Pasadena Presbyterian Church Sermon Text
January 9, 2005

"The God Who Shows No Partiality"
Preached by The Rev. Dr. Mark Smutny

Scripture:  Acts 10:34-48

In the church liturgical year, today is the celebration of  The Baptism of the Lord.  We have designed the worship service to focus on the renewal of our baptismal covenant as a congregation.  In a few moments, you will be invited to renew the vows that you affirmed when you joined a church or, if you are new to the faith, you will be invited to make a commitment today to begin a new phase of your religious journey. 

Martin Luther said, "Baptism is a rite that takes only a few moments to do, but a lifetime to finish." Each one of us is a work in progress. Today is a good day to renew our commitment to allow God to sculpt and polish us in order that we might more fully reflect the Divine intention for our lives.  The renewal of our baptism vows symbolizes that God is not finished with us until, in the fullness of time, we come into God's nearer presence.  Between now and then, we need to be washed of old limiting ways, cleansed of narrow, bounded mentalities, and refreshed with waters of forgiveness so that we can continue to become new people in Christ.

Appropriately, the lector just read the scripture passage from Matthew's Gospel that describes Jesus' baptism when the Spirit descends upon the One who will show us the way to become a new people.  The second lesson, the Epistle lesson from Acts 10, at first glance would seem to have little to do with either Jesus' baptism or the renewal of our own baptismal covenant.  But it does.  I'll set the context before I read the passage.

Peter has just been hauled before the church to explain why he officiated at a very controversial baptism.  Picture a congregational meeting, but without the lovefest that we usually have here at PPC.  Peter has just baptized Cornelius, who no one could possibly imagine should join the church.  He was not church material as they say.  He had at least three strikes against him: he was Roman, a Gentile, and an army officer. 

We have to get outside of our own preconceptions in order to understand the power of these three strikes and why controversy was wracking the church because of Peter's act.  We tend to think of baptism, at least infant baptism, as a cute event with parents and grandparents, heirloom baptismal gowns, and all the hope that gathers about the new bundle of joy.  That's not how the earliest church viewed this particular baptism, which had the potential to tear the church in two.

Cornelius' baptism divided the church because until that time the church's membership was entirely Jewish.  The earliest church was made up faithful Jews who tried to keep all the commandments that God had given to Israel and who also believed Jesus was the Messiah.  These commandments included keeping kosher and not fraternizing with Gentiles.  Meal restrictions were not about legalism but were understood as essential to Jewish piety.  They were acts of faithfulness to God's commandments.  These practices preserved Jewish identity despite centuries of persecution as one empire after another tried to obliterate the Jewish nation. 

Romans were not only distrusted, not only did they worship idols, not only were they impure, they were oppressors.  In the last quarter of the first century, when Acts was probably written, the Romans occupied Israel with an iron heel.  Keeping kosher and the commandments preserved Jewish identity while the imperial Roman power was trying to extinguish it.  Our lesson from Acts 10, therefore, tells the story of Peter, both a faithful Jew and a follower of Jesus, called before a church meeting to explain his baptism of Cornelius, a Gentile, Roman officer in the very military force that the Jewish people feared would lead to their demise.

Listen now for the Word of God in the words of Acts 10:34-47.  By the way, when you hear the word "nation" in the passage - in Greek laos, like the Southeast Asia nation - it means less a political entity than a people, a culture, an ethnicity, history and a set of values.  Listen now for the Word of God:

(34) Then Peter began to speak to them: 'I truly understand that God shows no partiality, (35) but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (36) You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all.  (37) That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: (38) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.  (39) We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.  They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; (40) but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, (41) not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.  (42) He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.  (43) All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.'

(44) While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.  (45) 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, (46) for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.  Then Peter said, (47) 'Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?'  (48) So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days. 

- Acts 10: 34-48

Can you imagine how hard it was for Peter to stand before the congregation and explain himself?  He had to be conflicted internally.  Here was a man who was a devout Jew, nurtured in the faith, who kept the commandments, loved his people and worried constantly about their very survival.  Peter had just come from the home of a Gentile army officer, head of the occupation forces, a man who had commanded a unit equivalent to the Gestapo of the 20th Century.  He might have had Jewish blood on his sword.  Peter must have thought to himself, "What has come over me?"  He had broken every religious scruple and every patriotic instinct, near and dear to his own people and to himself. Having baptized Cornelius and now standing before the congregation, he needed to explain himself.

Peter begins where we always need to begin when we have changed: he tells his story.  He summarizes his own amazing journey that he had been on for a very long time.  He says to them, "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:34-35)  God shows no partiality.

When I stand before you in a few moments in my office as a Minister of Word and Sacrament and ask you to renew your baptismal vows, I will ask you this question:  "Will you be Christ's faithful disciple, obeying his Word, and showing his love to your life's end?"  It is my duty and my privilege to hold before you that faithful discipleship, obedience to his Word and showing his love to the end of your life enrolls you in a kingdom without boundaries, where God shows no partiality to any nation, people, tribe or culture, and only asks that you be in awe of this God who is love, humble yourself and commit to doing what is right.

