We are Made for Each Other

“Made for Each Other”

January 18, 2026  Cobleskill United Methodist Church, Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

Psalm 40:1-11; Acts 10:34-43

Second Sunday after Epiphany

Acts 10:34-43

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness^[a] is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

We are in the midst of a four-week series on United Methodism right now.  We started last week by talking about grace.  The grace that goes before us, the grace that welcomes us into right relationship and transforms our lives for the sake of love, and the grace that never lets us give up on being better today than we were the day before.  Grace is a foundational piece of our United Methodist faith.  This understanding of grace, especially the universality of God’s grace always going before us, was and is still a brave contribution to the theological world made by John Wesley who pioneered the Methodist movement.  Many streams of Christianity place judgement and shame at the core of who we were made to be, but the Methodist movement sought to change that.  This is not consistent with Jesus Christ.  Jesus placed love at the center of who we are made to be.  

In my mind this concept dovetails nicely with the next core part of our faith as United Methodists: how we care for each other.  The grace that surrounds us, compels us to show grace toward others.  There are actually no limits on God’s love and good news.  So why do we act like there are?   

The reason we read the particular passage of scripture that we did from Acts 10 today is because this is a sermon that Peter is preaching in the home of Cornelius.  What you need to know about Cornelius is that he was a gentile.  And yet Peter stands in his home and says in no uncertain terms that God shows no partiality.  The gospel of Jesus Christ, his baptism, his life, his death, his resurrection, is for everyone, not for some.  

This “no partiality” piece is something we struggle with.  We like to draw circles around one another’s tribe.  Some are inside the circle of care and protection and understanding.  Some are not.  

We know this to be true today, but it was also very much John Wesley’s reality in 18^th century England.  In those days, to rise out of poverty was pretty much impossible.  There were no labor laws.  There were no weekends.  There were no rules about children working in the factories.  And in the midst of these unjust systems that kept many people barely scraping by, the Church of England, Wesley’s church, consistently turned its attention to the wealthiest members of the community.  The ones who could pay big offerings and bring clout to the institution of religion.  It was a system that worked for the church.  It was not a system that worked for the poor.  John Wesley saw this.  

He began taking his sermons outside of the walls of the church and outside of the regular hours of worship.  People outside would gather in big fields to hear him preach.  He preached against the unjust systems of his day, literally from a stump in a field.  This did not make the church happy.  Some even barred him from coming back into their pulpits.

It wasn’t just the unfair economic systems of his day that angered Wesley.  Wesley was the first prominent church leader to publicly oppose slavery as an institution.  Wesley became a staunch and outspoken advocate against systems that treated human beings as anything other than beloved children of God.

In one of the many writings we have of his, he wrote this of what a true Christian is: 

Above all, remembering that God is love, [a true Christian] is conformed to the same likeness. [A true Christian] is full of love to their neighbor; of universal love; not confined to one sect or party; not restrained to those who agree with them in opinions, or in outward modes of worship; or to those who are allied to them by blood or recommended by nearness of place. Neither does [a true Christian] love those only that love them, or that are endeared to him by intimacy of acquaintance. But [a true Christian’s] love resembles that of [God] whose mercy is over all [God’s] works. It soars above all these scanty bounds, embracing neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies; yea, not only the good and gentle, but also the forward, the evil and unthankful. For [a true Christian] loves every soul that God has made; every child of whatever place or nation.” 

In other words, “How should we treat others?  There are no others.”  A famous quote by an Indian sage named Ramana Maharshi.  

Our God shows no partiality.  So why do we?  

Why do we put one another into “other” categories?  Lately it’s been pretty shocking the rate at which people have been targeted, arrested, and disappeared simply because of their skin color in the United States of America, here in the year 2026.  “Othering” people because of immigration status or country of origin is still “othering” people.  There’s a reason that care and respect for the foreigner among us is one of the most common Biblical themes.  Because the temptation to “other” one another with boundaries and categories and statuses that are absolutely arbitrary to God is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have drawn hope and courage from churches in and around Minneapolis that have stepped up in profound ways to preach the gospel of Jesus’s universal care and love.  Not preaching it with words and sermons but preaching it with boxes of food taken to families who are sheltering in place, too afraid to leave their homes.  Preaching it with their bodies standing in front of mosques during daily prayer to blow whistles when ICE prepares to enter houses of prayer.  Preaching it in vigils and protests meant to honor and bring attention to the more than 30 people who have been killed at the hands of ICE.  Preaching it by placing signs everywhere a child of God has been disappeared off the streets.  Some sermons have words.  Others have action. 

Martin Luther King Jr’s words will float around a lot tomorrow.  It’s easy now, sixty years after his life and death to share his words and let that be enough to commemorate him.  But his life’s work was built to oppose the very systems of injustice that we are still facing today.  It was from a jail in Birmingham that he wrote a letter to people who professed to not only be Christians, but clergy of the Christian faith, no less…  Ministers who had united together to say, follow the rules, don’t rock the boat. Wait and your time will come.  Martin Luther King, Jr. couldn’t wait for justice.  In their non-violent protests over unjust laws, civil rights advocates were being beaten and arrested. “Othering” wasn’t a part of any Gospel of Jesus Martin Luther King had ever read.  Instead, he urged his fellow Christians not to denounce the protestors of injustice but to denounce the cause of the injustice itself.  To understand that if we don’t speak up and say something when we see injustice, we are failing our calling as disciples of Christ. 

From his jail cell where he was arrested for protesting without a permit, Martin said this about why he did what he did: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality” because God shows no partiality.  “Because [A true Christian] is full of love to his neighbor; of universal love; not confined to one sect or party.”  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality because we refuse to see enemies in our neighbors.  

I have some homework for you.  Don’t let tomorrow go by without giving serious thought to Martin Luther King Jr.’s struggle for human decency in a nation that said he didn’t belong.  If you’re really dedicated to this idea, go find his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” online and read it in its entirety.  It was written for you and me, for a time such as this.  

And lastly this: If the news cycle has you spinning, step away for a day this week.  Turn, instead, to the people you will meet during your day.  Show yourself to be the neighbor you long to see. Practice and perfect your own network of mutuality.  Be an advocate for plain old human decency by letting grace guide your steps.  

And may we all find the courage to preach sermons that don’t just have words.  

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Anna