“You yourselves know very well that a Jew is not allowed by his religion to visit or associate with a Gentile. But God has shown me that I must not consider any (person) unclean or defiled.”                                                                   (Acts 10:28)

You just heard read the first part of the longest story in the Book of Acts. This story takes up 66 verses. It’s the story of an unlikely meeting between a high-level Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius and one of the apostles of the early church named Peter. It’s the story of two visions. Each man has a vision of a different kind. 

Cornelius, a Roman citizen, is apparently a religious man. He is a God-fearer. He prays a lot. But his prayers are rather unfocused. One day he has a vision that instructs him to go and find a man named Peter in the city of Joppa. 

Peter, on the other hand, is a faithful, live-by-the-rules disciple. He’s up on the roof of his house praying one day, when he has a vision of a large sheet of food let down from the heavens. Most of the food is forbidden to Jews by law. Three times he has the same vision. Each time, a voice says, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter says, “I can’t eat what’s unclean,” and the voice says, “What God has made, you must not call unclean.” Then in Peter’s vision, he is told to go with Cornelius to his house and family. Go to this Roman Army figure, this Gentile. Go to meet this least likely convert to the way of Jesus. 

Cornelius sends several of his servants to fetch Peter. Peter goes. He sees the power of the moment. He baptizes Cornelius and all his family. It’s a dramatic story. 

This story from the early church gives us some direction for discipleship. I believe it is a story of radical inclusivity. It’s radical in the sense that there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else. It’s inclusive in the reality that everyone is included in God’s reach. 

This is a story we need to lift up out of the first century and examine a bit. We’re going to focus upon Peter’s vision and the follow-up to that vision. And I want to tell you what I think it means. 

THE BIBLE IS MORE INCLUSIVE THAN WE THINK 

The Bible may be far more inclusive than we think. The issues in this story may seem dated or trivial or even obvious to us. But they were so powerful in their own day that they point beyond themselves. For the day in which this story was written, it was thoroughly radical. It was not a vision about food on the table, but a vision about who sits at the table. It was Paul who would later write, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” 

These are radically inclusive words. They were a tough sell and a huge leap for Peter. He became aware of the unconditional and expansive nature of God’s love. Later in this story he says this:

God has shown me that I must not consider any person unclean or defiled. I now realize that God treats all persons on the same basis. Whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:28, 35) 

The table is open to everyone. It may even include some we would exclude. There’s an old story about a conversation between the late Pope John Paul II and Billy Graham. Billy Graham calls the Pope and says, “John Paul, I just got some really big news.” The Pope answers, “Is it good news or bad news?” Graham answers, “A little bit of both, but it’s really big news.” 

“Well,” says the Pope, “what’s the good news?” Billy Graham responds, “I was just informed that the Lord is returning tomorrow.” 

“Say, that is good news,” replied the Pope. “Good news indeed. But what’s the bad news?” And Billy Graham says, “He wants us to meet him in Salt Lake City.” 

Peter discovers the unexpected radical inclusiveness of God. 

A clergy colleague had a three-and-a-half year old daughter some years ago who met Henri Nouwen shortly before Nouwen’s death. The little girl and Henri Nouwen were watching a TV show together. The time came for the commercial, and the little girl turned to Nouwen and asked a profound question. She said, “How big is God?” Nouwen replied, “God is as big as your heart.”  

“And how big is that?” the little girl asked. Nouwen smiled and gestured with his hands. “Your heart is big enough to contain the whole world.” 

The Bible teaches that kind of inclusiveness. That’s the lesson Peter began to learn that day. 

JESUS IS AT THE CENTER 

Of course Jesus is at the center of God’s inclusive message. I believe in the old song that begins, “Fix your eyes upon Jesus.” 

The first radio I ever possessed as a small boy was fairly primitive. (No, it was not a crystal set!) It was a boxy, wooden radio. It received AM stations only. It had a clumsy, hand dial tuner. It was a very frustrating piece of equipment because it wouldn’t stay on the station. Every time I tuned in a program I wanted to listen to, it would stray after a while and drift to another station. I always had to stay close to the radio and re-tune it to the station and the program to which I was listening. 

Finally, when I got a paper route, I had some money of my own. I bought a new radio. This one had a high-tech special button on it. It was called Automatic Frequency Control. Once you had a clear signal, you pressed the AFC button and the radio stayed on that station. 

