by The Rev’d Craig Lemming, Associate Rector
Sermon for May 18, 2025 on YouTube
In the name of The Holy and Undivided Trinity: eternal diversity in unity and unity in diversity. Amen.
Has your body ever been misinterpreted? Have you ever turned up somewhere and been completely mistaken for someone else? Over a decade ago, I was hired as the tenor soloist for a rather prestigious engagement. The concert hall, orchestra, choir, soloists, and conductor were all well-known and I was nervous. I got to the venue for our first rehearsal early so that I could warm up, get used to the acoustic, and be sure I sang through the tricky passages of my arias before my colleagues arrived. As I walked through the entrance an imperious woman holding a large broom marched up to me and demanded to know why I was so late. Before I could respond, she complained that I was supposed to have swept the stage floor and set up the orchestra’s chairs and music stands hours ago. Angrily, she said she swept the floor herself and demanded that I set up the chairs and stands immediately. Seeing my confusion, she barked, “well, aren’t you the new janitor?” I was both relieved and embarrassed to finally solve this case of mistaken identity. I pointed to my face on the large concert poster on the marquee above her, and said, “I am the tenor soloist. Let’s set up the chairs together.” After an hour of suffering through and absolving her profuse apologies, we set up the stage immaculately. But there was no time to warm up or to run through my arias. I sang the rehearsal cold doing my best not to let my rage completely destroy J.S. Bach’s exquisite sacred music.
In his commentary on today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles, theologian Willie James Jennings asks,
How can bodies become bridges? Only through the Spirit and in the body of the Son may we become those who force a question from the mouths of others – why are you where you are not supposed to be? Why are you in intimate settings… with those not of your people and not of your story?[1]
A Coloured, Working Class, Zimbabwean Immigrant was not supposed to be with those who specialize in the sacred music of J.S. Bach. Peter the Apostle, a Jew and follower of Jesus, was not supposed to be eating with or sharing in fellowship with despised gentiles. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit makes our differing bodies bridges between us and them. Peter the Apostle proclaims,
The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us… 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?
The way Western society interprets gender, race, and class tries and fails to hinder God. The more we try to make exclusive distinctions between us and them, the more God makes differing bodies bridges between them and us. Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are the sacramental sites of God’s bridge-building in our very bodies. The sacred intimacy of singing music, eating food, and enjoying fellowship with people we have been taught to fear and who have been taught to fear us is powerful. What do Peter the Apostle’s teachings and table fellowship with outsiders call us to do? How do our exclusive distinctions between us and them hinder God’s bridge-building? What is our next right action as Christians?
I have a quick Eastertide quiz! It’s a Baptismal Covenant question. Are you ready? After we state our creedal belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit, what is the first thing we vow to do in our Baptismal Covenant? On page 304 in The Book of Common Prayer we read, “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? I will, with God’s help.” Peter the Apostle teaches us to be in fellowship with, and to break bread and eat with, and to pray with the people who are taught to despise us and whom we are taught to despise. Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? I don’t know about you, but I need God’s help to fulfill this Baptismal vow. How can I be in fellowship with, and break bread with, and pray with people who are taught to hate Black, Gay, Working Class, African Immigrants like me? How will you be in fellowship with, and break bread with, and pray with your racist auntie, your homophobic brother, or your highly-educated niece who wants nothing to do with transphobic, low-class, ignorant bigots? The answer is in our vow. With God’s help. We are not required to do this alone. By God’s grace, the Holy Spirit helps us to do the will of God. God helps us to do this impossibly difficult work of loving.
Willie James Jennings writes, “We are bound together in the life of a speaking God who wills to bind us together through space and time, through borders and boundaries, from life through death and to the life anew and eternal found in Jesus Christ.”[2] It might not be our will to love those who are different to us, but it is God’s will. It might not be our will to love those who aggravate us. And yet, God’s will be done. God’s will is done in the Gospel mandate of Jesus Christ:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
God revealed to the Apostle John the Evangelist, what this love of Christ can really do. In the love of Christ, there is a new heaven and a new earth. In the love of Christ, God dwells among each and every one of us. Christ’s love wipes every tear from everyone’s eyes. In Christ’s love, death is no more; mourning and crying and pain is no more, for the first things pass away. Who are you called to break bread with, fellowship with, and pray with, as you learn together from Peter the Apostle’s call to kinship with despised gentiles? How will your Baptismal identity in Christ never be mistaken for anything other than love for God and love for all your neighbors?
As I conclude my sermon, if I may be so bold especially after giving you a quiz – there’s homework! Spend some time with Hymn #469 in The Hymnal 1982. Hymn #469 is one of my favorite hymn settings by the fabulously gay and faithful Episcopalian composer Calvin Hampton who died in 1984 from HIV/AIDS. We will sing Calvin Hampton’s hymn during the distribution of Holy Communion. As you receive the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood today: sing, eat, drink, and know that in Christ’s fellowship:
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in God’s justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in His blood.[3]
In Christ’s love may our bodies become bridges between us and them.
In Christ’s love may our bodies be seen in places we are not supposed to be seen.
In Christ’s love may we be with people who are not of our story.
In Christ’s love may we continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers.
And may Christ’s love, by us, and with us, and in us, make all things new. Amen.
[1] Willie James Jennings, ACTS in Belief: A Theological Commentary of the Bible eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 116.
[2] Ibid., 121.
