Christian Aid week
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
I want to start today with our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Our short reading here comes at the end of a chapter about St Peter’s visit to Caesarea. Caesarea was a city in Judea, in modern Israel. It’s ruined now, but then it was the capital of Roman Judea, where the conquering Empire was based. As a result, it wasn’t very Jewish. The clue is in the name; it’s named for the Caesars, the Roman Emperors.
That’s important, because it is there St Peter encounters Cornelius, a gentile official, and this passage comes at the end of Peter’s evangelisation to him. In fact, this whole part of Acts (chapters 9-11) is about the mission to the gentiles led by Peter.
Just before this section, talking to Cornelius, Peter states very clearly that ‘God knows no partiality.’ (Acts 10.35), and he then tells the story of Jesus, his death and resurrection to them, and – for the first time since Pentecost – the Spirit descends on them all, Jew and non-Jew alike. And Peter calls out:
Peter won.
It is one of the most radical parts of the promise of the New Testament. Unlike the Old Testament, which hammers home, as the psalmist today says, God’s ‘steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.’ Peter here reveals the universal message of Christ. The resurrection is not the salvation for the Jews, but for everyone.
Can anyone withhold that water for baptism?
Water isn’t just special for us as Christians. It’s sacred to many religions, be it the river festivals of the Hindus or the ritual purification in Islam. And there’s no surprise why. Water is one of the important things of all. We can imagine no life without water, no food, and without clean water that life can be pretty short.
We here in this congregation have the historical luxury of clean water universally available. Pretty much every rickety tap gives us access to drinkable water. Our water is absurdly clean, far in excess of what we need. We flush toilets with water cleaner than millions of people drink. Many of you will know first hand that’s not the case everywhere. Globally, 800m people still do not have access to clean water nearby, three times that don’t have it in their houses. And it kills: 1.5m people die every year from diarrhoeal disease, mostly caused by dirty water.
Millions suffer from the effects of drought. Climate change means that millions more will suffer over the next few years as new unstable conditions means that traditional agriculture patterns no longer work. And people will go hungry. And people will starve.
Who withholds the water from them?
Because water is being withheld from communities and people across the world: by poverty, by climate change, by corrupt and incompetent governments, by unjust western powers, by a lack of generosity of spirit and lack of action. It means people go hungry, it means people are sick, it means women (and it’s almost always women) have to walk further and make harder journeys to get the water they and their children need.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. 1.5m people die of diarrheal disease every year. In 2000, that figure was 2.6m. Since 2000, nearly 2 billion have people gained access to clean water. Here, at the time of the building of St Andrew’s, tens of thousands of Londoners died from cholera, a disease caused by dirty water. We built the sewers, and they didn’t. Not just the rich, but everyone.
We have the ability to change the world.
I don’t think we have a choice about this. John’s gospel today is clear: Jesus says: ‘You did not choose me but I chose you.’ It is not simply that we can, but we must.
That’s the heart of our gospel today. This section of John’s gospel is a long parting speech from Jesus to his disciples, with his final commands. They’re all about love. That’s why we should help others; because we’re enjoined to love them. And you help those you love. The English translation is slightly unhelpful here as it talks about his disciples being friends, but the Greek is philoi, those beloved. They aren’t just friends; this isn’t a casual alliance, but a deep commitment.
And we can see this in John’s letter, which talks about the water and the blood. Blood lasts. Baptism lasts. It does not dry off with the water. Help for those without water lasts. In accepting the appointment by Christ, we accept that we are members of a universal, global church, with universal global ambition. The messiah came not for the Jews alone, but for the world. And this means our commission to love is global. I had planned here to make a point about water not being static or recognising no borders, but this week the French have decided to go to war with Jersey over fishing. But the water of baptism knows no boundary. There is one baptism for all.
So can anyone withhold the water? No, they can’t withhold the water of baptism. And we must share it with the world and act to make that real. The Psalmist today says ‘For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.’
So let us never withhold the water. And let us work to share it with the world.
