The Blanket of Freedom

The Blanket of Freedom

Opening:

I want to take a few moments this morning to talk about freedom and tradition. About those things in each of our lives that define who we see ourselves as and what shapes our worldview.

· What is Freedom?

o Miriam Webster defines freedom as, “the power or right to act, speak, or think as we want, without hindrance or restraint.”

o It also defines freedom as:

“The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.”

Freedom is something America is known for, something that stands at the foundation of our nation and our own personal lives. Alongside freedom stands Tradition.

· Tradition is defined as:

o “The transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.”

Tradition can be good and useful when used correctly. But like so many other things in life, that which starts out good and well meaning, can be warped to a point that the end of a thing doesn’t even remotely resemble its beginning.

We all have traditions, some of them shared together like meeting here each Sunday. Others are varied like where we vacation or how we celebrate someone’s birthday.

· Traditions can be good and comfort giving.

· But they can also cause division and dismiss those who’s traditions are different than our own.

In the passage we read this morning, Peter is caught in a cycle of thinking that he is free while he is actually in the midst of enslavement.

· He is enslaved by his tradition.

· He is enslaved by what he thinks is right and normal.

· He is enslaved in what he believes God has called him to be and do.

And yet, Peter learns that his tradition and his mindset are flawed.

We heard Anthony preach two weeks ago about Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. I’ve always been perplexed by that thought.

(Go into Paul’s conversion and more of the expansion of Judaism rather than conversion.)

Paul’s understanding of Judaism was expanded. The same thing is about to happen to Peter.

Background:

There are several key things to keep in mind as we look deeper into this passage.

· Peter is in Jerusalem.

o The vision takes place in Joppa but when Peter tells the story he is back in Jerusalem.

o Jerusalem is comfortable and known.

o Joppa is wild, rebellious, and unknown.

§ Joppa is the city Jonah ran away to instead of going to Nineveh.

· Like Peter, Jonah had his traditions and his own understanding of who God was and how God “should” save people.

· And Like Peter, when God told Jonah to go and reach a certain group of people, it baffled his worldview.

· Circumcision Party.

o This was a group of religious men who were determined to maintain the status quo.

§ The motivation was good, but the methods were flawed at best.

§ In a time of upheaval and change, the group strived to maintain tradition and judge all others by its understanding of right and wrong.

· Criticism.

o Peter was well known and was changing the face of Judaism.

o This group wanted to know why Peter was talking and eating with Gentiles.

§ Those who didn’t look like them or worship like them.

o They were asking Peter:

§ Why have you deviated from what we know is right and proper Jewish custom?

§ Why are you changing our traditions?

Middle:

With these things in mind, let’s look at the vision.

· Peter was in Joppa praying for the people and God suddenly gives him a vision.

o A blanket descends from the heavens.

o Peter sees all sorts of animal on the blanket – clean and unclean according to Jewish tradition.

o He is commanded to get up, kill, and eat.

Peter sees this great vision and his first response is to lean back on his tradition and what he believes is “right” and comfortable.

He responds to his traditional understanding.

· “I can’t do that Lord – moreover, I’ve never done that, and I won’t start now.”

Then Peter receives a new command – “What God has made clean, do not call common or unclean.”

This happens 3 times. Don’t overlook the significance of this.

Peter’s life is defined by resistance to change.

· He resisted Christ’s need to die for humanity.

· He resisted Christ’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane – to the point of almost killing a man.

· He resisted knowing Christ in his hour of need. (3 times he denied him).

· He resisted believing Christ had risen from the dead.

· And he resisted accepting Christ’s love and forgiveness on the beach.

o 3 times he had to be told that he loved Christ and had been forgiven.

The vision ends and three men show up out of nowhere. They claim the Holy Spirit had told them to find a man named Peter in Joppa.

· These men were Gentiles, not Jews.

· They didn’t know or have the “right” traditions.

But they heard the invitation of the Holy Spirit. A chance to experience freedom and salvation if they obeyed and followed the Holy Spirit’s voice.

Peter proclaims the Gospel to these men and the Holy Spirit falls on them as it did during Pentecost in the beginning of the book of Acts.

And for the first time, Peter saw what Jesus had been trying to tell him for the last three years. He heard the same message most clearly when Jesus spoke the same promise to the Samaritan women at the well.

· “A time is coming and is now at hand, when humanity will not worship God on a mountain or in the Temple – but will worship God in Spirit and Truth.”

When Peter dared to look past his traditions and comfort, he saw a harvest of souls, longing for the same freed he had.

People in desperate need for salvation:

· That didn’t look like him.

· That didn’t live like him.

· That didn’t speak like him.

· And that didn’t worship like him.

Peter saw the hand of God outside of what he knew and followed the command to bring Good News to all who would hear.

Closing:

So, what are we expected to do and be in light of the resurrection?

· We are to be bringers of Good News to all people and places.

o Not harbingers of tradition and rules.

o But image bearers of Christ and the freedom that is only found in Him.

If Peter had clung to the comfortable and the known, like Jonah, the people of that city would have walked away unchanged and unloved.

· But Peter expanded his understanding of his tradition and stepped into the uncomfortable.

o He dared to believe God could love those who didn’t look, act, or believe like him.

o And he found God in that place.

The world around us is desperate to this Good News.

· They are desperate to know they are loved and seen.

· Desperate to know they belong.

o But they don’t know where to turn.

You might find yourself saying:

· Yeah, but Peter was in a mission field in a foreign land.

o In a completely different culture and they came to him.

· What am I supposed to do in Maiden?

o I have a job, family, bills, and I am surrounded by people who look like me?

o I’m not in a mission field.

You couldn’t be more wrong

Our community is filled with people who feel unloved, unwanted, and alone.

· The most rejected communities in the global Church today are the poor, minorities, and the gay and trans community.

o Never has more vitriol been sprayed towards those who don’t have money, whose skin tone is different than mine, or who love in a way that I don’t.

§ We claim that they are welcome, but they aren’t here. Whether it’s the signs we choose to put in our yards or the conversations we have at lunch in hushed tones after church, our lips claim fellowship, but our lives speak a different message and those different than us remain distant and untrusting.

· These People and these Communities are our Joppa!!!!!!!

· This is our mission field!!!!!

But:

· Don’t fall into the same mistake as the circumcision party and Jonah.

o Reaching out doesn’t mean change and chastise.

o We are not called to give rules and tradition.

§ It’s not about giving financial assistance and forgetting them once the check has been written.

§ It’s not about removing cultural differences to make minorities more “white” or “westernized”.

§ It’s not about “praying the gay away” or making gay and trans people conform to our understanding of love, gender, or sexuality.

What it is about:

· It is about embracing our brothers and sisters that don’t look like us and sharing the hope and freedom we have in Christ.

· It is about meeting them where they are, amid their differences and doubts and extending the love of Christ that was extended to us.

The blanket before us is full of people that don’t look, act, or think the way we are used to, but God has given us the same command that God gave to Peter:

· “What God has called clean, do not call common or unclean.”

God has made all people and desires all people to come to Him, not just those who look like you and me.

· Choose to see God in the sacred and the secular.

· Choose to see God in the face of the poor and marginalized.

· Choose to see God in those whose skin and culture are different than your own.

· Choose to see God in the eyes of gay and trans people who are so often told they are dirty, and perverse, and an abomination by the Church.

God has called all of us worthy or love, and freedom, and salvation.

We are all on God’s Blanket of Freedom.

· Choose to see the kaleidoscope of God’s diversity and creativity in the personhood of those around us.

If we can do that, then we will be able “to worship God together in Spirit and truth” and “be granted a repentance that leads to life.”