A Way for All

I feel that, to a certain extent, this story confuses us. I say that because the concept of Jews and Gentiles or circumcised and uncircumcised being two completely different groups is foreign to the Christian ideology now. In fact, we don’t even use those terms even more. So when we see and hear that the apostles and the believers in Judea objected and criticized Peter for hanging out and eating with them seems just odd. The thing we have to understand is that there are so many laws that forbade the people of Israel to eat with and engage in table fellowship with people of other faiths or no faith at all. So when they heard that Peter had done just that and had brought them the word of God and they had accepted it, they likely fell upon their understanding of the word of God was primarily meant for the people of Israel. In fact, the idea that they were supposed to go to all nations to share the word of God could have meant for them to do that to the Israelites who had been spread across the world due to all the exiles that had happened. And if we look at Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate in a few weeks, but has already happened in Acts chronologically, we see that it was believers from all the nations who had come to Jerusalem that came to believe. I think I’ve beleaguered the point that there really was no real sense of intentional mission work to the Gentile people and nations. It was something very different and the apostles wanted to know why.

Now the concept of believers and Gentiles may be foreign to us in that way of understanding things, but can we really say that we have truly embraced the idea that God’s message truly shouldn’t be held back because of the labels that we place on people? Think back to what we heard last week with Saul/Paul’s conversion story. Ananias didn’t want to go to Saul becuase of the labels that had been placed on him. What labels do we place on people that make it convenient for us so that we don’t have to share the good news with them? Or what boxes do we place people in so that we can justify our actions toward them even though God has called us to love all people? Think about a person or group of people that you have labeled and have a hard time loving becuase of that label we have placed on them, or they have maybe even placed on themselves? I know it’s not easy. Trust me. There are times when I’m walking through a store and I hear someone say something negative or confrontational to someone else or just to say it for others to hear and I quickly realize that I actually don’t need to go down that aisle anymore. I’ll swing back by that aisle in oh 5-10 minutes after I have gotten the other things on my list.

I remember driving across the country with my mom for my first year of seminary. One day we took an exit and got some gas and there was a local restaurant that did not look at all like somewhere I wanted to walk into. My mom convinced me otherwise and said it would be fine. We got in and there were a few people in the restaurant and most of them were at the bar. All I can tell you is that I did not feel ‘fine’ in that place and I couldn’t have gotten out of there any faster after we had eaten our dinner. I honestly felt like I was in one of those movies where everyone in the place knows each other and you walk in and no one knows you so they all stare at you the whole time trying to figure out why you’re in their restaurant. My mom, of course, had a blast there becuase she loved doing that sort of thing, and she had even more fun giving me a hard time knowing how much I didn’t enjoy it. Now other than the waitress we didn’t interact with anyone, but I felt so out of place and and intimidated that I don’t know that I felt like I could have talked with them. The problem is that they could have been perfectly nice people and I labeled and judged them before I got to know them. I wrote them off becuase of my own discomfort.

What is so incredible about Peter’s defense of his trip to Caesarea are the things that he makes sure to include in his telling that shows why he did the very thing they accuse him of doing was the right thing to do. There are four main parts to his retelling of what happened that I believe are key to his defense and our understanding of it. First, we see that Peter has a vision from heaven of a picnic that has all the food that he’s not allowed to eat as a Jewish person. But the voice tells him that whatever God declares clean is clean. Now Peter doesn’t know the true significance of this until later but we do see that he has this heavenly encounter. Second, as he’s still trying to understand this vision the Spirit of God then tell him to go with them and make no distinction between them and us. Remember that phrase, that Peter is to make no distinction between him, Peter, and those who are coming to seek him. Third, we then hear about another vision that a man had had about Peter. Peter never mentions his name but if we read chapter 10 we find out that the man’s name is Cornelius. Peter says that the point of his vision is find Peter so that they can hear what he has to say and so he and his entire household will be saved. Fourth, we see multiple things happen at once: Peter preaches, the Holy Spirit shows up, and even though it doesn’t say it explicitly by Peter but we do see again in chapter 10 that they are immediately baptized.

In all of those four things I just shared with you we see the incredible work of God involved in it all. What God does it God paves the way for inclusion to be possible. Inclusion of every person, tribe, or race. God declares all food to be clean, removing a barrier for people to be a part of the family of God. God tells Peter and us to make no distinction between people and to be open to the experience God is taking Peter on. We see the Spirit appear to someone who doesn’t believe and initiates that contact between Peter and these Gentiles. The Spirit at work in maybe unlikely places and situations. Finally we see that the Holy Spirit fell on these new believers in the exact same way that it fell on the 11 apostles in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Once again there is no distinction between Israelite and Gentile and even between new believers and the original 11 disciples that Jesus personally called.

God made sure that everything was in place so that everyone would know that there is no reason to make distinctions between people. And God continues to do that today. God continues to call for us to break down the labels, the boxes, the barriers that we and society build to keep us separated. Becuase it is far more joyful to proclaim as the believers in Jerusalem did at Peter’s question. “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 realized, and when we realize today too, that the answer based on everything we see and know about our loving and forgiving God is nothing then we too can praise God and give thanks that God brings repentance and life to all people, including you and me. Amen.