“GOD DOES NOT SHOW FAVORITISM

A sermon based upon Acts 10: 23-48

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

33rd  Sunday in Ordinary Time,  November 25th,  2018 

(14-14) Sermon Series: Church: Then and Now

A German friend, recently sent me a video of little Asian American girl pleading on a video for her parents to overcome their differences and make up with each other.   The cute little girl is setting on the carpeted stairs of her home, pleading with her divorced parents saying, ‘I’m not trying to be mean, but ‘we’ve got to get low.’ We’ve got to come together and make up with one another.  We can’t stay mad at each other.  You’ve got to be friends.  You’ve got to ‘get low’.  You’ve got to say low. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFpTIUF2TXQ).

I AM ONLY A MAN… (26)

The great surprise of the gospel, is that in order for the church to move out into the world to become a world movement, it had to ‘get low’.  The mission of the church could not and cannot succeed nor proceed with feelings, attitudes or actions of superiority or dominance.  The church had to begin, and can only continue, with a stance of meekness and humility.

In other words, before we can ‘reach high’ in God’s work, the church must ‘get low.’

In our text today, we have and interesting example of Christian humility. Simon Peter, who was named the first leader of the church by Jesus Christ, is refusing to allow having someone ‘bow’ to him.  What is happening here is a very big deal. Let me explain.      

Simon Peter was the unofficial ‘head’ of the early church.  Whereas, James, the brother of Jesus, had been given the official role of administrative leader of the church in Jerusalem, it was Peter who had been named by Jesus the confessional ‘rock’ or ‘head’ of the church.  It might be hard for us to understand this, here we already come to one of the first steps of humility that a church must make to move forward on mission.  A church does not move forward when everything depends only on one or a very few.  If the church has only one leader; that is only has one person being responsible for planning, approving, or doing everything that happens, then the church will be locked into a certain size, a certain perspective, or a certain form.  But when the church becomes a ‘team’ of leaders who all share leadership based upon calling, talents, and duties, then the church is able to move forward.  In order for the church to move forward in this way, it demands humility, meekness, building trust, honest and open sharing in ways that shows growing compassion and concern.  

The second important step in humility, is not just among the leaders who are already in the church, but here, we see Peter responding to great humility from an outsider, named Cornelius.  Cornelius was a wealthy, military leader in the Roman world, who was in charge an entire division.  He was also known to be a compassionate, caring person, who feared God and helped others.  But since Cornelius was an ‘outsider’; that is a Gentile,  as a Jew, in order to accept him into the church, Peter had to humble himself to a Gentile, just like Cornelius had to become humble, as a worldly person, to respect this new Jewish movement called the church.  

What is most beautiful in this exchange between Peter and Cornelius is their humility toward each other.  When greeting Peter, Cornelius ‘bows’ to him in reverence, but Peter, as the leader of the church, refuses to allow anyone ‘bow’ to him in this way.  Peter wants Cornelius to know, right up front, that the church works in a way that is very different from the world.  In the church, no one is put on a pedestal, and in the church, no one is put down in a lower position.  In the church the only right position, is shared-humility before God.  The church is made of a people who first ‘get low’ before they can become a people who soar high.

Before we move on, we must fully understand what is happening here in Acts, chapter 10.  Up to this point, the church was still, solely a sect of Judaism.  Jesus had been a Jew.  All the disciples were Jewish.  The Holy Spirit was poured only on Jews.  Peter stood up to preach to Jews, demanding they repent because they ‘crucified’ Jesus.  All the first converts were Jewish converts.  Steven, who was the first Christian martyr, was Jewish.  The Ethiopian Eunuch, who was converted, was Jewish, as was Phillip, the Greek-speaking Jew, who preached Christ to him.  Even Saul, who later was given the Latin name, Paul, was Jewish, and was trained as a Jewish rabbi. 

But now, in this text, something important changes.  This completely Jewish movement that is following Jesus, is about to receive it’s very first Roman, Gentile believer.  This is a momentous, even controversial step. For the church to receive its first Gentile conversion, a lot of differences, barriers, rules, regulations and laws had to be negotiated.  In fact, some of these ‘laws’ have to be ‘forgiven’ altogether, just like sins were forgiven.  Since God had commanded foods to be Kosher and circumcision to be required, this was a big step; a big, big deal.  It is a ‘change’ that would never have been made without miraculous, revelation of God’s purpose and will. It is a move that the church and its leaders would have never made without humility and meekness.

