Still Speaking -- Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10:44-48

May 6, 2018

“To the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat
We've got some beans and some good cornbread
And I've listened to what the preacher said
Now it's to the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat”

            That’s the chorus to Lyle Lovett’s song, “Church,” off of his “Joshua, Judges, Ruth” album. It is a great song and it tells a great story. The story begins with the narrator telling about his trip to church last Sunday. The service began right on time as it always does, but when the scheduled time for church to end came and went, the preacher just kept on preaching.

            The preacher told them that before they left they needed to think about the judgment day. Everyone was getting really nervous, because they were all getting hungry. The preacher seemed to read the congregation’s thoughts, but instead of winding it down, he wound it up.

“And the preacher he kept preaching
He said now I'll remind you if I may
You all better pay attention
Or I might decide to preach all day”

            As the song goes on, everyone gets really, really nervous because they are all getting hungry. Everyone was so hungry that people were getting ill; old folks and young folks, little children and everyone in between. But that did not slow the preacher down one bit. But the narrator came up with a plan. He snuck up to the balcony where the choir sat and pleaded with them to join him when he gave the signal. As the preacher was preaching and preaching and preaching, he prayed for God to forgive him, then he stood up and sang,

“To the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat
We've got some beans and some good cornbread
And I've listened to what the preacher said
Now it's to the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat”

            Then he raised his hand and the choir stood up with him and sang,

“To the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat
We've got some beans and some good cornbread
And I've listened to what the preacher said
Now it's to the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat”

            With that a hush fell over the church. And the Spirit descended like a dove from up above and landed on the window sill. Then the dove flew down to sit beside the preacher, and a fork magically, supernaturally appeared in the preacher’s hand. He ate the dove. To the awe and amazement of everyone there, he began to glow. He was, after all, filled with the Spirit. Then the preacher joined in the chorus. And the moral of the story as we are told is that even the preacher gets hungry too.

            The narrator of the song and the Holy Spirit itself intervened to make that long-winded preacher stop preaching. Do you think the people gathered around Peter, listening to his sermon, were getting hungry too? You might say this is another story of the Holy Spirit intervening, although to be fair to Peter, this was not a long or drawn out sermon. But I believe that this was a sermon that was difficult for some listening to Peter to digest. What we read in our selected verses is the end of a longer story that begins at the start of chapter 10.

            A centurion named Cornelius, who was a member of the Italian cohort – which means he was most decidedly a Gentile and a cog in the wheel of the Roman Empire – was also described as a devout man. He gave alms generously to those in need, and he prayed constantly to God. Cornelius had a vision from God in which an angel of God told him that his prayers did not go unnoticed by the Lord. In the vision Cornelius was told to send men to Joppa to get a man named Simon who was called Peter. After Cornelius’ heavenly visitor left him, he did what he was told.

            The next day while Cornelius’ messengers were on their way to Joppa, Peter goes up on the roof of the house where he was staying. He went up there to pray, and while he was praying, he also had a vision. His vision makes for another one of my favorite stories from the book of Acts.

            In Peter’s vision, he saw a sheet lowered from heaven by its four corners. On that sheet was every animal that was considered unclean according to dietary laws. Peter saw that sheet and he heard a voice telling him to get up, kill and eat.

            Peter refused. He had never broken the Law. He had never eaten anything that the Law said was unclean. He had never put anything profane in his mouth. The voice spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.” Just as Peter denied Jesus three times, he also said, “No,” three times. After the third time, the sheet was taken back up to heaven.

            Peter was confused by what he had seen and heard. While he was puzzling over the vision, the men sent by Cornelius arrived. The Spirit told him to go with the men. Peter and other believers from Joppa went, and they met Cornelius. Cornelius tried to worship Peter, but Peter wouldn’t have it. He told Cornelius and the other members of his household who were gathered there for Peter’s visit that they knew it was unlawful for him, a Jew, to associate with Gentiles. But he had this vision from God telling him not to call unclean what God had made clean. Cornelius told Peter about his vision, and that is when Peter began the sermon that brings us to our part of the story.