In the name of Christ,
Amen
That’s important, because it is there St Peter encounters Cornelius, a gentile official, and this passage comes at the end of Peter’s evangelisation to him. In fact, this whole part of Acts (chapters 9-11) is about the mission to the gentiles led by Peter.
Just before this section, talking to Cornelius, Peter states very clearly that ‘God knows no partiality.’ (Acts 10.35), and he then tells the story of Jesus, his death and resurrection to them, and – for the first time since Pentecost – the Spirit descends on them all, Jew and non-Jew alike. And Peter calls out:
Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have at the presence of the Lord.It’s a rhetorical question. Peter isn’t expecting anyone to say ‘Yes, actually we can and should withhold the water for baptism,’ though if you persevere with Acts, they do have this exact discussion in the next chapter. There was a fight within the early church between those who would limit the gospel of Jesus to Jews alone, the Nazarenes, and those who, like Peter – and Paul, preached universality.
Peter won.
It is one of the most radical parts of the promise of the New Testament. Unlike the Old Testament, which hammers home, as the psalmist today says, God’s ‘steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.’ Peter here reveals the universal message of Christ. The resurrection is not the salvation for the Jews, but for everyone.
Can anyone withhold that water for baptism?
Water isn’t just special for us as Christians. It’s sacred to many religions, be it the river festivals of the Hindus or the ritual purification in Islam. And there’s no surprise why. Water is one of the important things of all. We can imagine no life without water, no food, and without clean water that life can be pretty short.
We here in this congregation have the historical luxury of clean water universally available. Pretty much every rickety tap gives us access to drinkable water. Our water is absurdly clean, far in excess of what we need. We flush toilets with water cleaner than millions of people drink. Many of you will know first hand that’s not the case everywhere. Globally, 800m people still do not have access to clean water nearby, three times that don’t have it in their houses. And it kills: 1.5m people die every year from diarrhoeal disease, mostly caused by dirty water.
Millions suffer from the effects of drought. Climate change means that millions more will suffer over the next few years as new unstable conditions means that traditional agriculture patterns no longer work. And people will go hungry. And people will starve.
Who withholds the water from them?
Because water is being withheld from communities and people across the world: by poverty, by climate change, by corrupt and incompetent governments, by unjust western powers, by a lack of generosity of spirit and lack of action. It means people go hungry, it means people are sick, it means women (and it’s almost always women) have to walk further and make harder journeys to get the water they and their children need.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. 1.5m people die of diarrheal disease every year. In 2000, that figure was 2.6m. Since 2000, nearly 2 billion have people gained access to clean water. Here, at the time of the building of St Andrew’s, tens of thousands of Londoners died from cholera, a disease caused by dirty water. We built the sewers, and they didn’t. Not just the rich, but everyone.
We have the ability to change the world.
- The psalmist says: ‘Let 'the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy.'
- And from the letter of John: ‘whatever is born of God conquers the world.’
I don’t think we have a choice about this. John’s gospel today is clear: Jesus says: ‘You did not choose me but I chose you.’ It is not simply that we can, but we must.
That’s the heart of our gospel today. This section of John’s gospel is a long parting speech from Jesus to his disciples, with his final commands. They’re all about love. That’s why we should help others; because we’re enjoined to love them. And you help those you love. The English translation is slightly unhelpful here as it talks about his disciples being friends, but the Greek is philoi, those beloved. They aren’t just friends; this isn’t a casual alliance, but a deep commitment.
And we can see this in John’s letter, which talks about the water and the blood. Blood lasts. Baptism lasts. It does not dry off with the water. Help for those without water lasts. In accepting the appointment by Christ, we accept that we are members of a universal, global church, with universal global ambition. The messiah came not for the Jews alone, but for the world. And this means our commission to love is global. I had planned here to make a point about water not being static or recognising no borders, but this week the French have decided to go to war with Jersey over fishing. But the water of baptism knows no boundary. There is one baptism for all.
So can anyone withhold the water? No, they can’t withhold the water of baptism. And we must share it with the world and act to make that real. The Psalmist today says ‘For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.’
So let us never withhold the water. And let us work to share it with the world.
In the name of Christ,
Amen
