{"id":681747,"date":"2025-04-21T11:34:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T15:34:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:38:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:38:44","slug":"us-and-them-easter-5-c-may-18-2025","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/us-and-them-easter-5-c-may-18-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Us and Them, Easter 5 (C) \u2013 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>[RCL] Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-yellow-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-yellow-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=DFMS7125135623&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-yellow-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-yellow-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, we are really getting into Easter now \u2013 it is the Fifth Sunday of Eastertide. The weather has gotten warmer, maybe, the days certainly longer, and maybe saying \u201cAlleluia\u201d still feels like a privilege after our Lenten deprivation. We have two more Sundays, three more weeks to revel in the Resurrection and to keep wondering \u2013 what does it mean for Jesus to have rolled away the rock, escaped the tomb, walked through walls in upper rooms, showed the wounds in his hands and feet, given fishing tutorials, and grilled some fish on the shore? What does it mean for Jesus to be alive, in a way so unfamiliar to us who dwell in the bounds of physical limitation and the laws of physics? How does it affect how we act? Who we are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Book of Acts, from which our first reading comes, could be considered the early church\u2019s response to some of those same questions. The story is strange \u2013 imagine it: Peter has been away from Jerusalem, away from the \u201cground zero\u201d of Jesus\u2019 frightening death and puzzling resurrection. While he was away, some crazy things happened to him \u2013 things he could not have imagined as part of the people of Israel. Peter was a Jew \u2013 an ethnic and religious minority who had figured out how to resist being swallowed up first by the Egyptians, then the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, and the Persians, and then, in Jesus\u2019 time, the Romans. They figured out how to survive in a hostile environment by being so distinct \u2013 not eating certain foods, not worshipping the king or emperor <em>du jour<\/em>, preferring to marry among their own ethnic group, and being circumcised. All these distinctive identity markers provided some security through their solidarity with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To take an example from today \u2013 think about bikers. Some of you may be bikers and enjoy riding around on Harley-Davidsons. When you put on the leather jacket or the bandana or the chaps, you are marking yourself as part of a community, which enables the possibility of establishing friendships more easily with others who are also bikers \u2013 there are particular mores and styles of dress that provide a sense of identity and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clearly, this analogy has limitations, but the point is that the Jews and their distinct way of life enabled a community to form that offered its people some protection from and resistance to those more powerful than them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, Peter, a circumcised Jew, returns from his trip and reports back to the headquarters of the Jesus Movement there in Jerusalem. And he has to respond to their confusion, and maybe even a sense of betrayal that Peter had violated the group\u2019s norms. He had the gall to cross the line and eat with Gentiles. The higher-ups were likely afraid of losing the meager protection and security that being Jewish provided; it was important for their survival as a distinct people to keep \u201cthem\u201d separate from \u201cus.\u201d And Peter could understand their confusion. After all, we know that Peter really wanted to get things right. And before this strange vision of a white sheet being lowered from heaven filled with nearly as many animals as went aboard Noah\u2019s Ark, Peter was his typical self-righteous self \u2013 he wouldn\u2019t eat with \u201cthem,\u201d the Gentiles, and \u201cthey\u201d needed to become like Peter, to follow specific dietary laws, to not work on Saturday, to be circumcised in order to become a follower of Jesus. In fact, it took the sheet being lowered three times, and a voice speaking to him three times, for him to get the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But after this experience, Peter realized that mixing Jews and Gentiles wasn\u2019t only permissible \u2013 it was actually desired by God! So, he confidently proceeded to explain to headquarters how this came to be. Really, he explained his own new understanding, which opened the door for the conversion of Gentiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can you imagine Jesus in all this? Can\u2019t you imagine Jesus pulling his hair out over this? Thinking, \u201cWhat? How could they possibly be squabbling over this? I loved eating with all sorts of people \u2013 folks at the locally owned drive-in, Latino folks with their barbequed goat in the trailer park, McDonald\u2019s (yes, I enjoy the people there!), and even the occasional invitation to the exclusive country club. I would eat with just about anyone. How could they not get this? Oh, it\u2019s Peter I\u2019m dealing with here. He usually needs something dramatic to understand new things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working through the Holy Spirit, Jesus constructs this marvelous and strange vision: sheets, four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, birds, and the voice saying, \u201cGet up Peter. Kill and eat,\u201d undoubtedly in the most dramatic \u201cGod voice\u201d the