Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 11.1-18

Psalm 148

Revelation 21.1-6

John 13.31-35

            Throughout the great 50 days of Easter, the lectionary appoints passages from Acts of the Apostles in place of the usual lessons from the Old Testament.  The intention is to follow the chronology begun during Lent and Holy Week. Gospel stories of Jesus’ journey with the twelve toward Jerusalem and his arrest and death are followed by an account of his resurrection on Easter Sunday.  After that, Acts takes over the continuing narrative and we begin hearing the stories of the work of Jesus’ disciples as they build the church.  In a couple more weeks, as the 50 days of Easter come to an end, we’ll hear accounts of Jesus’ ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost.  After that we move into what the church calls ordinary time through the summer, but what one of my favorite Christian educators (Jerome Berryman) has named “the great green growing season” because vestments and decorative elements in the church are green.

            As with several of the lessons since Easter, today’s text from Acts deals with the controversy over the position of gentiles in the early church.  The question of whether or not a person was required to be a Jewish convert as a prerequisite for church membership was a hot topic in the church’s early years.  Paul, working in gentile territory to establish new churches says no.  In today’s lesson we see how Peter is moved to change his mind on that issue, as the debate continues on.  In some sense, it was a question of numbers.  If circumcision and adoption of the Jewish dietary laws were to be a requirement for membership in this new community of Jesus’ followers, that community was going to be much smaller than it otherwise would be.  In his letters to the gentile churches he established, we see Paul taking on that question theologically, saying that in Christ we have moved into different spiritual territory where the law no longer is our judge or our guide.  His more traditional colleagues are not so sure, and in today’s lesson they criticize Peter for eating unclean food with unclean people.

            We all know that ultimately, after an extended transition during which the church and synagogue developed into separate and distinct communities,   Paul’s side of the argument prevailed on that question.  That is not to say that divine favor rests upon the church at the expense of the synagogue or to say that Christianity is spiritually or theologically superior to Judaism, but only to say that is how things worked out in the end.

            For the past six months, as marriage equality has gained acceptance among growing numbers of Americans, and another group of states have adopted it as a legal norm, a new buzz phrase has entered the discussion.  Politicians who have been opposed are changing their minds publicly in order to be “on the right side of history” with regard to the issue.  As the Episcopal Church’s teachings about who can be ordained and whose relationships may have the church’s blessing began to change, St. Mary’s did not struggle as much with the transition as some of our sister congregations in the diocese have done.  The situation was more like us waiting “on the right side of history”  for them to catch up so St. Mary’s could offer appropriate pastoral care for our members who had waited long and patiently to receive it.  But these lessons we've heard the last few weeks about the entry of gentiles into the church are useful.  The day may well come when the church is asked to extend the boundaries of fellowship and sacrament beyond the point which even our very welcoming, diverse and culturally flexible congregation is able to stretch easily. 

            Diana Butler Bass writes about the church from an analytical point of view with the perspective of an active church member.  She looks at trends within society and within the church as a sociologist and historian as well as an Episcopalian.  If you have not read her books I encourage you to try one.  Along with other writers within and outside the Episcopal Church her recent work addresses the growing number of Americans – nearly 20 percent now – who do not participate in organized religion.  Many of them engage in regular spiritual practice such as prayer or meditation and many of them admire the charitable work of the church and the sense of community among their members that churches are able to build.  But for whatever reason, they have not found a home within organized religion.  One of the most commonly stated reasons is that religion is overly occupied with rules.

            With that group of people outside our doors, the church stands in a similar position to that of Paul and the other disciples in the church’s earliest years.  During the last century, the institutional character of the church has been ascendant.  We expected people to come to the church, for church membership to be the norm, and for much of that century it was.  But it is not any more.  If the church is to begin growing again, we will be reaching out to people who no longer have any sense of the church’s tradition or teachings beyond the very limited and distorted portrayal they receive from the media or popular culture.  For a congregation that is well grounded in tradition and the sacraments, like St. Mary’s, the day may come when the larger church reaches out in a way that stretches our boundaries beyond what is comfortable.  I don’t have a guess about what the particular issue will be.  What I hope is that these lessons of the great 50 days and the past experience of our parish and its members will move us to approach those challenges with patience, prayer and the desire to maintain community even as we deal with controversy.  The church’s experience is filled with situations in which commitment to doctrine has been allowed to trump community.  People convince themselves that defending the faith – whatever that may mean – is worth the price of spiritual harm and alienation of the faithful from the church, but it is not.  If the last forty years in the Episcopal Church have taught us anything, it should be that.

            Peter is won over to the argument of the gentiles and the rest is history.  Hopefully it continues as the history of a community growing through welcome and inclusion of those who are outside its boundaries.