Mr. Rogers Sound Track plays in dark - Lights Come on Pastor Enters from Stage Door and lip syncs to track
Skin Deep
I. Introduction
He put on colorful sweaters. Changed his shoes. Sang a goofy song (Did you know he wrote most of the songs on the show - He was an accomplished pianist and had a music degree). Over the course of thirty-one years and 865 episodes, Rogers used his Neighborhood to model kindness where neighbors love and support each other through difficult times of death, divorce, and danger. It was also a space where Rogers helped viewers confront their own fear and prejudices in a non-threatening way.
The prevailing message from his show was about neighbors. The preaching was preceded by a special song that asked this question . . . "Won't you be my neighbor." He drove this message home by making statements like this . . .
(SLIDE 2) "Out of difference can come the reinforcement of Iwo important values. One is tolerance and the other is awareness that people who disagree over the things they hold dear really can live together in love and respect."
? Fred Rogers
Today, I want us to examine one of the more difficult challenges we face in our country and in our attempt to avoid being neighborhaters.
For simple background Peter and John have been preaching Jesus and the religious rulers don't like it so they throw them in jail and put them on trial. Peter is going to respond to their questions and Scripture says this right before he gives a powerful speech.
Acts 4:8 (Message)
With that, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, let loose:
I will come back to that statement. Let's leap forward to
Acts 10:9-16
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
For sake of time you know that immediately Gentile men showed up from Cornelius' house and Peter goes with them preaches. They get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and Peter says . . .
10:45 - “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”
Then finally fast forward some to
Galatians 2:11-14
Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.
But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up (somebody spoke up) to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?”
Can I just show you a couple of things.
It is possible to be Spirit full and only skin deep.
If we are not careful we can allow skin to be more powerful and more important than Spirit!
Peter was full of the Spirit. He was also full of prejudice. He was Spirit full but he was also a racist. We can't deceive ourselves to believe that just because we are full of the Spirit that we can't be full of hate. Hate must be intentionally rooted out. The overriding theme of the Day of Pentecost was that it unified. But perhaps we need to take a second look and see that it unified one group of people and there had to be subsequent work done by God to remove the hate that was so deeply rooted in the lives of these men.
That is what we see happen in Acts 4. So in Acts 10 God confronts Peter 3 times about being a racist and challenges him to avoid labeling something unclean that God sees as clean. He does so to teach Peter something we need to learn . . .
Skin can be a 3mm barrier that keeps you from your assignment!
Peter not only allowed skin to separate him from people but he was allowing it to separate him from his assignment from God. God confronts Peter and says your view of clean and unclean is restricting your ability to do what I have called you to do. He was so convicted that when he arrives in the gentile home of Cornelius . . . in verse 34 it says, "Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right."
So here is the question for us . . . if nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ then why would we allow skin to separate us from those that Christ loves? Why would we allow skin to separate us from those that could possibly won to Christ? I want us to understand from this account and what we watch in the lives of our children that racism is a learned behavior but more importantly it can be unlearned! We have an assignment and we must break down every barrier that keeps us from fulfilling the assignment.
Skin can cause us to shift.
I said in the beginning that I wanted us to examine one of the more difficult challenges we face in our country. You may think that is racism and that is a major issue. But I think from Peter's example the greatest challenge we face is to resist shifting with culture. Notice that by the time we get to Galatians this man, full of the Spirit, who has been confronted by God in a vision and has seen the direct results of breaking down barriers based on skin slides or shifts back into alignment with his culture. So that now Paul confronts or challenges him and calls him out. If we are not careful, skin can cause us to shift and it can cause us to get sidetracked.
We can say the right things in church and then when we exit we shift back to what our culture says is acceptable behavior. We can say we aren't racist in here and then laugh at off color jokes. We can say we aren't racist because we sit in a sanctuary with people of color but when we leave we can still harbor hate towards segments of society that are a different color. If we are not careful we can allow our culture to have more influence than we allow our kingdom to have. We can let our culture draws lines of separation in our heart and views.
Paul would not let Peter get by with shifting. I am confronting you. It isn't OK for any one of us to promote, participate, or perpetrate racism in any form. That includes white on black, black on white, white on brown, black on brown, brown on white, man or woman, etc. So in real practical terms . . . watch what you post of facebook. Watch what you like/share on facebook. Be careful about words you choose to use. Be careful about what you accepts as acceptable and as appropriate. Is it kingdom culture or our culture? Think like Jesus. Act like Jesus. Love like Jesus. Quit being caught up on skin and get caught up in souls! Let's go passed skin deep and move to soul deep!
