Who is He? Who are We?

Who Is He? Who Are We?
January 9, 2011
Franktown United Methodist Church

I'm guessing that this week you probably got to know Ted Williams. This was the week that Williams went viral, as they say. He was standing by an intersection in Columbus, Ohio holding up a sign that said "I have a God given gift of voice. I'm an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. Please! Any help will be great fully appreciated. Thank you and God bless you. Happy holidays."

A reporter with the Columbus Dispatch was passing by and thought he might have a human interest story. So he asked Williams to say a few words into his video camera. Sure enough he did have a gift. He slipped right into his old radio announcer persona and thanked the reporter for giving him a dollar.

The reporter was the multimedia producer for the paper and he didn't rush to get the story out. Five weeks later, during a slow news week, he pulled out the video and the rest is history. Williams went from being homeless to getting multiple job offers, including doing voiceovers for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. He also was given an offer of a home. And he was reunited with his 92-year-old mother whom he had not seen in twenty years. Everybody knows Ted Williams now.

The story worries me a little. The media has made Williams into something of a sideshow act and it doesn't seem right, even if he's willing, to exploit him as the media darling of the week. I also wonder how this sudden change in circumstance will affect him, especially since he has struggled with alcohol and drug addiction in the past. But really, who can begrudge him this? He now has a little bit of security and a new opportunity. I pray that for every person living on the edge.

Did you hear about the reporter, though? Doral Chenoweth the 3rd has a habit of stopping to talk to homeless people he sees on the street. It's not part of his job, it's part of his faith. Chenoweth says, "You may not be able to help someone with money, but you can at least say hello, how you doing, and look at them." Doral Chenoweth joined New Life United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio because of its outreach to the homeless and he has participated in mission trips and the homeless mission with his wife and two children. So when he saw Ted Williams he didn't see a homeless guy, he saw a child of God. And he stopped.

That's the backstory on Ted Williams. Now let me give you some backstory on Peter. No, not Peter Surran, the apostle Peter. Jesus' number one disciple. He's the one who delivers the sermon that was in our reading from the book of Acts today. But what we didn't read was the context for that sermon and the context makes all the difference in the world.

I mean, part of the context is that this is the prelude to a baptism. Peter is speaking to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion who had become a believer. Peter tells them about Jesus and then the whole household is baptized in Jesus' name. But nobody is more surprised than Peter that this is all happening.

You see, Peter had been under the impression that his ministry was going to be with his people, the Jews. Jesus had made reference to going out to the world, but Peter hadn't grasped what Jesus was saying. So there he was at the house of Simon the tanner in the coastal city of Joppa, going about his ministry with his people.

He went up on the roof of Simon's house to pray, which isn't as strange as it sounds. The roofs were flat and it was a common practice to go up on the roof. Peter is up there praying and he begins to get hungry. He falls into a trance-like state and he has a vision. Out of heaven comes a huge sheet, like the sail of a boat. And on the sheet are all kinds of creatures.

A voice comes from heaven and says, "Peter, slaughter something and eat it."

Peter looks at the animals and sees that they are all unclean animals that a good Jewish boy would not eat. So Peter protests and says, "No, these are unclean."

The voice comes again and says, "Peter, who are you to call something unclean when God has made it clean?" Three times this happens and Peter is puzzled by what it all means.

Then some men show up from Cornelius' house. He has also had a vision and his vision told him to send for Peter. So Peter goes and suddenly it all becomes clear to him. God was doing a new thing. This good news that Jesus brought was not just for the disciples, not just for the Jews. This good news was for all the world - even Roman centurions.

So that is what has just happened when Peter begins his sermon with the statement, "Now I know that God truly has no favorites. In every nation, whoever fears God and does what is right is welcomed." Then Peter goes on to give witness to what he has seen. He tells the story of Jesus' life and ministry and he starts with Jesus' baptism.

That is the launching pad for everything that is to come. Jesus comes up from the water and is sent forth in the power of the Holy Spirit. He goes about the land doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Then he was crucified and rose again. That's the gospel in shorthand for Peter. And that's the message that Cornelius and his house hear as they are baptized. But Peter is also converted because what happens is that he is now able to look at these Romans and see, not foreigners, strangers, unclean, but children of God.

Do you know people who are oppressed by the devil? I know we don't use that language to talk about it very often, but I bet you do. There are people who are caught in the grip of evils they can't control. There are people who are enslaved to temptation. There are people who have cancer and other serious illnesses that rob them of life. And there are people who have a deadly kind of blindness - the kind of blindness Peter had. They can't see the people right around them who are children of God.

Every day we meet the Ted Williamses of this world. They are people with lots of flaws whom we might size up and offer a quick judgement about when we see them. We might see their problems as too big for us to make a difference. We might worry, as I did about Ted, that they might misuse whatever they get. We might label them so that we don't see them as individuals. We might call them homeless or illegal or unemployed or unchurched. But if we fail to see them as people whom God has made and whom God loves...if we never stop to appreciate their humanity...if we do not love our brother or sister whom we can see, how can we say that we love God, whom we can't see?

The baptism of Jesus was the moment at which the heavens split open and the Holy Spirit was unleashed - not just on Jesus, but on everyone whom he touched. His baptism meant that he was launched into a ministry that had him doing good and healing those who were oppressed by the devil. The Holy Spirit still does these things. The Holy Spirit still empowers us to do good and to heal the oppressed. How do I know this? Because Christians who have gone through the waters of baptism are still doing these things.

For those of you who have been baptized, I can tell you that there was a moment. You may have been an infant. Maybe you were older. But there was a moment when you were touched by water and by the hands of a preacher. A congregation of folks watched and welcomed you as part of their family. And all of those people knew that you were not just some unclaimed person. You were not a mistake, no matter how you got here. You were not a castoff or someone who was left behind. When you were baptized everyone in the room knew that you were a child of God with your own unique gifts for the world.

I hope Ted Williams knows that. I hope every person on the Eastern Shore who goes to bed without enough to eat or enough warmth knows that. I hope every child who lingers in an abusive home hears that. I hope every sinner hears that. I hope you hear that. And feel that. And share that. Because Jesus has gone under the waters, a whole new world is flooding in. For all God's children. Thanks be to God.

Acts 10:34-43
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/06/golden.voice.homeless/index.html?hpt=C1