May 15, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Acts 11:1-18; John 13:31-35
So Important We Have to Say It Again
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I was a psychology major in college. In one of my classes, we did exercises in active listening. One of the things we learned was what it means if someone tells you something a second time. If they repeat something, it means this piece of information is very important. They want to make sure that you heard it and grasp what they’re saying. They’re not sure that you got it completely the first time and so they’re telling you again. And they might even tell you a third time if it’s really, really important!
In our reading today from the book of Acts, the writer Luke is telling us something for the second time. This story about Peter and the vision on the roof and the Gentile visitors: it all happened in real time back in Chapter 10. And now in Chapter 11, we’re hearing it all over again. And not just a short, summarized version, we’re getting all the details.
The believers in Jerusalem are questioning Peter about why he would eat with Gentiles. And Peter explains it to them “step by step.” We hear the story all over again, step by step.
- Peter falls into a trance and experiences a vision
- He sees a sheet lowered from heaven. It’s filled with all sorts of unkosher, unclean animals.
- A voice from heaven commands him to eat; Peter is aghast at the suggestion. He never eats anything unclean
- The voice pronounces: What God has made clean, you must not call profane.
- This dream repeats three times; then the sheet returns to heaven
- And then three men appear at the front door of the house. The Spirit tells Peter he must go with them. “Don’t make a distinction between them and us,” the voice says. Peter obeys.
- He makes the journey to Caesarea and enters the Gentile house of Cornelius. He shares the good news of Jesus; and the entire household comes to faith.
- And then, the gifts of the Spirit fall upon these new believers. They express the same outpouring of spiritual gifts as the Jewish believers. There is no distinction in the Spirit’s gifts.
Peter repeats the entire experience this second time. And now I’ve just repeated it for a third time – it’s that important! This moment is a watershed event in the life of the early church.
It’s hard for us to grasp the significance of what happened and its implications. Jewish Christian, Gentile Christian, what does it matter? Aren’t we just all Christians? For us now, yes. But not then!
To appreciate this, we need to understand the foundational role of the Jewish holiness code. These commands and practices are what set the Jews apart from all others as the chosen people of God. The chief sign is the one they received in the days of their ancestor, Abraham. Circumcision marked Abraham, and it had marked every generation of Jews ever since.
The rest of the holiness code directed Jews in the daily actions in their life. It included what to eat and what not to eat. It instructed them which foods could be combined and which couldn’t. Dairy and meat were not to be mixed. The holiness laws instructed them what fibers to wear, how to keep cooking utensils clean.
Making close contact with unclean things or touching unclean people rendered you unclean, too. A woman had to separate herself while she had her monthly period and after childbirth. Touching a dead person also made you unclean. And eating with a Gentile, eating Gentile food which was improperly prepared, this made you unclean.
Christianity was born among Jewish people. Jesus was a Jew; all of his disciples and immediate followers were Jewish. So Christianity originated within the context and the culture of Judaism.
The original church in Christianity was “Mother Jerusalem.” So when Peter eats with Gentiles, he has to answer to Mother Jerusalem.
The question about the Gentiles was THE chief dilemma facing the early church. To the original Jewish Christians, Gentiles were considered extremely unclean. Their patterns of behavior rendered them utterly unclean.
So, if Gentiles converted to Christianity, what did this mean? Did they have to adopt Jewish ways? Or was it possible for them to be a Christian and still maintain their unclean way of life? To Mother Jerusalem, the answer was a straight up No.
It was a visceral thing for them. To the devout Jew, the Gentile lifestyle, their behaviors were utterly wrong. If they were to become Christians, then they would first have to give up their Gentile ways and live according to Jewish Law.
That there could be any other possible outcome to the question of Gentile believers just did not compute in their minds! Peter himself has this vivid experience with Gentiles. He was told to show no distinction. And yet, even for Peter, later on he’ll travel to the community of Antioch in Syria. Antioch was Paul’s home base for his missionary activities. But when Peter arrives, he turns his back on the Gentile Christians. He secludes himself at dinnertime and eats exclusively with Jewish Christians. Paul calls out Peter for his actions. There is to be no distinction between Jew and Gentile.
It was a lesson that the young Christian church would have to learn over and over again. Old ways, old beliefs are firmly engrained in us. But God was doing a new thing among them! The message of Christ’s undying love and mercies was to expand to all peoples! It was meant to explode into the world! It was destined to cover all peoples in every place and age with the abundant love and light and life from the eternal seat of mercy!
All of this was unleashed from Jesus’ tomb on that Easter morning. It changed everything. Every barrier, even that of death – was overcome. The full impact of the Divine Eternal was realized in our midst during the quiet morning hours of that Easter Sunday.
Mother Jerusalem, Peter and Paul, and Cornelius the Gentile speaking in the tongues of the Spirit, together they had stepped into the newness of Christ’s resurrection. It was no longer the same old; it was entirely new.
Friends, that newness continues to expand into our own place and time. It challenges our preconceived notions and urges. It invites us to consider where God’s free Spirit is blowing something new into our world.
Within just the last century, long held Christian views have undergone tremendous change. There used to be a very wide divide between Catholics and Protestants. Each group questioned whether the other group was going to heaven. People gave up their sweethearts because they couldn’t marry someone across the divide. We don’t see that any more, and I think we would all say it’s for the better.
When I was born in 1960, women in the Lutheran church were not allowed to be ordained. But this has changed. Early on, after the change was first made, people wondered if women ministers were valid. If a woman presided over a sacrament, was it effective? But things have changed since those earlier days. Right now, a significant percentage of ministers in the ELCA are women. Where would we be now without women in the ministry?
If we look backwards, it appears that each and every generation of the Christian church has faced a moment of decision over a significant issue. For the first generation church, it was the question of the Gentiles. What issues are we facing today? How do we respond? How open are we to God doing a new thing within our midst?
Jesus gives us direction. As he meets with his disciples in that upper room on the night in which he was betrayed, he gives them a directive: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
As we discern the complicated issues before us, we’re given the lens of Christ’s love to guide us. Let his love be our simple and only guide. This is what unites us; his love is the foundation of the Christian faith. We are one in Christ, one in his love, one in his Spirit. In his love, let us love one another. And by this love, the world will know we are Christians, by our love.
