Acts 11:1-18
May 18, 2025
There is a high rise where Shakey’s Pizza used to be.
There
is a high rise where Shakey’s Pizza used to be.
There.
Is. A. Highrise. Where. Shakey’s Pizza. Used. To. Be.
I
realize that this statement requires some unpacking to make sense to you, so
here goes. Shakey’s Pizza was the “it” pizza place in Green Hills, the
neighborhood in Nashville where Brent and I grew up. Shakey’s was the place where I spent much of
my teenage years. It was tradition to go to Shakey’s after football games. If you
were on a date, before you would go home, you’d stop by Shakey’s to see who was
there. Shakey’s is where I learned how to play two of my favorite video games, Centipede
and Joust. Shakey’s is where we stopped by on prom night, before we went
for our fancy dinner, because we were friends with the manager and the other
employees and they wanted to see us dressed up. Shakey’s is where my longtime
writer friend, Keith, would go in the afternoons when he got off work. He’d get
something to eat and sit in a booth and write. When I got my driver’s license,
I drove to Shakey’s. When my parents decreed that I could only see my boyfriend
once a week, I would sneak off for a few minutes whenever I got the chance and
we’d meet for a few minutes at Shakey’s. Trust me, my parents were not
clueless, they knew what I was doing. Shakey’s is where we watched the premier
of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video on the big screen.
Shakey’s
was more than just a pizza parlor, it was a huge part of my life. And it wasn’t
just a big part of my life only. Brent and my brother and sister and all their
friends went to Shakey’s too. It was an institution for several generations of
teenagers and families. Shakey’s is forever woven into my memories from that
time. And now there is a high rise where Shakey’s once stood. And while I know
that everything changes, nothing stays the same, I still get a lump in my
throat when I see that high rise, because I remember vividly what was there
before, and when I remember Shakey’s I remember being young and full of great
expectations.
But
… everything changes. Change can be hard. Change can be bad. But change can
also be good. Sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes I crave change. I
need to do something different – change my hair, rearrange the furniture,
anything, just to create a little change. Yet, in the bigger picture, these are
relatively small changes, and small changes generally don’t cause the same kind
of stress that big changes do. (Although I will admit to having shed many tears
over bad haircuts over the course of my life.) I think though, that change, whether it is
good or bad or somewhere in the middle, can be frightening because it
represents the unknown and the uncertain. We often don’t know when we lean into
change, whether it will be good, bad, or otherwise, and that’s what makes it
scary. Maybe this change will be the best thing we ever did, or maybe it will
turn out all wrong. We just don’t know. Sometimes what we think of as change
that is bad – like a high rise where Shakey’s used to be – might end up being a
good change after all. What we perceive to be bad change is really change that
is necessary and needed, even though it is hard to go through. I think that is
what Peter was faced with in the story we read from Acts.
The apostles and believers who were
in Judea heard that Gentiles – those others – had “accepted the
word of God.” Apparently, this was a
change they were not prepared for, so as soon as Peter arrived in Jerusalem the
other apostles wanted to know what happened. More specifically, these circumcised
believers wanted to know why Peter, also a circumcised believer, ate with uncircumcised
believers. They did not ask Peter about the Gentiles acceptance of God’s
word or what that acceptance entailed. They wanted to know why Peter shared
table fellowship with these others, because if they were not circumcised then
they did not keep kosher. These uncircumcised others did not follow the strict dietary
laws, so if Peter ate with them, it was a good bet that he had violated the
dietary laws too. And if that were true, Peter had better have a good reason
for doing what he did.
Peter did have a good reason and his
reason was sound. He recounted to them the vision he received. He was sitting
on the roof where they were staying in Joppa. Peter was hungry, and while he
was waiting for the meal that was being prepared, he fell into a trance and had
a vision from God. In the vision he saw a sheet being lowered by its four
corners from heaven. On that sheet was every kind of creature imaginable:
mammals, birds, reptiles. Along with the sheet of critters came a voice telling
him to get up, kill, and eat. It was the Lord speaking to Peter, but Peter
refused God’s command.
He told the Lord that he had never
put anything profane or unclean in his body, and he was not about to start now.
Three is a scripturally significant number, and as in other stories, this
exchange with God happened three times. Three is also a significant number for
Peter. Peter denied Jesus three times before the crucifixion. The resurrected
Jesus gave Peter three chances to declare his love for Jesus, wiping out the
three denials. And now God called Peter to kill and eat anything on that sheet
three times. Three times Peter said, “No.” But after the second time the voice
told Peter,
“What God has made clean, you must
not call profane.”
