“Live into the Vision”

Acts 11:1-18 (referring to chapter 10, as well)

Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”  Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision..  There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me.  As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.  I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’  But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’  But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.  At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesaria, arrived at the house where we were.  The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.  These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.  He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’  And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.  And I remembered the word of the Lord, how had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  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?”  When they heard this, they were silenced.  And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

            I searched for an old sermon to look at to jump start my work of composing today’s message, but as far as I know, I’ve never preached on this.  I was so surprised to discover this because I love this story.  Before I say anything more though, I need to put the text you just heard into context.  Before Peter went up to Jerusalem, think back to last week’s lesson about Peter bringing Tabitha back from the dead.  The story ends by telling us that Peter was there in the city of Joppa staying with one Simon, the tanner. 

            First, let’s take a little side trip so that we understand what it meant to be a tanner.  These were folks who prepared the animal skins to make leather.  It was a nasty, dirty, smelly job with many steps that took a long time.  Often tanners lived by the seaside so that they had easy access to salt water.  This is where Peter was staying, with a guy who was probably smelly and looked down upon by others.  Yay for Peter!

            Meanwhile, in the story, we hear about Cornelius who was a Centurion with the Italian Consort, so he is a Roman citizen and is a big shot in the army, leading 100 soldiers.  Now, Cornelius was spiritual and faithful to God, along with his whole family.  One afternoon, while he was praying, he had a vision.  An angel came to him and said, “You need to send your guys to Joppa to get Simon Peter.  He’s staying with Simon, the Tanner (don’t get the Simons  mixed up now). 

            While Cornelius’ guys were headed to Joppa, around noon the next day, Simon Peter went up on the tanner’s roof to pray.  Well, he was hungry, and he really wanted something to eat.  While his food was being prepared, he fell into a trance and had this vision:  the heavens opened, and a large sheet came down, being held by its 4 corners.  Now, listen up because this is amazing: in the sheet was every kind of animal, including reptiles and birds.  A voice came out of the air saying, “Go to it, Peter, kill and eat.”

Peter replied, “Oh no.  I can’t do that.  I have always kept kosher as a good Jew would do.”  The voice was persistent.  “If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.”    In Peter’s vision, this happened three times (a holy number), and then the sheet was pulled back up into the sky. 

Peter sat there and was trying to figure all this out when the guys Cornelius had sent showed up at the door.  Before Peter heard them, the Spirit whispered in his ear, “Three (three again!) men are at the door looking for you.  Get down there and go with them.  Don’t ask any questions because I have sent them to get you.”

The men explained that Cornelius had sent for him because an angel told Cornelius that Peter needed to go to his house so he could hear what Peter had to say.  An interesting detail is that Peter invited them into Simon the tanner’s house and made them feel at home.

The next day they began to travel to Caesaria and arrived the following day.  Cornelius was expecting them, and they had gathered a bunch of folks for this occasion. When Peter arrived with Cornelius’ guys and the folks from Peter’s life who had decided to travel with him, he was greeted warmly and Cornelius even knelt down to worship him.  But Peter insisted he get up, saying, “I’m just a person like you.  We’ll have none of that.”

As they were socializing, Peter said, “You know, Jews don’t usually do this, but I’ve been shown by God that no race is better than any other.  Now, I’d like to know why you sent for me, Cornelius!”

Cornelius talked about his vision, how there was a man standing before him surrounded by blinding light.  Cornelius explained that he was told in his vision to send his guys to get Peter.  Now that they were all together, they wanted to hear whatever the Lord had put onto Peter’s heart to share with them.

This is what the Message Bible says, “Peter fairly 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 and are ready to do what God wants, the door is open.’”  Peter continued telling the whole story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And the whole gathering presented themselves to be baptized because they had been moved by the Holy Spirit.

That’s when this morning’s lesson takes up, and the story actually continues through Acts 11:18.  Of course, the church, the synagogue was going to push back on Peter’s changing the rules about who’s in and who’s out.  Because, well, you know, we all do this.  (Now we know that it wasn’t Peter changing the rules.  It was God). 

We all try to differentiate who is within Christ’s love and who is not, who’s been eating the proper way and who is not, who’s allowed to eat the Lord’s Supper and who is not, who can be baptized and who cannot, who’s been baptized properly and who isn’t, who’s allowed to touch the holy stuff and who isn’t. 

But what I’m taking from this story is exactly what Peter was shown: God shows no partiality.  All are welcome in the Jesus House.  …So much time is wasted deciding who belongs and who does not when God made it crystal clear to Peter and to Cornelius and all of their people together: God plays no favorites.  All means all! 

Now, it’s easy to look at other Christians and point out their shortcomings.  The Catholics don’t allow women to be ordained.  They don’t allow their priests to marry.  Rules, rules, rules.  But the rest of us hang on tightly to our own rules.  Some Protestants still don’t allow women to preach.  When I arrived at Wellington they weren’t sure their congregation was going to be able to accept a woman in the pulpit (and that was 2004). 

After years and years of trying to get the United Methodist Church to change the hateful language in our Discipline around LGBTQ people, the latest General Conference did that.  Finally, we accept Gay and Lesbian men and women as equal and beloved members of our congregations, and we honor those who have been called to ordained ministry.  We have even made amends to those who were banned for years.  Too bad for those who died trying to be someone they weren’t so that they could answer God’s call to ministry.  So sad….

 And now we can perform marriages for all people.  I remember back in the eighties a clergy friend of mine referred a Lesbian couple to me because she was afraid she would be kicked out of her job if she prayed over their relationship.  In my naivete and rebelliousness, it became my honor to bless their union. 

The latest challenge to our ability to be accepting and loving to those who have been closeted and unable to claim who they are–are the trans folk and non-binaries.  Of course this is hard for us older folks to understand, let alone accept, but listen to what Peter had to learn: “God shows no partiality.  God plays no favorites!  All means all!”  The difficulty that we encounter in accepting these folks is no harder than what Peter had to do.  He had been schooled in separating from those who followed different rules or who were not accepted into his religious community.  It was unthinkable to come together.  Yet, what was Jesus telling folks in the Good Samaritan parable?  No one is untouchable.  Everyone is our neighbor.  God shows no partiality. 

God says each of us is essential to the Jesus House.  When we can trust that truth, we can start shaping a world where everyone’s place is honored.  All means all….  End of story!