The New Testament is clear about the ‘humility’ as a priority of God in the Kingdom that is still coming and in the mission the church is called to accomplish.  ‘Those who exalt themselves, will be humbled; and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (Luk 14:11).  This kind of humility is a priority because Christ is ‘meek and lowly at heart’ (Matt. 11:29) who ‘humbled himself’ with his ‘death on the cross’ (Phil 2:9) and because Jesus taught that only ‘the meek will inherit the earth’ (Matt. 5:5).  The most practical James, gives us the greatest clarity of what Christian humility means in action: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble…submit yourselves to God, resist the devil…draw near to God…purify you hearts…humble yourselves in the sight of God and he will lift you up…don’t speak evil (or judge) one another (James 4:6-11).  But it is Peter himself, who has the final word on humility: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time (1 Pet. 5:6).

GOD DOES NOT HAVE FAVORITES (34)

Why is ‘humility’ such a great necessity for the mission and future of the church?  Our text reminds, perhaps most important of all, that humility is important, because of who God is and how God loves.

In the unfolding story of the church, what Peter and the church are learning, and what we also required to learn, is that God’s mission in the world must be based on a ‘new’ understanding of who God is, how God works, and how God loves. 

This ‘understanding’ that ‘God has no favorites’, ‘shows no favoritism’ or ‘accepts anyone who fears God’ is the ‘next’ great surprise, after the cross, in the Biblical story.   So, if the great revelation and surprise and shock of the cross is that God loves sinners, the next great big great shock and surprise of God after the cross, is that God not only loves us, but that God also loves them, and us too, ‘even while we (and they) are still sinners’. 

Since being or remaining a ‘Gentile’ in the Jewish vocabulary was synonymous with being a ‘sinner’, it took humility and openness to come to this new understanding of God.  Peter and the church had to grasp not only the greatness of God’s law, but they also can to grasp the greatness of God’s grace.  It was through the conversion of this uncircumcised Gentile named Cornelius, that Peter, learned not only for himself, but for the whole church, that God shows no favoritism, which means that God does not treat one person differently than another, but that God accepts anyone and everyone who ‘fears him and does what is right.’

The point Peter makes, and that the church, and people must still understand is not that God has become a ‘wishy-washy’, ‘sugar-daddy’, benevolent dictator, who ‘offers grace’ and ‘forgiveness’ to everyone regardless of how they live.  This God who loves and forgives is still the same ‘holy’ and ‘just’ God of Israel, who demands ‘justice’ and ‘righteousness’ from his people, just as he now calls them to new a new level of ‘humility’ and ‘obedience’.  

What it does mean to say that God ‘shows no favorites’ points us to greater, fuller, and more complete and clear understanding of the kind of God, God is, which reveals more fully, the kind of love, God has and we must have too.  Israel’s God is not to be misunderstood as the God who is builds walls, but Israel’s God has been revealed in Jesus as the God who tears down wall, who crosses barrier and cultures, and overcomes differences and distinctions, so that human divisions and dysfunctions can be overcome and people can come together in God’s truth with dignity, grace, humility and in peace. 

What is now become clear and must be humbly received and acknowledged, before the church can go forward, is what God has been trying to reveal to his people all along.  Through the church, God releases his ‘glory’ into the whole world, so that the ‘whole world can be filled with God’s glory’.  This ‘glory’ is has been fully revealed in Jesus Christ, is now being released into the life and mission of the church, to take to the whole world the whole message of God, who calls everyone to righteousness, by accepting anyone who will respond to God’s love, because this God loves sinners, even while they are still sinners, so that redemption can now be fully realized in the world and salvation can be received by every person who will believe.

