Rochester, MN UCC - "When the Holy Spirit Moves" - Acts 10:44-48
“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
This past week the United Methodist Church took the monumental step of removing the prohibition against homosexual clergy from their Book of Discipline. As an Open and Affirming Congregation we celebrate this movement of the Holy Spirit which opens the door for many faithful, and gifted gay and lesbian Christians to honor their call to the ministry. We also mourn the division in the United Methodist Church and the larger Body of Christ that the question of LGBTQ+ acceptance has caused. As a Uniting Church we actively seek out the unity of the Body of Christ and pray that one day we may all be one as Christ is one. Our two commitments, to the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the church and to the unity of the Body of Christ are in tension at this particular moment.
The book of Acts tells the story of the movement of the Holy Spirit in the years following Jesus’ death and resurrection. Often the Holy Spirit was poured out upon those who had previously been excluded from the covenant with God- in this case of this week’s scripture, upon Gentile believers. These people had been excluded, not simply for mean-spirited reasons, but because their actions violated long held religious commandments. Gentiles did not follow the laws of God- they were not circumcised as God had commanded God’s people to be. They ate foods that God had prohibited the people from eating. They lived outside the law, therefore they were sinners. From the perspective of many faithful Jews of the time, it wasn’t the case that they were excluding the Gentiles, it was more that the actions of the Gentiles placed them outside the covenant. A quite similar dynamic is in play regarding the question of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church today. For millennia, all homosexual relationships were considered sinful. Those who engaged in homosexual relationships had to do so outside the church, or in secret. Most of those who oppose the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people today are not doing so simply to be mean-spirited, they are genuinely trying to adhere to the laws of God.
Yet the book of Acts recounts how the Holy Spirit redrew the lines of inclusion to include both the Eunuchs and the Gentiles into the family of God. Their inclusion came not from a change in their actions which were prohibited by the law, but rather by the removal of the prohibition. The Holy Spirit proclaimed to Peter that all foods were now clean. The Holy Spirit chose to pour Herself out uncircumcised Gentiles. The hearts of these Gentiles were turned to Christ, they asked for Baptism, they chose to live lives dedicated to God in Jesus Christ. The church followed this movement of the Holy Spirit, and welcomed into the Body of Christ those that had previously been excluded from covenant with God.
As we seek to chart our own course amidst the tension of our commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion and the unity of the Church, let us ground ourselves in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit has removed prohibitions against acts once thought sinful before, and that the entire Church is united in the belief that Holy Spirit is still moving today. When LGBTQ+ people come to us and boldly and openly ask to be baptized, when they seek to use their loving relationships as a means to serve God, when they respond to the call of the Holy Spirit to ordained ministry, we must ask ourselves the question that Peter asked two millennia ago, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And we must boldly and openly explain to our siblings in the Universal Church why we have decided that we must follow the movement of the Holy Spirit in fully welcoming and including our LGBTQ+ siblings.
Pastor Andrew Greenhaw