Roman citizen, professional soldier, CSM able to give and to take orders experienced, trusted born and brought up as worshipper of pagan idols but now a gentile ‘god-fearer’ worshipper of the God of Israel disillusioned by mumbo jumbo of old religion attracted by simplicity, decency, piety of Judaism wanted to live a good life, keeping 10 commandments wanted to know the God of Israel but in eyes of good Jews C could only travel 2nd class. He was devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to all in need and prayed to God regularly that was good but not good enough His prayers and memorial gifts were not despised by God but they on their own could not bring him out of darkness. He needed to hear the good news from the lips of Peter. In our mission today as we think about people of other religions C reminds us not to despise them, not to write them off; their prayers and goodness will not save them but those prayers and good deeds may be a sign of a heart that longs to know God, to be set free by Jesus Christ. Are there C’s here? People that are religious. You pray, you help others, but something in you says there’s more to it than that. You’re right! We all need to hear the good news of Christ (v 43) that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. As C heard P telling this good news of forgiveness something melted inside him, barriers were pulled down doors unchained: he believed and received the Holy Spirit. You see, a Christian is not a good person a Christian is a forgiven person Rob Parsons puts it like this: (in What they didn’t teach me in Sunday School) ‘Our churches are full of nice, kind, loving people who have never known the despair of guilt or the breathless wonder of forgiveness He says that as he thought about this, he had a picture of Jesus stalking down a prison corridor. On the doors were written the crimes the person had committed but he was flinging open prison doors and shouting ‘You can be forgiven.’ And then the picture changed. the prison corridor was still there and he still stalked down it but this time on the doors were written wrongs that policemen do not catch you for greed and arrogance, pride and gossip, lack of love and a disregard of the weak and to these too he shouted ‘You can be forgiven’.’

You can be forgiven! Not by your prayers or what you put on the plate but when you believe in Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Let’s imagine ourselves locked up for our sins; you know what is written on your cell door. But listen for Jesus coming down the corridor knocking on the door. What does he say?

Acts 11:1-18

Peter gets a wider vision C needed to find God in Christ but as Paul says faith comes by hearing; he needed a human being to come and tell him the good news that is God’s way, the angels in this story bring various instructions to both men to the end that the good news will be communicated person to person; the angels may set the situation up but it takes human obedience (on the part of both) for the message to be received and believed. There is much talk these days about strategy for mission; some of that is very necessary but it is worth remembering that. The mission to the gentiles begins not with a comprehensive missionary strategy but with a man who is prepared to let God change his attitude. and that man Peter needed to widen his vision. P probably agreed already that the gospel should be preached all over the world but he saw it as a mission to Jews, his fellow countrymen who had the same religious background as he had who kept the same dietary laws as did not eating pork or any meat with blood in it or any of the animals or birds declared in the OT to be unclean. That was why it was so shocking for him to have the vision of the sheet with all the different animals in it. Peter did not need a new word from God but he did need to hear the old word in a new way. God was showing him that in the death of Christ the ceremonial law of the OT was completed, no more need of clean and unclean distinctions the barriers Jesus had broken down between God and his people also had to be broken down between the Jews and other races. P was being called, as we are to draw a larger circle to include more and more people an expanding circle whose centre must always be Jesus Christ.

That is why the mission statement of the PCI states that our church’s mission is to the people of Ireland, the EC and the whole world those we are close to and those from whom we are in any way distant That gives a whole new perspective to the Drumcree question. Rev Wm. Bingham rightly said it was not worth anyone’s life let alone three children’s but a question any Christian involved in the Orange Order has to ask: how may the good news of Jesus Christ be communicated to the people of the Garvaghy Rd, so that they may hear and believe? Does Jesus not call the Protestants of Portadown to draw a circle that includes those from whom they are distant in culture and background? And the question that we in the Republic have to address is what about the rising level of racism in this country? the number of coloured people who say they are abused in the streets. the increasing tension over the refugees and our strange resentment that in an Ireland which is now prosperous and where people no longer have to emigrate to get work, we seem reluctant to welcome people worse off than ourselves? Can we draw a circle centred on Jesus Christ that will insist that refugees are treated with dignity and compassion as well as with impartial application of the law? And that we might see these folk not as nuisances or scroungers but as human beings who need to hear the good news, just as we do?

If you are not like Cornelius today needing to meet the living God then we are like Peter, needing to widen the circle. The days are long gone when the mission of this church would only be to Presbyterian folk. We start with the Presbyterians but we need to extend the circle not that people necessarily become Presbyterian but that they come within the circle where Jesus is the centre.

Lord, even though we trust you for our forgiveness it’s so easy to restrict that to ourselves and to draw a circle that wants to keep your blessing to us and ours, the people we are comfortable with. May your Spirit draw us as you drew Peter out beyond our comfort zone of what is familiar and known that we may share the wonder and excitement of seeing all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds coming to know that you love & forgive them too through Jesus Christ.