Acts 11:1-18 - NRSV
The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with[a] water, but you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.’17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with[a] water, but you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.’17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
It has been awhile since I’ve talked about movies in my sermons. Today, though, I am going to talk about a movie, but only because I couldn’t stop thinking about this movie as this week’s scripture worked on me. Remember the Titans hit the big screen in the year 2000. By focusing on the football coaches and the 1971 football team, the movie tells the true story of the newly integrated T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Due to the integration, tensions in the area were very high, and those tensions went even higher when Herman Boone, an African-American Coach from North Carolina was named the Head Coach instead of Coach Bill Yoast, a successful, white, football coach who everyone assumed would be named Head Coach of this newly integrated school.
Initially, Coach Boone refused to accept the Head Coaching job, believing his appointment was not fair to Coach Yoast, but ultimately Coach Boone relented. Like Coach Boone, Coach Yoast initially turned down the school board’s offer of assistant coach, but ultimately relented and agreed. Suffice it to say, the relationship between Coach Boone and Coach Yoast was anything but smooth, but theirs wasn’t the only rocky relationship. From the start, tensions were high between the white players and the black players, especially for Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell, each being captain of their respective teams. At their pre-season football camp fights between the racially divided team within the team were constant, but Coach Boone never wavered in his commitment to create a unified team. His was a tough kind of love that included rigorous training and demanded strong accountability. By the end of that pre-season camp, racial harmony had been achieved for the majority of the team. Even friendships had been formed across those previous racial dividing lines. One of those new friendships, maybe the strongest of all the new friendships, was between Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell.
All seemed well while this once divided team was away at pre-season camp, but upon their return to their racially divided hometown, things became rocky again. While away at camp, Coach Boone forced these players with different skin colors, and different backgrounds, to learn about each other, and I mean forced, but it worked. The racially divided town, though, was another story altogether. The people of that town seemed so resistant to racial integration that when they saw how camp helped change the mentality of the boys on the team, instead of celebrating that change, they wanted the old mentality back. White team members, like Gerry Bertier, came back from camp with eyes that saw the world in a new, more expansive way, but he came back to friends who didn’t and as a result some of those friendships suffered greatly. Black team members like Julius Campbell, came back from camp with new ever expansive eyes, only to be met with similar suffering. Within the town there was such a clear dividing line between these two worlds – a dividing line that had almost been eliminated inside the safety of their pre-season football camp, but that glared brightly upon their return. For the people of their town, a distinction should be made between each group.
When the season began, the integrated football team of T.C. Williams High School, began winning. In fact, they beat every white segregated high school football team they played in the regular season. And a funny thing happened, some people within the town began to cheer them on. Some people within the town started to see with new eyes too.
After winning the semi-final game of the Virginia state tournament, the people flooded the streets of the town cheering on their team. In what was once a racially divided town, blacks and whites stood together, celebrating and applauding what this team had accomplished. In the midst of that celebration, right before the crowds’ eyes, Gerry Bertier failed to stop his camaro at a stop sign and consequently was struck by a truck. That accident meant Gerry would not play in the State Championship Game – in fact, Gerry Bertier was a paraplegic for the rest of his life because of that accident, and while that was no doubt hard, by extinguishing any lines of distinction between himself and his black teammates, especially Julius Campbell, Gerry Bertier had become a better man. So much so, that while he laid in his hospital bed the night of the accident there was only one person he wanted to see – his new brother Julius Campbell.
To see what I’m talking about lets watch this little clip
https://youtu.be/WwJWW6UKnIc
**************
For me, there is something quite powerful, emotional really, when dividing lines are erased. When people begin to realize that there is really no distinction between themselves and those who don’t look like, or act like, or even believe like they do. In those moments, I am certain God is at work.
In today’s text, we see Peter trying to explain his own experience of this. In the face of mounting pressure about honoring human made lines of division, Peter says, “The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.” Far too often when those in your tribe learn of you hanging out with people in other tribes, they begin to pressure you into forgetting about those “other” people and that pressure can be intense. Sometimes when you are facing the pressure of having to justify why you were hanging out with people who look different, talk different, believe different than you do, the pressure can become too much, so you feel it easier to just fall back in line than it is to forge ahead. Luckily for all of us, we have stories of people like Peter. We need those stories more than we realize because their stories can help us when we find ourselves in similar situations.
This part of the story all began with one question, “why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” But that question can take many different forms. Peter, why in the world would you befriend people who so clearly don’t live the way we do… who don’t follow the same rituals as we do? Why would you do this to yourself? Why would you do this to us? Don’t you realize you represent us when you are out in public? What is wrong with you? Now Peter’s response came in the form of a story, as so many lessons do in the stories found in the Bible. I don’t know about you, but for me, there is one part of Peter’s story that stands out more than any other. It’s a part that I wish all of us would remember when facing the firing line of inquisition that comes when we expand our friend group beyond tribal limitations created by others. The part that stands out is when Peter simply says, God told me to be with them because there is no distinction between them and us. You see, in God’s eyes there is no distinction. Every member of every human created tribe is a Beloved Child of God. This is such an important lesson for us to learn and thank God we have the stories of the Peter’s of the world to teach us. It’s on us to learn and I believe we are capable, and we will do just that.
******************
The Spirit told me to go with them and that there is no distinction between them and us was how Peter talked about the revelation of being a part of the one tribe. of God“Alice, can’t you see the resemblance? That is my brother you are staring at…” was the way Gerry Bertier described it. Peter simply said God told me there was no distinction between them and us.
