We Are Each Part of God’s Story – Acts 10: 34-43

A text – Acts 10:34-43

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

A reflection:

Peter here is speaking to an audience of Gentiles. Most of the disciples, Jesus’s inner circle, were lifetime Jews, familiar with the scriptures because they went to synagogue regularly where it was read aloud and discussed. They believed in Jesus as the longed-for Messiah of their nation. When Jesus preached and healed Gentiles, they couldn’t understand or even approve of it.

What Peter finally realized somewhere along the line was that Jesus was showing them from the start that their God’s love was and is for every human being, not just Jews. And Jesus’s earthly ministry spanned communities that were filled with refugees and immigrants from many lands, many of whom came to be devout disciples of Jesus. The twelve disciples were only partially convinced this was a good thing. It took time and the adventure of living life with their master to realize he was saving not just Israel but the whole world, and saving us not from the political domination of Rome (as they thought the Messiah would do) but from something much more universal: death.

When Peter finally believed, as Paul had done from his conversion onward, that all people could be saved for God by Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter preached this and many other sermons to people he had probably never thought he would be addressing. When God’s goodness comes to each of us and God lets us know the mission we are sent to accomplish, we all end up doing things that surprise us. But get set! There is work only you can do and relationships only you can have. Every single human is a beloved child of God and invited to the party. We are each part of God’s story.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for making no distinctions among us and for using each of the gifts you gave us for the work of your Kingdom on earth. Help us to remember, when we feel alone and left out, that we a part of your big story every day of our lives. Amen.