Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 10, 2015
Acts 10:44-4; 1 John 5:1-6
Peter must have had sore eyes and an aching jaw from all the revelations he had received in just a short span of time. It started a few days before, as Peter “went here and there among the believers” (Acts 9:32). Peter spoke the name of Jesus and a paralyzed man got up! He heard a woman named Tabitha had died. He went and spoke to her, and up she got! Wow!
Peter prayed on a rooftop while his friends downstairs made his lunch. He saw a gigantic picnic blanket coming down from the sky. Every living creature, clean and unclean, was served up right behind Peter’s eyes. A Voice told him to “rise, kill, and eat.” Peter was afraid to choose the wrong food. The Voice replied, “What God has made clean you must not call profane.” Wow! (10:9-16)
As Peter tried to process this vision, he was surprised again. Strangers came, Gentiles, messengers from a Roman officer. Peter must come at once, to Cornelius’ unclean Gentile home! Peter went and heard how Peter’s God had given Cornelius specific instructions about Peter! (10:17-33) God was at work where Peter had always believed God could not be! Wow!
Peter found his voice, cleared his throat, and said something that would change the church forever and for good. “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to God!” (10:34-35) The penny dropped. He remembered the picnic blanket. Wow! Peter preached a short sermon and a mini-Pentecost exploded, right there, in Cornelius’ house! Wow!
We have to tell the whole story to get the “Wow!” in our short reading. Baptism, derived from the ritual of Jesus’ people, was available to anyone. It no longer mattered what tradition, or any reading of Torah, said about who was an insider and who was an outsider. Wow!
Ever had a Peter moment? Ever found God where God was not supposed to be? Have you ever seen God’s Spirit working through someone you thought was unworthy, unclean? Ever reached for your Bible, sure you know where to find the word that proves you right, when right before your eyes is proof you’re wrong?
Once upon a time I believed women should not lead in the church. Then I fell, hard. All my pretences collapsed. Women friends stayed with me, were pastors to me, demonstrated true leadership. They helped me find my way back to my vocation.
Once upon a time I believed that people who didn’t believe and live just as I did couldn’t be true Christians. Then I shared study, worship, and home with brothers and sisters in Christ who were different from me in many ways. Fellow preachers of the same gospel. Together we learned, laughed, cried, and cared. I discovered the Spirit was with us all.
Once upon a time I believed Roman Catholics were unenlightened, less-than Christian, needing Reformation. Once upon a time I thought our First Nations neighbours could only be Christians if they thought, prayed, and worshipped as I do. Once upon a time I knew no Jews, no Muslims, no atheists. So I could go on believing God wasn’t with them at all.
Peter’s conversion didn’t really stick. Maybe because it all happened so fast. It’s a good thing Jesus was working on Paul over in Damascus while the Spirit worked on Peter in Joppa and Caesarea! Peter lived most of his life as he had been taught to live, believe, and act toward others. Most of his life he lived among his own people, Jews or first-generation Jewish Christians. It’s easy to hold on to our beliefs about the world and people in it when we don’t engage much of the world or many of the people in it.
