“You Can’t Hinder God!

”
Acts 11: 1-8
“…Who was I that I could hinder God?"

Rev. Jason W. Coulter

A sermon prepared for First Congregational Church of Evanston
May 15, 2022

Intro: Today we hear Peter tell the Apostles about a dream that he had. This vision, to
include Gentiles in the Jesus movement, was at first challenged by the Apostles, “What?
Eat with uncircumcised men?” But Peter’s bold advocacy changed the direction of
Christianity forever and opened up the faith to include all – hear me now – ALL – God’s
children in the good news of the gospel. Hear now this story from the book of Acts.

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also
accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised
believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with
them?’

Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa
praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming
down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked
at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also
heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, “By no means, Lord;
for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” But a second time the voice
answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This
happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we
were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and
us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us
how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring
Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire
household will be saved.”

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the
beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with
water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift
that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder
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God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God
has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’

Yesterday, I made good on the folk wisdom that says, “You have to make hay
when the sun shines.” Or rather, you have put your tomato plants in the ground before
the garden turns to mud or the baby plants shrivel up and die in their little plastic
containers. And so on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, I got on the ground to prepare the
soil, so my summer dreams of insalata caprese could be realized.
What I realized that afternoon is that everywhere I looked, this funny little weed
with green heart-shaped leaves and pretty purple flowers, was working its way to the
surface. It was in my garden, sneaking into Mary Kay’s flower beds, sprouting in the
girls’ sandbox, ringing the edge of our shed.
I learned that this plant is the viola sororia or the common meadow violet and it
is one of the most sneaky and surreptitious species in all of nature. It is an extremely
hearty plant, tolerant of draught, self-pollinating, and able to reproduce through tiny
seeds in the flowers and through a root system that travels subterraneously. I pulled out
the couple that were encroaching on my tomatoes, and left the rest alone, figuring there
was no way I could stop the viola sororia. I could only hope to contain them.
The apostles in Judea had an idea that the good news of Jesus the Christ was
contained or limited to people of Jewish descent. They figured that Jesus was a Jew, a
loyal observer of the Law of Moses, and all of his disciples were Jewish and so it only
made sense to direct this movement of Jesus followers to the people of the book, the
Hebrew people. In order to be a Christian, you had to be a Jew. It made for a quite tidy
container.
So imagine the apostles’ surprise when Peter bum rushes their gathering in the
Holy City of Jerusalem with startling news. In what I imagine to be Peter’s ever
breathless fashion, he tells them of a remarkable encounter that happened to him in the
city of Joppa. Peter relays the story detailed in chapter 10 of the Book of Acts, about
how he was visited by the Holy Spirit, commanded to eat animals considered unclean by
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the Jewish purity laws. Peter shares how he was directed by the Spirit to go with three
men to Caesarea, to witness to the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius. He reveals
that he baptized these non-Jewish Gentiles into the faith and family of Jesus Christ,
explaining, “I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with
water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same
gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could
hinder God?” (vs. 17)
The scripture says that after Peter’s story, the apostles were silenced. Crickets….
I like to imagine them sitting there dumbfounded, trying to make sense of what seemed
nonsense. This messiah Jesus was for the Jews! How could a Roman soldier like
Cornelius, a man much like those who nailed Jesus to the cross, how could he come to
follow Jesus and be baptized in his name? How to make sense of this crazy story that
spilled out of Peter, a man who was so after the heart of Christ?
Into this awkward silence steps the Holy Spirit who confirms what we now know
to be true. The apostles realize that this was not the work of Peter, but the work of the
Spirit. They render a judgment that will allow Christianity to break out of its container
and become a religion with more than a billion followers world-wide. They declare,
“God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life!” (vs. 18)

This fantastic story from the very first years of the church establishes a template
for all the other ways the gospel of Jesus Christ refuses to be contained in neat and tidy
ways. Later the Apostle Paul has a similar revelation to Peter and likewise brings the
good news of Jesus to Gentiles audiences in Corinth and Ephesus and the Galatian
provinces. Paul famously writes, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male
and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28)
If we look at the history of our faith, we see ways that God, working through the
Holy Spirit, refused to be bound by convention, using prophets and apostles to break
through barriers that sought to limit the faith. Peter and Paul famously broke down the
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wall that said only Jews could be baptized as followers of Jesus Christ. Later, a German
priest by the name of Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the cathedral in
Wittenburg, thereby smashing the container that said the church and the sacraments
were the only way to salvation. Luther argued for a priesthood of all believers and
opened up the word of God to common folk allowing for an individual relationship with
the divine, unmediated by the clergy or the church.
The United Church of Christ has been breaking barriers for centuries. We were
the first church to ordain an African-American, the first church to ordain a woman to
ministry, and the first to advocate for full inclusion of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers,
ordaining the Rev. Timothy Johnson in 1972.
Our God is a God who will not be denied. Our God is a God who will not be
contained by culture or history. Our God is a God who will not be constrained by
theology or kept captive in scripture. Our God is a God who ever seeks to establish
relationship with all God’s children. As so we should ask the same question of
ourselves that Peter asked the apostles, “Who was I that I could hinder God?”
This question troubles me as I consider the question of salvation. For millennia
Christians have held that the only way to heaven was to become a baptized believer and
to declare Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Proponents of this theology point to
Jesus’ statement in the gospel of John as definitive proof that the way to heaven has to
run through Jesus. Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14: 6) Orthodox Christian hold that means no
one, no Jews, no Muslims, no Hindus, no Buddhists, no Atheists, not even liberal do-
gooder Evanston yoga people can achieve salvation EXCEPT through Jesus.
Doesn’t such doctrine hinder God? Isn’t this another way we try to contain the
mighty power of the Divine One? When Christians elevate that scripture from John,
over others like the one from 1 Timothy that says, “God our Savior desires everyone to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2: 3-4) it closes the door on
the possibility that God desires the salvation of all peoples.
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 Indeed, if you look at the parables of Jesus (see Luke 15) we have the image of
God as loving creator who seeks to redeem all who are lost, all who have been forsaken.
The loving father who takes back the prodigal son, the woman who turns her house
upside down to find a single lost coin, the shepherd who goes out to find the one lost
sheep and who rejoices when it is found. These scriptures argue for a benevolent and
forgiving God, one who is not a gatekeeper for heaven, but one who seeks out all God’s
children to invite them to the heavenly feast.
I will confess that I am still uncertain that an argument for universal salvation
holds water. As so many have pointed out, if everyone gets saved and goes to heaven
what is the point? But at the same time I look at what happened in the house of
Cornelius in the Book of Acts, and I consider those famous words that Peter uttered,
“Who was I that I could hinder God?” and I ask whether or not I am trying to place
limits on God? If I teach and preach that Jesus is THE way, THE truth, THE life and
that no one will get to heaven except through him, am I somehow constructing a
container that keeps out what God would bring in?
I honestly don’t know the answer. As a Christian pastor, people will ask me,
“Can my Jewish best friend go to heaven?” “Can people who die by suicide go to
heaven?” “Can murderers and rapists go to heaven?” “Can dogs go to heaven?”
Sometimes I will go into the theology, but more often I remember Peter’s words and I
acknowledge the sovereignty of a God who can work miracles, who can change lives,
who can do anything. A God who is like a wonderful, beautiful weed that sprouts up in
so many unexpected places. A powerful God that cannot be contained. And so in
response to those heaven questions I respond, “Sure, why not? Who am I to hinder
God?” Amen.