Today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes an important episode in the history of Christianity, a development that changed the early Church very significantly indeed. You could say this was a moment when the Church radically reinvented itself. I don't really like that language of 'reinventing yourself', but there is some truth in this way of expressing what happened, because the leaders of the Church at that time were genuinely involved in debate, discernment and decision-making about what kind of community they should be. But the deeper truth is that God was at work in the Church, leading the early Christians, nudging and pushing them into becoming more fully the people God wanted them to be.
The Church changed from being a community consisting 100% of Jewish believers in Jesus, with everyone expected to follow Jewish law, to being a community also open to Gentile (non-Jewish) believers in Jesus. Crucially, it was agreed that Gentiles could become believers in Jesus and baptized members of the Christian Church without being required, in effect, first to become Jews and take on the key Jewish identity-markers. To become a Jew meant circumcision for men, and for everyone it meant following Jewish laws about what food you could and couldn't eat and so, in effect, who you could socialize with.
This change in the Church from being exclusively Jewish to mixed Jewish-Gentile caused a serious controversy which rumbled on for many years. In today's reading the argument seems to have been settled quickly, but we learn elsewhere in Acts (15:1-29; 22:17-26) and also from Paul (especially Galatians) that although the apostles and elders of the Church came to a clear agreement, there was continuing tension over the question of what should be required of Gentiles who joined the Church. Today, nearly 2000 years later, many Christians may have thought little about this important transition that happened in the early Church. But we should reflect on it because it's clearly a serious concern in Scripture and it tells us something fundamental about the Church – which is that the Church is a fellowship of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus.
I think one or two members of this community have some Jewish ancestry but, like most Christian churches today, we are almost entirely a Gentile congregation. But even where the membership roll is 100% Gentile, every church is still a Jewish-Gentile reality, because what is the Church at all if we overlook the real presence among us of our Jewish Lord and Saviour? If, in addition to the Lord Jesus, there are ever any other Jews present among us, they are a welcome reminder to us of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, to whom we all belong through baptism and faith in him.
So let's turn to today's story from Acts. Before zooming in on the details, let's consider the bigger picture. The Acts of the Apostles is the second part of a two-volume work. Volume One is the Gospel of Luke; Volume Two is Acts. Uniquely among the four Gospel-writers, Luke writes a second volume, describing how, after his death and resurrection, the ascended Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit on the apostles and other believers (Acts 2:33). The Spirit leads the early Church, enabling believers to be witnesses to Jesus, by telling other people about him and continuing his presence and work in the world.
To understand Luke's big picture, let's bring together two moments from his story, one near the beginning, and one at the very end. Shortly after the birth of Jesus his parents bring him to the temple in Jerusalem and a man called Simeon takes the baby in his arms and declares he is the salvation that God has prepared in the sight of all peoples, "a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2:31-32). Right at the start of the story, we are told that God has sent Jesus both for Jews and for Gentiles. Fast-forward to the end of the story, the final scene of Acts (28:17-31). Here, some 60 or so years later, the apostle Paul is speaking to the Jewish community in Rome, far from Jerusalem, telling his fellow-Israelites that Jesus is the Messiah sent by God, the fulfilment of the hope of Israel. Some of the Jews in Rome believe in Jesus while others do not. Paul's final word is that, after following his usual practice of speaking first to the Jews about their Messiah, he will now turn to the Gentiles, because God has sent Jesus for them too. In fact, by the time Paul arrived in Rome, the Church there was already a fellowship of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus. Simeon's prophecy in the temple in Jerusalem has been fulfilled: through Jesus God has kept his promise to his people Israel and God's light has come to all the peoples of the world.
