Who are we?

Who am I?

Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025

The Reverend Dr Adam J Shoemaker

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O God, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen.

One of the books of the Bible that we hear from often during the 50-day Easter season is the Acts of the Apostles. It’s just a terrific read. You can’t say that about every different biblical book, can you? At its best, the Acts of the Apostles is an adventure story that depicts the early followers of Jesus carrying on his mission in light of the resurrection. But, as I have often said, the Acts of the Apostles is a book that might be better titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is really the main character of this biblical book. Beginning with that dramatic scene in the second chapter of Acts that we will mark on the day of Pentecost as the Spirit descends on the disciples gathered in Jerusalem to empower them to be understood in many languages in many different cultures.

From that point onward, the spirit prods and inspires the disciples to expand the circle again and again and again of those who are included in the promises of God. That, my friends, is what we see happening in our reading from Acts today. This comes at a moment of tension in the nascent church when people were still wondering whether you had to follow all the Jewish laws, all the Jewish traditions, in order to be a good follower of Jesus.

One of those lines in the sand was whether you had to be circumcised or uncircumcised. Or whether both groups would be admitted in. We see here Peter being criticized for welcoming in the uncircumcised, non-Jewish, gentile believers. In response, Peter shares a vision, an evocative vision he had led by the Spirit of God of a large sheet coming down from the heavens with beasts of prey, animals that would have been prohibited by the Jewish law. Peter hears the voice of God commanding him to kill and to eat. Peter responds, “By no means, Lord, for nothing profane has ever touched my lips.” Then he hears God say, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

Then Saint Peter experiences the Spirit descending upon a group of Gentiles and he says to his Jewish following friends, something very, very important, very profound, that we in the church would do well to reflect upon today. Saint Peter ultimately says, at the end of the test, “Who was I that I could hinder God? Who was I that I could get in the way of the Spirit of God, the work of God in the world?” My friends, that is still, to this day, an important thing for the church to reflect upon because all of us, even well-intentioned people, can fall into that trap of categorizing folks into one group or another, creating distinctions and barriers, creating groups of insiders and outsiders. Those that we deem worthy of God’s promises and those whom we think haven’t quite earned that right yet.

But we are reminded today in the Acts of the Apostles that the Spirit of God calls us to make no distinction. That I believe is because of that foundational teaching that Jesus offers us in our gospel reading today from John. Our reading from John is a reading we typically hear during Holy Week, a reading that comes at the conclusion of what is remembered as “The Last Supper.” Jesus knows what he does not have much time left. This is just prior to his betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion. After this sacred meal with his friends, he sits down to offer them one final teaching, one final word. What is that word? It’s not, “You have to remember to believe a certain way.” It’s not (and this is challenging for us Episcopalians), “You don’t have to worship God exactly a certain way.” It’s not that you need to look a certain way, or act a certain way, or love a certain way. No, what does Jesus say? It’s his final word, friends. He says, “Love one another.” “Love one another as I have loved you. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In other words, my friends, the love, compassion, and grace of God we have experienced in Christ Jesus should be our North Star. It should guide and govern and shape all that we say and do in the world. This can be easier said than done. We always must lead with compassion. Because if we’re not, we’ve lost the plot. We have lost the point of everything we have tried to do in the church if we do not strive to act with compassion, to look on this world with compassion, amid a time when there is so little compassion. A time where it almost seems like the policies of our government are animated by a desire for cruelty. It feels like cruelty is the point sometimes. In that world, in that very world, we are called by Jesus to strive for love, to embody the love and compassion of God with all that we are and all that we have.

I think that is so desperately needed at this moment in time. If the church can’t do it, who can? People are crying out for mercy, crying out for compassion. People are dying of hunger in Gaza. People are being pulled off the streets by ICE agents without due process. There is violence against the LGBTQ+ community. There is racism. There is a stripping of DEI’s collective history. It feels like cruelty is the point. Into that very world, we are called to step up, walk back out those doors, and love others as God in Christ loves us. Trusting in the power of that love to ultimately make the whole creation new. THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS! to be an Easter Christian in this Good Friday world of ours.

That love speaks to the core mission that has animated this church for over two hundred years, a mission that is etched into the edifice of this building. Those words written from the Prophet Isaiah: My house shall be a house of prayer for all people. If you take it seriously, it’s not always easy to do because of our tendencies to categorize ourselves into groups, to separate ourselves, to divide ourselves one from another. We mustn’t do that! The world calls us to be bigger than that. Today, we celebrate a saint of our parish, Mrs Emma Watson who, I would argue, is emblematic of so many matriarchs of St Stephen’s that we have been blessed to have in these pews, who have helped this church in their own times to lean in more fully to that historic call to be “a house or prayer for all people.” I hope you all come and join me for Emma Watson BBQ after this service over at St James, starting at 1 o’clock, to celebrate Emma and to celebrate that we are inheritors of here at St Stephen’s.

That mission that is still so crucially important in the world today: To be a house of prayer for all animated by the love of God that we have come to know in Christ Jesus. “Who am I to hinder the work of God?” Saint Peter says today. Who am I to hinder the love of God for the whole human family? Who are we? Who are we to hinder the work of God? May we, friends, continue to pray and meditate on that over this Easter season as we all strive collectively to continue to put one foot in front of the other and walk in love as God in Christ so graciously, so unconditionally loves us, trusting in the power of that love to ultimately make the whole creation new. Amen.

© 2025 Adam J Shoemaker

Image credit: Photo by Karyna Chorna on Unsplash