Acts
10:34-43
January 12, 2020
I was taught that there are some
things you should do, and some things you should not do. Things you should do
include being kind to others, being thoughtful, being respectful to adults,
making sure that if you take a piece of gum for yourself, you better have
enough gum to share with others.
Things I was taught not to do were
being unkind, being mean, calling people names and never, ever wear white after
Labor Day; especially do not wear white shoes after Labor Day. That is one
thing you never do. Labor Day marks the end to summer, and white is too
summery. So no white.
I know that there are increasing push
backs on this rule. Non-seasonal white wearers try to talk about winter white
and cream and eggshell as being acceptable white options for the colder months,
but I was taught that there are some things you should not do. Wearing white
after Labor Day was a big one.
But one year, a few weeks after
Labor Day had passed, Mother Nature clearly had not gotten the memo that summer
was over. Because it was hot. I went out to the patio to try and read and enjoy
the remaining days of warmth while I could. I must have fallen asleep because I
dreamed – or maybe had a vision – of a large beach towel descending from the
heavens. On it were every kind of white shoe imaginable. There were sandals and
flats and pump – oh my! They were beautiful. And a loud, booming voice said,
“Take. Wear.”
Stop! Stop! Stop! I have to stop
this right now. Before we go any further, I need to declare emphatically that I
am not mocking scripture. If you know the larger context of the passage before
us in Acts, then you know I am parodying the story of Peter’s vision. But if
you aren’t sure, then here is the larger and necessary to understand context
around the verses we have before us.
At the beginning of this chapter, we
read about a man named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman centurion. In other
words, he was not only a Roman, a definite gentile, non-Jewish person; he also
worked in the occupying army. He was part and parcel of the military force that
kept the Jewish people under the oppressive thumb of Rome. But Cornelius and
all his family were described as devout. Cornelius was generous to those in
need and prayed often.
Cornelius had a vision from an angel
of the Lord who told him to send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Peter.
Cornelius did what the angel in his vision told him to do. He sent people to
Joppa to get this man named Peter.
Cut to Peter, who was staying in
Joppa. Peter went up to the roof of where he was staying to pray. He was
hungry, and while he was waiting for supper, he also had a vision. He saw
heaven open, and from that opening a large sheet being held by its four corners
was being let down to him. On the sheet were animals and birds and reptiles of every
kind. Then Peter heard a voice, and the voice told him,
“Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
But Peter refused. He told the Lord
that he would not because he had never eaten anything that was considered
unclean or impure.
The Lord replied,
“Do not call anything unclean that
the Lord has made clean.”
This happened three times, and then
the sheet was taken back up into heaven. Peter understandably was trying to
figure out what this vision meant, when he heard the news that men had arrived
from a Roman centurion named Cornelius. They told Peter that Cornelius, a
righteous and devout man, had a vision and was told by an angel of the Lord to
send for Peter and bring Peter to Cornelius. Peter went, and when he arrived at
Cornelius’ house and met the large gathering of family and friends that
Cornelius had invited to come, Peter realized what his vision was all about. He
told the people gathered there that as a Jew he was forbidden to associate with
Gentile people. But God showed him in a vision that he must not call unclean
what God has made clean.
And this brings us to our part of
the passage this morning. I said it before and I meant it, I was not trying to
mock the scripture or Peter’s vision. I parodied it, because I realized that
Peter’s reluctance to take any of the animals shown to him, kill and eat, was
not just about dietary laws. The dietary laws were deeply ingrained in Peter
and every other observant’ Jews’ psyche, and they were taken seriously. But
this understanding that certain foods were unclean also led to a view that the
people, the others, who ate those foods were also unclean. Peter was wrestling
with a deep and abiding prejudice not just about unclean food, but about the
people who he associated with unclean foods.
I empathize with Peter and this
struggle. I empathize with him so much I decided that I needed to think about
my own prejudices. I needed to identify them, and then I thought I could share
one with you. I could use that prejudice as my opening illustration. What I
discovered is that I have so many, I just couldn’t bring myself to share a
serious one. I was taught that white after Labor Day was a fashion faux pas,
but I don’t care about that. If you wear white after Labor Day, I won’t judge. If
you don’t, that’s okay too. You be you. But there are prejudices in me that I must
struggle with on my own, not in this pulpit; hence my silly parody about white
after Labor Day.
But that’s the thing about
prejudice; it drives our behavior. It drove Peter’s reluctance and his refusal to
heed God’s command in his vision. Any one of us could probably offer a basic
definition of prejudice. It is dislike or distrust of another person based on
difference – whether that difference is in appearance, lifestyle, circumstance,
etc.
It seems to me that prejudice, in
any shape or form in which it comes, pushes us to narrow ourselves, our lives.
If I have a prejudice against a certain group of people, I avoid them. That
narrows my life. That narrows my world and my worldview. What am I missing out
on because I won’t gather with people I’m prejudiced against? What am I
refusing to allow into my life because of it? What friendship, what love, what
joy? Prejudice narrows. Prejudice narrows us. And I think it narrows not only
how we see the world, but how we see God. Prejudice not only narrows us; it
narrows our relationship to the One who made us.
But God refuses to be narrowed. God
refuses to be limited or kept in a box of our own making. What God offers us is
a wide, wide love. When Peter refused to break the dietary laws and customs of
his tradition, his religion, he was narrowing. But when God told Peter not to
call unclean anything that God had made clean, God was offering a wide love.
That is what Peter finally
understands. That is what Peter is articulating in his sermon to this gathering
of Gentiles. I get it now. I finally get it. God shows no partiality. God’s
love is a welcoming, all encompassing, all embracing, wide, wide love. Anyone
in any nation who loves God, who fears God, who does what is right is a
recipient of and a participant in this wide love.
Isn’t that what happens in our
baptisms? Isn’t that what we are baptized into? We are baptized into a
congregation and into the church universal, yes, but what that represents is
God’s wide love. We are baptized into God’s wide love. This wide love is what
God wants to give to us. This wide love is what we were created for, and even
more, it is the “why” of our creation.
That’s what Peter finally
understands. That’s what Peter finally gets. And when he does, his world, his
life, his heart widens to meet that wide love.
That’s what I want. I want to be a
part of God’s wide love. I want to know it and I want to do my best to give it
as well. I don’t want to be narrowed by my prejudices, by my dislikes and my
distrust of others who are different from me. I want my heart to be as wide as
the wide, wide love of God. May God’s grace and steadfastness make it so, for
me and for us all.
Let all of God’s beloved children
say, “Alleluia!”
Amen.
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