So how do we get from A to Z, from the heart of the Jewish world in Jerusalem to Rome, the biggest city of the wider world? And from an entirely Jewish people of God to a church combining Jews and Gentiles? It's a long story and it doesn't always unfold easily. In the Gospel Jesus in his ministry focuses on his own Jewish people, although from time to time he clearly points his disciples to God's wider activity and concern, including for people Jews really did not like, such as Roman soldiers and Samaritans (Luke 7:1-10; 9:51-55; 10:25-37; 17:11-19). Then, at the start of Acts, the risen Jesus tells the apostles that they will be his witnesses, starting in Jerusalem but reaching out "to the ends of the earth" (1:8). And the story follows this outward-reaching dynamic. The apostles first proclaim Jesus just among the Jewish people of Jerusalem. Then the picture gradually widens. Persecution in Jerusalem causes believers to scatter to surrounding areas where the Spirit prompts them to speak about Jesus to people on the margins of the Jewish community, with Philip preaching first to Samaritans and then to a devout Ethiopian (Acts 8). Finally, we come to a pivotal moment with today's reading from Acts 11. Here at last, after many pointers to God's love for all nations and his will to include them in his one people (pointers present already in the Old Testament, then in the ministry of Jesus and in the early chapters of Acts), now at last the question comes to a head: how and when will the nations of the world, the Gentiles, be included in God's people along with the Jews?
Today's reading concerns an encounter between a Jew and a Gentile, the apostle Peter and a Roman centurion called Cornelius. This passage (which doesn't actually name Cornelius, though he's mentioned in verses 12 and 13) is in fact Peter's report to the apostles and others in Jerusalem about how God brought him and Cornelius together, which Luke has already told once at greater length in the previous chapter. In fact, it's a sign of how important this episode is for Luke's whole story that he tells the same story twice, first narrating it directly himself in Acts 10 and then including Peter's detailed account of the same episode in Acts 11. We may not appreciate having to read the same story twice but it's Luke's way of saying 'Listen up: this bit is really important!' Summarizing the two chapters that Luke dedicates to this crucial episode, here are the key points.
Often in the Bible God sends an angel and/or a supernatural vision to communicate to chosen individuals a particularly important message. God does this at the time of the conception and the birth of Jesus and of his resurrection. It's often a sign that God is doing something new, maybe unprecedented, something people might otherwise find hard to believe. So at the beginning of this story God works in unusual ways to get the serious attention of the Gentile and the Jew he wants to bring together. First an angel is sent to Cornelius, the Roman soldier, a god-fearing man who prays and gives generously to Jews but who is nevertheless still an outsider to God's people. The angel tells him to make contact with Peter and Cornelius does as instructed, sending messengers to him. Separately, God sends a vision to Peter. A large sheet descends from heaven, carrying various animals and birds; and a voice tells Peter to kill and eat. But even though he is hungry, Peter refuses because the creatures are listed in God's law as unclean; he has never eaten such things. The voice responds that Peter should not call unclean what God has made clean. That is very puzzling: how could God tell Peter to do what God's law has forbidden? But Peter will find out soon because God's plan is now unfolding quickly and just at this moment Cornelius' messengers arrive with his request to Peter to visit him. Like Cornelius, these men are Gentiles so Peter would not normally have anything to do with them, but presumably he sees God's hand in the coming together of his strange vision and this very unusual invitation to a Jew to visit a Gentile home. So he agrees to go with them. Two days later, Peter is in Cornelius' house, which is full of the relatives and friends of this Roman soldier, all waiting expectantly to hear what God will tell them through Peter.
For both sides, this is a very strange encounter. For Peter, it's a step into an unfamiliar, unclean world, which is also the domain of the hated imperial oppressor. As for Cornelius, who represents the world's superpower, here he is with his friends and relatives, eager to listen for God's word from an uneducated member of the troublesome Jewish people they are trying to govern. God has made this unlikely meeting happen.
Peter has been thinking on the way and has grasped that the vision of reptiles and other creatures was God's way of telling him to be open to people he previously considered unclean. So just as he has often spoken to his own Jewish people about Jesus, now Peter speaks about Jesus to these Gentiles, telling them about all that Jesus did, leading up to his death and resurrection, and proclaiming that Jesus will be the judge of all people. As Peter speaks, the same thing happens to these Gentile outsiders as happened to Peter and the first believers on the day of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit falls upon them, giving them the same miraculous sign of tongues, praise for God pouring out of them in different languages. The Church began with a Jewish Pentecost in Jerusalem. This is described in Acts 2 and it's a pretty well-known story. Not so well-known, I think, is this story in Acts 11, which can be called a Gentile Pentecost: from now on the Spirit will be poured out on all people. Peter gets the message: the Church must now include all those like Cornelius and those with him who have heard and believed the message about Jesus and turned to him in repentance and faith, receiving God's Spirit. Cornelius and those with him are immediately baptized and so begins the new phase of the Church as a mixed Jewish-Gentile reality.
