Good News for all

Acts 10: 34-43

January 9, 2005

Currie Burris

How startling it must have been for Peter to come to this conclusion: “I now realize how true it is that God shows no partiality, no favoritism, but accepts [people] from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” This was truly an amazing thing for him to say. He had been raised, as an observant Jew, to respect strict laws on what would be considered clean or unclean, acceptable or unacceptable. Some food could be eaten and some not. Some people, repentant Jews, were acceptable to God, but others, Gentiles, were not. They were unclean. They could not be associated with. They were outside the covenant with God.

But Peter had a dream. In that dream he saw heaven opened up, and a large sheet was lowered down to him. And on it contained all kinds of four-footed animals, including reptiles and certain birds that had been forbidden for any Jew to eat. They were unclean. But the voice from heaven told him to take, and eat. He protested but again the voice said “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

Peter was wondering about the meaning of this vision when messengers from a Roman Centurion named Cornelius came and asked him to come to Cornelius’ house. Cornelius was a gentile, unclean by traditional standards, but we are told that he was a devout God-fearing man who prayed regularly and gave generously to the poor. When Peter got to his house, Cornelius told Peter of his own vision from God, and how he was instructed to send for Peter and find out what Peter had to say to him.

That’s when the light came on for Peter. That’s when the meaning of his dream became clear. God accepts people of all nations. In God there is no partiality. There are no distinctions between clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable. There are no insiders and outsiders. No one, that by the inherent way they were born, or where they were raised, or what status or place they hold who is shut out of the love and grace of God. Any one who loves and fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. And that is exactly what Cornelius had done. He loved God and gave to those in need. His heart was full of faith and he did what was right.

Then Peter told him: “The message that God sent to the people of Israel, is the same message sent to the whole world: we have Good News! We have peace with God though Jesus Christ.” God sent Jesus into the world to teach, to do good, to heal, to conquer evil, and to bring reconciliation of human kind with God. God sent Jesus to bring us back to God. He preached, he healed, he did wonders, he was killed by the evil ones who opposed him, but God raised him from the dead. And now this Jesus is the one whose love rules over all.

Now Peter’s startling revelation, that God’s love is for all people, might seem rather obvious to most of us. We believe God is the God of all people. But it has not been so long ago churches were separated into strictly segregated communities. There were black churches and white. In the town that I grew up in, during the days of the Civil rights movement in this country, there were some churches that stationed their deacons at the outside doors of the church with strict orders not to allow any black folk to enter the building. Things have changed in many ways around this country, but Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. is still the most segregated hour of the week. We still worship mainly with people who look like us, talk like us, come from my own town, my people. We do not use the terms “clean or unclean” any more, but for all practical purposes, we still practice a kind of spiritual segregation. We still have spiritual ghettoes.

But who am I preaching to this morning? We look around this space and see many colors, many nations, many languages. We call SSPC a multiracial, multicultural, inclusive, More Light congregation. We pride ourselves in being diverse and open. And on the surface, it may certainly seem true. But is there not something more going on? Do we not separate ourselves in our own private ghettoes within this diversity around us? Who do we talk to before and after worship? Who do we welcome into our circle of friends? Whose names do I know? Who do I share my life with? My faith with? My joys with? My struggles with? Who do I share the Good News of God with?

Being in community with people who are different is hard, people who have different cultures, languages, accents, traditions, or voices. It is hard for me to show the same impartiality that God does.

But our mistake is in believing that diversity and inclusion is our goal. It is not. That is not why we are here. If it is we are doomed. A church of many colors, cultures, and kinds of people is not an end — it is a result. It is what happens in the light of the radically inclusive, totally impartial love of God in Jesus Christ. It is Christ who brings us together. It is Christ who makes us one.

In Christ there is no east or west, no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth. There is no distinction between race or class, nation or culture, language or ethnic group, no separation according to gender or sexual orientation, or bias based on age or ability. SSPC is not a black church or a white church, we are not an African church or an American church. We are not that Ntamulung Presbyterian church or even that gay Presbyterian church. We are the church of God in Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ who brings Good News for all.

And so let us be just that, and do what Christ has commanded us to do. Preach to all the people. Testify to what Christ has done for us. All of us. Every day thousands of people drive by SSPC. How many know what goes on here? How many hear the message we have to share? We must find a way to tell them.

We are located in one of the most ethically and racially diverse neighborhoods in the whole metro region. Our neighborhood has more Salvadorans living here than in any other place in the world outside el Salvador; more Guatemalans, many Mexicans and Peruvians. We must find a way to tell them about God’s love. How many folks from Asian, India, China, Korea, right on our doorstep? We must begin preaching to them all. White folks just across the road in Longbranch, down the street in Takoma Park, up the road in Wheaton. Your neighborhood and mine. Tell them.

The number one way people find their way to a church is not through the preacher, not through ads in newspapers, not through crusades, or even visitation. The number one way people come to church is by personal invitation. Neighbor inviting neighbor, co-worker inviting coworker. I know that when many of you have a family member or friend that comes to America from back home, you invite them to SSPC. But what about that person who works with you, or lives down the hall or across the street, someone not of your race, not of your country? God loves them all.

Peter was astonished and overjoyed by the light that dawned in his spirit. Let us likewise joyously tell the Good News to all the world: In Jesus Christ is the love and grace of God: God for us, God with us, God for us all.