Read: Acts 10:34-48
In the garden outside our dining room window, we have a completely random and uncontrolled mixture of spring bulbs. Over the years, they have been added to indiscriminately as things turn up, usually as gifts. Most recently, a kind friend gave me five tulip bulbs with the comment, ‘I have no idea what colour they will turn out to be’. They were acquired from a random selection to be added to my random selection. The picture shows that they have turned out to be pink and yellow.
After the resurrection, the disciples began sharing the Good News about Jesus. Gradually, the message rippled out. It affected Jews inside and outside Jerusalem, and then more widely in other countries, until finally Gentiles too were being affected by it.
Saint Peter’s speech in the reading was given in the household of a Roman Centurion called Cornelius. He was stationed in the port of Caesarea in ancient Judea. Cornelius was a devout and generous man, and it says much about him that he was sufficiently open-minded to hear and absorb what Peter had to say.
The passage makes clear that the Holy Spirit was working in the situation too, leading to the baptism of many people. Peter made a statement that in the past he would not have thought of making. [1 Peter 10:34-35] “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
As the original disciples started to tell what they had seen after Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit supported them and the message soon started to ‘go viral’, as we would say of a message on social media now.
If you are a spring bulb, you are welcome in my random collection, and so too, if you believe in the resurrection, you are welcome in God’s Church. No one has any right to keep you out; the only problem most of us face is our own stumbling in doubt and our preoccupation with the material world around us with its humanly made rules.
A Prayer
God, I thank you that however far I may be from Jerusalem and whatever my racial background, you are impartial and welcome me into your kingdom through Jesus Christ. Give me the courage to keep on posting and re-posting the Good News that you raised Jesus Christ from the dead and he is among us. Amen.