January 13, Baptism of Our Lord

Lesson: Acts 10.34-43

Sermon Title: Acceptable

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Fast Driver (1)

Thomas Elsworth writes that his mother has a "lead foot," so I was not surprised when a state trooper pulled us over as we were speeding through Georgia.

Hoping to get off with a warning, Mom tried to appear shocked when the trooper walked up to the car.

"I have never been stopped like this before," she said to the officer.

"What do they usually do, ma'am," he asked, "shoot the tires out?"

INTRODUCTION:

  1. The primary election in New Hampshire stunned silenced the critics, and confounded the pollsters and the pundints.

    1. They shot the tires out.

    2. Hillary Clinton was not supposed to win.

      1. That's what the polls showed.

      2. That's what the pundints predicted.

    3. This many people predicted would be the end of the Clinton campaign for the presidency.

      1. In the minds and opinions of some people, Hillary became a reject.

      2. Yet she was victor.

  2. Acceptance and rejection is a popular theme that runs through literature, art, music, sports politics, and social structures.

In a USA Today article, Michael Jordan distinguishes between players who "strive for excellence" and players who "strive for acceptance." (2)

  1. It is true that the Christian strives for excellence.

  2. Isn't it also true that the Christian seek acceptance.

  3. So maybe, in our experience, the two go together.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. In the days of Jesus there were plenty of critics, pollsters and pundits.

    1. These experts didn't get it right either.

      1. They tried to shoot the tires out.

      2. This was an extreme method.

    2. But still, Jesus was a reject.

      1. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship, writes: (3)

Jesus Christ must suffer and be rejected. This "must" is inherent in the promise of God - the Scriptures must be fulfilled. There is a distinction here between suffering and rejection. Had he only suffered, Jesus might still have been applauded as the Messiah. All the sympathy and admiration of the world might have been focused on his passion. It could have been viewed as a tragedy with its own intrinsic value, dignity and honor. But in the passion, Jesus is a rejected Messiah. His rejection robs the passion of its halo of glory. It must be a passion without honor.

  1. The Passion describes the sufferings of Jesus from the Last Supper through his burial.

    1. Jesus helped Peter to acceptance.

      1. Jesus meet the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias.

1..he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus, (John 21:1-4, NRSVA).

        1. They had a tough experience.

        2. They had caught no fish.

        3. Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat.

        4. They caught so many fish that the net could hardly retain them all.

      1. They finally recognized that the person they were speaking with was Jesus.

        1. Jesus had a charcoal fire going roasting some fish.

        2. He invited them to breakfast.

      2. When they had finished breakfast Jesus took Peter aside to speak with him.

15...Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me," (John 21:15-19 NRSVA).

      1. Jesus helped Peter to an acceptance of himself.

      2. Jesus helped Peter to an acceptance of Peter's discipleship.

      3. He helps Peter to an acceptance of his work.

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  1. In our lesson for today Cornelius was a reject.

    1. After Peter left Cornelius' home in Caesarea he went to Jerusalem.

      1. There the 2...the circumcised believers criticized him.

      2. They said 3..."Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" (Acts 11:2-3, NRSVA).

    2. Jesus helped Peter to the acceptance of the Gentiles.

      1. Peter was hungry.

        1. He had a vision of sheet with all kinds of food: all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air.

        2. Jesus told him to take and eat.

        3. He had never eaten anything that was profane or unclean.

        4. This happened three times.

        5. The Lord told Peter that what God has made clean you must not all profane.

      2. It was about this time that the messengers from Cornelius appeared inviting him to go with them to Cornelius' home in Caesarea.

      3. Peter went with them and discovered the importance of the vision that he had seen.

      4. Cornelius tried to worship Peter.

    3. Peter asked him to stand up because he was only a mortal.

      1. He talked with them and he said to them, "You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.

      2. As he was speaking to the gathering about Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon them all.

      3. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for 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?" 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

    4. Peter was the first to accept the Gentiles and help bring them into the Way.

  2. Though we desire acceptance, but we ought not to fear rejection.

    1. Henri J. M. Nouwen, in The Inner Voice of Love writes: (4)

Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. You might be afraid of the pain that deep love can cause. When those you love deeply reject you, leave you or die, your heart will be broken. But that should not hold you back from loving deeply. The pain that comes from deep love makes your love ever more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root and grow into a strong plant. Every time you experience the pain of rejection, absence or death, you are faced with a choice. You can become bitter and decide not to love again, or you can stand straight in your pain and let the soil on which you stand become richer and more able to give life to new seeds.

The more you have loved and have allowed yourself to suffer because of your love, the more you will be able to let your heart grow wider and deeper. When your love is truly giving and receiving, those whom you love will not leave your heart, even when they depart from you. They will become part of your self and thus gradually build a community within you. Those you have loved deeply become a part of you. The longer you live, there will always be more people to be loved by you and to become part of your inner community. The wider your inner community becomes, the more easily you will recognize your own brothers and sisters in the strangers around you.

Those who are alive within you will recognize those who are alive around you. The wider the community of your heart, the wider the community around you. Thus the pain of rejection, absence and death can become fruitful. Yes, as you love deeply, the ground of your heart will be broken more and more, but you will rejoice in the abundance of the fruit it will bear.

    1. Our acceptance of Jesus makes all the difference in the world.

      1. Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC observes: (5)

Grace is something you can never get but only be given. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you. I created the universes. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

      1. We have the gifts of God's grace that applied changes our lives for the better.

    1. Our acceptance of Jesus helps us to accept the Cornelius's in our lives.

  1. Do we need a vision from Jesus to educate our understanding and our empathy?

    1. I have spoken before of the student from Bowden College, Brunswick, ME, who came to revival meetings in 1968.

      1. He was unclean and unkept.

      2. The people didn't want him.

  1. They rejected him.

  1. They rejected the one that Jesus accepted.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. Here another quotation from Henri Nouwen who is reflecting on his fiftieth birthday. (6)

    1. He wrote this in 1983.

Within a few years (five, 10, 20, or 30) I will no longer be on this earth. The thought of this does not frighten me but fills me with a quiet peace. I am a small part of life, a human being in the midst of thousands of other human beings. It is good to be young, to grow old and to die. It is good to live with others and to die with others. God became flesh to share with us in this simple living and dying and thus made it good. I can feel today that it is good to be and especially to be one of many. What counts are not the special and unique accomplishments in life that make me different from others, but the basic experiences of sadness and joy, pain and healing, which make me part of humanity. The time is indeed growing short for me, but that knowledge sets me free to prevent mourning from depressing me and joy from exciting me. Mourning and joy can now both deepen my quiet desire for the day when I realize that the many kisses and embraces I received today were simple incarnation; of the eternal embrace of the Lord himself.

    1. He died in Hilversum, Netherlands on September 21, 1996.

    2. He accepted his life and his relationship with Jesus.

"I realize that the many kisses and embraces I received today were simple incarnation; of the eternal embrace of the Lord himself." (7)

  1. We may also accept our lives and live in the acceptance of Jesus and for Jesus.

    1. We do this for ourselves.

    2. We do it for all the rejects of life.

Amen.

1. Received from Thomas Ellsworth. The Good, Clean Funnies List [gcfl-info@gcfl.net]

2. USA Today, April 10, 1997, 3C.

3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R.H. Fuller (Great Britain: SCM Press, Ltd., 1959), 76.

4. Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love (New York: Doubleday, 1996).

5. Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper&Row, 1973), 33-34.

6. Gracias! A Latin American Journal (San Francisco: Harper and Rowe, 1983), 120.

7. Ibid

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