Our Words Series
A Sermon for the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist
community of faith
By Griff Martin
Acts 10 and 11
On September 23, 2018
Incarnate and Resurrected God, we ask that you once again take
the Word and transform it into a living and breathing new reality we can all
together experience. Make us aware of your
presence here in this space and in these words God, for if we are present to you then nothing else will
matter, but if we are not present to you then
nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the
Comforter. Amen.
All People, All People, All People….
It’s brilliant theology that originated with our own Carlye
Marney, prophetic words that he blessed us and Myers Park with, words which
marked much of his pastoral work. It’s a nice
slogan for a church like ours. It looks good
on a banner hanging in front of the church. It’s
a good way to describe who we are to our community around us. It makes us feel proud and warm and welcoming.
And yet, on the other hand,
I have to confess that certain days I wonder if this is Hallmark theology; nice words
without any real meaning, or even milk cartoon theology, which is theology that
outlives its shelf life in no time.
Because “all people” is difficult in practice;
it’s really hard work. As one member stated to me in recent months, “Do we
really mean all people or do we mean all people except old people and
Republicans?”
And I have to confess that I have wondered if choosing this
“All People”
thing at the beginning of my ministry here was a huge mistake. Maybe the year I got here was not the right year to roll
that slogan out, to call us to sacred middle ground and welcoming to all
people, to making everyone feel as if they are children of God, which they
are….Because in our world “all people” is difficult. In a world in which if you watch the NFL or not is now a
statement about way more than if you like football, or if you buy Nike shoes or not is a statement beyond just
“I like those shoes,” and what newspaper you read in the morning seems like a
question about not just your intellect but your character…a world in which who
you vote for and how you feel about certain issues and what bumper sticker you
have on your car seems to be all we need to know to understand you, as if any
of us are that simple.
You see, the truth is if I
had had a Magic 8 ball and could have foreseen the culture and climate better
and where our world was headed, perhaps “All
People” would not have been my rallying cry.
You see, it would be easier in our world to be
“Certain People,” because that is how our world is going; the most divided our world has ever been with each tribe
recruiting more of their own and the bridge between tribes growing larger by
the moment. Our world now operates on “my way
or the highway” thinking. We are tribal and we
label those who are not in our tribe. We know who our people are. We have the
ability to surround ourselves with those who are just like us. We don’t have to
understand the other; in fact, we don’t even have to know the other.
In 1976, less than 25% of
us lived in places where the Presidential
election was decided by a landslide. However, today in 2016 80% of us lived in places where one of the candidates
won by a landslide. Which is just one of many examples to show we no longer
live, work or socialize with folks who think differently than us.
And yet we come here to church and our slogan is all
people, all people, all people… an invitation to dialogue and to interact with
those who think differently than us, but share the Gospel, a statement which
says we are better than our differences, that dialogue matters and that to be
whole we need a lot of people and a lot of ideas.
So you could make a case either way….maybe 2016 was not the
year to start talking all people… or maybe it was exactly the year. Because
that might be how God does some of God’s best work, a counter narrative to
culture, opening doors that others are slamming, swimming upstream, calling out
what seems impossible.
I mean, look at the text we just read, if I put myself in
the place of Peter, as a new church movement was being formed it certainly
would not have been my idea to include a whole new group of people who were
going to change the church’s core theology, structure and identity, which is
the story of our text today.
We begin with Cornelius. The text describes him as an
outsider, a Roman centurion, a “devout man and one who feared God with all his household,
and gave alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually.” In the New
Testament period, a man like this was referred to as a God-fearer. They
observed many of the Jewish religious customs and practices, but were not fully
Jewish, so not fully included.
The text tells us that Cornelius is faithful to two of the
most important Jewish practices: prayers and alms giving. The text tells us
that he is praying the ninth hour, one of the set hours of prayer when an angel
appears. Cornelius is not doing an emergency prayer session; we are lead to
believe that Cornelius regularly practices prayer. He gives alms to the less
fortunate, basic social justice ministry. He is such an incredible example that
his family has followed in his faith footsteps.
Cornelius is praying when he has a vision. An angel appears
to him to encourage him first that God has noticed his good and faithful deeds
and then second to command him to bring Peter to his home. The angel does not
say why Peter needs to come and Cornelius does not seem to need a why, he
immediately sends men to go get Peter. What God has asked, Cornelius is going
to do.
