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Changing Mind
Changing Mind
Over the last year I have been introduced to a new kind of story by my wife Karen. “Mississippi stories”. She is a “small town girl” living in a lonely world. And I am a city boy. Born and raised… a bit North of LA. Totally different worlds, it really is cross cultural at times.
So Karen told me a story:
A young man and woman tried to book a wedding venue in (no joke) Booneville, Mississippi… and were denied. When they asked why the owner of the venue calmly and kindly explained. He is black, she is white. And we “just don’t do mixed race marriages because of our Christian beliefs.”
They challenged her “we are Christian!” And she responded “I don’t want to argue my faith, we just don’t participate.”
Amazing! It kind of blew my naive mind that that would go down in 2019 America… but what do I know. That isn’t the most amazing part.
This sixty year old woman went home. Her husband asked her to point out in the Bible where it says that. She tried. She studied and eventually conceded that there was nothing there. She apologized to the couple and CHANGED.
That is an absolute miracle!
How rare is it that someone actually changes their mind? On a position or idea they have held for years, for decades? On ground they have likely fought over before. How rare is that?
When is the last time you changed your mind on something that important? An idea or assumption, a political stance, a theological principle maybe?
It seems to me that this is incredibly rare. I shouldn’t be shocked that this woman had sinful prejudice that expressed in a judgmental attitude, we all have those. I am amazed that she was open minded and open hearted enough to seek truth, to find it, and to change in light of it.
Changing Peter’s Mind
Changing Peter’s Mind
Jew and Gentile
Jew and Gentile
For more than a thousand years, the tribes of Israel have been commanded by God to keep themselves pure. The number one area of purity was national purity: don’t associate with the “others”, the “Gentiles”.
And the Jews had a very long tradition interpreting this separation. One of the traditions so strong it might as well be law was that it was “unlawful” to visit a Gentile home. Perfectly fine to have them over, because then you can control the space, the food, the purity. But over there you have no control… you would be unclean because they are unclean.
This is a small thing, but it represents the GIANT divide between Jew and Gentile. Us and them.
Cornelius: the Gentile
Cornelius: the Gentile
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort,
a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
A “God-fearer” seems to be a phrase Luke uses for people who, while they haven’t gone through the official process of becoming a “proselyte” (fully converting to Judaism), this is someone who is respectful, maybe even worshipful of God… but unofficially. He is giving to “the people” or specifically, to the Jews.
And this guy receives a vision:
About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.”
And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.
He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him,
and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
More about Cornelius next week, but he is one of the very few to be visited by an angel. And, just as we see in the birth and life of Jesus, when angels (messengers from God) are on the scene, HUGE things are about to happen.
Here we have another double vision. God speaks to Cornelius to send for Peter, but He also prepares Peter on the other end.
Peter: the Jew
Peter: the Jew
We last left Peter in Joppa. Luke in writing Acts has just reminded us how closely Peter is walking in the footsteps of Jesus. He is healing the paralyzed, he is raising the dead, and people are coming to faith. He is a true disciple, with his eyes on Jesus, looking more like Jesus every day.
And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
The fact that Peter is already staying with a Tanner indicates that much shaping work has already been done in him. Jesus has taught him to eat with sinners and tax collectors.
Tanners were considered unclean because of their contacts with dead animals. They also often used concentrated urine to get ammonia in order to treat those hides. So… gross.
No wonder he is escaping to the roof!
The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
Great spiritual discipline there. Peter is still practicing the regular devoted hours of prayer, that is good practice for all of us. Oh, it’s time to pray!
And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance
So, it is noon. He is praying… and hungry… and while praying he falls asleep. (and the people all said, amen!) When he falls asleep hungry, what do you think he dreams about? Food!
and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.
And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
All kinds of animals. Some Peter would be used to eating. Some, many, especially among the reptiles and the birds, are UNCLEAN. Not Kosher!
I picture Indiana Jones at the Temple of Doom (because we watched that last night). Bowls full of writhing animals and chilled monkey brains. ALL kinds of animals here, both delicious and non-delicious, edible and inedible, clean and “unclean”.
Against the the dietary laws handed down to the people of Israel through Moses. One of the things that separates them from the Gentiles.
I think Peter is thinking “oh, this is a test!”
But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
This is a test and I know the answer! Don’t worry God, you can’t trick me.
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
Or “do not call unclean.” Don’t call it “impure”. God has “declared them clean” or “cleansed them”.
This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
What was the second time like? Okay… maybe it’s not a test? But if it happened three times, I think both the sheet with the animals came down, and Peter responded NO every time. And again God said “what God has made clean, do not call common.”
Peter needs things in threes.
Reminiscent of Peter’s three time swearing to Jesus that he wouldn’t abandon him… then three time denying him… then three times Jesus says “do you love me.”
Now, three times, Peter argues with God.
