Reflections on "Hospitality" Acts 10: 1-33

The sermon went better in the Sanctuary service than the Chapel service.

It was a long Scripture lesson that I broke into the two Scripture lessons, and still the sermon could have used the rest of the story.  In the Sanctuary service I added a comment or two about what happens in the "rest of the story" (not included in the following sermon text because I don't remember where that was added), which probably helped the sermon.

The Time with Young Disciples in the Sanctuary service focused on Cornelius being terrified, and how Luke mentions fear when dealing with Zechariah (John the Baptist's father), Mary (Jesus' mother), and the shepherds (in the fields at night when Jesus was born).  If I had thought of that during the week (it hit me when I heard it read in the Chapel service), I probably would have done something with it in the sermon.  By discussing it during the Time with Young Disciples, I think it strengthened the sermon in the Sanctuary.

I am really liking the Witherington book and Willimon commentary noted in the sermon text.  Thanks to Prof. Donelson from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary for recommending those two books to me as aids to my study of Acts.  They almost give me too much to think about each week!

"Hospitality” August 10, 2014; FPC, Troy; Significant Moments in Acts; Acts 10: 1-33

Introduction: Sometimes the context in which we live seems particularly disconnected with the Scripture lesson. I found that particularly true as I reflected on this significant moment in Acts that we read today.

Consider the context of the story we read:

Peter is part of an off-shoot Jewish group that is trying to figure out what it means that they believe in the resurrected Christ.

In this story the big question for Peter is whether this new group is going to extend itself beyond their fellow Jews who have come to believe in the resurrection and welcome into their midst Gentiles, those other people who have no Jewish lineage.

In our time, we are part of the Christian tradition that has grown into its own over the centuries.

In our context in the United States, we are the majority faith tradition and much of our practices and beliefs grow out of our Christian faith. We do not have to worry about whether to invite the Gentiles to share our faith, because we are the Gentiles and we are in the majority.

But we also know that in other parts of our world, Christians are a minority group, who are threatened for their beliefs. IN fact, we can watch the news of hear of Christians being killed for their belief in Christ.

Even now, in our own Presbyterian world in the United States, we continue to struggle to define our relationship with Jews.

What are we to make of this formative story in Acts as we read it in our context today?

Move 1: First of all, God acts to to break down barriers and bring us together.

a. This story in Acts is not about who is right theologically.

1. Not about which group wins and which groups loses.
2. Not about what Cornelius thinks about the early church or who Peter thinks should be a part of the early church.
3. The story is about the God who acts to break down barriers.
   b. We meet Cornelius first.
   1. a God-fearing person who prays regularly (there's that prayer theme that we can't get away from in Acts) and gives alms.
   2. Cornelius does not decide on his own he wants to meet Peter, the one preaching about the resurrected Christ.
   3. An angel of God visits him in a vision and tells him to send for Peter.
4. In fact, Cornelius is terrified, but he decides to do what God wants.

c. Then there is Peter.
1. I doubt Peter is looking for more work. He is staying busy trying to get his fellow Jews to believe in the Risen Christ.
2. But he too has a dream.
3. a strange dream with animals and a voice telling him to kill and eat it, even though Peter knows that he cannot eat unclean food.
3. But three times the voice tells him that “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.”
4. Peter seems to almost miss the men whom Cornelius has sent because he is still thinking about the dream, but the Spirit interrupts his thought and sends him down to greet Cornelius' men.
5. not only does God speak to Peter in the dream, but the Spirit makes sure that Peter and Cornelius meet.

6. God will not let this moment slip away.
c. We are put on notice that as we look back and see this story a a significant moment in the development of the early church, it is not just something that happened – God orchestrated it.

1. God considers this breaking down of barriers to be critical.
2. God wants us to expand our circles, not shrink them.
3. Unfortunately, we humans are good at creating us and them.
4. Think about the Crusades – Christians wanting to convert Muslims to the point of death.
5. Or now the stories we read of Muslims killing Christians.
6. In a less deadly example, think about our own Presbyterian Church – splitting again and again over differing opinions on whatever the hot button topic is at a particular time.
4. We humans seem to have an endless potential to divide and separate.
5. But this story in Acts reminds us that God acts to bring us together and break down barriers.
Move 2: In many ways, this story centers on redefining hospitality.

a. Hospitality is an important value in Biblical times.

1. many stories of the Israelites and in the emerging Christian church revolve around customs of hospitality.

2. We see hospitality at play with Peter staying at the home of Simon the tanner.
3. But the rules of hospitality that dictate that a Jew would stay with a Jew is challenged when Peter is invited to the home of Cornelius, a Gentile.
b. Suddenly, hospitality becomes less about whose house a person can enter and more about seeing each person as a gift from from God (Judy Hay, “Spirit of Hospitality”)
1.hospitality becomes Cornelius inviting Peter to his home and Peter accepting the invitation, despite the social norms that should have prevented both the invitation and the acceptance of the invitation.
2. God using the social practice of hospitality to bring people into relationship with others whom they never would have sought out on their own.

3. and in that space, transformation happens.

4. interestingly enough, Henri Nouwen argues that we live in a world of strangers, who are “estranged from their own past, culture, and country, from their neighbors, friends and family, from their deepest self and their God.”
   5. He suggests that we need to restore the concept of hospitality to create the space where we strangers can meet, and in the space, we can be changed.

6. Peter needed to leave his usual place and go to Cornelius' place; Cornelius needed this stranger to enter into his life so that God could be at work.

Move 3: Finally, this story is about being changed by God.

a. William Willimon in his commentary on Acts asks the question: "is this story about the conversion of a gentile or the conversion of an apostle?" (Acts from the Interpretation series, 96).

1.Is is about Cornelius taking that final step to become a follower of Christ?

2. Or is it about Peter coming to some new understanding about who is invited into the Christian faith.

3. The answer, of course, is both.

b. we tend to make our faith in Christ very personal.

1. We speak about how God cares for us in the particular,which is true.

2. we profess our faith in Jesus Christ and recognize that we must make that profession of faith for ourselves.

100. but in this story in Acts we are reminded that our faith in Christ connects us to community.

1. this story is not just about Peter going to see Cornelius to tell him about Christ so that Cornelius can profess his faith in Christ.
2. This story is about how the early church is transformed from a group that only caters to Jews to a groups that extends itself to anyone and everyone, including the Gentiles.
3. As Willimon notes, “Conversion is not for the "smug individual possession of the convert, but rather for the ongoing thrust of the gospel" (Willimon, 103)
4. We do not profess faith in Christ as our final act, but as the beginning scene in the unfolding story of God's faithful people.
   Conclusion: In our world so very different from the world of Cornelius and Peter, we still follow a God who sends us into the world to break down barriers and share the good news of Jesus Christ.
   
   

Extra comments: “Luke repeatedly focuses on the ancient practice of hospitality, the custom of welcoming travelers or strangers into one's home while committing to provide them with protection and provisions. This custom functions as an effective bridge for evangelization and unification of the early church.” Note that the hospitality is reciprocal so the Christians were called on to be hosts and guests. Requires stranger to be viewed as a valuable gift of God. Andrew Arterbury, “Entertaining Angels: Hospitality in Luke and Acts” 2007; Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 24-25