Leviticus
11:1-8. 13-18, 45-47
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them: 2Speak
to the people of Israel, saying: From among all the land animals, these are the
creatures that you may eat. 3Any animal that has divided hoofs and
is cleft-footed and chews the cud—such you may eat.
4But among
those that chew the cud or have divided hoofs, you shall not eat the following:
the camel, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it
is unclean for you. 5The rock badger, for even though it chews the
cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 6The
hare, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is
unclean for you. 7The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and
is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8Of
their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they
are unclean for you… 13These you shall regard as detestable among
the birds. They shall not be eaten; they are an abomination: the eagle, the
vulture, the osprey, 14the buzzard, the kite of any kind; 15every
raven of any kind; 16the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the
hawk of any kind; 17the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18the
water hen, the desert owl, the carrion vulture, 19the stork, the
heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat…
45For I am the
Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be
your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy. 46This is the law
pertaining to land animal and bird and every living creature that moves through
the waters and every creature that swarms upon the earth, 47to make
a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living
creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.
Jesus set the agenda for the disciples at the beginning of Acts:
“You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the
ends of the earth.” The story of Acts is a story of ever expanding circles.
First the gospel spread to Jews in Jerusalem. Then, under persecution that
scattered the church, the message spread throughout Judea. Before long, Philip
and others started preaching to Samaritans and Jewish foreigners like the
Ethiopian eunuch.
In
today’s passage the gospel takes another step and crosses the biggest barrier
yet. We have a hard time getting how big a divide there was between Jews and
gentiles in the first century. That’s because we are Christians living in a Christian
culture. For Jews in the first century it was a totally different story.
Beginning in 63
BC the land of Israel was occupied by the Roman Empire, which stretched from
Spain to Jordan to Egypt. Within that empire, people had a fair amount of
independence, but they were all required to bow to the Emperor. Subjects of the
Roman Empire not only had to obey the Emperor, they also had to worship him
along with their other gods.
Jews had a
special and challenging standing in the Roman Empire. Because they were only
allowed to worship God, Jews did not have to worship the emperor. Instead, they
were required to pray to God for the emperor. That’s a pretty reasonable
compromise, but it came with a cost, as faithfulness always does. Most of the
social and economic life of the Empire took place around pagan temples, so it
was off limits to Jews. They didn’t worship or socialize in the same ways their
neighbors did so they did not fit in.
They kept
themselves apart to protect their faithfulness to God. God called the Jewish
people as God’s special people; that meant being different from their neighbors.
With pagan neighbors in control of so many parts of life there were many
temptations to blend in. But Jews knew that their faith called them to stand
apart. Basically one’s entire life would have been defined by their Jewish
identity. Everything, from food to friendships was seen through the lens of
clean and unclean, as our passage from Leviticus points to.
Jesus
was Jewish. All the apostles were Jewish; so were the first several thousand
Christians and all the leaders of the church. Until our story today,
Christianity was an entirely Jewish movement. Given that, our story today
represents a shocking change in direction.
Acts
10:1-20, 24-29a, 44-48
In Caesarea
there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was
called. 2He was a devout man who feared God with all his household;
he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3One
afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an
angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” 4He stared at
him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your
alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5Now send men to Joppa
for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6he is lodging with Simon,
a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” 7When the angel who spoke
to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the
ranks of those who served him, 8and after telling them everything,
he sent them to Joppa.
9About noon
the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter
went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something
to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He
saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being
lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12In it were all kinds of
four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13Then he
heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14But Peter
said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or
unclean.” 15The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God
has made clean, you must not call profane.” 16This happened three
times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
17Now while
Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen,
suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house
and were standing by the gate. 18They called out to ask whether
Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. 19While Peter was
still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Look, three men are
searching for you. 20Now get up, go down, and go with them without
hesitation; for I have sent them.”
