Andrew Gerns, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Easton PA has posted his sermon from this Sunday morning (Easter 5c).

He takes as his primary text the first lesson from the Acts of the Apostles (St. Peter’s visit to the house of Cornelius the Centurion), with it’s account of how the early Church was led by God to realize that the old boundaries of who was in the community and who was out were changing as a result of the kingdom of God breaking in upon the world.

From Andrew’s sermon:

“Christian community is an experiment in faithfulness and an invention for mission. Christian communities like ours are experimental gatherings of faithful people under the love, guidance and nurture of the Holy Spirit. Christian communities are inventive expressions of God’s transforming power that touches peoples lives for good.

As we experiment with what it means to be Christian community we know this to be true. As we become more and more a community of diverse people, a community that intentionally includes native born and migrant people of many races, who includes white, Asian, Hispanics and Africans, straight and gay, young and old, poor and wealthy, we find ourselves inventing with God ways to be the Church and speak tangible Good News to our community.

With the Spirit’s movement there will come resistance. There will come times when we want to control the outcome, we will be tempted to bicker amongst ourselves. We know that the Church has split up from time to time in different camps. We will sometimes act as if we have reached the pinnacle of faithfulness—or least our highest comfort zone. But God will move us along anyway. Lovingly, persistently, firmly. When we look at Revelation, we see where God is taking us. When we look at Acts—and the Gospels—we see what it takes to get there. Experimentation, invention, failure, learning, risk, community, and trust.”

Read the rest here: Andrew Plus: Sermon: The Inventive Church