Peter’s vision of a sheet with animals by Domenico Fetti. Circa 1619. Oil on poplar wood.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 24, 2016
Acts 11:1-18
Peter has come back to home base in Jerusalem after an exciting road trip. In Chapter 10 we have the whole story of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius and his household. Word has reached Jerusalem ahead of Peter. In our reading today he shares the highlights of his world-changing discovery.
The newborn church is still trying to figure out who’s in and who’s out. What does it take for someone who isn’t from the first generation to become a follower on the Way? Who gets in right away? Who has to… well, what should they do before they come inside?
The only rules Peter and his friends know are the laws of their own people. Laws Jesus defended, sometimes. Sometimes re-interpreted. Sometimes opposed. But they don’t have Rabbi Jesus there to interpret the laws. The leaders in Jerusalem do their best to uphold the rules and traditions.
The Spirit throws the apostles into one dilemma after another. Peter and others face situations that call them to break the rules by touching the sick, even touching dead bodies. And accepting hospitality from Gentiles.
They meet Gentiles who already know about Israel’s God, and want to know more.
Peter, and at least some of the leaders in Jerusalem, begin to understand they’re part of something new. Something that embraces the whole world, not just a little patch of the earth at the east end of the Mediterranean.
Purity codes and laws of separation exist to protect us against them. Throughout the Bible, Israel is always a minority surrounded by greater powers, often at the mercy of those powers.
It’s important to have a religion that reinforces a sense of difference from others. People under real or imagined threat need to believe they’re right, and God is on their side.
Peter discovers a whole new way of seeing the world. That picnic blanket crowded with most of Eden and everything from Noah’s Ark is a sign of a whole new creation.
The newborn church is growing quickly into a new kind of community that can exist anywhere and welcome anyone. Identity as a follower of Jesus isn’t a matter of being a Jew like Jesus. It’s about living his life of faithfulness and compassion. Cornelius and his household already live in God’s blessing presence when Peter gets there. Peter’s the man from outside, till he accepts their invitation, listens to their story, and sees the Spirit present with them in power.
Do we still live as if we are protected from others by a purity code, by laws of separation? Do we believe we will be further than we already are from God if we draw closer to people we see as “others?” (That’s what “gentiles” means: the Others.)
We can’t catch poverty from someone who has less than us. Mental illness isn’t contagious. We won’t be any less Christian if we listen to someone who doesn’t believe as we do. Our sexuality won’t change if we encounter someone who’s struggling with his or her own identity and just needs us to hear and withhold judgment.
We’re only human. We stay with who we know, taking refuge in limits. We read the Bible as it suits us, skipping where it speaks with an inclusive, expansive, imperative voice.
Meanwhile, God waits for us outside our circles. Beyond what we know. Yes, even beyond what we believe. The story of the newborn church in Acts tells us the church that lives and grows is always reaching beyond itself to discover, not just where God wants them to go, but where God’s Spirit has already gone ahead of them.
To catch up with the Spirit we have to be ready to take some risks. And break some old rules.
