The Text
Last Time on Tales of Faith
Hopefully you fared through Holy Week and Easter unscathed. I apologize for not posting, I actually wrote up a post about Maundy Thursday, but then realized (on Good Friday) that I had not actually posted it. Thank you for your faithful reading when I can post, and especially a heartfelt thank you to Scott Hover, who started an annual subscription (even with my spotty posting), thank you for your support and faith. I started this on a whim at the beginning of this Narrative Lectionary Season, which means that I am usually writing the week of. I am planning on working further ahead over the summer, so there should be fewer disruptions next season. (This week’s post is not complete but I am sending out what I have for you, rather than nothing at all).
Today’s Lesson starts a third of the way into the Acts of the Apostles, so a lot to catch up on. The Acts of the Apostles (or just ‘Acts’ for short) is the much anticipated sequel to ‘According to Luke,’ an account of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth written to ‘Theophilus’ (God lover), and attributed to the Apostle Luke. Acts tells the story of the early assembly of disciples, sent to proclaim the good news of Jesus of Nazareth.
After the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples assembled in Jerusalem, the church grew into a beloved community where everyone was cared for. While many priests and Pharisees became a part of this beloved community, tensions continued to increase with the religious elite. This all came to a head with the martyrdom of Stephan, one of the first Deacons. This caused the spread of the church outside of Jerusalem, and the surprising reception of this good news by Gentile (non-Jewish) believers.
Today’s lesson is one of the moments when the leadership of the church, Peter, encounters the radical bounds of grace.
Overview of Acts
1: Introduction and pre-Pentecost
1:1-11 Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit and Ascension
1:12-26 Matthais chosen to replace Judas
2: Pentecost
2:1-13 The Holy Spirit descends on the Assembly, and given the ability to preach the good news in different languages
2:14-36 Peter’s sermon to those gathered
2:37-47 First converts and the Beloved Community
3-4:1 Peter and John get in trouble with the Sanhedren
3:1-10 Peter and John heal a man born lame at the temple
3:11-26 Peter’s sermon to those gathered at the temple
4:1-22 Peter and John arrested and give a defense before the Sanhedren, and are ordered not to preach the name of Jesus anymore
4:23-31 The Beloved Community prays for boldness
4:32-5:11 Ananias and Sapphira
4:32-37 The Beloved Community’s radical care for one another, Barnabas sells land and gives the money to the Beloved Community
5:1-11 Ananias and Sapphira are struck down for making a dishonest offering
5:12-16 Many people healed, even by Peter’s shadow
5:17-42 Peter and the apostles before the Sanhedren again, first divine jail break
5:17-26 Apostles arrested for preaching, freed by an angel, and go back to preaching
5:27-32 High priest asks why, and Peter says that they are listing to God
5:33-42 Gamiliel suggests that if the apostles are not sent by God, that they will fail; but if God has sent them, there is nothing that the Sanhedren can do
6:1-8:3 Stephen, the first Martyr
6:1-6 Deacons are ordained to make sure that the gospel is preached and that all are cared for
6:7-7:1 Stephan is arrested and brought before the Sanhedren
7:2-53 Stephan’s defense/sermon before the Sanhedren
7:54-60 Stephan is stoned to death for blasphemy
8:1-3 Saul’s approval of Stephen’s death, and beginning ‘hot war’ persecution of the church.
8:4-40 Philip Spreads the Gospel to the Gentiles
8:4-25 The Samaritans receive the gospel message and Holy Spirit
8:4-13 Philip preaches the gospel in Samaria, and they believe
8:14-17 Peter and John dispatched to verify the Samaritan's belief, and pray that they receive the Holy Spirit
8:18-24 Simon (the former magician) tries to pay for the Holy Spirit, and Peter does not react well
8:25 Peter and John return to Jerusalem, and preach to Samaritan Villages on the way
Philip and the Kushite (Ethiopian) Eunuch
8:26-35 Philip lead to the road to Gaza, and encounters a Kushite eunuch reading the scroll of Isaiah
8:36-40 The eunuch believes, and is baptized
9:1-31 Saul’s Conversion Experience
9:1-9 Saul continues to persecute the Way, but encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus, and is struck blind
9:10-19a A Demascus believer, Ananias (not that one), encounters Jesus and heals Saul
9:19b-22 Saul begins proclaiming the risen Jesus in the Damascus synagogue
9:23-25 Saul is smuggled out of Damascus because people want to kill him (this will be a running theme)
9:26-31 Saul goes to Jerusalem, is (eventually) received by the apostles, and then sent to Tarsus.
9:32-11:18 Peter’s Adventures
9:32-35 Peter heals a man named Aneas
9:36-43 Peter raises Tabitha from the dead
10:1-11:18 Peter and Cornelius
10:1-8 Cornelius encounters an angel, and told to listen to Peter
10:9-16 Peter has a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven, and a voice saying to ‘eat’ and not call ‘unclean’
10:17-23a Men from Cornelius come to find Peter, and he receives them
10:23b-33 Peter meets Cornelius and they each share their stories
10:34-43 Peter preaches a sermon to the assembled gentiles
10:44-48 The Holy Spirit descends on the gentiles, and Peter baptizes them
11:1-18 Peter is criticized by the Jewish believers for associating with gentiles, he tells about his vision, and the believers rejoice that God has extended the good news to the gentiles as well
11:19-30 The church in Antioch
12:1-25 Continued persecution, another divine jailbreak, and Herod struck down.
