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RESOURCING THE CHURCH FOR ECUMENICAL MINISTRy A ...

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of the resurrection is to speak of God’s ultimate<br />

affirmation of the ministry and message of Jesus<br />

Christ. So too, then, God places an affirmation on<br />

the spirit and work that Christ initiated. And this<br />

includes the message that God’s love is not bound<br />

by human-made distinction. Those who claim the<br />

resurrection as the high point of their faith must<br />

also see that what God has done for them God seeks<br />

to do for all through them. A person with faith in the<br />

resurrection cannot regard another person whom<br />

God has forgiven as “unclean.” Resurrection is<br />

God’s affirmation of Jesus’ proclamation.<br />

God does not follow Jesus’ own directives.<br />

God does not knock the dirt of God’s sandals<br />

and move on.<br />

Only, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God does<br />

not follow Jesus’ own directives. God does not knock<br />

the dirt of God’s sandals and move on. The grace of<br />

the resurrection is that through it, God gives the<br />

world—God gives us—the chance to reconsider our<br />

earlier rejection of Christ’s vision. Yes, it’s true that<br />

the Risen One was “not seen by all the people, but<br />

by witnesses whom God had chosen—who ate and<br />

drank with him after he rose from the dead” (10:42).<br />

Peter here speaks of those who ate and drank with<br />

Jesus after his resurrection and emphasizes the<br />

theme of hospitality that is present in this text. It<br />

also connects to Acts 11:3 where the people back in<br />

Palestine are critical of Peter for eating with the<br />

Gentiles. It is through their witness—those who ate<br />

and drank with the Risen One—and their<br />

willingness to eat with others that we find our own<br />

salvation. Through the power of the resurrection<br />

diverse people are collected into the church—people<br />

like the uncircumcised, pork-eating centurion<br />

Cornelius and the passionate persecutor of the<br />

church, Saul of Tarsus, and the unmarried,<br />

household-governing, European business woman<br />

Lydia. Luke-Acts delivers the message that God will<br />

Mangum • Boundary Crossing, Conversion and Resurrection<br />

46<br />

go to any lengths to reclaim what belongs to God<br />

(Luke 15). And that means you and me, and it also<br />

means those people we can’t imagine anyone loving<br />

but can learn to love through our own ongoing<br />

conversion. Through the presence of the Risen<br />

Christ, the church repeatedly receives God’s grace<br />

as an open door to reconsider accepting what we<br />

have rejected. We, like Peter, can hear God say, “Do<br />

not call unclean what I have made clean.” OR do not<br />

call unacceptable what God in Christ has<br />

proclaimed accepted. For us to bear that witness,<br />

each generation of ministry must prayerfully<br />

discern the boundaries we must cross.<br />

Works Cited<br />

Balch, David L. “Accepting Others : God’s<br />

Boundary Crossing According to Isaiah and Luke-<br />

Acts.” Currents in Theology and Mission 36, no. 6<br />

(2009), pp 414-423.<br />

Boyd, Gregory A. The Myth of a Christian Religion : Losing<br />

Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution. Grand Rapids:<br />

Zondervan, 2009.<br />

Dahl, Nils. The Crucified Messiah and Other Essays.<br />

Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1974.<br />

Ferguson, Everett. Baptism in the Early Church : History,<br />

Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries. Grand<br />

Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009.<br />

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts. “What God Has<br />

Cleansed.” In From Darkness to Light : Aspects of<br />

Conversion in the New Testament, 96-129. Philadelphia:<br />

Fortress Press, 1986.<br />

Taylor, Barbara Brown. “Easter Sunday 2006: Acts<br />

10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8.”<br />

Journal for Preachers 31, no. 3 (2008): pp 10-13.<br />

Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace : A Theological<br />

Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation.<br />

Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

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