Welcome Arms

First Lesson: Acts 10: 44-48
Responsive Reading: Psalm 98
Second Lesson: 1 John 5: 1-6
​Gospel Lesson: John 15: 9-17

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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Once upon a time in a town such as this one, there was a girl of sixteen years of age that I’ll call Katie[1].  Katie was like many of her friends, she hadn’t been baptized, her parents weren’t churchgoers and when she heard any sort of religious language, it sounded foreign.  Katie did have a friend who had recently been confirmed named Angie.  Katie had never heard of confirmation before and wanted to know more.  Angie invites Katie to her church.

Katie shows up one Sunday in early May.  Katie looks around for Angie, Angie is nowhere to be found.  Katie looks around for other people she doesn’t know anyone, but notices gray hairs with only a few kids she had seen in passing.  Katie wanted to sit in the back, but that’s where all the regular attendees sat.  So the usher marches Katie to the front as she had the eyes of everyone at Saint Martin’s Lutheran come down upon her[2].  She could hear the whispers of “What’s she doing here.”

Katie opened her hymnal.  The few kids her age she didn’t know well spent the whole time whispering[3].  The Pastor began to preach, Katie liked what she was hearing about the reality of faith and God’s grace.  But as Katie looked around, people looked bored.  Katie nonetheless was as determined as any sixteen year old could be.  She might have been the most determined sixteen-year-old girl to ever walk through the doors of Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church.  Katie wanted to talk to someone after the service.  It was chaos though with everyone shooting towards the exit barely acknowledging one another’s presence.  Katie began to greet a couple sitting near her, they were less than warm and inviting in response to her greeting.  She began to approach a few of the teens she sorta knew, only to quickly realize that she didn’t fit in with their clique at church either.    

Katie writes Angie the next day. 

“I went to Saint Martin’s yesterday.  I hoped to find worship and feel some love.  I realized how much of an outsider that I truly was.  I’m sorry, but I won’t be back[4].” 

Katie was the definition of a religious outsider.  Here’s the thing, within the world we live in there are a lot more Katies than Angies.

Such issues are nothing new under the sun.  After Jesus died, the Book of Acts tells the story of his first followers.  Today, we hear one of its most important tales[5].

Once upon a time, there was a man named Cornelius[6].  Cornelius was a good man, a family man, a charitable man.  You might say Cornelius was spiritual, but not religious as we think of it Today.  Cornelius had no formal church home but would pray for help and guidance[7].

One day when Cornelius is praying, an angel appears instructing Cornelius to meet a man named Peter who was staying in the nearby town of Joppa[8].  Around the same time, Peter had a vision, Peter’s vision was strange but yet his life would never be the same because of it.

A large sheet is being lowered onto the ground before Peter with all kinds of animals, reptiles, birds, and all sorts of four-footed creatures even pigs.  Peter then hears a command from the Lord “Get up, Peter; kill and eat[9].”

 Peter is initially shocked at God’s request; this would seem to be the equivalent of a parent encouraging a child to play in the dangerous street or inviting older Children to hang out with dangerous criminals. 
 
Peter at first objects: “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean[10].”

The Lord responds to Peter that it isn’t Peter’s place to judge: “You must not make unclean that which God has cleansed[11].”

Peter was stumped that God would declare the unclean, clean.  Peter couldn’t make sense of God’s message as it was much deeper and more significant than whether Peter could eat pork, shellfish, or mix meat with dairy.  Peter has three visitors show up unannounced to his door.  The spirit of the Lord proclaims to Peter: “Simon, three[a] men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them[12].”

The men proclaim that they have been sent by Cornelius the Centurion.  The men began to cite to Peter, Cornelius’ good reputation among all the people.

Peter realizes the meaning of the vision; he is being called to preach outside his normal tribe of God-fearing Jews, he is called to reach the Katie of his day an Italian named Cornelius. 

Peter has come to a new understanding of outreach. “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God[13].”

