Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Hindering God -- Fifth Sunday of Easter

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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