Love those whom God Already Loves

When I first visited St Peters, I was the kind of visitor who sits in the back row and tried to get out before being invited to coffee hour. Jill and I were warmly welcomed by several of you. But there were bumper stickers on some of the cars in the parking lot which made us cautious. This didn’t seem like a church that would be safe place for a gay couple. That was over 25 years ago. A lot has changed since then both here at St. Peters, in the Episcopal Church and in society as a whole.

I am bringing this up because the reading we heard from Acts this morning was an important scripture in helping the Episcopal Church make the change from ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ to full inclusion.

We heard Peter defending his decision to baptize Gentiles. In order that we understand the story, I need to remind you of three things – first that strict Jews had and have strict dietary rules so for example they never eat pork or shrimp; second that the purity laws prevented them from having much to do with Gentiles, and third, that the Jesus movement was initially just within Judaism. Jesus and his disciples were Jews.

So Peter had a dream in which he was presented with many different animals for food but they were all unclean. In his dream a voice told him to eat them, but he replied that he could not. He had never eaten anything unclean. But then the voice told him, `What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' This happened three times before he woke up. Just as he was thinking about the dream, Peter was called to the door for some men who had come from Caesarea. They had been sent by a God-fearing Roman centurion named Cornelius. Cornelius himself had a vision in which he was told to send for Simon Peter.

This presented something of a dilemma because Cornelius was a Gentile so Peter would not normally have gone to his home but the Holy Spirit told him not to hesitate so he and some other believers went to Joppa to meet Cornelius. As Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and his friends, they began to praise God, speaking in tongues, and Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So they were baptized, and he stayed there with them for several days.

In the sequel that we heard this morning, Peter has to explain to the church leaders in Jerusalem what he thought he was doing. He told them the whole story and said, “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" 

This is the argument that The Episcopal Church made about fully including LGBTQ people. “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave straight people, who were we to hinder God?” It had become obvious to many, though not to all, that God was blessing the lives and ministry of LGBTQ Episcopalians and that it was time to get out of God’s way. Just as the first Christian leaders thought that Gentiles were unclean, so for centuries Christians thought that gays were unclean.

This last week I have been upset that our government, having denied entry to thousands of people trying to get away from well-documented gang violence, persecution and fear for their lives in their home countries, decided to let in white South Africans. They are the main landowners in South Africa and are privileged in nearly every way. To call them victims of genocide is inaccurate. In my anger and upset, I thought that should I ever meet one of those immigrants I wouldn’t want anything to do with them.

And then I realized that I was making the same mistake. I was calling these people unacceptable, unclean, though they are just as beloved of God as I am.

It is a trap that it is only too easy to fall into in our country right now. We are living in a time when might is right and the wealthy have power and privilege and those who don’t are labeled as gang members and criminals. We are living in a time when it is considered just to take healthcare away from millions of poor people in order to provide more income for the top 1%. In that atmosphere it is easy for us to start thinking of a group of people who are different from us as somehow unclean.
And that was just as true In Jesus time.

Which is why Jesus’ commandment to love one another was so revolutionary, and still is today. In order for the few to remain in power they have to keep the rest of the people at odds with each other, and so they sow hatred and fear.

But the Jesus movement is radically different. The Jesus movement is based on love.

Let us ponder that for a moment.

In 1st Century Palestine the family was everything. You were known as a member of your family and if you were well thought of you brought it honor, if you messed up you brought dishonor. Honor was like money in the bank. Jesus’ disciples had left their families and were to love one another regardless of family or tribe.

That is something much bigger than loving your immediate family or your closest friends. It is much bigger than caring for the people you meet at church and enjoying potlucks together.
It is a radically new way.

Have you ever wondered why the early church were so concerned about widows and orphans? It was because these people were often without immediate family so they had little support and often were hungry and ignored by the local families. But the Jesus movement welcomed them and fed them.

So the love that Jesus commands is a love that extends beyond family and old friends; it is a love that seeks to serve all God’s beloved. It is a love that seeks justice and belonging for everyone, even those who are not Episcopalians, even those who are not Americans, yes even white South Africans!

I struggle with the time involved in being radically loving in this way. I could spend every minute of every day and then some, loving individuals, loving the planet, loving those who are denied justice and peace. That would not be loving myself or my spouse. So I have come to think that the love Jesus commands is an attitude, a being not a doing.

When we ask to be used as clear channels for God’s love then we can trust that God will help us to see the places where we are unloving, the places where we need to make extra effort, and the times that we can rest and love ourselves. And that balance is different for each of us.

But I am sure that just as Peter was asked to go outside his comfort zone, to reach out to people considered unclean that God is asking the people of St Peter’s to open our hearts, to assume an attitude of radical love and be ready to reach across social boundaries to love those whom God already loves and sees as clean.
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 the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall