Psalm 148 ESV

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the Lord!

Acts 11:1–18 ESV

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

What God has made clean, do not call common.

The charge against Peter in this passage is clear: He’s been hanging out with those people. You know the ones: They eat weird food, they dress funny, and they have no idea what the unwritten rules of the congregation are. They haven’t even followed the written rules like circumcision! It would have been one thing if Peter had been talking to them or telling them what to change in order to come be a part of the religious community, but to go EAT with them! That’s too far.

Peter was starting to act an awful lot like Jesus. And we all know what a rabble-rouser Jesus was.

Sure, Jesus ate with drunks and prostitutes,

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 2 Pastoral Perspective

The text from Acts begins with Peter reporting to the church leaders in Jerusalem. It sounds as if he was being called on the carpet for breaking the rules. He had been eating with “the uncircumcised.” A similar change had been leveled against Jesus for eating with sinners (Luke 15:2). So Peter was in good company, but that did not make his confrontation with the Jerusalem leaders easy.

The church community has, since the beginning been arguing with itself about who is “in” and who is “out”. What does a Christian look like and how do we change those who don’t look the way we think they should?

For a place meant to be a center of healing, the church is very good at setting strict, legalistic boundaries that hurt people.

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 2 Pastoral Perspective

Have you ever been to a church meeting when you could feel the tension in the air? Such meetings often center around who is “in” and who is “out.” In the present case, the tension was between those drawing a narrow circle of inclusion around the gospel and others who were busy expanding the circle until all God’s children had a place at the table.

I just finished a book yesterday. It’s called “Shameless” and it’s written by a tattooed, pierced, divorced, recovering alcoholic Lutheran pastor named Nadia Boltz-Weber. Until recently, she was the pastor of a church in Colorado called “The House For All Sinners and Saints”. About this passage in , she says, “And God says something that forever destroys legalistic dualism and erases the boundaries between us and them: “What I consider clean, do not call impure.” What God claims to love, do not deem unworthy of that love. What God has called good, do not call anything other than good. What God has animated with God’s own breath and endowed with a soul and God’s own image, do not treat with anything less than dignity.” (Shameless, p 181)

I just finished a book yesterday about legalistic boundaries that hurt people. It’s called “Shameless” and it’s written by a tattooed, divorced, recovering alcoholic Lutheran pastor named Nadia Boltz-Weber. Until recently, she was the pastor of a church in Colorado called “The House For All Sinners and Saints”. Now that her writing and speaking career has taken off, she’s left there to focus on that.

About this passage in , she says:

And God says something that forever destroys legalistic dualism and erases the boundaries between us and them: “What I consider clean, do not call impure.” What God claims to love, do not deem unworthy of that love. What God has called good, do not call anything other than good. What God has animated with God’s own breath and endowed with a soul and God’s own image, do not treat with anything less than dignity. (Shameless, p 181)

I love the Psalms that declare the glory of God through their awe over creation. Today’s Psalm calls every living thing to come join in the joyful praise of God’s name! I find that very easy to get behind. Francis of Assisi is probably my favorite saint. Bridget was said to have turned a bathtub of water into beer, so she was probably a load of fun to hang out with, but Francis talked to animals, so I feel a real kinship with him. He was really connected with creation and honored the idea that our connection with nature strengthens our connection with God. The story goes that once he was walking down the road and saw a tree full of birds. He was so moved by the tree full of birds that he stopped and preached to them. It is easy to get swept up in the excitement and beauty of creation like Francis did.

But people? Ugh. It’s much harder to give all people the dignity that they deserve. Especially because there are so many people who have already been robbed of most of their dignity by society, or worse yet, those who have robbed themselves of their dignity. Giving back dignity to someone who has lost it somehow goes against the grain and is just plain uncomfortable. It’s so much easier to see God in creation than in other people. It’s easier said than done to follow in Peter’s footsteps and reach across the boundaries we put up between one another.

