Ken CuthbertsonBy Ken Cuthbertson

This last Sunday was Pentecost.  This coming Sunday I will be in Detroit, at the 221st Presbyterian (USA) General Assembly.  I will be there to advocate for the proposed “authoritative interpretation” that would allow Presbyterian pastors to use their own discretion in choosing whether or not to officiate at same-sex weddings.  But, this last Sunday was Pentecost….

As my husband and I were driving to our beloved church in the mountains above Albuquerque, we were talking.  Anticipating the familiar reading about the mighty rushing wind (the natural version of which we hear a lot in New Mexico) and the tongues of fire (which we hope and pray not to see in our dry forests), we were also pondering the fact that Pentecost is the beginning, not the end, of the story.  Acts goes on, and the critical piece of the ensuing story is the great struggle within the early church over inclusivity.

In Jewish tradition Pentecost (Shauvot, the “Feast of Weeks”) was, and is, the festival that remembers and honors the giving of the law and making of the covenant between God and Israel at Mount Sinai.  The first Christian Pentecost described in Acts 2 celebrates the giving of a new guiding authority, the Holy Spirit, and the creation of a newly covenanted people:

For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls…. (Acts 2:39)

It was the fulfillment of an ancient promise, celebrated by prophets like Joel, and also by Jeremiah:

The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah….  I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The problem for the early church, however, was that they had to live into that promise… especially the “all” and “everyone” bits.

The great and glorious account of Pentecost introduces an ongoing story of learning to live and share the gospel.  It tells of challenges faced by the first followers of Jesus, both external and internal, and the ultimate challenge seems to have been internal.  It was the challenge of diversity and inclusivity.  It was the challenge posed by the Holy Spirit’s bringing in of the gentiles.

In Acts 10-11 we find the tale of the first gentile converts, from the household of the Roman centurion Cornelius, a “god-fearer” who honored the God of Israel without fully converting to Judaism.  Under God’s direction, Cornelius reaches out to Peter, inviting the chief of the apostles to come and share the good news with his household.  Meanwhile, in Joppa, Peter has his own vision… a vision of every kind of non-kosher critters imaginable.  God says to Peter… “Eat!”  Peter replies, “These creatures aren’t kosher!”  God replies, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”   Then, just as the very puzzled Peter was coming down from the housetop, Cornelius’ messengers arrived.  Peter went with them and told them of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit descended on them.  Peter faced facts and baptized them.  And, the church was thrown into turmoil.

Simply put, the author of Acts is telling how the Holy Spirit overruled centuries of tradition and, even, sacred law.  The vision of Peter is about things that were abominable and forbidden in the Torah, in Leviticus.  By all that had gone before, Peter was absolutely right to protest.  But God had other plans.

It should not come as a surprise that the story of Peter and Cornelius means a lot to those of us who have struggled long and hard over the last forty years, seeking the full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians in the Presbyterian Church (USA).   Many of us see the story of Cornelius, his family and friends, as paralleling our own.  We know we aren’t kosher, but we love God, and feel called to be part of this ever-emerging thing called church.  And, thankfully, there are friends and advocates who, like Peter, keep saying to the church:  “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?” (Acts 11: 17)

The Acts story, of course, does not finish there.   It goes on with the story of Paul, and his missionary journeys, and the increasing tensions between the followers of Jesus who felt it necessary to continue to follow Jewish law, and of the gentile converts who did not practice circumcision, keep kosher, and so on.  Representatives of the “observant” party of the church in Judea began to send out their own missionaries in the wake of Paul and his companions.  Dissension arose… and a general assembly was called in Jerusalem.  Peter and Paul together made the case for what the Spirit was doing among the gentile believers, and then James – the moderator of the assembly – declared the consensus of the meeting, summed up as follows:

It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you [gentiles] no more than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood… and from fornication.” (Acts 15:28-29)

According to Acts, the problem was thereby resolved… sort of.   Paul presents a slightly different version in Galatians… perhaps his most vehement letter.  (See Galatians 5:12!) From it we know that the challenge and controversy continued to divide and distress the body for some time.  But we also know that Paul’s understanding of the division-transcending meaning of the gospel only grew stronger:

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  (Galatians 3:26-28)

And, I would dare to suggest adding, as well:

There is no longer LGBTQ or heterosexual….

As I now see it, the struggle of the last forty years over LGBTQ inclusion in the Presbyterian Church is exactly the same struggle unleashed on the day of Pentecost and experienced by the first Christians in relation to the status of the gentiles.  It is our version, in this day and time.  This year the focus happens to be on marriage for same-gender couples.  The proposals before the assembly would allow pastors and churches to officiate and host such weddings, where they are allowed by law, for committed loving couples.  As the commissioners and advocates of the 221st General Assembly gather in Detroit, we gather to take counsel together, to bear our witness, and to hope and pray for the understanding that will allow us to say again: “It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose no more than this….”

May God’s blessing be on the deliberations of the 221st General Assembly of the PCUSA.


The Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Cuthbertson is a member-at-large in Santa Fe Presbytery, and a Parish Associate at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church. His book 
The Last Presbyterian? was published in May 2013.