The Beginning of Something--April 7, 2026

 The Beginning of Something--April 7, 2026

"Then Peter began to speak to them: 'I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and acts justly is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 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. 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, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 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. 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. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name'." (Acts 10:34-43)

Easter isn't the end of something--it's the beginning.

That's important to say out loud, because we have plenty of reasons to think of Easter's empty tomb as the finale of a symphony, or the conclusion of a story.  We who have been marking the forty days of Lent often talk about that season as a journey that takes us to a particular destination, namely, Easter Sunday.  And of course, the Gospel writers all basically follow a similar plot, where Jesus' life and ministry lead to the Passion, the cross, and of course, to their various tellings of the resurrection.  And if Easter marks the climactic battle between life and death, God and evil, Christ and the forces of hell, well, then it sure seems like there's nothing else to say after that contest is over and Jesus is the One left standing.  Easter sure does feel like an ending.

But in another, deeper sense, the resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of something--a whole new way of being human, and a whole new kind of human community.  This is one of the gifts of the New Testament book of Acts, and it's also part of the reason why so many of us heard this passage from Acts in worship the other day on Easter Sunday.  Hearing the story of the people who carried on in the aftermath of Easter helps us to see that God wasn't done when the stone was rolled away, but just getting the ol' divine sleeves rolled up.  The resurrection of Jesus sent shockwaves through the universe. As Peter himself came to see, it created a new kind of community where insiders and outsiders were all welcomed and drawn to live in peace.

That's the backdrop of this speech of Peter's.  The short version is that while the first Christians basically all happened to be Jewish (since, of course, Jesus was Jewish and his first disciples lived and taught from around Galilee and Judea), Peter had now been led to share the news of Jesus and the welcome of belonging in the Jesus-community with a Gentile man named Cornelius, as well as his family.   Cornelius wasn't just an non-Jew--he was a Roman centurion, which meant it was very easy to see him as "the enemy" since he was a soldier in the hostile occupying empire.  But Peter follows the direction of the Holy Spirit to go meet Cornelius and tell him the story about Jesus, as well as to listen to Cornelius' own story of how God prompted him to seek out Peter.  This was a big deal: a boundary was about to be crossed!  Up to this point, Christianity could have considered itself just a sect within Judaism, much like the way there are Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Baptists, and Lutherans (among others) within Christianity.  But if a Gentile was welcomed as a Gentile--that is, without having to first be circumcised, keep the kosher laws, and become ethnically and culturally Jewish--then something new was happening.  A new kind of family was being formed.

And that is exactly what Peter finally gets. Here in this passage we get to witness the light bulb going on as everything finally clicks for his former fisherman-turned-apostle.  "I truly understand that God shows no partiality," Peter says.  That is, "Oh!  Now, I get it!  God is doing a new thing!  Because of Jesus' resurrection, now a new community was beginning, whose members did not have to share the same culture, customs, lifestyle, or even language! Peter sees the resurrection of Jesus as the turning point, which moved the ministry of Jesus from basically being a walking tour through Jewish territory to becoming a movement that could take place anywhere, including anybody, and which could enfold people as they were.  And now he understands why God had led Cornelius to come and find him, and why God had simultaneously led Peter to go to Cornelius' house.  This was the moment for enlarging the circle.

It's worth noting that with this turning point, the community of Jesus basically chose the harder path of holding together in love without requiring uniformity.  Lots of communities, clubs, and cultures throughout history have held together by virtue of their like-mindedness or insisting on adherence to certain customs, traditions, language, or practices.  But with the inclusion of Gentile Cornelius and his family, the church was making the decisive choice that our belonging would not depend on our conformity to some particular cultural requirement.  There was now room for outsiders like Cornelius, and like you and me.  Even old enemies would find themselves reconciled by their common welcome in the community of Christ.

That seems worth spending a moment to consider as well: Peter makes the point that his message began before him with "preaching peace by Jesus Christ." To bring the good news of Jesus is to speak for peace, rather than for war. To preach the gospel necessarily involves the declaration that God has made peace with a hostile humanity through the cross--and that God is putting an end to the enmity between groups of people as well. There is no faithful version of the Christian message that agitates for offensive war or seeks to solve problems through violence.  The Christian community, after all, is centered on the story of the One who was put to death by his enemies while praying for their forgiveness, and who overcame death without having to get revenge on them or conquer anybody.  All of that is finally coming together for Peter, who is seeing the puzzle pieces finally fit as he looks in the eyes of Cornelius, whom he might have easily feared as an enemy, and instead sees someone whom God's love has drawn near.

This is the kind of community into which we have been drawn as well.  Gentile outsiders like me can belong because of God's choice, which Peter was willing to trust and act on, to welcome us in.  Those who were previously hostile opponents are now brought to be at peace with one another, because God's design began with "preaching peace by Jesus Christ." Without demanding that we all speak the same language, share the same cultural practices, or dress and eat the same ways, we belong--because this is the kind of community God has chosen to create out of us... and in us.

Lord Jesus, enable us to see the world differently because of Jesus' resurrection, and to welcome others as we have been welcomed into his family, for all of our differences.