13:1-14-28 Paul and Barnabus sent from Antioch to spread the good news
15:1-35 The Council of Jerusalem
15:36-20:38 Paul, Silas, and Timothy’s missionary journeys
21:1-28:30 Paul is arrested in Jerusalem, and appeals to Caesar
Today’s Story
Cornelius, a Centurion of the Italian Cohort: The introduction of Cornelius is intentionally meant to make a Jewish reader nervous. There are no illusions that this dude is anything other than a gentile. Let’s just step back and think about that for a minute. Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, there has been a clear division between those who are Jewish, and those who are not. Ever since the beginning, there has been a clear division between those who are God’s people, the seed of the woman; and those who follow the snakey ways of the serpent. This division was semi-racialized when God chose Abra(ha)m and his descendants to be God’s people. At Mt. Saini, these descendants of Abraham were made God’s covenant people, and received a divine law to live by. In many ways, the law was meant to make this people distinct from others, the ways that they were to eat, dress, and interact with one another was to be distinct, holy. When the Hebrews (as they were known at the time) returned to the land that God had promised to Anbraham, this division of people shifted from a cultural distinction to cultural biases, which became more and more entrenched. In the second Temple period, after the people returned after the Exile, leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah strictly prohibited any intermarriage with gentiles. These biases became more and more entrenched, as the people of Israel continued under the rule of one empire after another.
The gentile empire occupying Israel at the time of Jesus and the early church was Rome, and Cornelius is as Roman as they come. First of all, he is stationed in Caesarea, a city literally named after the Roman Caesar. Cornelius is a centurion, an officer who was in charge of a ‘century’, which at this time would have been 80 men. We are told that he is a member of the Italian Cohort, a group of six centuries, all from Italy (e.g. Rome itself).
So in the first sentence, Cornelius is introduced as:
a Roman army officer (responsible at very least for the occupation of Judea, and likely also responsible for violence against Judeans)
a Roman Citizen from Italy
living in Caesarea, a Rome away from Rome on the Judean coast
A Devout Man Who Feared God: Wait, what? The second sentence reveals that the assumptions that we might have had about Cornelius are unfounded. He is absolutely a gentile, but he is also a God-fearer. This too has been a theme throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. When God called Abram, God not only promised blessing for Abram and his family, but that all of the nations would be blessed through him. The exodus from Egypt included a “mixed crowd” (Exodus 12:38) which (at least potentially) included non-Hebrew people. Notable gentiles like Rahab and Ruth were not only adopted into the Hebrew people, but are also listed among the ancestors of king David. The prophets spoke of the gentile’s eventual inclusion into the family of God (e.g. Isaiah 19:16-25, Zecheriah 14:16). While rare, allowing for conversion into the Jewish faith was allowed, and by the 1st Century, Herod had included a ‘court of the gentiles’ into his renovation of the temple in Jerusalem.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus interacts multiple times with gentiles. In Luke 7, Jesus is approached by a Roman Centurion for healing of his enslaved person. Not only does Jesus heal the enslaved person, but remarks that the faith presented by the centurion exceeds that found in Israel (Luke 7:9)*. The Gerasene Demoniac (Luke 8) is likely not Jewish, and his community definitely was not. One of the ten lepers cleansed in Luke 17 is a Samaritan, who were more Jew-ish than Jewish (like the esteemed representative from NY).
* Aside: Could this in-fact have been Corneleus? The centurion never directly interacts with Jesus, and certainly not Peter, so it is possible.
* Aside Aside: What is the relationship between the centurion and the “highly valued” enslaved person? makes you wonder.
In Acts, the gospel has already begun to spread to non-Jewish believers due to the persecution of the Way after the stoning of Stephen. Philip, one of the Deacons elected to care for the distribution of daily food, flees Jerusalem and goes to Samaria. The Samaritans were descendants of the remnant of Israel (10th Century BCE northern kingdom) intermixed with settlers from the Assyrian empire. They vaguely followed the (local) Jewish religion, though they only accepted the Torah of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. When the remnant of Judah (southern kingdom) returned after the Exile, and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, there was an ongoing debate of theology and practice between the two groups. These disagreements turned to animosity, which turned into outright hate and bias. By the 1st Century CE, Samaritans were treated like outright gentiles by mainline Jews. John 4 suggests that sharing a common utensil with a Samaritan was forbidden, and Jesus puts the hate of samaritans to great rhetorical use (Parable of the ‘Good’ Samaritan). Under Philip, the Samaritans gratefully receive the good news of Jesus, and experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Philip then is called by the Spirit to the road between Jerusalem and Joppa, where he encounters a Kushite eunuch. Being from the kingdom of Kush in northern Africa, it is highly unlikely that they are of Jewish descent, especially given their status as a court official of the Kendake. However, they are reading the scroll of Isaiah, so we might be able to assume that they are at least a proselyte, a gentile convert to Judaism. As a eunuch, they would have presented a further distinction from Philip that did not fit into a standard Male/female dichotomy. This is one of the reason that theologians within the queer community have connected with them. It seems that the writer of Acts is intentionally ‘queering’ the gospel message, pushing the boundaries of who is in and who is out. When this person asks “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” the question is intentionally unanswered in words by Philip, and is poised as a rhetorical question to the reader. It is as if the author is daring us, given all that has be revealed about the gospel, and despite whatever reactions you may have about this person, to come up with a rational and consistent reason why the sign of baptism should not be bestowed. Philip answers not in words, but action, by baptizing the Kushite official.
Immediately after this encounter, we re-meet Saul, the zealous Pharisee who has been breathing threats against the church, and is on the way to arrest both men and women who are a part of ‘the Way’ in Damascus. Even he is not outside the grace of God through Jesus Christ, when Jesus appears to him along the road.
So as readers, when we hear about Cornelius being a devout, God fearing Roman, we are primed and ready to see how the gospel might extend to him as well.