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BY MARY JO SIMIS

Acts 10:44-4

We know the fifth book of the New Testament as the Acts of the Apostles, but I think we could well refer to it as the Movements of the Holy Spirit.

In reality, the Holy Spirit is its main character, not Peter and Paul and the other apostles. Between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, the lectionary includes snippets from the early chapters of Acts as one of the appointed readings. Such is the case for the sixth Sunday of Easter, which designates Acts 10:44-48 as the first reading. But to read only those few verses of Acts 10 is like reading the last chapter of a novel first.

The narrative opens in Caesarea with Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort. One afternoon an angel of God comes and tells him that God has kept in mind his prayers and offerings. This divine messenger instructs Cornelius to send men to Joppa to summon Simon Peter.

While Cornelius’ envoys are on their way, Peter goes up on a rooftop to pray. Here he too has a vision. Something like a large sheet comes down. It contains all sorts of animals and birds, many of which are ritualistically impure. A voice instructs Peter to “get up, kill and eat.” Peter refuses, claiming he has never eaten anything unclean.

The divine voice responds that “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happens three times and then the sheet is taken back up to heaven.

While Peter is still contemplating the meaning of this vision, the delegation from Cornelius arrives. The Spirit instructs Peter to get up, go downstairs, and not hesitate to go with them because “I have sent them.”

After learning of the reason for their journey, Peter offers them hospitality. The next day, Peter and some of the believers from Joppa journey to Cornelius’ house. In anticipation of Peter’s arrival, Cornelius has gathered his relatives and close friends. Now it is Cornelius’ turn to show Peter and those who accompany the apostle hospitality.

Peter declares to all present, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection” (10:28b-29a). In turn, Cornelius narrates for Peter and his companions what inspired him to send for Peter.

Peter begins preaching. For openers, he declares, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.” Peter tells those assembled of the saving peace of Jesus Christ, who is “Lord of all.” While Peter is still speaking, the Holy Spirit falls “upon all who heard the word.” Those who had journeyed with Peter “were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, . . .”

But why should they, or we, be astonished? In John 3, Nicodemus visits Jesus by night. During their conversation, Jesus reminds Nicodemus that “the wind [Spirit] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (3:8).

Through the movements of the divine wind, Cornelius and Peter both experience a Pentecost. The often impulsive Peter listens to the impulses of the Spirit and gains a deepened understanding of the nature of the God who shows no partiality.

Cornelius heeds the promptings of the Spirit and learns of the profound love Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, has for him and his household. Throughout the story, the Holy Spirit blows in and through and around both these men, interrupting their prayers and their speeches, initiating their actions, and inciting them to move beyond their established patterns of thinking and being.

Through the movements of the Spirit, these two (and those with them) cross century-old boundaries to become one with and in Christ Jesus.

It is the powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit that broke down the barriers between Cornelius and Peter and cracked open their lives. How is the Holy Spirit stirring us to break down barriers that separate us from others? How is it cracking open the segregated and exclusive places of our own lives?

This is a profound text for today’s church. Two thousand years after Cornelius and Peter, we have yet to overcome the separations resulting from racism, sexism (including heterosexism), classism, ageism, and nationalism.

Which of these barriers is so rigid that it refuses to yield to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What keeps us, the church, from living out our Eucharistic prayer “By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, . . .”? What prevents us from experiencing Pentecost?

The Rev. Mary Jo Sims is associate pastor of TowsonUMC.