There is a bigger story here that we have to acknowledge. We need to go back, at least, to the beginning of Chapter 10 to do it. It begins with a man named Cornelius, who is not a Jew. He is not an Israelite, he is not a member of the Jewish diaspora. He is a Roman centurion. And he is a man who loves God – the God of Israel, apparently. Now this was not common, nor was it uncommon. People like Cornelius were called God-fearers. They believed in Israel’s God but they were not really a part of their flock.
You should know that there was a process for people like Cornelius to go through if they wanted to become a member of the flock. He could become a proselyte, which involved meeting certain requirements that would then enable him to participate in the practices of Judaism. These practices would include adherence to the laws of Israel, such as certain dietary restrictions. There is no indication, however, that Cornelius was a proselyte.
Nonetheless, Cornelius had a vision, which told him to go to Joppa and find a man named Peter, who was staying there. And so Cornelius sent two of his slaves on this errand to collect Peter and bring him to Caesarea.
While this was going on, Peter, who was staying at the house of a man named Simon, went up on the roof to pray alone. And there Peter also had a vision. He saw before him a sheet– like a tablecloth, or a picnic blanket – hovering in the air. On it there were all kinds of animals. And Peter heard a voice say to him, “Get up, kill, and eat.” And Peter said, “Why goodness no – I do not eat unclean foods. I never have and I never will.”
And so we are to understand from this that the animals Peter is seeing on this picnic cloth are animals that Jews are prohibited from eating. These animals are not kosher. There were, perhaps, pigs and rabbits and ostriches. There may have been crabs. Crabs are not kosher. The cloth was loaded with animals that are ritually unclean and may not be eaten by Jews. So Peter’s response is not surprising, but then he hears the voice say, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
What God has made clean, you must not call profane.
This message was repeated three times, but still Peter was confused. And while he sat there in his confusion, these men sent by Cornelius were wandering through the town inquiring about where they might find Peter. The Spirit once again intervened and sent Peter down to meet the men. He told them, “I am the one you are looking for.” So they explained that they had been sent to bring Peter back to Caesarea to Cornelius, that Cornelius’s vision had shown him that he needed to hear Peter’s message. And Peter knew that this was what he was supposed to do.
The next day they set out together for Caesarea, and when they arrived there, Peter began to share the story of Jesus.
Now, this is something that Peter would not have normally done. He would not have considered sharing his message and breaking bread with people like Cornelius, people he considered unclean. But his experience of the previous morning had changed all that.
Because while Peter was busy doing something else, God was making unclean things clean. God was making things ready for Cornelius and his household to become Christians. God was opening the door to grow the church, to spread his love, and all Peter had to do was walk through it. And Peter said, “Now I understand.”
Peter thought he understood before that God sent Jesus to the Jews, to the people of Israel who had long-awaited their messiah. Peter thought he understood that there were certain people who were saved and others, many others, who were just not a part of the equation. Peter thought he understood that there were firm boundaries separating the clean from the unclean. But while Peter was busy living within this set of assumptions that circumscribed his world, God was breaking those boundaries.
And now Peter was just trying to catch up. Have you ever found yourself in this place, just trying to catch up with what God is doing in the world?
Have you ever said, I will never cross that line, only to one day find yourself in the position of stepping across that line because it is the right thing to do?
There was a woman in a church I served years ago who said, “If this ever becomes a clapping church, I’m leaving.” I was only there for a couple more years, and I don’t know if they ever did become a clapping church. I doubt it. But would she really have left if they did?
There have been many others who have said, if the church passes this overture I am leaving. If the church amends its constitution to allow this new thing, I am leaving. And many have followed through with their threats to leave.
The church, of course, isn’t always right. We sometimes make decisions that we have to go back and fix later. The church in America famously got it wrong on matters of race, more than once. When the church supported slavery, when the church was slow to support civil rights; it has taken the church time to see where God is leading us. But eventually, hopefully, the church says, like Peter said, “Now I understand.”
Now I understand that when Jesus said that God so loved the world, he really meant the whole world.
Now I understand that when Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians that in Christ there is no longer Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, he actually meant it.
Now I understand that God is always tearing down fences, not building them. God is always reconciling the world, not inserting wedges between us. God is ever and always moving in the direction of love.
God is always moving in the direction of love. If we could only remember this, we would save a lot of time and energy we spend putting up fences – fences that God is only going to tear down someday.
For as it says in the letter to Colossians, God is reconciling all things to God’s self, through the body of Christ – the body of Christ… the church.
Friends, as the church of Jesus Christ, God is counting on us to be a party to this reconciliation – even though we don’t know how to do it, we are responsible for helping God do it.
The book of Acts is filled with stories of the early church just trying to keep up with what God is doing. The disciples of Christ are dizzy with trying to keep up. There is Phillip with the Ethiopian eunuch; the one whom he happened to meet on the road from Jerusalem; the one who says, “what is to keep me from being baptized?” What, indeed?
There are Paul and Barnabas, the evangelists, who as they are chased from one city into another, find themselves unexpectedly sharing the gospel with people they never would have planned to share it with. And finding that these people – of all people – embrace their message.
And here in Caesarea, there is Peter following God’s lead and sharing the good news with the gentiles in Cornelius’s household, then finding once again that the Spirit of God is a step ahead of him. For before he can even get his words out, the Holy Spirit has been poured out over the gentiles. And then Peter realizes, “Look, wemay as well baptize them. Because the Holy Spirit has done it already.”
You know, God doesn’t always do things in an orderly way. I know this is a hard truth for Presbyterians, but important for us to accept, and even embrace.
While we are deliberating through the steps of revising our Book of Order for the umpteenth time, while we are working through our processes of discernment, God is moving ahead and doing new things in the world. We have seen it happen in many ways.
When we were busy arguing over whether to allow women to be ordained, God was filling them with the Spirit and anointing them for ministry. While we were busy arguing over whether to allow gays and lesbians to be ordained, God was filling them with the Spirit and anointing them for ministry.
While we were busy writing theological treatises on who is permitted to participate at the communion table, the Spirit was leading congregations everywhere to open their tables and share the bread and the cup with anyone who came in hungering for spiritual food. We didn’t always ask them if they were baptized or if they were members in good standing.
While we were busy discussing amongst ourselves what is the true definition of a congregation, God was forming men and women together into worshiping communities that were springing up in unusual ways and unusual places. And showing us that the church is not a building, but a people that God has chosen to work through; that the church is not necessarily gathered in rows with pews and a pulpit, but may find itself in a ballfield or a bar, a coffee shop or a yoga studio – or who knows where? God knows where.
God is always a step ahead of us.
While we were busy carefully explaining to people, “This is the way we do things here,” God was out in the world doing things in new ways. And like those first disciples of Christ, we just need to try to keep up.
How do we do that – try to keep up? The same way Peter and Paul and Phillip did it: Listen to the Spirit.
While we were busy doing ordinary things, God has been doing extraordinary things. So here’s a tip for us all: Let us never get too busy to listen for the Spirit.
photo credit: By User:MarkusHagenlocher - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2142199
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