I’ve told you about the group of people in Rwanda - the Light Group - who are working to create real Christian community based on forgiveness. We met with people in similar organizations in Israel and Palestine. Israelis and Palestinians literally reaching out across borders and getting to know one another. One that is particularly striking began when some imprisoned Palestinian activists and Israeli soldiers serving as prison guards met and realized that the ones on “the other side” were not the evil monsters they had been told by their political leaders and media that they were. It’s not easy for groups like this to go on. Members are often disowned or mocked by friends and family. The fear of the “other”, the “unknown”, the “different” is strong and it is real.

Ugh

The fear for Peter and his cohort was that by eating with these weird others, he would become unclean as well. Often that is our fear in these sorts of conflicts. We are afraid that being with the different will change us or maybe even harm us.

In Murchison Falls Park in Uganda, we had a hilarious pair of guides. They had us cracking up the entire trip. They were also a wealth of local knowledge. Uganda as we know it today was, once upon a time, many smaller kingdoms. When European colonists took over there, they drew arbitrary boundaries and declared places to be countries. Suddenly, all these separate kingdoms found themselves governed by one government. Today, these kingdoms operate a bit like states or territories to in the US or Canada, but there is still some tension between people in different parts of the country because they don’t really know or understand the culture of the other kingdoms.

David, one of our guides said that growing up, there was a place in the north of the country that every said was the most dangerous place in all of Uganda. They were warned not to go there because the locals would kill them and possibly eat them. So, of course, when he first started working as a guide and cook for a safari tour company, he was almost immediately sent there. He said that when he got there, he realized it was totally fine. And when he got home, everyone was amazed that he was ok and he wasn’t hurt while he was there. He told his friends and family that he had learned that the people there looked like them, ate similar food, spoke English like them, and were friendly and welcoming. They didn’t harm him.

Although, venturing into the different did change him. He went from living in fear of the different to living in the freedom that comes with acknowledging that all people are worthy of dignity and friendship.

We do not just do this to other people: deny them their dignity. We’re very good at denying ourselves our own dignity. We are great at forgetting that we are made in God’s image. Which is probably why we spend so much time in fear of what is unknown. Of course we’ve sinned. Of course we have baggage. Not a one of us has lived into God’s image perfectly. But that doesn’t mean we have to walk around carrying all that baggage! That doesn’t mean that God can’t do wild and incredible things through us!

Just because you have a past of some sort and aren’t perfect doesn’t mean God doesn’t have a good and loving new name for you like he did for Saul, now Paul. Just because you don’t have the same set of flashy skills other people have doesn’t mean God can’t do great things through you like God did through Tabitha. Just because you are different doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the same dignity that every other person alive on this planet deserves.

Aha

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 2 Pastoral Perspective

A similar change had been leveled against Jesus for eating with sinners (Luke 15:2). So Peter was in good company, but that did not make his confrontation with the Jerusalem leaders easy.

When we sell ourselves short, we try to justify it as saying that low self-esteem, lack of confidence, beating up on ourselves for our past or our shortcomings or whatever doesn’t hurt anyone else. So we allow ourselves to not bother working through that with God. And that is a lie straight from the adversary. Wallowing in our own perceived unworthiness absolutely hurts the people around us because we cannot love others the way Jesus calls us to if we can’t even figure out how to love ourselves. (Love your neighbor as yourself) assumes you love yourself.

We cannot love others the way Jesus calls us to if we can’t even figure out how to love ourselves. (Love your neighbor as yourself) assumes you love yourself.

There are two traps that Peter’s vision in warns us against. Both will equally hinder us from carrying out God’s call in the world and will hold us back from living life to the fullest. Both are traps that individuals and congregations must be careful not to fall into. The first is that of avoiding others who are “unclean” - the ones who look and eat and dress and worship differently than we do (or even those who don’t worship at all). The second is that of allowing ourselves to wallow in our feelings of uncleanness or inadequacy. Too old, too small, too fat, too thin, too young, too busy, too tired, too this, too that. Blah, blah, blah.