Unclean Food
Unclean Food
Now, is God just talking about food? This is a matter of some debate. I think God is AT LEAST talking about food here. He really has explicitly lifted the strictures on clean and unclean foods. That was a temporary measure that had both practical application to Ancient Israel and served as an important area of distinction between Jew and Gentile.
In the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego it was the defining difference.
God is AT LEAST declaring, ladies and gentlemen “BACON IS BACK ON THE MENU!” Amen. So beautiful. Let’s close in glorious WORSHIP!
Oh, so good.
God is at LEAST declaring that he has made all food clean.
The groundwork was laid by Jesus. Both for the food
And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
But he is doing more than that. The vision is pointing at a bigger issue. Food served as a distinguishing, separating practice between Jew and Gentile, and so here God uses it as a metaphor to stand for the separating wall between Jew and Gentile.
Peter is trying to figure that out.
Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate
and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there.
Why is Peter perplexed? Because God just contradicted a HUGE aspect of his understanding of what it means to be Jewish, of his heritage, and a whole swath of Levitical dietary laws! He is perplexed, he is considering.
The timing is perfect. Even while Peter is still pondering, here walks up the application of the dream, the living metaphor. And the Spirit helps him put the pieces together.
And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.
Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”
This word “without hesitation” is foreshadowing. Literally “making no distinction”. As in… no distinction between clean and unclean food… or clean and unclean people.
And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?”
And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.”
So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.
And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.
But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”
And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.
Now Peter has had some time to think. He thought last night. He thought on the road to Caesarea. He is putting all the pieces together. And at some point between here and there, he has made the connection. Maybe he understood it when he committed to make the trip. Maybe he was planning on finding an appropriate place to stay and visit with Cornelius from the outside. But now he reveals that he has fully heard the deeper message God was speaking through the vision.
And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”
Peter has made the connection.
God wasn’t just saying that “food” was a temporary separation between Jew and Gentile. He was declaring that “Jew and Gentile” was a temporary separation. That he, a Jew, can no longer call or consider Gentiles as unclean.
And, he will soon be astonished to realize, that the Gospel and the Holy Spirit is for the Gentile even as it is for the Jew.
Jesus laid the groundwork for that too.
And for the Gentile. Jesus spoke with Samaritans, healed Gentiles, and spoke of sending them from Jerusalem into Judea… and Samaria and all the world. The pieces are there. The clues are there.
But up against that is Peter’s whole life. His whole understanding of proper behavior, of place, of cultural and social identity and how it applies to life as a Jew in a world of Gentiles.
The extension of the New Covenant to the Gentiles is about to hit the church like a ton of bricks. While this moment has been foreshadowed by every covenant and commanded by Jesus, it still takes a thrice repeated vision to prepare Peter for this cross-cultural ministry.
Peter has a deeply held conviction about the way God works, strong enough that he is willing to argue with God about it.
The miracle is not that it takes three times, it is that it only takes three times.
Peter is open to let God reshape his ingrained cultural and theological ideas.
He is ready to be challenged and ready to be changed.
Peter is open to let God reshape His ideas about God.
Now that sounds obvious… but I think that is incredibly uncommon.
Peter, like all of us, are such creatures of our culture, shaped by our society, our parents, our people. Most of those assumptions are unquestioned and unchallenged. Many of our ideas about who God is, how he works, how church works, how to pray, how we approach him, how life works...
They are received “truth”, unquestioned assumptions we inherited growing up.
Ready to be Challenged, Ready to be Changed
Ready to be Challenged, Ready to be Changed
Are we that open-minded and open-hearted? Do we come to prayer that way? To Scripture that way?
What would it take to change your mind about one of those things?
Strong opinions, loosely held.
Should anyone be able to change your mind? No. You should hold to your convictions, know why you believe them, and be ready to back them up and stand by them.
But who should be able to change your mind. God. Always. In study of Scripture, you should stand open before the Word of God.
In prayer. Always. You should be listening to who God is and what He is doing.
In conversation with wise and trustworthy believers. Listening for the voice of God speaking through His people, even as we will see others in the church listen to the voice of Peter. And we listen to Scripture, that is ultimately what we are doing. Listening to the words of Peter, the words of Luke, all inspired and breathed into by the Holy Spirit.
Are our minds open to what God is telling us and teaching us about Himself?
Because we are WRONG about so many things. WRONG about details of theology and WRONG about how we are applying it in our lives and in our church.
God give us open minds and open hearts, open ears to hear your voice, open eyes to see your vision.
When I come to the Scripture, may all my preconceptions be out on the table. Ready to be challenged and ready to be changed.
When I come to prayer. Open eyes and open ears. Open mind and open heart. Ready to be challenged and ready to be changed.
When we gather here in community, or we seek counsel with wise brothers and sisters. May we come open to what God wants to teach us about loving Him and loving others. Ready to be challenged and ready to be changed.