Acts 10:44-48
Acts 8:26-40 (5 Easter)
Two questions from the Acts of the Apostles:
From last week the Ethiopian said: What is to prevent me from being baptized?
In the reading appointed for today Peter says: Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people?
Reviewing the stories just a bit. Last week we heard about the Ethiopian traveling from Jerusalem back home. On his way, he was reading the Scriptures, from the Book of Isaiah. With the help of Philip, he was converted. He came to know Jesus in his heart. Passing some water, he said to Philip, “what is to prevent me from being baptized?”
In this morning’s reading Peter is preaching to the assembled multitudes. The Holy Spirit falls upon many who heard Peter’s words, both Jews and Gentiles. They are filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter asks: “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people?”
These stories beg the question: What would prevent baptism? Who would withhold the water of baptism? Is there really something, anything, that can restrict the gift of baptism? Who would prevent or withhold baptism?
The answer is the church. The people who were the Christian church at the time the people who are the church today have the power to prevent or withhold baptism. Surely baptism is not appropriate for someone like the Ethiopian, so different from us, come from beyond the ends of the earth. And clearly, baptism should be withheld from Gentiles; God’s plan of salvation is for the Jews.
I hear these two passages from Acts in conjunction with the collect appointed for this Sunday, the Sixth Sunday of Easter:
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire.God gives surpassing our understanding; God’s giving exceeds even our desires; God gives beyond our imagination. God pours gifts into the world beyond our understanding.
In these stories from Acts, God acts in the world, giving the gift of the Spirit. The Spirit blows where it will and falls on all sorts of people. The question is How will the church react? Will the people of the church—then or now—react thankfully and joyfully for the Spirits gifts? Or will the church’s reaction be restricted by the limits of our understanding or imagination?
As God pours God’s gifts into the world, the Spirit acts in others beyond our understanding. The Spirit acts in us beyond our desires. Or maybe it’s even more powerful to switch those around. The Spirit acts in others beyond our desires. The spirit acts in us beyond our understanding.
The gifts of the spirit to us and to others surpass our understanding, our desire, even our imagination. These stories are about baptism, about the exuberant inclusiveness of God’s gift of baptism. They also speak to the ongoing work of the Spirit in the life of all of the baptized community.
There’s a wonderful prayer in the Prayer Book; it’s one of my favorites. It’s often called the prayer for the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit. We say it after every baptism.
In this prayer we give thanks for the on going process of forgiveness and renewal which is God’s gift in baptism. We also pray that the newly baptized will know the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit. (Don’t try to count; it doesn’t really work.) But the gifts the Spirit gives are: an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love God, and gift of joy and wonder in all of God’s works.
The “circumcised believers” who were listening to Peter found it very difficult to understand how God could possibly wish to bestow those gifts on Gentiles.
But the Spirit fell upon all who heard Peter’s words.
As we consider these stories we should note that they are not just about how the Spirit acts in others beyond our understanding. This is about us, too. How often have you said or heard someone say, “I don’t believe that I have the gifts for that ministry.” Or, “I cannot understand that God could be calling me to do that.” Or how often do you say, in your heart, if not out loud: “I cannot imagine that I am truly a beloved child of God, forgiven loved and free,” as the hymn says.
Pray that we may not limit or restrict the spirit. Pray that, as the collect says, we may so love God in and above all things, that we will not let our limited understanding or our individual desires or our lack of imagination hinder the spirit’s gifts others. Pray that we will never let our limited understanding, our individual desires, or our lack of imagination prevent the Spirit’s action in our own lives.