            Peter was still speaking. I imagine him cut off by the Spirit, mid-sentence. Perhaps he was unsure of what he would say next, or maybe he had the perfect phrase rolling around in his head. But that didn’t matter, because the Spirit intervened. It fell on all the people gathered there. It fell on all who heard the word. The Holy Spirit was being poured out even on Gentiles. And as our verses say,

“The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” 

While Peter was still speaking, before he could finish a thought or end a phrase, the Spirit did its work. One commentator said that the Holy Spirit was the true preacher here. Certainly, before I preach every Sunday I pray not just, “Help me. Help me. Help me,” but also “Lord, let your Spirit work through my words and make them your own.” Some Sundays I pray that harder than others.

Yet what is really so amazing about this whole story – from Cornelius to the interruption by the Spirit while Peter was still speaking – is that the Spirit was not just being poured out on the “other,” it was breaking down walls and leaping over boundaries that we humans thought – and still think – are necessary. The Spirit refused to do what the humans thought should be done, and instead did the work of God. While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit whooshed through the folks gathered there; it poured itself and its power out on the Gentiles, the strangers, the others. While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit proved that God was also still speaking.

There is a famous story about Gracie Allen and George Burns. Supposedly after Gracie died, George found a note she left him. It read, “Never put a period where God has put a comma.” In other words, don’t believe that you know everything. Don’t believe that what you think of as an end is really an end. Never put a period where God has put a comma.

This story, and indeed the entire book of Acts, shows us again and again and again that God was and is about the comma. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit was God still speaking, God still working, God still doing – breaking down walls and boundaries and divisions. The good news, the great and glorious news is that God is still speaking here and now. May the Holy Spirit interrupt and disrupt us today and always.

Alleluia! Amen.

Out There -- Fifth Sunday of Eastertide

Acts 8:26-40

April 29, 2018

I waitressed my way through college. I worked at a little restaurant and lounge in Nashville called J.C.’s. The owners were John and Sylvia Ciccatelli, so J.C.’s stood for John Ciccatelli, but it also could have stood for Jazz Club; because along with great food made by Sylvia, we had some great jazz music. The session players whose day jobs were playing music for the recording industry on Music Row would play jazz at J.C.’s at night. Glamour Magazine even included a blurb about J.C.’s in an article about things to do and see in Nashville.

It was a great place to work. It was hard work; being a waitress is a tough job and don’t let anyone tell you anything different. But I made good money doing it, and I loved the restaurant, my co-workers, and Chick and Sylvia were like my second parents. I never thought twice about being a waitress: until I went to New York City for the first time for a collegiate radio broadcasting conference.

Along with being a waitress in college, I was also a D.J. and eventually the Program Director for my college radio station. When we heard about this conference, a group of us from the station drove up to New York to attend. Although there were some up’s and down’s on this trip – there’s another whole story and sermon hidden in that sentence – it was still a great trip. I met a lot of different people from all over the world. But one person stands out in my memory. I don’t remember this man’s name, but we ended up in a conversation about jazz. I told him that I played jazz at the station and that I worked in a jazz club on the weekends. I’m not sure what he thought working in a jazz club meant; but when I told him that I was a waitress, it was clear to me that he didn’t think much of that position. I got that impression because he made an excuse to stop speaking with me and walked away.

Why all this talk about waitressing? Because Philip, one of our two characters in our story from Acts, was essentially a waiter. Let me clarify that. Philip was one of those chosen by the apostles to be a deacon. While our understanding of the work of a deacon is shepherding and pastoral care, the role of the deacon designated by the apostles was table ministry. They were to make sure that everyone received food equitably. In other words, they waited tables.

But these early deacons did not stay within their proscribed boundaries. Another well-known deacon was Stephen who went far beyond being a waiter. He was empowered by the Spirit to preach the gospel. But preaching the gospel can get you in trouble. Stephen’s preaching so angered and threatened those around him that it cost him his life.