Peter stands before a hostile and divided church that is confused because it seemed to many that what Peter had done was antithetical to everything they had been taught.  The early church was pacifist.  He'd just invited a commanding officer to join the fellowship.  Peter kept kosher. Cornelius had no idea how sacred the religious practices of the Jews were.  Peter must have thought he was losing his marbles. 

Peter stands before the congregation and tells the story of Jesus.  He tells how this Jesus, to whom they had given their lives, preached the Gospel of peace.  He tells how this Jesus invited to his table fellowship sinners, the unwashed, the unclean, the humbled and the hurting.  He speaks of how this Jesus was crucified and yet the grave could not contain him and God raised him.  He appeared to some and ate with them.  He called them to preach and practice the Gospel of peace and the Word spread throughout Judea. 

Peter declares that this Jesus is the God who judges the living and the dead. All the prophets point to him.  And those who believe in him, receive the waters of forgiveness and are set free.  While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard and the church expanded its boundaries.

The church in our own age, like Peter's church, must learn again and again of the expansive nature of the Gospel of peace.  The church, as it always has, is struggling to figure out just how far Jesus' reach extends. I think we know how far Jesus' reach extends; the problem is whether the church will catch up with Jesus.

I grew up in a medium-size Presbyterian church in rural, small-town Idaho.  The population of African Americans in that town in the early 1960s numbered six: they all played on the junior college basketball team that consistently went to the national finals.  A quarter of the population was Mexican-American, as we called you back then.  Martin Luther King was thought of as a communist by many.  Caesar Chavez was thought of as a threat to the agricultural economy and "our" way of life.  "They" were thought of as lazy, inferior, and immoral.

I don't think my home church ever thought about inviting "them" to church, but I do know that when the pastor at the time started calling Dr. King a prophet and a man of God, it didn't take long before a third of the congregation left and started another congregation that would stick to "spiritual matters." 

Being rather bright and hopelessly poisoned by a mother and father who kept telling me that God is love, I began to see that my pastor had guts.  I began to connect the dots that this faith of ours takes us to places and mentalities we never, ever imagined.  When I went off to college and had my homophobia confronted and then when I went off to seminary and worshiped in a Black Baptist church, I not only learned that God has a sense of humor, but also that authentic Christian discipleship means that one is constantly a work in progress.  No one fully arrives until the fullness of time. 

Jesus constantly confounds our expectations, shakes us up and expands our horizons.  Indeed, Jesus seems to get pleasure out of confounding us and shaking us up.  God shows no partiality, and so whether you are a Latina domestic, an African-American CEO or sip tea with your pinkie curled, it doesn't matter. God is a God who shows no partiality.  It's comforting no longer having to prove you are better than anyone else or believing that you are not good enough.  

Whether you here because you have discovered that your twelve-step group that keeps you alive is aided by this church, or whether you have no addictions - neither booze nor shopping nor work nor a judgmental temperament, nor perfectionism, no addictions - it doesn't matter.  God shows no partiality.

Whether you are brown or pink, gay or straight, single or coupled, church damaged or a fourth-generation pillar, God shows no partiality and there's a freedom in that.  We are free to be ourselves, both warts and beauty revealed, sinners and saints, Roman soldiers and frightened Jews, women and men and little children, all welcomed into a new life and a new way of being in Christ, in awe of a God who loves us, humbled by a God who forgives us, a God who expects us to what is right, a God who is not finished with us just yet. 

It must be said that the conversion of Cornelius is, of course, about the conversion of Peter and the conversion of the church. The conversion that Peter went through that led him to go and baptize a man who was an anathema to everything his people stood for and then stand before a hostile crowd and defend his act, was ultimately not only a courageous but an act of the Holy Spirit.  This baptism of the Spirit has been repeated millions of times in all the conversions that so many us have been through, as we stand at this baptismal font and marvel at the ways God has washed away not only our sins, but also the old sinful distinctions made by us who ought to know better since this God of love grabbed us by the nape of the neck, plunged us in the baptismal waters and brought us up  into a new life in Christ. 

Gratefully, I have watched this church, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, receive people of all ages, nations, races, ethnicities, cultures, languages, sexual identities, psychological dispositions, and various stages of need.  I have seen courage quickened, suspicion melt, and home found.  I've seen this massive table of our Lord's feed the hungry of heart.  I have seen the vast waters of this baptismal font pour out from the heavens a sea of grace.  I have seen the light of God's embrace shine into every corner of our world.  I have seen the God that shows no partiality and so welcomes you and me work miracles with the waters of new life.  It must be the work of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks be to God who claims us in the waters of baptism and even now is at work in us, crafting, sculpting, buffing and polishing until in the fullness of time, we are complete.  Amen.

(c) Copyright 2005 by Mark K. Smutny.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution.