"Listening with your Heart"
Sermon Presented May 6, 2007
Acts 11:1-18
When I was a child, my youth pastor told us that it was a sin to dance or to roller skate because these activities could lead to sexual immorality. When Mom was a child, her pastor told her that it was a sin to play cards because it could lead to gambling. A Jewish youth was told to never eat pork or mix meat and dairy; and a good Catholic child in my school always ate fish or macaroni and cheese on Fridays. A Baptist should never marry a Catholic, and vice versa. A Jew should always marry another Jew. A Baptist church should never have a woman pastor! How a person followed the rules of the Church determined who was close to God and who was an outsider.
Why do we believe that some of the things that the early Christians or even our grandparents rejected are now okay? Why do early cultural prohibitions and practices seem out of place - or even worse - un-Christian in today's society? How do we know what customs or rules we need to reexamine in light of the love of God and current understanding? Does what we determine to be from God create our culture or does our culture determine what God demands?
We're going to look indirectly at these questions this morning in light of the biblical story of Peter and Cornelius - found in Acts 11:1-18. This is a story of God's surprising intervention in the lives of two men who could never have imagined that their lives would intersect. (Read text.)
The time is after Jesus' death and resurrection, and until now, the gospel of Jesus has only been preached to Jews. No Christian envisions that the good news is for anyone but Jews! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - the God of Sarah, Deborah and Miriam - is the God of the Jews. Jesus is the Savior of the Jews! But God has other plans! God wants to include non-Jews and so begins this work of inclusion with Peter and a godly Gentile named Cornelius. Our text is a repetition of the story told in the previous chapter, and it's repeated here as Peter's defense of his actions before the Jerusalem Jews who want to keep the boundaries in place.
What caused Peter to change his mind? What brought Peter and Cornelius together? A shift in theology occurred because two men were willing to listen to God speak to their hearts and then to obey. It happened because God used willing vessels to break down the barriers of race and culture in order to spread the Gospel story.
The Jews believed that God was exclusively the God of the Jews. They believed that certain dietary laws must be obeyed, and that all males should be circumcised. They believed that Jews shouldn't associate with Gentiles so as to preserve the purity of the race and their faith traditions. They were well-intentioned, and they could affirm their beliefs and actions through the Torah. But God wants to demolish the boundaries, so God acts!
Cornelius, a Roman military leader, is a godly man who prays to God and contributes generously to the poor. However, he isn't a Jew and he isn't a Christian. One day as he prays, he sees a vision of an angel, and soon understands that this vision is from God. He follows the angel's instructions and sends messengers to Joppa to get Peter who is staying with Simon the tanner.
The next day, as the messengers approach Simon's house, Peter is praying on the rooftop and he too has a vision. He sees a sheet coming from heaven filled with all kinds of animals, birds and reptiles - creatures that are considered unclean by the Jews. He hears a voice tell him to kill and eat, but he argues vehemently that he can't eat anything that is unclean. The voice tells him that they are clean because God made them clean. This happens three times. As Peter ponders the vision, the messengers from Cornelius arrive, and God tells Peter to accompany them.
Cornelius believes that Peter will come, and he acts on that belief. Peter also trusts God and goes to Caesarea. When Peter begins to speak to the gathering, the Holy Spirit falls on everyone and they begin to speak in tongues and praise God - just as it happened at Pentecost. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that these foreigners are Christians, and Peter baptizes them.
However, this event brings vicious attacks from the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. The racial tension is high, and instead of being elated that people are coming to Christ, they attack Peter for taking the message of Jesus to non-Jews. Inviting Gentiles into the synagogues is like inviting a chicken hawk into the chicken coop. It could kill the Christian Church.
When Peter goes to Jerusalem to defend himself, he doesn't give them a theological argument, but tells the story of what happened. Following the story, his listeners are convinced of God's participation, and they rejoice.
The book of Acts, a continuation of Luke's Gospel, proclaims that God continues to do radical new things in the world and that God's Spirit can work in the lives of those whom the Church has long excluded. Our text tells of two conversions: the conversion of the Gentiles, and the conversion of Peter and the Jerusalem Christians who begin to understand that Jesus came for all people. It's a story filled with tension and resistance. It's a story of a universal gospel for all people! It's also a reminder that Christianity isn't a one-time experience, but a lifelong journey of learning and experiencing God in new ways as we listen with our hearts.
Peter asks the Jerusalem Christians: "Who was I that I should hinder God?" Let's ask that question of ourselves. How do we hinder God? Who do we consider to be unclean? Who do we avoid sharing the Good News of Jesus with?
These questions should cause us to do some soul searching! Where do we go and where do we refuse to go to share God's love - because you see, it isn't our words that speak, it's our actions. Peter doesn't even preach and yet the Gentiles are converted. He just follows God's direction and goes. He doesn't tell them that they need to be circumcised, or eat kosher meals, or even to repent. He just listens with his heart and obeys; and God does the rest. He doesn't get hung up on their ethnicity, religious background, social status, gender or occupation; he just understands that God's love extends to all people. Peter is as powerfully converted as the Gentiles who gather in that room.
Our Milwaukee community is ripe with cultural differences. Many nationalities came because of refugee programs, persecution in their native land, educational opportunities, and jobs. We have ethnic, religious, racial and socioeconomic diversity. We have communities that support addiction recovery and others that offer safe places to deal with sexual orientation. However, we don't often cross the boundaries to offer our loving presence to those who are different than we.
I am reading Mel White's book Stranger at the Gate: to be Gay and Christian in America. White is famous as an author and filmmaker and was a ghostwriter of books, autobiographies and speeches for Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker and Oliver North. At a young age, White was confused because he wasn't attracted to girls, but to members of his own gender. However, he married, had two children, and was miserable, spending many years in therapy to change his sexual orientation. He underwent electric shock treatment - both to his brain and then to his body, but nothing changed except for a deeper depression with each failed attempt. He was surrounded by people who vehemently opposed homosexuality and thus he kept his deep dark secret from everyone except his wife and his counselors. His secret almost destroyed him.
White stated that the irony of the Christian stance against homosexuality is that this issue - along with abortion - were the first political-actions that Adolf Hitler raised in his successful attempt to conquer Germany. Men selected by Jerry Falwell in 1979 to serve on the first board of directors of his Moral Majority took up those issues to mobilize conservative armies of their own. Christians didn't learn from history. Acceptance of those with a different sexual orientation is one boundary many Christians are unwilling to cross.
After following God's leadership to go to Cornelius' family, Peter learns that no one should be excluded from God's fellowship. To cement that understanding, he eats with them and teaches them. He invests himself in them and then presents their case to the legalists in Jerusalem.
Criticism and judgmentalism didn't just run rampant in the early Church; they run rampant in the Church today. People claim to know the heart of God while living loveless and rigid lives. We aren't always open to newness because we believe we know all of the Truth God has to reveal. The early Church wasn't open to newness because they believed that the message of Jesus was exclusively for the Jews. However, God gave them new experiences to show them that God's love can transcend the written law. The same can happen for us if our hearts are open.
It would have been so much easier if the Spirit of God had left well-enough alone and not blown where it did. But God's Spirit - the Spirit of love and community - is free and stirs up conflict until we realize that our prejudices and judgmentalism toward others keep us from living in God's kingdom. God's Spirit brings people together - offering a broader vision for the future and a greater hope for humanity than we can envision. So blow, Spirit, blow and may our hearts be open to receive new hope and new direction.