You and I need to keep our AFC button on in the Christian walk. We need to do it daily and we need to do it faithfully. That is true no matter how diverse we may be. Jesus is the center point and the circumference of our faith. Not Moses, not even Paul, but Jesus.  

Jesus never turned anyone away. He was often hard on the legalists and the proud. But he never refused anyone. He received a relentless questioner, or the repetitive sinner. He received a rich young man, and he received the parents of critically ill children. He received a hungry crowd, who were searching for a miracle, and he received a woman caught in the act of adultery. He talked with devoted Jews and despised Samaritans. He talked with a woman who sat at his feet, eager for his teaching. He talked with a woman who had had five husbands and was living with a sixth man who was not her husband. He talked with lawyers looking for answers, and lepers looking for healing. 

Someone has said, “God loves you just the way you are, but God does not want to leave you there. God wants you to be just like Jesus.” 

If you clear away everything else in the Bible and look just at Jesus, you see radical inclusivity. 

WE ARE INVITED TO MODEL 

We are simply invited to model that kind of spirit. To be welcoming and open to everyone. We are not to be a reflection of the culture, but a reflection of Christ. We are to be welcoming to an American citizen, or a struggling immigrant. We are to be welcoming to a person who is single, or who is married, or who is divorced. We are invited to be welcoming to those with differing sexual orientations. We are to welcome the red and the yellow, the black and the white—who are all precious in His sight. 

If you want to be a follower of Jesus—if you THINK you want to be a follower of Jesus—if you want to TRY to be a follower of Jesus, you are welcome at this table. You are welcome at the Kingdom table. 

That’s why I have so much difficulty with a recent ruling of the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church. The Judicial Council is a kind of Supreme Court for our denomination. A pastor in Virginia refused to welcome a man into membership who had a same-sex orientation. He attended worship, he sang with the choir, but he was also a gay man. He was denied church membership. The Judicial Council said that it was okay that he be denied membership. I don’t think that decision reflects the spirit of Jesus. 

Being inclusive is not automatic or easy. It’s a process. It has been a process for me. Modeling this inclusive spirit comes through transformation—not pushy or harsh, but a quiet prodding. One writer says,

The movement of God’s Spirit is very gentle, very soft… but that movement is also very persistent, strong, and deep. It changes our hearts radically. 

My own heart has been changed a number of times. I have been stretched by God over and over and over again. 

LOVE AND RESPECT EACH OTHER 

The lesson we learn from all of this is that we are to love and respect each other without judgment. Can I tell you a grandson story?  (I haven’t done one of those for a long time!) Grandson Joshua will be four later this month. He is a child of incredible hospitality. He greets every new child he meets with enthusiasm. He greets them in Sunday school, or in the Child Care Center, or in a play area at the mall. He greets them everywhere. He learns their name, and then he takes them by hand and introduces them to others who are around. When the play time is over, there is a huge hug before they part. Everyone is hugely welcome in his world. Joshua models inclusion. 

Here’s another illustration that may help. I had three lay leaders in my first church over my seven years there. Their names were Mike, Landis and Gene. They differed in their expression of the Christian faith as much as any three people I’ve ever known. Mike was converted to Christianity under Billy Graham. He was a sincere and dedicated believer, but he had a lot of difficulty with the Roman Catholic Church. He felt maybe they were idol worshipers. Landis was an old school Sunday school superintendent. He believed I needed to know the day and the hour of my conversion, or perhaps I wasn’t really converted at all. Gene was a thoroughly modern mechanical engineer who I think appreciated me because of my engineering background. They were three different men, yet I loved those three men deeply. They differed from me and they differed from each other, but we respected each other and worked hard for the church during those years. That’s the way things should be. 

A profound American Jewish thinker once said, near the end of his life, “I used to admire intelligent people. As I grow older, I admire kind people.” 

Peter found himself transformed. He saw a vision of something he never expected to see. He quickly learned to welcome those he thought unworthy of that welcome. He got so excited, he preached about it. When he finished preaching, he saw even more of God’s inclusion. He saw the Holy Spirit enter in and take hold of a Gentile crowd. And the march of Christianity as an inclusive, focused community began. 

Are you with me on that march? It’s worth some energy and it’s worth some risk. When you stand at the gates of Heaven, would you rather hear, “Well done, thou faithful, hopeful, risk-taking servant”? Or will you be content to hear, “Well done, thou sober, play-it-safe servant”? 

Take one small step today in your heart toward Jesus-inspired radical inclusivity. Then begin to act on it this week in some very distinctive way.