At the Water

January 11, 2026

Acts 10:34-43

            Our second reading today comes from Acts as Peter stands and tells the story of Christ.  What’s so interesting about this passage is what has just happened.  This telling follows Peter’s vision from God and an encounter with Gentiles… an encounter that opens Peter up to the wider picture of the meaning of salvation in Christ.  Listen as God continues to speak to you today.

            READ

            I’m going to start back at this idea of Peter experiencing a wider picture of the meaning of salvation in Christ.  And I’ve taken great care in choosing the words of that sentence… the wider picture of the meaning of salvation in Christ… because the tendency from the beginning is to narrow the meaning of salvation.  Our tendency is to take a big God and make God small.  To turn God into a short and rigid list of dogma and doctrine… or approved ritual… or ineffectual bestower of sought after personal blessings and the reliever of existential fears.  God’s salvation… like God’s mercy and grace… is wide and encompassing.   

            First, we narrow the very word… salvation. Salvation becomes nothing more than getting your ticket into heaven… a life-after-death transaction. The “plan of salvation” is reduced to some 7‑step, individual checklist of beliefs and actions… a plan to get yourself… and only yourself… through the gates. But that tiny definition assumes a tiny God. It assumes a God who shows partiality based on small, trivial boxes we’ve checked through our exercise of religion. If you complete the list, God favors you. If you don’t, God turns away. In that small understanding, grace has no freedom… love has no reach… forgiveness has no surprise. God becomes small and predictable because it is not God defining salvation at all… it’s the list. Or rather, the people who made the list.

A God who shows no partiality is not my exclusive God… such a God is our God… a God to all in all our variety.  A God who shows no partiality means I’m not special or have achieved this special salvation status because of my own small actions… or by assenting to these certain beliefs… or whatever it might be that puts me above and better than my non-saved neighbor.  A God who shows no partiality… a God who operates by grace… may mean I received my salvation as a free act of God and not by my own worthiness.  My humility would not stem from my being better and knowing I’m better… my humility would come from knowing I’m equally a sinner along with everyone else… everyone else… everyone… else.  All of us indebted to God’s grace… any understanding of salvation stemming from that point… that one, singular point of humility.

            Peter says, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,”.  And if only he had stopped there… because anything else that follows opens the door to our reasserting partiality.  “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”  The intention of the statement… according the context of the story… the intention of the statement is meant to be an open door.  It’s meant to give us the understanding that salvation is for all… but… our partiality… our sin quickly gets to work at making it a salvation intended only for some.  So… we then have to define what is the proper fear of the Lord… what is the right doing that is acceptable?  What are the boundaries?  Where are the lines?  You see the same thing at the end of our reading with that last sentence… a sentence we use to recreate the partiality God is supposed to show… “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”  Hallelujah!  That is… hallelujah after we’ve defined what that proper belief in him truly entails… which not surprisingly gives favor then to whatever doctrines and dogma we use to define belief.  Acts of love and compassion… a life that overflows with grace… always seem to get short shrift in favor of belief.

            As Presbyterians… we have defined salvation as more than just a ticket to heaven.  Part of what makes and maintains a bigger definition of salvation has to do with the timing of salvation.  A bit of theological chicken and egg.  We believe that salvation is a gift from God that is given to us first.  First God gives salvation through… and here comes our favorite word… God’s grace.  Salvation through grace comes from God first.  Then we live into that grace-based definition of salvation that cannot be both defined by our partialities… or sinful natures… and at the same time be defined by God’s grace actions in Christ.  The two don’t work together.  Grace exposes our sin for what it is… when we lose that awareness… then we start heading into trouble.  Salvation is not a label we are given… a designation that is put upon us by God… a special status of privilege.  Salvation is a condition of being… experienced through the graceful living of our faith.  We live salvific lives… minute by minute… hour by hour… day by day… all our lives.  We fall short.  We pray for forgiveness.  We look to Christ in our humility and we keep going.  Learning.  Repenting.  Letting go of the ways of sin and embracing instead the ways of God’s righteousness.  That is the unperfect, ever-evolving life in faith.  That is discipleship built upon living principles.  That is living by Christ’s righteousness.  That is salvation.

            Do you see the difference?  It’s not that I do the right plan and then if I do enough of the right plan… or believe the right beliefs enough… God then bestows salvation upon me.  My seeking after God is not to receive salvation, but my seeking after God is my daily act of repentance… turning my mind and my heart to God… what we might call fearing God… and then doing the best I can to live according to God… trying to do what is acceptable to God in furthering the peace of Jesus Christ.  Theologically… the order of salvation is important.

            Before experiencing the gift of salvation in Christ… Peter’s downgrading of the humanity… the value… the purpose and possibilities of the Gentiles… would have been seen as acts of righteousness.  Any evil he might have done against Gentiles would have been justified as an act of righteousness.  Peter’s callousness.  His harming of or even murder of a Gentile would have been justified as a valid act of righteousness.  These were Gentiles.  They deserved no better.  They weren’t worthy of God’s grace in any form.  Even God did not care about them… God’s salvation was meant only for the Jews.  Partiality made way and excused the blatant evil we do to one another.  That is not an act of salvation.  There is no grace… there is no mercy… there is nothing of God in such an understanding.  There is no theological justification which isn’t an idolatrous self-delusion. 

            In the Jordan, Jesus and John stand together.  In Matthew’s gospel, John recognizes who or what Jesus is.  We… the readers of the story… know who or what Jesus is.  In this gospel, John pauses.  Who is he to baptize this person… this Messiah… this son of God… when by the virtue of his being who or what he is… John ought to be baptized by him.  But the lesson in Matthew is Jesus cannot be the model of salvation simply by being who or what he is.  Jesus cannot be the pioneer and perfector of our faith… as it says in Hebrews… through the power and position of who and what he is.  The plan of salvation… is to follow Christ… to be disciplined by the ways of Christ… to look to and imitate Christ in our daily lives.  Again to borrow some words from Hebrews to apply to the phrase “the plan of salvation”… “Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.”  Jesus comes before John as he walks the path of salvation.  Now… I know what you want to say.  You want to say, “Preacher, are you saying that Jesus needed to be saved?”  Jesus is salvation personified… full of grace and truth.  You too are salvation personified… full of grace and God’s truth.  Jesus walked the path of faith without sin.  We… not so much.  But the point I’m trying to get to here as my time finishes up… the point I’m trying to get to is this… imagine the opposite of the gospel story.  Imagine a Jesus who… using the words from Philippians… did not humble himself… was not obedient to the point of death… even death on a cross.  But instead, imagine a Jesus who ruled by power and position of who and what he is.  A Jesus who did not feed the hungry… who did not heal the sick… who did not embrace the outcast and the sinner… who did not call us either to repentance or discipleship.  A Jesus who spoke only of the threat of God’s power.  A Jesus who controlled through the threat of partiality.  What is the salvation offered by such a Christ?

            Jesus, baptized by John, lived a faith grounded in repentance and humility… and service. He sought to create community… and called out those who would divide with their partiality. He touched the leper’s hand… he spoke forgiveness to the condemned. His weakness became his strength. His compassion knew no condition. Jesus came out of that water and lived the salvation we are to seek.  Amen.