I find both of these stories equally powerful. This truth is coming to the realization that we are all part of one tribe, the Beloved Children of God, happens in many different ways. Yet coming to that realization is not the end of the story. There is always some push-back from people who don’t quite understand. The good news is that we have stories like Peter and stories like Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell to help us in such moments respond by saying God has taught me that there is no distinction, for he is my brother and she is my sister and Thanks be to God for that truth!
[PRAYER]
Amen!
Initially, Coach Boone refused to accept the Head Coaching job, believing his appointment was not fair to Coach Yoast, but ultimately Coach Boone relented. Like Coach Boone, Coach Yoast initially turned down the school board’s offer of assistant coach, but ultimately relented and agreed. Suffice it to say, the relationship between Coach Boone and Coach Yoast was anything but smooth, but theirs wasn’t the only rocky relationship. From the start, tensions were high between the white players and the black players, especially for Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell, each being captain of their respective teams. At their pre-season football camp fights between the racially divided team within the team were constant, but Coach Boone never wavered in his commitment to create a unified team. His was a tough kind of love that included rigorous training and demanded strong accountability. By the end of that pre-season camp, racial harmony had been achieved for the majority of the team. Even friendships had been formed across those previous racial dividing lines. One of those new friendships, maybe the strongest of all the new friendships, was between Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell.
All seemed well while this once divided team was away at pre-season camp, but upon their return to their racially divided hometown, things became rocky again. While away at camp, Coach Boone forced these players with different skin colors, and different backgrounds, to learn about each other, and I mean forced, but it worked. The racially divided town, though, was another story altogether. The people of that town seemed so resistant to racial integration that when they saw how camp helped change the mentality of the boys on the team, instead of celebrating that change, they wanted the old mentality back. White team members, like Gerry Bertier, came back from camp with eyes that saw the world in a new, more expansive way, but he came back to friends who didn’t and as a result some of those friendships suffered greatly. Black team members like Julius Campbell, came back from camp with new ever expansive eyes, only to be met with similar suffering. Within the town there was such a clear dividing line between these two worlds – a dividing line that had almost been eliminated inside the safety of their pre-season football camp, but that glared brightly upon their return. For the people of their town, a distinction should be made between each group.
When the season began, the integrated football team of T.C. Williams High School, began winning. In fact, they beat every white segregated high school football team they played in the regular season. And a funny thing happened, some people within the town began to cheer them on. Some people within the town started to see with new eyes too.
After winning the semi-final game of the Virginia state tournament, the people flooded the streets of the town cheering on their team. In what was once a racially divided town, blacks and whites stood together, celebrating and applauding what this team had accomplished. In the midst of that celebration, right before the crowds’ eyes, Gerry Bertier failed to stop his camaro at a stop sign and consequently was struck by a truck. That accident meant Gerry would not play in the State Championship Game – in fact, Gerry Bertier was a paraplegic for the rest of his life because of that accident, and while that was no doubt hard, by extinguishing any lines of distinction between himself and his black teammates, especially Julius Campbell, Gerry Bertier had become a better man. So much so, that while he laid in his hospital bed the night of the accident there was only one person he wanted to see – his new brother Julius Campbell.
To see what I’m talking about lets watch this little clip
https://youtu.be/WwJWW6UKnIc
**************
For me, there is something quite powerful, emotional really, when dividing lines are erased. When people begin to realize that there is really no distinction between themselves and those who don’t look like, or act like, or even believe like they do. In those moments, I am certain God is at work.
In today’s text, we see Peter trying to explain his own experience of this. In the face of mounting pressure about honoring human made lines of division, Peter says, “The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.” Far too often when those in your tribe learn of you hanging out with people in other tribes, they begin to pressure you into forgetting about those “other” people and that pressure can be intense. Sometimes when you are facing the pressure of having to justify why you were hanging out with people who look different, talk different, believe different than you do, the pressure can become too much, so you feel it easier to just fall back in line than it is to forge ahead. Luckily for all of us, we have stories of people like Peter. We need those stories more than we realize because their stories can help us when we find ourselves in similar situations.
This part of the story all began with one question, “why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” But that question can take many different forms. Peter, why in the world would you befriend people who so clearly don’t live the way we do… who don’t follow the same rituals as we do? Why would you do this to yourself? Why would you do this to us? Don’t you realize you represent us when you are out in public? What is wrong with you? Now Peter’s response came in the form of a story, as so many lessons do in the stories found in the Bible. I don’t know about you, but for me, there is one part of Peter’s story that stands out more than any other. It’s a part that I wish all of us would remember when facing the firing line of inquisition that comes when we expand our friend group beyond tribal limitations created by others. The part that stands out is when Peter simply says, God told me to be with them because there is no distinction between them and us. You see, in God’s eyes there is no distinction. Every member of every human created tribe is a Beloved Child of God. This is such an important lesson for us to learn and thank God we have the stories of the Peter’s of the world to teach us. It’s on us to learn and I believe we are capable, and we will do just that.
******************
The Spirit told me to go with them and that there is no distinction between them and us was how Peter talked about the revelation of being a part of the one tribe. of God“Alice, can’t you see the resemblance? That is my brother you are staring at…” was the way Gerry Bertier described it. Peter simply said God told me there was no distinction between them and us.
I find both of these stories equally powerful. This truth is coming to the realization that we are all part of one tribe, the Beloved Children of God, happens in many different ways. Yet coming to that realization is not the end of the story. There is always some push-back from people who don’t quite understand. The good news is that we have stories like Peter and stories like Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell to help us in such moments respond by saying God has taught me that there is no distinction, for he is my brother and she is my sister and Thanks be to God for that truth!
[PRAYER]
Amen!