The text immediately switches to Peter, think of this as a
movie. The minute Cornelius sends his men; the scene fades to Peter on the
rooftop for his regular prayer time.
Peter is in Joppa. It’s a Biblical city we all remember
from the story of Jonah. This is where Jonah begins his great escape so that
God’s love can not be shared with the Ninevites. And now it is the location God
uses again to expand God’s love and message.
Peter is praying, he is hungry and ready for a meal. In
this state, he falls into a trance, maybe it’s a state of mediation or maybe
it’s a pre-dinner nap or maybe it’s both. God has and continues to speak in both
meditations and dreams, so this is quite possible.
Peter’s vision is quite different, in his vision a giant
sheet of sorts is let down from heaven to the earth that contains all kinds of
animals, even the ones against the ever important Jewish dietary laws. The
message is simple: “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” Peter is appalled, this can
not be. God would never call him to break Jewish law or custom, right?
Which raises a good question, what good is a God who breaks
the rules set in God’s own book? For what it’s worth, I think it’s a good God
who breaks God’s own rules.
And since Peter was so sure that this was not a message
from God, God delivered the message three times. By the third time, Peter
understood. All of a sudden Peter’s vision of God and God’s kingdom gets a lot
bigger. This is more than just food, this is people as well.
While in the midst of understanding this message, the men
arrive to take Peter to Cornelius. He is told to not hesitate to go with them.
He invites the men to dine and sleep at the house and tomorrow morning they
will all make their way back.
The next day they head back to Caesarea to see Cornelius.
Now poor Peter, I think he must be expecting to meet one Gentile man, to enter
the waters slowly, but when he walks into the house, it’s full of Gentiles. We
have gone from zero to 60 in no time. We are suddenly swimming in the
deep end of the pool.
Peter’s response: “I hope you all know that it is against
the law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile, but I think
that’s all about to change because God has called us to more.”
And then Cornelius shares his vision, Peter preaches a most
elegant sermon, and then trouble begins. Peter has to explain this new
revelation over and over. It’s not easy for people to understand how big God
is. And if you need evidence of that, just come by my office in the next few
days and I will show you a host of emails from folks wanting to tell my God is
not as big as First Austin claims.
My question for us this morning: If we were going to tell
the story in today’s world, what exactly would this look like?
I think the role of Peter is quite easy to cast and it’s,
well, it’s me and it’s also probably you.
The role of Cornelius though would be rather difficult. Would
we go with someone of a different racial background, different sexual
preference or gender identity, different income, different religion, different
political party, someone from another nation, or perhaps someone who worships
in a style and tradition different than ours?
Maybe being true to God’s kingdom, we should simply answer
all, all the above.
After all, I think God’s table includes all the above even
when ours does not. God’s kingdom is big and it just keeps getting bigger. And
God’s kingdom requires a very big table, a big table for all people.
And if that is what God’s kingdom looks like, that is what
the church needs to look like. We need all people because the church needs to
look like the Kingdom of God. And if we as a church don’t look like that, we
might as well close our doors.
We need all people because we need to be reminded that our
God is a bigger God in the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, “"at least one
of the purposes of the church is to remind us that God has other children, easily
as precious as we are.”
All people, all people, all people…..
And make no mistake, all people is very different than
being all things to all people or being a church where anything goes. There are
standards we will hold, there are mountains we are willing to die on, there are
politics we will not back away from because it’s not politics it’s Gospel,
there are justice issues which we will be loud on, we will not be scared to
speak about difficult issues and dialogue and we will speak truth to power.
Being all people does not change the core of who we are or
what we believe, in fact quite the opposite it means clearly knowing this is
who we are and what we believe and in that (in spite of that- because of that-
with that) we have our arms open to you and want to be in dialogue and
relationship because we believe that is the better way, we believe that is the
way of Jesus.
And we will still let you sit at our table even if you
don’t agree with me and I don’t agree with you because love is boundless and
because it’s not our table to begin with.
And we won’t ever shut those doors and say only some
people. I think sometimes we get confused about all people because we think all
people looks just like that communion table right there and let me tell you it
does not. All People looks like a table set up in the middle of a big field,
it’s not surrounded by four walls and a ceiling. It’s in that field that Rumi
writes about, “there is a field beyond the field of right and the field of
wrong, I will meet you there.”
All People is a table that is bound by nothing and set only
by God.
