Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS
Acts 10:1-7
May 18, 2025
This week we’re continuing our exploration of how we experience the Holy through our five senses. We started this series by pondering taste and heard that lovely story about Jesus making breakfast on the beach for his disciples after the Resurrection. Last week we were in the park and we heard the story of Elijah listening for the presence of God in the sound of slience.
Today we’re moving from our tastebuds to our ears to our noses. Our sense of smell can bring us a lot of pleasure. As I’ve been riding my bike around town this spring I am often surprised by a sudden burst of fragrance when I zoom past a lilac bush. Ahhhhhh. And there are so many other smells in nature that we love - the smell of fresh-cut grass, the scent of rain, the salty air by the beach, that somewhat-indescribable crisp smell of snow, or - one of my very favorites - the smell when you lay down on a bed with sheets that have been dried outside. Ahhhhhh.
Our sense of smell is also very practical. Without it, food can lose its taste completely, which can be a real bummer. It turns out we rely on smell not only to enjoy our food, but also for our well-being and safety. We humans have evolved with a keen sense of smell to help alert us when food has spoiled or is otherwise unsafe to eat. Just think about what you do when you’re not sure if the milk has gone bad. You sniff it, right?
And our noses also help us stay safe in other ways - the smell of smoke alerts us that we need to be on the lookout for a fire. In our modern world, we add an odor to natural gas so we’ll know if this invisible danger is present. And those of us who grew up in the Midwest probably all know the smell of a storm coming in.
Our sense of smell can help human enjoy life and stay safe. But sometimes it can also get people in trouble. I’m thinking of the scents that we carry unknowingly in and on our bodies. People don’t often notice their own smells - like their own laundry detergent or shampoo - because they’re used to them. But when they’re around someone from a different place or culture they may suddenly think, “that’s different than what I’m used to,” and sometimes even feel a bit of fear.
Humans notice these differences because we’re hardwired to be skeptical of things that seem foreign to us. Hold onto your seats because I’m about to tell you something that might blow your mind. Did you know that babies are racist? It’s kind of hard to say that out loud but study after study has shown it to be true. Babies as young as 6-9 months old associate people who are the same race as them with positive emotions and people who are a different race than them with negative emotions. [1]
The theory is that we evolved to have a natural skepticism of people from out-groups - people who don’t look, sound, or smell like us. And so, it turns out that even though lots of people like to say that you have to learn racism, it turns out we actually have to UNLEARN racism. We have to be carefully taught to welcome those who don’t look like us, who come from other places, who speak other languages, who cook with different ingredients.
This means the color-blind approach that so many adults have used around children turns out to not be helpful. Instead, multiple studies show that what children need is adults who will explicitly speak to them about differences - giving them the vocabulary to name and confront racism, naming social and historical contexts that perpetuate white supremacy. When children have this knowledge, they are much more likely to see, name, and hopefully even confront discrimination. [2]
Fortunately for us, our Bible is full of stories about seeing, naming, and ending discrimination. And today’s story from the Book of Acts is one of those stories.
The Book of Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. After Jesus’s resurrection, the story continues, only now the disciples are left alone to try and figure out how to continue living like Jesus in his absence. The author of Acts tells us right up front what is going to unfold. In chapter 1, the Resurrected Christ departs for the final time - we’ll hear that story in just a few weeks on Ascension Sunday. As he’s leaving, he tells the disciples ”You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
And that’s exactly what happens. The Holy Spirit arrives on the scene in wind and flame in Acts 2 with the story of Pentecost. Faithful Jews from all over are gathered in Jerusalem and they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The disciples witness to them about the things that Jesus did while here on earth and on that day, about 3,000 Jews were baptized and became followers of The Way.
A little later, the scene shifts beyond Jerusalem. In chapter 8 Philip goes to Samaria, witnessing to many there and even convincing a magician named Simon who had previously purported to be a prophet himself, to follow The Way. After leaving Samaria, Philip takes the wilderness road to Gaza and encounters an Ethiopian court official, witnesses to him, and baptizes him.
