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Sermon - May 6th, 2007
Peter's Vision
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Acts 11:1-18
No one was more surprised than Peter when he heard himself say these words: "God shows no partiality." He said them standing in the living room of the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurian, a Gentile. Now, Cornelius was one of those good Gentiles, held in high regard by others. He was a God-fearing Gentile. He believed in Israel's God. But he did not follow the Jewish laws, he did not observe the dietary laws, he was not circumcised. So, he kept his distance. He never shared a meal with his Jewish subjects.
Now, in those times there were Jews who thought that Gentiles were just plain filthy, hopelessly immoral, and prone to idolatry. There were also lots of Jews who gave Gentiles the benefit of the doubt and lived with them in harmony. They simply did not eat together, that was all, because as hard as they tried, Gentiles might slip up and put some pork in the beans, or thicken the veal stew with milk.
I wish there was some way we could understand how important the dietary laws were to the people of Israel Most of us have eaten bacon all our lives, and we do not think twice about combining milk and meat. However, if we were first century Jews, the very thought of doing that would cause us to break out in a cold sweat. Perhaps one way to put it is, if we came to church today and found pork chops and scotch whiskey on the communion table instead of bread and grape juice. I think that would be a bit of a problem.
Because Jesus told us to do it a special way. And we have been doing it that way religiously for nearly 2000 years. It's like this. We would not be who we are if we did it another way. Even when someone suggested we share pop and potato chips around a campfire for communion, something in me says, that isn't right. It just isn't the same. It takes away the profound meaning of what we do together.
If that example does not help you understand the dietary issue, think about what it might be for you. What is your bottom line? What is one thing that makes you who you are, that is non-negotiable, that you cannot let slide without letting your whole identity slide as a Christian. And when you have figured out what that one thing is, get ready to let it go, because that is what Peter did. He had to. God gave him a vision that changed everything he had believed about who he was and how he was supposed to live.
This Peter in Acts is the same Simon Peter whom we know from gospels. He was the fisherman whom Jesus called to be a disciple. The one who stepped out on the water toward Jesus and sank, the one who confessed Jesus' true identity, the one who denied knowing Jesus in the courtyard, the one Jesus asked at the resurrection breakfast, "Do you love me." Peter was the first one to let Gentiles into the church even though it was the furthest thing from his mind. Here is how the book of Acts tells the story:
Peter was staying in Joppa, a seaport that is now a suburb of Tel Aviv. Cornelius lived in Caesarea, the seat of the Roman government, about forty miles up the coast. God was in between them--Peter and Cornelius, arranging visions that would bring them together. Cornelius had his dream first. It was about three in the afternoon when an angel came into his room, as plain as day, and told him that he was a good man whose acts of charity and prayers pleased God. Then the angel told him to send some of his men to Joppa, to a house by the sea, where Peter was staying.
The next day, about noon, as those men were approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof of the house to pray. While he was there he got hungry and sent for something to eat, but while it was still cooking, he had his vision--a very strange vision. The heavens opened up, something like a large blanket came down, lowered to the ground by its four corners. When Peter looked inside it, he saw every kind of forbidden creature--camels, badgers, buzzards, bats, crocodiles, lizards, a pig--all the things on the "thou shalt not eat" list in Leviticus 11, enough to make a good Jewish man lose his appetite or worse.
Then Peter heard a voice say, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat." You or I might have thought it was the devil talking, but Peter seemed to recognize the voice. "No way, Lord," Peter responded. "I have never eaten anything that is forbidden or unclean." This story reminds me of the time when Jesus kneeled at Peter's feet to wash them and Peter protested, "You will never wash my feet, Lord." Peter is one of my heroes . He was stubborn and set in his ways about some things. Maybe that's why God had to say all the important things to him, not once, but three times.
The voice responded to Peter's protest with, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." This happened not once, but three times, and then the blanket was hauled back up to the heavens. End of the vision.
Then the men arrived that Cornelius sent. They told Peter that they were there because of a vision. And Peter began to put the two visions together. He accompanied them back to Caesarea, to the home of Cornelius, which was full of the centurion's friends and relatives. This must have taken Peter aback. He had prepared himself to meet one Gentile, not a whole house full of them. So the first thing out of Peter's mouth was stating the obvious, "You know, this is highly irregular; us Jews just don't do this!" I imagine some of them were crushed, expecting something different from this great man that Cornelius had told them so much about. Instead, he was just like all the rest, treating them as if he would catch something awful from them just by being in the same room
"But..." he said to them. Sometimes I just love to hear that word. It is sometimes the word that the grace of God swings on...("I was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see"). It means things can change It means we do not always know everyth ing there is to know. It means God can still teach us something. "But," Peter said, "God has shown me that no one is better than any other. So when I was sent for, I came, no questions asked. So, why did you send for me?"
Cornelius described his vision and then said, "We are all here ready to listen to whatever the Master put in your heart to tell us." And Peter just about exploded with his good news, "It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you're from--if you want God, the door is open."
If anyone in that room breathed for a full minute after Peter said that, there was something wrong with them. Because Peter had just said something no one on earth had authorized him to say. He had just opened the church to those it had previously shut out, people whom he was not even supposed to hang out with. He had not checked with anyone in Jerusalem first. He did not even quote a passage of Scripture to back him up. He based what he said on a fresh revelation that God had given him, and on his belief that Jesus Christ was Lord of all. Not some, but all.
Peter got in big trouble for it, too. News traveled fast to Jerusalem. When he got there his Jewish brothers jumped all over him. Why had he gone to that house in the first place, they asked? And what had posses sed him to eat their food? From their perspective, Peter had sold out. He had crossed over the dividing line between God's people and other people. He had disobeyed the law, which was not negotiable, which was the one thing that made him who he was.
So as gently as he could, Peter told them the whole story, how God had taken that one thing away from him but had given him some thing else instead--a vision that included all creatures, all people, whom God alone had the right to call clean or unclean. Peter had not sold out. He had traded up, and when he saw what happened at Cornelius' house he knew he was right.
Peter explained, "If God gave them the same gift that God gave us when we believe in Jesus, then who am I to hinder God?" When Peter said that, everyone got very quiet. Then they praised God, saying, "It's really happened! God has broken through to the other nations and opened them up to Life!"
Today, we still have barriers and prejudices and rules and even the Bible itself, that we put between ourselves and others whom we claim are sinners or disobedient or whatever label we have. Even people we are sitting with in the pews. Who are you, sitting in the pew next to me? Do I really know you? Do you really know me? Would you still sit by me if you really knew me? Barriers and our judgmental attitudes and our prejudices hinder the grace of God. The one thing that God has asked us to do is to try and keep up with the Holy Spirit wherever it goes. It will take us through barriers if we let it. If Peter was called to open the door to the Gentiles, then God is calling us to open our hearts, minds, and door to the person sitting next to us, the person on the other side of the street, to the Gentiles of today, whoever they are. For who are we to get in the way of God's Spirit?
Amen.