All People are folks willing to remove a rooftop to get
there friends in front of Jesus and then asking, you know what let’s tear the
walls down too because I want everyone to have access.
All People is a house full of Gentiles at the start of a
church movement that is really supposed to be about the Jews.
All People is Jen Allmon and the work she does across political
aisles, it’s her exchange recently with a state representative who fights with
her regularly on immigration issues. He champions a strong and tall border wall
to “keep illegal immigrants out.” Jen viewed his stance and anger on the issue
as hatred toward migrants. And then of course she attended a small dinner and
they were placed next to each other at a table for four. In her words: “One of
our dining companions asked me about our position on immigration. When I
responded that we believe that Matthew 25 calls on us to welcome the stranger,
I braced for the attack I anticipated from his previous rhetoric. He put his
fork down with a clank and stared at me for a moment. Then, he responded, “As I
Christian, so do I. For the last thirty years, I have dedicated one weekend of
each month to going to the border to pull their dead bodies from the river to
provide them with a proper Christian burial. My desire for a wall is about
protecting them from the danger of crossing, not hatred for the migrant. I want
them to have a better life in Mexico. I want reform for these families who risk
their lives for something better.” I was stunned. While we still disagree on
the proper solution, we have found common ground through honest dialogue in the
breaking of bread.” That is All People.
All People is Ken Parker and William McKinnon. Ken
participated in the Unite the Right rally last year, he is a former grand
dragon of the KKK and joined the Nazi movement because the KKK was not hateful
enough for him. He went to the Unite the Right rally to start a race war. Yet
over the course of that last year he got to know his neighbor William McKinnon,
an African American pastor. This relationship saved his soul, in fact just a
few months Ken Parker- former grand dragon and Nazi- was baptized in William’s
church, All Saints Holiness Church. That is all people.
All People sounds is Jason Micheli. Jason Micheli is the
pastor of a church outside Washington DC, he is really in the heart of all this
mess and division. I recently read a letter he wrote to his congregation, which
is politically divided, following the executive order limiting immigration. He
felt a need to address this issue with his congregation and he did so in a
letter, let me read part of this to you:
“The church is political in that it subverts the
politics of the day by refusing either/ or dichotomy so often found in our
politics. Indeed, in such a partisan, divided culture we believe this is the
gift the church can offer the wider world.
We understand- some of you support the executive order for
commendable reasons, including concern for national security and a desire for
secure borders. We understand- some of you oppose the executive order for
commendable reasons, including fears that it undermines our national security
and a desire for more compassionate posture toward the vulnerable.
Wherever you fall on this issue, we believe there is a
place for you in this community and a way to practice your faith.
Christians are not simply called to make the world a better
place; Christians are called to be the better place God has already made in the
world. In our time and place, we believe what it means for the Church to be the
better place is to be a place where all our differences about the kingdom we
call America are transcended by the kingdom we await in faith.”
That sounds like All People to me… it sounds like following
the advice of one wise sage who said our calling today is not to sit at the
table with someone we disagree with to talk about that issue which we disagree,
but to sit at the table and keep working until we find something that moves
both of us to tears. Start there and then work to the other because when we
know what unites us, then we can talk about what divides us. Then we might
actually get somewhere.
Because to be honest I am tired of talking about moderate
positions, the sacred middle ground, as a slow and safe way of being in our
world because that should not be the case. It’s only safe and slow because we
have so rarely actually done it, when we actually enter dialogue, things are
done. I think we are just scared to start the conversation… if we really did
start that conversation we might be able to actually do something together,
God’s kingdom is community work.
And it starts with this: to know that in church we sit by
those who have different views than us and to know that perhaps we can learn
from each other and perhaps work together to create more together. To dialogue
about what divides us and to listen for the Gospel truth which should and will
unite us and then to do the work that God has called us to do.
It seems fitting today to end with the words of Marney, who
gave a calling in the First Austin pulpit decades ago that seems fitting once
again: “In our emphasis on rugged individualism, we have come to believe
in the assertion of individuality—and every man is ready to stand up for his
rights, whether it be because his water bill he thinks isn’t right or some-
thing [else]. . . . The urge is not to rugged individualism, the urge is to
learn to live together. Austin is a wonderful place to try it.”
All People, All People, All People… Amen and Amen.
--
Rev. Dr. Griff Martin
Senior Pastor
First Austin: a baptist community of faith
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