peter made him get up, saying, "Stand up; I am only a mortal." 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 28 and he said to them, "You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?" 30 Cornelius replied, "Four days ago at this very hour, at three o'clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. 31 He said, "Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.' 33 Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say." 34 Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Sermon Text
In 1983 I traveled to the Soviet Union with 39 other Presbyterians to visit Russian Orthodox Christians and Baptist Christians in their home churches, and talk with them about peacemaking in general, and nuclear disarmament in particular. One of my traveling companions on that journey was Roger Nishioka, a Japanese-American, who was just beginning his work as a youth leader for the United Presbyterian Church. Alice and I recently saw Roger in New York City. He was helping to lead daily worship for the Multicultural Ministries Conference that we attended. I found Roger's Bible teaching brilliant and inspiring. I was glad to hear that he has recently accepted a call to be Associate professor of Christian Education at Columbia Seminary. Although his official duties thus have changed, his first calling, to serve young people both inside and outside the church, still burns strong in him; which brings me to this story, that Roger shared with the conference, a story that will set the theme for my sermon.
"What is keeping young people away from our beloved church?" Roger wants to know. That question burns in his heart. He was raised in a Christian home, and received a precious heritage from his parents. He believes that the message of Jesus is life-saving, and he can't understand why many young people these days seem to be cool to it. Some of the young people he has in mind were raised in Christian families, like my two sons, who stopped going to church after high school. But, a growing number of young people, of course, have no church experience. Most of Roger's pastoral experience, however, was with youth who are still connected and committed to church. So Roger wants to understand and reach out to those who are not connected and committed. He decided recently to hang out for several evenings with young people--not teenagers, who had been the main focus of his ministry thus far, but rather, with young adults. After some small talk to establish rapport, he popped the questions that he was interested in: "Are our churches doing something wrong?" he wanted to know. "If we made certain changes, would you consider coming back to church, or attending church for the first time in your life?" For instance, he asked, "If we changed the music, would you come"?
"Well, that would be nice," some responded. "That would be really nice, hearing music that moves us. But we have to be honest with you: that wouldn't be enough to make us church-goers."
"Well, what if churches were more socially involved?" Roger fished. "What if they provided an outlet for your desire to make the world a better place?"
"That would be super," some responded. "Some young people might be drawn to churches out of their desire to make the world a better place. But to be absolutely honest, you don't have to be a Christian to be socially engaged, now do you? And when we think hard about it, we don't think that that change would make us church-goers either."
Roger was feeling more and more disappointed and desperate. He really liked these young people. They were bright and committed to a better world. They shared his commitment to tolerance and social justice, to learning, to honesty. But they did not share his commitment to church. And no matter what he suggested to them that might be changed in churches to sweeten the invitation to go to church, nothing seemed adequate to draw these twenty-somethings back, or draw them in for the first time.
After the last evening of his conversation with them Roger couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned, trying to come up with something else that he might have overlooked, some other winsome change. He couldn't come up with anything. He was absolutely empty, feeling completely deflated. He sat up in bed, and then a message came to him. He said it scared him, because it was the first time in his life that he ever heard an audible message. A voice said: "Why do you keep insisting that they come to you?" That was all there was. Just that question: "Why do you keep insisting that they come to you?"
Our Presbytery executive, Jim Moseley, is convinced, and I am too, that really important changes do not usually happen through tinkering. Roger was tinkering, you see. "Well, what if we changed this? What if we changed that?" Roger wasn't messing with the fundamental assumption that church happens inside houses of worship, or at least, within churchy fellowships. It hadn't occurred to him to question that assumption, until the voice said to him, "Why do you keep insisting that they come to you?"
Peter labored under a similar assumption. Peter, a Jew, kept kosher. To be holy, to be acceptable to God, one had to avoid eating certain foods, and also, avoid associating with people who did. Outsiders were unclean, you see. A Jew wouldn't think of going into a Gentile home and accepting hospitality there, which would mean breaking bread, of course. That was forbidden because Jews assumed it brought corruption.
Spiritual changes aren't wrought by tinkering. They are wrought by paranormal visitations like Roger's, and dreams like the one Peter had: a sheet being lowered from heaven, on which were displayed all the foods that Jews ought not to eat; and then, the command: "Go to it, Peter! Kill, and eat!"
Roger's tinkering was getting him nowhere. But then a voice broke his old paradigm: "Why do you keep insisting that they come to you?" A similar voice might have asked Peter: "Why do you keep insisting that the outsiders become like you, Peter--eat what you eat, sing what you sing, pray as you pray, before you will dare to associate with them? You change, Peter! You change! Go to them!"
Peter did go to them. He went into the outsiders' home, and accepted their hospitality; and he saw-- because of that divine dream which had shattered his old way of seeing things and opened a wider way--he saw that God was already with the pagan, Cornelius. Cornelius didn't have to become a synagogue-goer to get God. God was already with this man and his family--Peter recognized that--even though they ate pork and shell fish and knew very little of Jewish ways.
Peter ended up declaring something then which I doubt he fully understood. Scripture says that he understood it, but I doubt that he did, because we human beings need to grow into the new wisdom of our visions. Divine visions destroy once sacred ways, our old spiritual road maps. Therefore, visions leave us at least temporarily confused, and it's next to impossible for us to grasp all at once the breadth and depth of the totally new ways of thinking, and believing, and behaving to which they call us.
Peter said: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." That was a profound insight, a righteous insight, a religiously revolutionary insight. But I doubt that Peter understood the breadth and depth of it, for soon he would give in to Jewish pressures in the church and insist that all Gentiles must be circumcised in order to follow the way of Jesus. Peter was wrong, of course. The way of Jesus was never to force outsiders to become insiders. Peter must not have really grasped what he said he grasped; or else, if he did, he was not able to stick to the consequences of his new vision when church politics got rough.
Alice and I found the Multicultural Ministries conference enlightening, inspiring, and consoling. Consoling, I say, because listening to table chat, we realized that there are churches all across the country that are facing similar problems to ours: fewer members, large buildings to maintain on reduced budgets, difficulties in recruiting new members, and with all this, apprehensiveness about giving up old ways. Seems like most folk feel safer tinkering, including us. But, tinkering won't save our church. Only new visions save. "Without vision," says scripture, "the people perish." And so, we must pray for divine vision now. We must allow ourselves to entertain a different way of being the church. Maybe being faithful will not mean being the gathered elect to which we add, little by little, members who agree to conform. What would it mean in Wilmington, for us to give up the idea that we are going to save our church by convincing the reluctant to come to us? What would it mean for us to go to them? Be thou our vision, O Lord. Be thou our vision.