The previous distinctions Peter had drawn for every day of his life between Jew and Non-Jew were now no more.  The Resurrection had truly changed “Who was in and out amongst God’s people.”

The story ends with the Holy Spirit reaching Cornelius’ entire household to Peter’s amazement[14].  Our lesson concludes with the Baptism of Cornelius family as the first non-Jewish Christians[15]. 

Barriers had been broken and the world would never be the same again.  All it took was the Lord freeing Peter to reach out to Cornelius.   

Ralph Branca was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1926[16].  Branca was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to a Jewish mother but raised Roman Catholic.  In 1943, Branca attended a tryout for the Brooklyn Dodgers by 1944 he was pitching in the major leagues. 

In 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers had a new player named Jackie Robinson[17]. Robinson was attempting to become the first African American to play Major League Baseball.   Branca’s teammates were up in arms. They began to pass around a petition seeking to ban Robinson from the team.   Many of them refused to take the field alongside Robinson for opening day.  

When the Brooklyn Dodgers played on the road, every racial slur in the books was tossed at Robinson all game long. Robinson wouldn’t be allowed to stay in the same hotels at the rest of the Dodgers.   In Philadelphia, Manager Ben Chapman would continually call for Robinson to come over to shine Chapman’s shoes[18]. 

Ralph Branca was different.  He grew up in a diverse neighborhood in Mount Vernon, a Catholic Jew surrounded by Italians, Irish, other Jews, and African-Americans[19].  So when Jackie Robinson wanted a friend, he found Ralph Branca.  They shared meals together.  When Robinson waited to shower till the white players got done, Branca shouted out “What are you doing??  Robinson replied “waiting.”  No, no—you’re playing first base; you’re part of this team, both on and off the field.  Overtime thanks to Ralph Branca, Jackie Robinson was received as just another teammate on the Brooklyn Dodgers[20]. 

Jackie Robinson will forever be the Cornelius who broke Baseball’s color barrier, yet the world is still the same without men or women like Ralph Branca. 

Now the issues we face are different issues than those faced by Peter or Ralph Branca.  The questions that we face thought have to do with insiders vs. outsiders and who is truly a member of God’s family. 

Shawn Arvin had it tough in life[21].  His mother was a prostitute, and he never knew his father.  From his earliest days, he witnessed every type of drug imaginable in his presence.   Shawn would frequently be forced to move as a child because of his mother’s profession.  Shawn spent a lot of his growing up years living with people he barely knew.  He graduates high school, gets married, and enlists in the Army.  He eventually goes back to school to get an MBA, starts working 80 hours a week.  Eventually lands his dream job complete with the big, fancy house.  Shawn though get never shake his depression brought about by lifelong broken relationships.  Shawn Arvin eventually plans his suicide.  Shawn can’t go through with it.  So he eventually goes to visit a friend. While staying with his friend, he travels to the park where he meets a homeless man.  Shawn unloads all his lifelong burdens to the homeless man.  The homeless man closes the conversation by saying “Hey man, I just want you to know God loves you[22].”

 Shawn can’t shake the homeless man’s words.  The words lead Shawn to show up at church.  Shawn Arvin then became a Christian.  Today, Shawn Arvin runs a youth center in Louisville.  The center’s motto: “Just love God, and love people, and let Him figure out the rest[23].”

As our story of Peter and Cornelius illustrates you never know how God might work on any single day. 
Pastor Leon Stier[24] describes serving a congregation in Lignite, North Dakota[25]. Lignite is in Burke County, North Dakota which has a population of nearly as many people as Silver Bay. Lignite is near the North Dakota/Saskatchewan border.    Lignite, North Dakota’s population peaked in the 1960 census at 355 people.  It currently has about 155 people today.