You might expect at this point: 'And so they all lived together happily ever after, Jew and Gentile, in one Church.' But it's not quite that simple. As already mentioned, even in the Biblical period there was a lot of pushback against the idea of a truly mixed Jewish-Gentile Church. By the time Peter has travelled to Jerusalem from the home of Cornelius the apostles and others there have heard something about what's been happening, and they have lots of questions for Peter. This is where today's reading picks up, with some of the Jewish believers in Jesus criticizing Peter, asking him: "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" (11:3) Before we dismiss this response to Peter as petty-minded bigotry, let's recall that his critics here express the same outlook he had till very recently when he had his strange vision and was firmly pushed by God to visit Cornelius, and there saw the Holy Spirit come upon a crowd of Gentiles just as had happened to the Jewish disciples at the first Pentecost. Peter's Jewish critics in Jerusalem had not experienced what Peter had experienced, so their scepticism is very natural. In their position he would surely have reacted the same way. Note that these critics were not denying that Gentiles like Cornelius could become followers of Jesus; but they were insisting that, in order to be followers of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, Gentiles had to take on the Jewish law, circumcision, food laws, and so on. In effect, Gentiles had to become Jews in order to be part of the people of God, the Church.
Peter does not respond angrily to his critics. I guess he totally gets their point. He himself had felt serious reservations, which God had overcome. So Peter explains what had happened: what happened to Cornelius; what happened to him; what happened when they met; above all, the unmistakeable coming of the Spirit upon Cornelius and his Gentile friends and relatives. Peter concludes: "If God then gave them [the Gentiles] the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" (11:17) Who was I to stand in God's way? And when Peter's critics heard his testimony, their questions fell away, and "they praised God, saying, 'Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life'" (11:18).
So this passage ends on an emphatically inclusive note. The Gentiles have been included as Gentiles. Objections to their inclusion have been addressed. That's true, but it's important to note what it is into which they have been included. God is praised for granting the Gentiles the gift of "repentance that leads to life". They have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they have believed it and so have become part of the community that lives by repentance and faith. We hear nothing further about Cornelius and his friends after their inclusion in the Church through baptism, but just like us they would learn that they had been called to turn from self and towards the new life of obedience to Christ.
This story prompts us to reflect on what we mean by inclusion in the Church. 'Inclusion' is today a loaded and controversial word: a holy mantra at one end of the political and cultural spectrum, but mocked as woke nonsense at the other end of the spectrum. Today's reading from Acts reminds us of the importance of inclusion in the Church because the God of Jesus Christ is indeed a God of inclusive love. Our Lord Jesus often included those his disciples would have overlooked, avoided or excluded: children, ritually unclean people such as lepers, cripples, social outcasts, Samaritans, Roman soldiers. But the inclusive community into which Christ invites us and all people, and which we are called to build up and practise in his name, is a repentant community shaped by the holy and transforming love of God. The inclusion that should be preached and practised by the Church is in the end defined by God and not by us.
Among other questions that this passage might prompt us to discuss is that of how we handle disagreements in the Church, especially when changes are proposed which some Christians want to embrace and others don't. We should certainly note that there have been tensions and debates in the Church from early on. Apparently, God can cope with that and we must be patient with it. Maybe also, more personally, questions about how we handle change ourselves, and whether, like Peter, we are willing to have our minds changed by God. In fact, it has been said that this is a story of two conversions: the conversion of Cornelius, yes, but also the conversion of Peter, a further conversion long after his initial confession of faith in Christ, and after years of leadership in the early Church, as he shows now that he is willing to let God change him, convert him further, lead him in some ways that he would earlier have found unimaginable.
There isn't time to discuss further these or other questions this story may raise. At the very least I hope we can see why Luke should place such emphasis on this story about an extraordinary encounter between an uneducated Jewish fisherman and a senior Roman military officer. Because of their willingness to be surprised by God and led to embrace each other as unlikely brothers in Christ, the Church opened up in a new way to all that God wanted it to be, as an inclusive and holy fellowship of people from every nation, united by their faith in the Jewish Messiah Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. We give thanks that this is God's call to us, God's vision for us, and that here in this church we already have the joy of knowing some fulfilment of this vision among us. May God make this a reality among us more and more.
Revd David Marshall