COMMENTARY

Church Also Has Experienced Evolution

CAN ANYONE WITHHOLD MARRIAGE FROM THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT JUST AS WE HAVE?

It was an evolving and controversial process for the early Church to accept non-Jews into their fellowship.

After all, Jesus was a Jew. The 12 apostles were Jewish. All of the early disciples were Jews.

The early Christians saw themselves as a Messianic movement within Judaism.

The Gospel of Luke ends with the disciples returning “to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the Temple blessing God” (Luke 24:52-53).

How did Gentiles (non-Jews) become welcome in the Church? It starts with two visions (Acts 10). The first vision was given to Cornelius, a Gentile Roman army oftcer. An angel told him to send for Peter in another city. While the emissaries were traveling toward him, Peter also had a vision. Peter saw a large sheet lowered from heaven, containing both clean and unclean animals, accordingto kosher tradition. A voice told Peter to “kill and eat.” Peter refused.

“By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” Peter faithfully followed the Jewish kosher laws of the Bible.

But the voice was insistent. “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” The vision was repeated three times. At that moment, the men from Cornelius arrived. Peter accepted their invitation to visit the “unclean” Gentile household.

As Peter told Cornelius the story of Jesus, “TheHoly Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” The Gentiles manifested the same fruit of the Spirit that the Jewish disciples had experienced.

“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” cried Peter. And the fi rst non-Jews were incorporated into the Church as equals.

Peter caught some heat for that. He was asked, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Peter repeated the story of the vision. “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God ?”(Acts 11:3, 17).

The first Gentiles were accepted into the Church, but the dispute wasn’t over. Paul’s letters are full of stories of the resistance he met from other Christians for his welcoming attitudetoward Gentiles.

I thought of that story when President Obama told how his views had evolved. He now supports gay marriage.

The Christian Church also has evolved, reliving the Cornelius-Peter story as we witness the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the loving relationships of committed gay couples.

Those of us who have seen the Spirit thus manifest now echo Peter’s testimony: “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us,” who are we to “hinder God?”

Kathy and I celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary in two weeks. Sometimes my mom remembers and sends us a greeting.

Usually my daughter mails a card; my son never remembers. None of our wedding party - bridesmaids, groomsmen, best man, maid of honor - will call or send an email, except maybeKathy’s middle sister.

But I know I’ll get a note from Ernest and Louie. Every wedding anniversary they send us a note of congratulations, usually with one of Louie’s poems. I think they send us a wedding anniversary greeting because their own marriage is so important to them.

Nearly 40 years ago, Ernest and Louie married themselves, because no minister or oft cial would do it for them. They read the marriage service to each other, using the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer. Now an old couple, their relationship together and their lives of service are models of the fruitof the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and temperance.” St. Paul reminds us, “There is no law against such things” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Many Christians see the faithful love and fruitful relationships of our gay and lesbian neighbors, and like Peter we say: If God gave them the same gift that he gave us, who are we that we could hinder God?

What God has made clean, we must not call profane.

Can anyone withhold marriage from these who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

We’ve done this before. I grew up in the segregated South. Interracial marriage was unlawful. Restaurants and waiting rooms and schools were separated - black from white;

“unclean” from “clean.”

But we evolved. We became kinder, more open,more graceful.

In 35 AD it was Gentiles.

In 1965, it was black people. In 2012, it’s LGBT’s. Old story. Same God.

LOWELL GRISHAM IS AN EPISCOPAL PRIEST WHO LIVES IN FAYETTEVILLE.

Opinion, Pages 19 on 05/20/2012

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