What this new ‘movement’ or ‘work’ of God required of the church then, is what God’s new work in our church still requires now; humility.  It requires from us the same kind of humility that was required of Peter, of Cornelius, and of the entire church, as it moved forward, reinterpreting Scripture as it came to grips with the needs of humanity and humbly followed the leadership of the Holy Spirit, who was doing a new thing.  The church would not have been able to move forward without ‘humble’ leadership, and it would not have been able to understand what God was up to, without a ‘humble’ willingness to learn and understand and grasp the wideness of God’s love and grace.  The still very Jewish church had to move beyond Jewish conservatism, and the only way to do with was with a gentle, compassionate, Christ-like liberalism, which would also become a gentle, compassionate, Christian conservatism, that would be constantly open to the leading, calling, and constantly unfolding work and will of God in the world.

Now, I realize that words like ‘conservatism’ and ‘liberalism’ are ‘loaded’ with all kinds of variations of political and religious meaning—even dangerous ones.  I’m not trying to get into a debate about whether we need liberals or conservatives, because we always need both.  What I’m trying to help us acknowledge, is that took humility of both, Jewish conservatives, and Jewish liberals, to enable the very Jewish Church to become the very Gentile Church, that brought God’s salvation to you and to me. 

Recently, in the Baptist news, a Baptist seminary president was ‘released’ or ‘fired’ because he did not remain ‘humble’ in his own interpretation of Scripture or his interpretation of events in life.   Years ago, he had told a wife who was being continually abused, that she ‘should not’ divorce her husband, but not many paid much attention.  But when a female student in the seminary came to him, informing him, that she had ‘been sexually abused’, even ‘raped’ by another student, that very conservative seminary president told her that ‘she needed not report’ the incident, should ‘forgive her assailant’ without recourse, and that her future ‘husband’ would not mind that she was raped. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/05/22/southern-baptist-leader-encouraged-a-woman-not-to-report-alleged-rape-to-police-and-told-her-to-forgive-assailant-she-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.df9ee7e9ce5a).

When this news was finally released in the papers, there was such a great backlash, that the seminary president was ‘fired’ and ‘forced to retire’ and many other conservative Baptist leaders spoke out to clarify that this is not the kind of conservatism Baptist should espouse or promote.  They said that Bible should only be interpreted in a way that respected women.

I share that story, to remind us all, not only that we must take care when we interpret Scripture, but I also want to remind us that there are good kinds of conservatism, just like there are good kinds of liberalism.  But there are also bad kinds of conservatism, just like there are bad kinds of liberalism.  It takes great humility for people, and for the church too, to navigate the changing landscape of the world with the love of God.  As Jesus told the church, the church not only ‘retains’ or ‘conserves’, but the church also ‘releases’ or ‘looses’ things on earth, that will be either retained or released in heaven.   What needs to retained or released can only be determined by a people who are humbly, not proudly following the Spirit of Jesus Christ, in the grace and goodness of God’s love.

JESUS…WHO IS LORD OF ALL (36)

This way of humility, following God’s love, not just God’s laws, can’t be navigated with our own knowledge or understanding, but as Peter declares that this humble ‘stance’ of life, living, and interpreting God’s ‘message’ can only be maintained when we have ‘Lord’ or ‘Master’ who makes ‘peace’  in how he rules and reigns over ‘all’ things.

What this means is that the God of Israel, has finally and fully revealed himself in the forgiving and accepting love of Jesus Christ.  God does not rule over the world with an iron fist, but God rules the world with the enduring love.  “He went around doing good” is how this Jesus ‘healed all who were under the power of the devil” (v.38).   This is the kind of God, and the kind of ‘judge’ the Father of Jesus Christ, turns out to be, who reveals himself in Jesus Christ so that ‘everyone who believes can be forgiven’.

So, for now, we come to the this most important message for the mission of the church, then or now.   We can only accomplish Christ’s mission, when we become Christ-like; and we can only become Christ-like, when we understand what God is about---God is about ‘accepting’ not ‘rejecting’; God is about ‘forgiving’, not ‘condemning’, and God is healing the great hurt of the human soul.  

We can only become a church that preaches and teaches like this; when we also become a people who humble ourselves to believe and live like this.  We must become leaders who humble ourselves to work together.  We must be a people who humble ourselves to reach out to people who aren’t exactly like us.  And most of all, we must call them to the same ‘lord of all’ whom we have already surrendered ourselves too, so that we all can become the people who live and love like our Lord lived and loved.  Again, as that little Asia girl said,  “I’m not trying to be mean, but if you want  serve God, you’ve ‘got to get low’.  Amen.