Sermon given by Revd Sue McCoan 18th May 2025
John 13:31-35; Acts 11:1-18
Today is the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV. We shall remember him in our prayers as he takes on the privilege and responsibility of this role.
Following the death of Pope Francis, and before the new pope was chosen, there was much speculation about who it would be. Not so much the individual name, though there were some suggestions, but the direction that the new person would want to take the church. Would he – they did know it would be a ‘he’ – would he continue the reforms instigated by Francis, making the church more humble, more inclusive, more concerned for creation? Or would he be someone who would bring the church back to more traditional teaching, as some would have wished? In the course of the discussions, I heard more than one interview where a Roman Catholic spokesperson said, ‘You have to remember, we are not choosing a successor to Francis; we are choosing a successor to Peter’.
The Roman Catholic church traces the papacy right back to the apostle Peter. And it’s not just the papacy – Jesus identified Peter as the foundation on which the community of Christ-followers will be built, so that’s the whole Christian church. So today, we are going to be looking at Peter, and at the kind of foundation he offers to Christians of all denominations, and to ourselves in this congregation.
We first meet Peter as a fisherman on Gailee. Jesus calls him as a disciple, and names him as Peter the Rock, but he often seems more rocky than rock-like. We see him blundering his way through the gospels, lurching from passion to panic, from insight to denial. Then, following the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter comes into his own. He takes on the leadership role. He discovers his voice as a public speaker, and his gifts as a healer. And as the community grows, and spreads beyond Jerusalem, Peter begins to travel round and visit these outlying fellowships.
While he’s away, the Jerusalem group follow his progress. He’s healed Aeneas in Lydda – that’s good; he’s raised Tabitha, or Dorcas, in Joppa – that’s wonderful! And then news that that they really weren’t expecting – Peter has been to the house of a Gentile, and eaten there.
We might pause, and think about the Jerusalem community, to see why this made such an impact. We are still in the early stages after Pentecost. The apostles are preaching to the Jewish population, proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah promised to their ancestors; as the fulfilment of the faith they already have. So this growing community are still all practising Jews. They pray in the Temple; they keep the Law of Moses, including all the purity laws, on kosher food, on ritual cleanliness, and so on.
The news that Peter, their leader, has broken those laws, comes as a shock. This is out of character and well out of order. In our reading from Acts, Peter is back and they summon him to explain himself.
Peter completely understands their shock. After all, this time last week, he felt exactly the same. But then something happened. And rather than attempt a theological explanation, he tells them the story. We have the longer account in the previous chapter – this is his retelling.
Peter, in a trance, has a vision of a sheet full of animals that are forbidden under dietary laws, and a voice saying, get up, kill and eat. ‘But I can’t. I can’t eat any of this’. This is not just food. Peter is being invited to break the Jewish law that he has lived by all his life. Surely, Peter thinks, this is a test, from some evil source – there is no way he’s going to give in. But each time, each of the three times, he hears the words, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane’. It makes no sense.
It makes no sense, until the next thing happens. Three men turn up and ask him to go to Caesarea, just up the coast, to a Gentile house. Before the vision, he would have said no. Now, the Holy Spirit prompts him to say yes and go. And when he does, he finds the Spirit has also been at work in Cornelius, the centurion whose house it is. And in the power of the same Spirit, the whole household of Cornelius believe and are baptised.
This is a moment of grace and of profound significance. It’s of significance to Cornelius personally, who has been a God-fearing person, prayerful and devout but always conscious of not being Jewish. Now he is fully embraced and welcomed in the fellowship of believers in Jesus, as much a Christian as Peter himself.
And it is of even greater significance to Peter, who now sees, with absolute clarity, that Jesus is not just the Messiah for the Jewish people but for everybody. Oh. This is huge.
This challenges all sorts of assumptions about their understanding, their traditions – and indeed, if we read on in Acts, and in Paul’s letters, we see ongoing debates about how it will works in practice, what aspects of the Jewish law still apply, and to whom, and so on. But that’s to come. For now, we stay with the wonder and joy of Peter’s experience as he shares it with the believers in Jerusalem. They fall silent. And then they praise God: ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life’.
We all have cause to be grateful for this.
And let’s look at what we can learn from it.
First, Peter was capable of getting many things wrong, but he was always able to admit his failings and learn from them. When he denied Jesus, he was able to accept forgiveness and take on a new commission. Now, he has seen that his understanding was limited, his knowledge was incomplete, and he has been guided to a whole new way of looking at things.
How often do we do things in churches because this is the way we’ve always done them, this is the tradition, this is our understanding. How often do we take on a moral framework that we were taught as children and have never really questioned. How often do we rely on what we know, sometimes out of fear of what the rest of the world is up to.
Second, Peter’s decision to go to Cornelius, to engage with someone very different from himself, allowed God to transform that person’s life, and his own. How often do we get to meet, never mind talk with, people whose views are very different from ours?
I was at the Ministers’ Spring School this week, where the focus was on inclusion. We heard a lot about groups who often feel excluded from churches, for a variety of reasons. I was happily nodding along to much of it. Then, in a break, I happened to be sitting with someone who said they felt quite uncomfortable; that they felt pushed in a particular direction and hence that they were being pushed out of the URC. It mattered to me that I heard that voice, as well as the others. Just because something seems the right thing to do, it doesn’t mean that it will be easy.
That brings us to the third thing, which is to ask ourselves, who are the people who feel excluded from church today? We say we are welcoming, and we certainly intend to be. But maybe we are not welcoming to some, for reasons we haven’t thought of? Perhaps for practical reasons – we have access for people in wheelchairs, but could we do more for people with loss of sight or hearing, for instance? The elders are planning an Accessibility Audit to see what we could do better. And maybe there are other reasons. Maybe we need to have some open discussions about our attitude to LGBT people, again something which came up at Spring School; maybe we need to look at different styles of worship. I realise, as I’m saying this, that I’ve left it too late to do these things with you and I am sorry; it might be me who has been holding you back. But you will move on without me, and God will do new things in you and with you.
We’ve noticed Peter’s willingness to learn, to engage, and to include. I am sure that Pope Leo has all those qualities; I pray that he will be able to exercise them with love and support from his church and as a blessing to the world.
And I pray that we, too, will be inspired by Peter, to keep learning, to engage with others, and to open up our welcome to those whom God is calling.
May God bless Pope Leo, and God bless us all. Amen.