The sheet was lifted back to heaven
and Peter’s vision came to an end. But with the ending of the vision came the
arrival of men sent by the centurion, Cornelius.
Cornelius had also received a divine
message. He was instructed by an angel to send for Peter. Peter went with the
men. Cornelius and his whole household not only listened to Peter preach, but
they also received the gift of the Holy Spirit and believed! Even though they
were uncircumcised!
Peter told Cornelius that it was
unlawful for a Jew to associate with a Gentile, but he finally understood what
God was telling him in his vision. The vision was not just about food. It was
about people. If God commanded that people were clean, then he could not call
them unclean. If the Gentiles, the others, the outsiders, could receive the
Holy Spirit and believe just as Peter and the other apostles had, then who was
Peter to hinder God? How could Peter say, “no” to God’s “Yes”? Who was Peter to
hinder God?
I think it is instinctive of our
human nature to draw dividing lines between us and others. We like to create categories
and impose labels. This category is good. That category is bad. This group of
folks is good. That group of folks is bad. These people are acceptable, and
those people are not. These are the insiders and those are the outsiders. We
all do it. Certainly, Jesus’ first believers did it. Yet when Jesus was living
among them, he spent a great deal of time blurring the lines society tried to
maintain between people and groups. Heck, Jesus didn’t just blur those lines,
he leaped right over them. If you recall, the cream of the religious crop of
Jesus’ day had trouble with the folks Jesus chose to sit at table with. I guess
it shouldn’t be surprising then, that table fellowship was causing problems all
over again.
And from the earliest stories in
scripture, we learn that while God called the Israelites to be his chosen
people, it was to bless not only the Israelites but all the people of the world
through them. That was God’s covenant with Abram. Through you, God said, I will
bless all the families of the world. No insiders. No outsiders. God’s children.
So, Peter’s vision did not just
dispel the idea of clean and unclean food. It made it clear that the dividing
lines we draw between ourselves, and others are our lines, not God’s. They are
us saying, “No!” even as God is saying, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” And Peter realized
that in pushing back against God’s command in this vision, in trying to say,
“No” to God’s “Yes”, Peter was hindering God. And who was he to hinder God?
Who are we to hinder God?
Last Sunday I talked about baptism
as a sacrament of belonging, and I think it is this question of who belongs and
who doesn’t that is the crux of this passage and indeed the gospel. Who
belongs? Peter thought he knew. Peter thought he understood who was supposed to
be in and who was supposed to be out. Peter thought he grasped belonging,
especially when it came to being a follower of Jesus, to being a recipient of
the Holy Spirit. But God made it clear to Peter that he did not know, and he
did not understand. Do not call unclean what I have made clean. Do not try to
dictate who belongs and who doesn’t. Do not say “No” when I have said, “Yes.”
Who was Peter to hinder God? Who are we to hinder God?
Peter realized that when he tried to
control who belonged and who didn’t, he was hindering God, and to hinder God
was to hinder the new thing God was doing. Peter was hindering God because he
was resisting a change he wasn’t prepared for. Peter was resisting a change to
something he held sacred his entire life. This must have been terrifying for
him. This wasn’t just the change that comes when one business gives way to
something new. This was change to something Peter believed to be unchangeable.
Don’t call unclean what I have made clean. Don’t say “No” to my “Yes.”
Who are we to hinder God? It seems
to me that discipleship, following this narrow path that Jesus walked, is about
embracing change, embracing the new thing God continues to do in our midst. It
is about constantly learning and relearning that God will not be put into a box
of our making, that when it comes to belonging, we don’t get the final say,
that whatever boundaries or lines we draw around people, whatever labels we use
and categories we create, God will not be bound or limited or hindered. And that
means change and that is good news. It really is. Take it from someone who does
not welcome change, this is good news. God is doing something new. We read it
in Revelation, we see it in this and so many other passages from Acts, and this
deep change is the heartbeat of all four gospels. God is doing something new,
what we think is unclean, God is making clean, our no is outweighed by God’s
great yes. God is doing something new, and no matter how we might try, we
cannot hinder God. But let’s try harder not to hinder God from this moment on.
God is doing something new. Thanks be to God.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia!’
Amen.
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