Now we come to Philip. In the early verses of this chapter, we learn that a zealous man named Saul approved of the killing of Stephen, and that he began a severe persecution against the church in Jerusalem. While Saul was ravaging the church and scattering believers, Philip went down to Samaria and proclaimed the Word of the Lord there. Samaria: an unlikely place for the Word to be preached and Philip, an unlikely person to do the preaching.

But however unlikely it was that Philip would preach to Samaritans, what happened in our story was even more unlikely and incredible. In fact our story is pretty out there, both literally and figuratively.

“Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went.”

I love how the words “This is a wilderness road,” is in parenthesis. It seems to be an aside from the author who is determined to let us know that Philip was sent by the angel of the Lord out there.

On the surface it makes no sense that Philip would be sent to this wilderness road because who would he encounter there? But if Philip questioned the angel’s words, we do not read about it. The angel of the Lord told him where to go, and he got up and went. On this road, this deserted stretch of highway, where no one should be, Philip encountered a chariot returning from Jerusalem. In this chariot was an Ethiopian eunuch from the court of Queen Candace.

Here is another part of this story that is out there. An Ethiopian eunuch was returning from worshipping in Jerusalem. Why was this eunuch from a land so far away worshipping in Jerusalem? He must have been a Jewish convert. But a eunuch would have not have been allowed to enter the temple because of his physical condition. Yet, he had been in Jerusalem. Even more out there, while he was traveling, he was reading a scroll from the prophet Isaiah. The court of Candace must have been well off, and certainly this eunuch was, because he was able to read and because a scroll like that would have been tremendously expensive. Out there!

Philip saw this chariot and was instructed by the Spirit to go over to it. When I read those words, I imagine Philip running alongside the chariot, trying to keep up with it as he rumbled down this wilderness, this out there, road. Maybe the chariot was not going that fast, or maybe the driver slowed down when he saw Philip approach, but Philip was able to see what this Ethiopian eunuch was reading. When he saw that it was from Isaiah, he asked the man if he understood the words of the prophet.

The eunuch responded, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

With that Philip was invited to join him in the chariot. The scripture the eunuch was reading was this,

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch wanted to know about whom the prophet was speaking: was it about himself or was it about someone else. With that Philip began to tell the eunuch the good news about Jesus. I think it is important to remember that we do not know exactly what Philip said. We do not know exactly how he interpreted this scripture to the eunuch. We are not given a set in stone interpretation. But what we do know is that Philip told him about the good news of Jesus.

Then another moment of out there happens. On this wilderness road in this arid and dry region, they came across water! Water! There was no probable reason for water to be there, and yet it was. When they saw the water, the eunuch – not Philip – brought up baptism.

“Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

Perhaps there were a myriad of rules and regulations preventing him from being baptized, but those did not matter. The chariot stopped. The two men went down to the water, and Philip baptized this Ethiopian eunuch right there and then. As soon as they came up out of the water, Philip was snatched up by the Spirit. The eunuch never saw him again, but he continued on his way rejoicing. Philip found himself in a new place, and without a look back, he went into the towns in this region preaching and proclaiming the good news of the gospel.

Out there; it is all out there. Philip, one who was designated for waiting on tables was used by the Spirit to spread the good news. An Ethiopian eunuch, someone who was the epitome of “other,” was in a chariot on a wilderness road reading Isaiah. Water, which had no business being on that wilderness road was there. Baptism, this “other,” this foreigner, this stranger with even stranger ways was baptized by this unlikely messenger. It was all completely and utterly out there!

But isn’t that the way of God? What we see in this story and, indeed, throughout the book of Acts was that God was on the move. The gospel needed to be preached, the Word needed to be spread far and wide, and God through the Holy Spirit was going to use messengers of God’s choosing to make that happen.

But if you think about it, all of God’s story, our story, is out there. In worldly terms it is completely out there, improbable and far-fetched. But isn’t that what makes it good news? What we think of as improbable and out there is really God’s work and Word coming to fruition.

This is good news. It is good news that God is still on the move. It is good news that the gospel still needs to be preached and proclaimed far and wide. And it is glorious news that God still uses unlikely people and improbable circumstances to make all of this happen. God’s good news is out there and we are called to be out there too.

Alleluia! Amen.