Acts 11.1-18; Revelation 21.1-6; John 13.31-35

The story that we heard in our first reading this morning is so important that it appears in our Bibles twice. The first place is in Acts chapter 10, where we find it told in the third person by Luke, the writer of Acts, who is telling the story of the early Christians for his reader Theophilus.

The second times this story appears is in the form we heard it today - Peter telling his own story. This story is important for the message it puts across. It’s a turning-point in the mission of the early Church. It’s about who’s in and who’s out. And it’s about God’s view of the Church.

Until this point, those early disciples saw the church as the domain of Jewish people. Remember that Jesus himself was, of course, a Jew, and, although Luke’s Gospel is full of the idea that salvation is for everyone not just Jewish people, we have to remember that the Gospels were written a number of years after Jesus’s death, when attitudes had begun to change a bit. We have also to lay Luke’s ideas of universal salvation alongside some of the things that, for instance, Matthew has Jesus saying, such as “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

It was all so clear for them right at the start. The disciples believed that their mission was to carry on the mission of Jesus to the Jewish people. The identity of the Jewish people came from the fact that they were God’s chosen ones, God’s special people. But, then, God let God’s view be known to Peter through the vision that we heard about today.

In an oppressed society, one’s identity was of particular importance. When a people feel threatened, that is often when they become exclusive of others. The response of the Church to Peter’s vision would dictate its future in a big way.

The early Christians have reached a crossroads. One way would take them down a narrow path. If the circumcised believers in Jerusalem who challenged Peter’s mission to the Gentiles had won out, Christianity would have become a Jewish sect, a exclusive sect - as William Barclay puts it in his book on Acts - “We usually do not realise how near Christianity was to becoming only another kind of Judaism.”

I’m sure Cornelius had no idea as he began to pray that day what a profound effect his obedience would have on the Church of the future. Peter’s vision only made sense after his meeting with Cornelius. Initially he had been confused - the vision appeared to have been about clean and unclean food, and during it Peter takes the traditional line - that he must not eat anything which is unclean. But later, he comes to realise that he is being taught, not about God’s attitude towards food, but about God’s attitude towards people.

This is confirmed for him when the Holy Spirit comes upon Cornelius and his household - in the face of God, who is Peter to deny them baptism? At the heart of this vision is such an important message - that God’s grace is offered to all, not just to a group of special people, not just to people of one race or nation or gender or type, but to all people, everywhere.

If we look again at this story, we will see that the Holy Spirit was the active person in this story. It was the power of God through the Holy Spirit that enabled Peter to change his mind - to think outside the box, as we might say in modern parlance. Remember that it was while Peter was praying that he received his vision. When we pray we open ourselves to the work of the Spirit. And, it was the power of God, through the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household that showed Peter the boundaries the early Church had put in place were human boundaries not God’s.

And, once the Church accepted the presence of Gentiles, there was a process of rethinking. There were clear disagreements - just read some of Paul’s letters to discover this - between those who thought that Gentiles should take on Jewish customs and traditions and those who saw Christianity as something new, not bound by Jewish laws. The initial decision led to a process of learning together.

Often when we widen our boundaries - whether that be boundaries of family or club or school or church - those who are already part of the community face challenges and may feel that their way of life or belief is threatened. But it is often through facing challenge that we grow and develop and the same is true for our faith.

Charles Williamson in a book on Acts has written of one of his African American friends, who said this: “Too many people think that integration means ‘you become like us’. But real integration means that both of us change into something brand new.” This is the challenge that faced the early Church. It’s a challenge that faces us today too. If people are going to be part of our church, do we expect them to become just like us, and to like the same things we do and the same styles of worship, and prayer and talking about God? Or are we willing with them to reach out for a new future together?

The answer to how we do this together and how we face the challenge of the widening boundaries is found in our Gospel reading. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

When we make love our starting-point, we can survive the threats imposed by those who are different from us. Love means that we are willing to let go of the things we hold most dear for the sake of the other. Jesus commanded us to love as he loved - the love of Jesus for us meant even giving up his very life on a cross.

We have a God who gives himself up for us, who gives up that which is most precious - the gift of life - for us, so that through his death we might receive love and life. We are not asked to love alone. Not only do we have the example of Christ himself, we also have the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. We saw earlier how the activity of the Holy Spirit was critical to the Church changing its mind about the inclusion of Gentiles. We too can live in the power of the Spirit and allow it to change us and transform us, to help us where we find it hard to love.

The true character of the dealings of God with people is that of love. None of us is worthy but we become so because we are loved by God. It is that all-encompassing love that we are called to reflect to others. We are called to act as channels for God’s love, to shine as lights in the world.

In the first epistle of John, we read this: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us” and “in this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us,” and “we love because he first loved us.” Those who are rooted in the love of God need have no fear, for God’s love binds those who are different together. God’s love enabled the early Church to embrace the Gentiles, to accept that they were as much included in the gift of salvation as the Jewish people were.

The gift of salvation is offered to all through the love of God. As we open ourselves more and more to God and God’s love for us, we will be able to share it more easily with others. Love sometimes means letting go of what we hold dear for the sake of the community. Love sometimes means putting aside the boundaries that make us feel safe and extending our welcome to others.

There was division in the early Church about the position of Gentiles, but over time they came to be accepted. There has been division throughout history about who’s in and who’s out. Lay that aside God’s universal love. Reflect on how God’s love is offered to all, regardless of who they are, giving them the choice to accept or reject it.

Let us, the Church, show that kind of love to everyone, and leave the decision of whether to receive or reject that love to those to whom we offer it.