You know what was in that sheet of abominations that Peter saw?

Bacon.

If you do not venture into the unknown, the so-called “unclean”, the different, you’re going to miss out on bacon.

Or maybe you ARE the bacon and you’re too busy wallowing in your own sad unworthiness to accept that you are one of the most desired foods around.

Whee!

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 2 Pastoral Perspective

Have you ever been to a church meeting when you could feel the tension in the air? Such meetings often center around who is “in” and who is “out.” In the present case, the tension was between those drawing a narrow circle of inclusion around the gospel and others who were busy expanding the circle until all God’s children had a place at the table.

Nadia goes on in her book to say, “When that accusing voice is on repeat in your head, know that it is not the voice of God. God’s voice is found in the warm singsong of a mother to her newborn, the one who says, “You are beloved.” God’s voice declares us clean, justified, forgiven, and new. It imparts to us a worthiness that has nothing to do with our efforts or our accomplishments or our becoming some imagined ideal.” (Shameless, p 181)

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 2 Pastoral Perspective

God enables ordinary people to be witnesses to the gospel. This can be frightening, because it voids our excuses that we are not gifted enough, not old enough, not good enough to get the job done. God has always had the audacity to choose ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the service of God’s reign. Such a realization should give us hope and strengthen our resolve to join the cloud of witnesses from Abraham, Sarah, and Moses to Esther and Jeremiah, Peter and Paul.

The reason we have a prayer of confession AND an assurance of pardon every week is so that we have a place to not only voice our failings, but a reminder that those failings are forgiven and we are worthy and whole and clean.

“When that accusing voice is on repeat in your head, know that it is not the voice of God. God’s voice is found in the warm singsong of a mother to her newborn, the one who says, “You are beloved.” God’s voice declares us clean, justified, forgiven, and new. It imparts to us a worthiness that has nothing to do with our efforts or our accomplishments or our becoming some imagined ideal.” (Shameless, p 181)

You are worthy.

You are whole.

You are clean.

You are enough.

Joseph S. Harvard says:

Yea!

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 2 Pastoral Perspective

God enables ordinary people to be witnesses to the gospel. This can be frightening, because it voids our excuses that we are not gifted enough, not old enough, not good enough to get the job done. God has always had the audacity to choose ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the service of God’s reign. Such a realization should give us hope and strengthen our resolve to join the cloud of witnesses from Abraham, Sarah, and Moses to Esther and Jeremiah, Peter and Paul.

And Nadia says:

“This is the use of Christian community, as I see it. We help each other silence the Accuser. We tend each other’s wounds, show each other our scars, see and forgive each other’s shortcomings, let each other cry, make each other laugh, and are absolutely adamant about grace for everyone. We insist on freeing each other from the grip of the accusing voice, and we amplify the voice of God. And we listen for stories of people who’ve quieted the accusing voice enough to hear the voice of God, the God who calls forth our truest, most flawed, and beautiful self.” (Shameless, Page 181)

More from “Shameless”

“Christians should help one another to silence the voice that accuses. To celebrate a repentance—a snapping out of it, a thinking of new thoughts—which leads to possibilities we never considered. To love one another as God loves us. To love ourselves as God loves us. To remind each other of the true voice of God. And there’s only one way to do this: by being unapologetically and humbly ourselves. By not pretending. By being genuine. Real. Our actual, non-ideal selves.” (Shameless, p 183)

“The Jesus whom God sent to claim and save us is what keeps me in Christianity, despite a hundred reasons to pack up and leave. But this Jesus thing is a double-edged sword. Because as much as I treasure the comfort of being seen by God-made-flesh, forgiven and freed from harmful designations, I also resent having to extend the same to those I dislike.“ (Shameless, p 187)

In other words, at church, we say to ourselves and to those around us - whomever they may be - “You are the bacon.”

What is something you are afraid of? Not just “heights” or “spiders”. What is a “heart” fear of yours? Being alone? Not being noticed? Being noticed?

Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.