In chapter 9 Saul has a vision of the Resurrected Christ while on the road to Damascus and is transformed from a persecutor of Jesus’s followers to a zealous follower of The Way. He takes a new name: Paul. And so we see that it’s unfolding just as Jesus said, ”You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
By the time we get to chapter 10 we’ve moved beyond even Samaria. We’re in Caesarea, further north. A port city on the Mediterranean Sea, it was far from Jerusalem not only in terms of distance, but also culture. It was a thoroughly Romanized city, functioning as the Roman capital in Judea. And so we meet Cornelius, who would have certainly been considered an outsider to Jesus’s followers. He’s a Roman soldier and he’s not Jewish. Note that at this point, all of the followers of The Way were faithful Jews. There was no such thing as Christianity yet. It was just Jews following the teachings of Jesus. Gentiles - non-Jews like Cornelius - were not yet a part of the fold.
Cornelius may be an outsider but he sounds like a good guy. Despite being a soldier in the occupying army, Cornelius was “a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.” Cornelius receives a vision of an angel, who tells him God has noticed his prayers and generosity. The angel tells him to send messengers to Joppa to find a man called Simon Peter. Despite having no idea who Peter was and despite the long walk to Joppa - about 40 miles - Cornelius did what he was told. He sent a group of three servants to look for Peter.
Meanwhile, Peter is in Joppa and also has a vision. And it’s a doozy. While praying on the roof, his tummy starts grumbling because it’s lunchtime. And he sees a sheet being lowered to the earth, as if held on all four corners. The sheet is filled with all kinds of animals that look tasty. A voice tell Peter to go and eat. But Peter protests, saying, “No way. I know I’m not supposed to eat those animals because they are considered unclean.” And then the voice from heaven says, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.”
This odd vision repeats itself three times and Peter is left scratching his head, unsure of what it all means. Suddenly, the three men from Caesarea arrive outside, looking for a man named Simon Peter. The voice tells Peter that God has sent them and that he should go greet them. He does and when they tell him he needs to come back with them to Caesarea - remember, 40 miles away! - he agrees.
When they arrive, they discover Cornelius has gathered an audience. He’s brought his friends and family to await Peter’s arrival. That’s how sure he is that Peter is coming. The two men discover that they’ve both had visions - Cornelius was told he’s supposed to listen to this faithful Jew and Peter suddenly understands that the vision he received was about removing the imagined barriers between ethnic groups. He says he knows he’s not supposed to associate with people like Cornelius - Romans, Gentiles, outsiders - but that God showed him that he’s not supposed to call anyone unclean or profane anymore. And so this boundary that existed between these two groups becomes more porous. Both of these highly-esteemed men are shown that they have no reason to fear each other, that God loves them both, and that they are to cooperate and work together and welcome others to The Way of Jesus.
What happens next is known as the “Gentile Pentecost.” Peter begins preaching to the Gentiles gathered, telling them all about how God’s love is for everyone and the things that Jesus did and taught. The Jews who had come along with Peter are very surprised when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles - and the Gentiles begin praising God and speaking in tongues - just as they had seen happen with the Jews back in Jerusalem. But seeing is believing and the Jews come to understand that the Gentiles also belong. Peter says, “Who could withhold the gift of baptism from people who have clearly received the Holy Spirit just like us?” And so the Gentiles are also baptized in the name of Jesus, just as the Jews in Jerusalem had been.
I can imagine them all gathering around a table together later that evening - the smells of foods from their two different cultures mixing and mingling. Maybe they introduced each other to favorite jokes from their own groups that the others had never heard before. Perhaps they discovered similar songs or stories that they all knew.
It’s not a happily-ever-after ending. The Book of Acts goes on to describe a lot of fighting between leaders of The Way about this very issue. Can faithful Jews sit at tables with Gentles and share a meal? Is it really okay to welcome outsiders into the group? How do we combine different groups into one big group where everyone feels valued and respected?
The leaders in the early Church certainly didn’t unlearn their fear of outsiders perfectly or easily. And it is, unfortunately, very clear that this is a lesson we are still trying to learn in the Church today. But the expectation of the Holy Spirit is clear: God’s love is poured out on everyone. Absolutely everyone. And we are invited - no, commanded - to gather at tables with dishes that we’ve never eaten before, dishes that might even smell funny to us at first, with open hearts, ready to taste and see (and small) the presence of Christ in every person we meet.
May it be so.
NOTES:
[1]
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/racial-bias-may-begin-babies-six-months-u-t-research-reveals
https://time.com/67092/baby-racists-survival-strategy/
[2]
https://www.newsweek.com/even-babies-discriminate-nurtureshock-excerpt-79233
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/how-raise-anti-racist-babies-according-psychology-ncna1232031
No comments:
Post a Comment