Holy Spirit could muster. And the vision didn\u2019t just come to Peter. Another one comes to a Gentile, an uncircumcised soldier named Cornelius. Cornelius had a vision in which a voice instructed him to invite Peter to come over for a meal. And before the meal was over, the Holy Spirit fell upon everyone there, and the whole lot was baptized\u2026 without being circumcised! Peter really had no choice in the matter; this incorporation of Gentiles into the Holy People of God wasn\u2019t Peter\u2019s idea \u2013 it was God\u2019s. And who was Peter to get in the way of God\u2019s plan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, as he tells this \u201coutrageous, it could only be a God-thing\u201d story to headquarters, the most amazing thing happened. The higher-ups, too, become converted to a new way of thinking. They move from a concern about who is in and out, an understandable fear in their context, toward freedom from fear, culminating in praise. <em>Culminating in praise.<\/em> God has given the gift of repentance, that repentance that leads to life, to more people than they could have imagined. More life, more people, more praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So how can this story help us? How can it help us lean into the reality of Jesus living in our midst?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, I am reminded that Jesus yearns to communicate with us and guide us. Most of us don\u2019t hear the voice as such, but many of us do have visions of one sort or another. You know, those daydreams and pipe dreams and night dreams, those \u201cwhat if\u2026\u201d or \u201cin an ideal world\u2026\u201d kind of thoughts. Pay attention. That might be the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Second, communicating with the risen Jesus is risky. Sometimes the message is comforting but sometimes it is inconvenient, likely to be misunderstood by others. Peter could have dismissed the vision as being too strange or too uncomfortable to even bother understanding. But thank God, he didn\u2019t, for we are the Gentiles upon whom the Holy Spirit fell, for whom there is a space at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Third, though we don\u2019t know where Jesus\u2019 spirit will lead us, we can be assured there will be conversion and change involved. As we continue to get to know the living Jesus, we simultaneously discover parts of ourselves that have yet to become aligned with God\u2019s better-than-imaginable dream for the world, for our congregation, for you, and for me. This story isn\u2019t just about the conversion of the Gentiles; it is also about the deepening of Peter\u2019s conversion, the deepening of his understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, the ever-expanding invitation to join the Holy People of God, and the extinction of the \u201cout\u201d category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ea-2025-Sermon-Graphic-FB-Title-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-331758\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And finally, this story is a reminder that learning to listen to the resurrected Jesus is intertwined with learning to listen to one another. Peter listened to that voice. And he also listened to the Gentile, Cornelius, who invited him to dinner. And the folks in headquarters? Well in the process of listening to Peter\u2019s testimony, quieting their internal dialogues, and setting aside their own agendas, they were able to hear God\u2019s voice and live into God\u2019s vision of everyone having a place at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, I wonder: What nudges and daydreams do the people of our faith community have to explore with one another? What risks Jesus is inviting us to take? What parts of ourselves are ripe for conversion to love, to the dissolution of the world\u2019s boundaries which tell us that some people are in and others are out? How might we listen to each other\u2019s dreams and, through them, hear the voice of God, beckoning us to the banquet of love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>the Rev. Joslyn Ogden Schaefer<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-e584b70f-dd45-4233-8dfd-7625b87430d1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Sermon-Easter-5-English.docx\">Word \u2013 Easter 5 (C) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Sermon-Easter-5-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-e584b70f-dd45-4233-8dfd-7625b87430d1\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-4dcc3053-a360-4e12-a8af-e5b8dc7b3899\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Sermon-Easter-5-English.pdf\">PDF \u2013 Easter 5 (C) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Sermon-Easter-5-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-4dcc3053-a360-4e12-a8af-e5b8dc7b3899\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL] Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35 So, we are really getting into Easter now \u2013 it is the Fifth Sunday of Eastertide. The weather has gotten warmer, maybe, the days certainly longer, and maybe saying \u201cAlleluia\u201d still feels like a privilege after our Lenten deprivation. We have two more Sundays, three more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1955,43,52,1953],"tags":[200],"class_list":["post-681747","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","category-easter","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-easter-5c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1955,"label":"Easter"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":200,"label":"Easter 5C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/681747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/681747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477518,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/681747\/revisions\/3477518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}