Standing Under the Scriptures
May 24, 2009

Dear Fellow Voyagers,

Our readings for this Sunday are:

Acts 1.15-17, 21-26: The Apostles, still prior to Pentecost, arrive at the choice of Matthias as one of their number, in place of the betrayer Judas.

John 17.6-19: Jesus, in concluding his farewell discourse, speaks of his concern and intentions for his followers as he leaves them in the world.

Last Sunday our first reading, Acts 10.44-48, was as the tip of an iceberg. For it concerned the climax, but only the climax, of Peter’s baptism of Cornelius the centurion and his associates. The whole chapter is required to make the event fully clear. Nevertheless even within the passage’s small compass important truths are brought to light. And these have a critical bearing on our Gospel reading.

We began by recapping the events of chapter 10 leading up to Cornelius’ baptism. Visions, his and Peter’s, paved the way for it. Peter, on the roof of the house in Joppa where he is staying, becomes hungry. In a vision a sort of sheet comes down from heaven containing all sorts of creatures, and a heavenly voice invites him to kill and eat. He objects, a bit as he did following his confession of Jesus as Messiah (Matthew 16.22) to Jesus’ account of the Messiah’s destiny. This time he says that nothing unclean has ever passed his lips. Whereupon the voice responds, “What God has cleansed you must not call unclean.” In the meantime back in Caesarea Cornelius, who had become devoted to prayer and almsgiving, had a vision of his own, instructing him to send for Peter in Joppa, which he does. And when his emissaries arrive the Spirit moves Peter to go with them. In Cornelius’ house he finds a large group assembled and, on being invited, tells them about Jesus: his anointing with the Spirit, his ministry, his crucifixion, his resurrection.

Our passage tells what happened as a result. The Holy Spirit fell on those listening to Peter albeit they were Gentiles. The Spirit was manifested in their speaking with tongues and glorifying God, rather as at Pentecost. Its pouring out also on Gentiles astonished the Jewish believers who had come with Peter. But Peter, as prepared by his vision of the heavenly sheet, rose to the occasion, calling for them to be baptized with water. We noted the aptness of the term falling, conveying as it does the catching up of a whole group in an experience, so that instead of a collection of individuals it becomes as one. We noted also that Peter was not content with the simple experience of the Spirit but made it concrete and tangible in the sacrament of baptism, the “outward and visible sigh of an inward and spiritual grace.” (Nor was the barrier between Jews and Gentiles the only one overcome here. Cornelius was not only a Roman but a member of the Roman elite, normally exceptionally resistant to the penetration of the gospel.)

Perhaps, nevertheless, we did not fully appreciate the bearing of the outpouring of the Spirit on our Gospel reading (John 15.9-17). On the one hand, we did see how the passage was concerned with the mutuality of love: of the Father for the Son, of the Son for his followers, of his followers for each other. We saw also the wonders arising from this mutuality: the presence of Jesus’ own joy in his followers so that their joy might be full, their elevation from servants to friends to whom he has made known all that he has heard from his Father; their bearing such fruit that whatever they ask of the Father in his name they will receive. To be sure, we saw that these wonders were contingent on keeping his commandment(s), namely that his followers love one another. On the other hand, we stopped short of asking what enabled the keeping of this commandment. The answer may be seen, I think, in our Acts passage.

John in his Gospel does not speak much of the Spirit. In the previous chapter Jesus promises the coming of the Counselor or Comforter (Paraclete). Otherwise there is not much explicit reference in it to the Spirit. But the love about which John has so much to say may be taken as, if not as the equivalent of the Spirit, at least the mode of his manifestation. It is the presence of the Spirit which enables the keeping of the love commandment and, in turn, the gifts stemming from so doing. Our abiding in Jesus as the branches abide in the vine is itself an expression of the Spirit’s activity. Only we should remember that such abiding is not our own doing, for which we may claim credit. Our passage contains Jesus’ own caution on this point: “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”

Reverting to our Acts reading, we may see a similar caution in Peter’s insistence on anchoring the experience of the Spirit in the tangibility of baptism, so that it does not become free floating, subject to drifting in various directions. The same may be said of the other sacrament instituted by Jesus himself, namely the Eucharist. It makes Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross tangible and present for us. Herein may be seen God’s graciousness towards us, in that he has given us not only these two sacraments but also, as illuminated by the word which is also his gift, the possibility of approaching them with wonder, thanks, and praise.

Faithfully, Fr. Ted