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. They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them." So Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?" 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." 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. The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. On Peter's arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. But Peter made him get up, saying, "Stand up; I am only a mortal." And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 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. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?"
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. He said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 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.' 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."
As we continue to read through the Acts of the Apostles in the Daily Office, the story of the unfolding of the early Church gives us some important insights as to what was going on. Just as today, the early Christian Church had to learn how to reach beyond what those first members had been previously taught about many things and many people. Peter was raised as a devout Jewish man. He had been taught certain things about what he was to do and not do. Yet, we also know from the Gospels that Peter like so many of us today struggled with his own fears, and human shortcomings. Here is Peter meeting Cornelius saying: "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. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?" (Acts 10: 28-29). Peter knows what his tradition has taught him, yet, he is open to God helping him to see that he has to do something new and different because it is what God wants. What is the result? God and the early Church reached beyond what they had always been taught and God did something exciting, new and awesome.
I cannot speak for other religions, because I have spent the last 26 years as a Christian. Fifteen of those years were spent in the Roman Catholic tradition while eleven of them were spent being involved in Protestant Evangelicalism. During that time I have worked as a church musician in various churches of diverse worship styles back in New England a couple in New York State and here in Minnesota. If there is one religion with the most stubborn group of people that resist change even if it is for the better, it is Christianity. This is why the work toward the full inclusion of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer communities in the Church and even society is so very complicated. Most Christians including myself were taught about those "clobber passages" from the Bible (ie Sodom and Gomorrah, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26, 27, 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Timothy 10) used to condemn LGBTQ people. Over the past year and a half since getting out of the ex-gay ministry called Courage (and at the request of a reader, I wish to clarify this is not the Courage group from the UK that is very gay friendly, but the group started by Fr. Harvey), I have been reading some great material about how those Bible passages are erroneously used to condemn homosexuality many of which I have named in previous blog posts.
Conservative Christianity with it's insistence on keeping Christians rooted in Sola Scriptura (the Bible alone), and a whole bunch of dogmas with all of the life blood sucked out of them, will not allow new air to be breathed into Christians without having a rhetorical war of some kind. In ever sect of Christianity including many of the more progressive mainline churches, are a group of conservative Christians that do not want the Church to welcome, affirm and love LGBTQ people, affirm the rights of women to be educated make choices about reproduction, or to be ordained.
Like the early Church what we need in today's Church is a renewed understanding of what Christians are really all about. As Episcopalians we rightfully enjoy our Book of Common Prayer. It is our single document of what we pray as a church. We also have others being added to it such as Enriching Our Worship. Within our Eucharistic Liturgies we acknowledge the Trinity, we recite the Creeds, say the Prayers, participate in the Sacraments, learn the Catechism or Outline of the Faith and all that the Episcopal Church is about. But what are we Christians really suppose to be about? I have written this before and I will write it as often as possible. Christians are as much about what we live as we are about what we pray and believe. When Christians do not live what we pray and believe, what we believe becomes a dead abstraction, what we pray is just another bunch of words said into the air. We read a Gospel that says that Jesus Christ came as God's perfect revelation to help bring a new message, and a new era of humankind. How is the Church of today living out that new era that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? By participating in violence and yelling hate rhetoric because Muslims want to create an Islamic Center near Ground Zero? By putting money into the Alliance Defense Fund to defeat marriage equality in California and Massachusetts? By encouraging the Country of Uganda to debate and enact a bill through which known homosexuals will be put in prison for life or hanged? If this is where following the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been leading us, then no wonder the Church is dying. It is amazing anyone reads the Gospels or still goes to Mass.
The Church needs to reread the lessons of the early Church and hear how people once steeped in what they thought they understood were willing to go back to the drawing board and learn all over again from scratch. Am I saying here that we should stop saying our Creeds or stop celebrating the Eucharist? No, not at all. We need those things. What we do need though is a real and living Christianity through which our lives and the lives of others are impacted because we live what we recite in the Creeds and celebrate in the Eucharist. The Church needs to be open to continue learning how to reach out, abandoning all preconceived ideas about people we once thought we understood, and realize we possibly have it all wrong. That is why LGBTQ people still are not entirely sure they should or should not trust the Church. If we have it all wrong, are we willing to say so? Are we willing to be open to God the Holy Spirit teaching us as she often does, that we need to rip open our Pandoras Box and see ourselves, others and God in new and exciting ways. To see in each person the image and likeness of God the Holy Trinity, and to understand that as Jesus is there. Jesus is calling us to serve her in him and her, and her in him no matter what shape, color, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, gender, religion, challenge, language, culture she or he comes to us in.
Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 16, Book of Common Prayer, Page 232).
Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (Prayer for Peace Among the Nations, Book of Common Prayer, Page 816).
Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, Page 826).
No comments:
Post a Comment