So what do you think? Honestly, now….
Is God unchanging and absolute in the sense that the law is the law is the law is the law? God said it. I believe it. That settles it. And the interpretation and way of seeing the world that has existed for generations still stands. Being faithful means not being “blown by the winds of doctrine”, as Paul says to the Ephesians…but standing firm on truths about right and wrong in the midst of a changing culture.
Or…is God the wind itself….that blows where it wishes and we don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going, as John says in his Gospel? Is God Spirit that gathers us into a movement, ever changing ever transforming, ever reforming (in good Lutheran fashion) to the the pulse of love? Is God’s word constantly reinterpreted in new cultures to bring a word of grace and hope?
So…What do you think?
Well, today’s story is about Peter…who was very much in the first camp. He had been raised to be faithful …and he had learned well from the Jewish Scriptures what that meant. The Torah…the first 5 books of the Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — had shaped his life. He knew right from wrong. He knew what was clean and unclean. He knew what was acceptable to God and what was not.
And what happens…is Peter is praying and he gets hungry…and goes into a trance. So, just a side note here — we do well not to be too judgmental of people who have alternative spiritual experiences….Peter, after all, goes into a trance and it’s a God-thing. Anyway…he sees a vision. Of a sheet, drawn up by it’s corners, filled with critters — animals of all kinds, reptiles, birds — dogs and cats living together — I kind of picture it looking like the stork, delivering a baby….but a little more macabre…because this sheet has all God’s baby animals delivered to Peter…and the voice says “Peter, kill and eat”.
Ah….but Peter knows that some animals are clean…it says so in the Torah…and some are not. And if they’ve all been mixed together in that big Stork sheet bundle, they have all become contaminated. So, assuming this is some kind of test, Peter gathers all his moral authority and reassures God that he would never EVER do such a thing, because he is a God-fearing man and only eats what is lawful according the Scriptures, just like his parents taught him…and as they had been taught…and so on for generations and generations. His Sunday school teacher would have been so proud. But there’s a problem. God is not impressed. How dare you call profane, what I have made clean?
This is a hold the phone moment. Because Peter is pretty darn sure that God is the one who told him those animals profane and unclean to begin with. It’s in Scripture after all. Right there in the Torah. God said it. He believes it. That settles it. So Peter shakes it off…it’s a trance. Low blood sugar maybe. But the vision repeats again…and again.
And honestly, Peter still isn’t sure what it means. He is puzzled, it says, about what to make of it. But then …some real live people show up at his door. Real live people who are not Jewish. Who are from the Italian Cohort…the Roman army. Who are unclean. Who are profane. And suddenly… Peter gets it.
These people….are God’s people. God made them who they are. It was God who put them in a different nation, gave them a different culture. These Gentiles…these unclean folks who Peter had always understood to be an abomination — were people that God loved. Were children of God. And Peter’s whole world view shifts. And by the time he gets to Caesarea and meets Cornelius and his friends and relatives — he says..you all know that Scriptures says that I should not associate with you…but God has shown me that that is not true. Just like no animal God created is unclean….No person that God has created should ever be deemed profane or unclean.
God has shown me…the Spirit has revealed to me….that what I have learned and read in Scripture is not true. That what I have been taught all my life and what has been taught and handed down for centuries is not true. Because it didn’t take into account real live people…and their wildly diverse lives and backgrounds and struggles and stories. And the fact that God loves them. Every single one of them.
In fact… Peter says…God shows no partiality. It turns out God doesn’t like Jews better than non-Jews. And God doesn’t like Christians better than Jews. And God doesn’t like Christians and Jews better than Muslims or Mormons or Buddhists or Agnostics. God shows no partiality. The only thing God is interested in is whether we are about the business of forgiveness and healing. Whether we are about the business of making broken lives whole and restoring life to dead souls. Whether we are about the business of declaring people children of God…and flooding them with grace. Whether we are about God the Father’s business…as Jesus was about his Father’s business. Regardless of whatever name we may call God by.
Yes…Peter experiences here what we sometimes call a “paradigm shift”. Basically, his whole way of seeing the world is altered. And it was a God thing. This is what the Spirit of God at loose in the world does. It pushes and prods and moves us … and you know what? It’s okay. We don’t have to be afraid.
Because that’s the issue, isn’t it? We are afraid when things change….when things we counted on being true…and holding fast…crumble around us. We lose our footing. We don’t know what to be sure of.
But the truth is…the world is always changing. On a large scale — Nations rise and fall. Natural disasters devastate communities. Ways of life shift dramatically over the centuries…although never quite as rapidly as they have in the past half century…most of us have a case of cosmic whiplash from the seismic changes technology has ushered in. And that isn’t all — the constant changes are also ongoing on a smaller, more personal scale — our loved ones die, our children grow up, friends move away, jobs are lost, memories fade, marriages end, bodies fall apart. And we are afraid. We are afraid we won’t be okay anymore…when things aren’t the way they have always been.
We are afraid we will not be enough anymore….
And we are desperate for something solid. Something that doesn’t change. Something familiar and reassuring. And we look for it at church….but too often we want it to be found in the way we hold fast to traditions and rules…and the way we keep doing things the way we’ve always done them.
But that’s not the solid ground our faith offers. No…we have something solid…but ironically…it is Spirit…pushing and prodding. Peter learns the solid ground of his faith…is not in the rules of the Torah…but in the God who pursues his people relentlessly…who blows through all people and all creation. Yes, our faith gives us something that will never change…but instead of a fence protecting us from the world….it is the persistent and passionate love of God pushing us into the world… the love of God that is the pulse of the universe…beating in the heart of everything God has ever created. Because nothing God created is profane…No person is unclean.
It is God’s perfect love that is our solid ground. It is God’s perfect love that casts out fear. And it is God’s love…that will never let go of us….that means that no matter what happens, no matter how much things change, no matter how confusing things get …we WILL be okay. And we are always enough. And that, my friends, is the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses our limited human understanding. That is the peace God intended for Peter…and for Cornelius. But also for you and for me….and for the whole world. May the peace of Christ be with you. Amen.
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