 You were never going to have all sorts of visitors in Lignite, North Dakota.  None of this mattered to Cliff[26].  Cliff never went to ask the pastor for details; Cliff was going to find out for himself. No new visitor would set foot in the church without a visit from kindly, old Cliff[27].   Cliff probably didn’t have a lot of different things going for him.  He didn’t have youth, nor a great way with words, yet this wasn’t going to matter to any visitors to his church in tiny Lignite, North Dakota. 

Cliff was who Katie needed when she walked into Saint Martin’s, Cliff who was Cornelius needed as he sought to hear the Gospel, Cliff was who Jackie Robinson needed as he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Cliff was who Shawn Arvin needed as he walked in the park.   We need people of warmth and welcome when people seek to make the unfamiliar familiar. 

Our Goal as a church should be the welcoming congregation that Katies of the world seek.  A church welcomed to the single, married, or divorced, black or white, rich or poor, skinny, or those with a little extra to love,  tattooed or pierced or none of the above, whether your hair is blond, blue, or gray, finally Jew or gentile[28].  We welcome all to this place which long to hear about the awesome power of Resurrection amongst God’s many types of people.  Amen
 


[1] The following tale of Katie and Angie is based on Author Unknown’s “ I Won’t Be Back” found on Stories for Preaching on April 28th, 2018. 
[2] Author Unknown. “I Won’t Be Back”. Stories for Preaching.
[3] Author Unknown. “I Won’t Be Back”. Stories for Preaching.
[4] Author Unknown. “I Won’t Be Back.” Stories for Preaching.
[5] Acts 10:44-48.
[6] Baker, Coleman. “Commentary on Acts 10:44-48.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 10.May.2015. Web. Apr.28.2018. 
[7] Acts 10:2. 
[8] Acts 10:3-6
[9] Acts 10:13
[10] Acts 10:14. 
[11] Acts 10:15
[12] Acts 10:19-20
[13] Acts 10:34-35
[14] Acts 10:45
[15] Acts 10:47-48.. 
[16] “Ralph Branca.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 13. Apr.2018. Web. Apr.28.2018. 
[17] Offang, Erik. “Brooklyn Dodger Ralph Branca Recalls Friendship With Jackie Robinson And Baseball’s History Of Racism:How a Mount Vernon native helped shape the Brooklyn Dodgers’ legacy.” Wechester Magazine. 13.Apr.2014. Web. Apr.28.2018. 
[18] Offang, Erik. “Brooklyn Dodger Ralph Branca Recalls Friendship With Jackie Robinson And Baseball’s History Of Racism:How a Mount Vernon native helped shape the Brooklyn Dodgers’ legacy.”
[19] Offang, Erik. “Brooklyn Dodger Ralph Branca Recalls Friendship With Jackie Robinson And Baseball’s History Of Racism:How a Mount Vernon native helped shape the Brooklyn Dodgers’ legacy.”
[20] Offang, Erik. “Brooklyn Dodger Ralph Branca Recalls Friendship With Jackie Robinson And Baseball’s History Of Racism:How a Mount Vernon native helped shape the Brooklyn Dodgers’ legacy.”
[21] “Message from Message from Strangers Changes Man's Life.” CBN (Christian Broadcast Network).Web. Apr.28.2018. 
[22] Message from Message from Strangers Changes Man's Life.” CBN (Christian Broadcast Network).
[23] Message from Message from Strangers Changes Man's Life.” CBN (Christian Broadcast Network).
[24] Stier, Leon. “Welcoming the Stranger.” Email Mediatations. 4. Sept.2015. Web. Apr.28.2018. 
[25] “Lignite, North Dakota.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 15.Jan.2018. Web. Apr.28.2018. 
[26] Stier, Leon. “Welcoming the Stranger.”
[27] Stier, Leon. “Welcoming the Stranger.”
[28] The following is based on the welcome from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community in Daytona Beach, FL.  This was found on  Stier, Leon. “You Are Welcome.” Email Mediatations. 19. June.2017. Web. Apr.28.2018.