24The
following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had
called together his relatives and close friends. 25On Peter’s
arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. 26But
Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.” 27And
as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 28and
he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to
associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not
call anyone profane or unclean. 29So when I was sent for, I came
without objection…
44While Peter
was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The
circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of
the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they
heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47“Can
anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy
Spirit just as we have?” 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
---------------------------------
I’m interested in people who get out of their
normal setting. People grow up in a place and culture. Culture is the air we
breathe, the lens we see the world through. We believe things we don’t even
know we believe because they are part of our culture. It takes active effort to
go against the grain of the culture we grew up with.
Cornelius’s culture believed that Roman
civilization was superior. Through its military strength and cultural
refinement it had blessed most of the known world with peace, stability and
learning beyond what they could have imagined otherwise. Pagan religion was
important in that it provided celebrations and basic moral guidelines for
society, but it generally wasn’t the most important part of people’s lives.
Peter’s culture believed Jews were superior
to pagans, and assumed that one of the most important parts of staying faithful
to God was keeping away from pagans. Even Jesus used gentiles as examples of what
was wrong with the world. Peter and Cornelius both had culture pushing them
away from each other. But God was clearly leading them together and leading
both of them to step outside the boundaries of their cultures.
In our own world Christianity is like pagan
religion was in Cornelius’s world. It is an important part of the culture we
grew up with. Most people accept and identify with Christianity, but it is more
a set of assumptions about the world than the ultimate commitment to Jesus that
true faith is. Christianity shapes our view of the world like our nationality
or political outlook or economic status.
Because we grew up in late twentieth century
US Christianity we think it’s normal to vote in elections and think it’s normal
that many people don’t vote. We think it’s normal to be able to express
ourselves freely. We think it’s normal to believe in God and celebrate
Christmas and be nice to other people. We think it’s normal to buy things and
raise families and go to work.
Cornelius started to wonder about things; he
found truth that echoed in his soul through teachings about the God of Israel.
Maybe the truth he found there answered questions his pagan religion never had.
Spending time in the synagogue, in a faith community his culture looked down on
already started prying him loose from his culture. He let the truth of God
shape his life and kept reaching out to God. Then God invited him to go deeper,
to send for Peter so he could hear a word of salvation, a word that would
change his life.
We don’t know anything else about how
Cornelius and his friends and family responded to the message. We don’t know
how their lives changed because of faith in Christ. But we do know that God
doesn’t force faith on anyone, so the fact that the Holy Spirit fell on them
must mean that they put their trust in Christ.
I’m inviting you to make the same choice
today. Christ calls us to a faith that changes our lives. Going to church, even
making church a high priority in our lives is not enough. Believing in Jesus means
allowing him to set the course for our lives. It means making him the center of
everything we do.
Conversion in our culture is a little
different, both easier and harder, than it was in Cornelius’s time. He was
converting from pagan religion and culture and I am inviting you to convert
from a culture that says it is Christian to a true devotion to Jesus that will
change your life. It’s easier because Jesus is already part of our landscape,
because we already have a faith community. It’s harder because the lines are
blurry so it’s easy to fall back to cultural Christianity that is nothing but a
label.
I
struggle with that everyday. Every part of faith is constantly in motion in my
life. There are moments of faith and moments of doubt. There are times when I
feel sure that greater openness is what the church needs and other times that I
am sure we need more commitment (really, we need both). There are times I worry
that I will be judged and come up short and other times I’m sure that God’s
love will prevail in everyone’s life when the judgment comes. I am uncertain
about many things in faith, but I am certain of one thing. I am certain of
Jesus Christ. I’m certain that Jesus loves us and offers us salvation from fear
and selfishness.
The
more I think about what it means to be a minister of the gospel in this time
and place, the more convinced I am of a few things. Only God gives faith, and
it is no one’s job to judge faith but God’s. My job is to remind you that God
loves you absolutely and that Christ died for you. My job is to invite you, to
invite everyone, actually, but especially you, to repent, to turn to God and to
put your trust in Jesus Christ.
I’m
not going to put a limit on God’s salvation. I can’t tell you who is saved or
not saved. I’m not going to tell you you have to believe x, y or z. But I am
going to invite you to put your trust in God and to decide to make Jesus the
Lord of your life. Making that decision is not a one time thing; it’s a
decision we reaffirm with all our other decisions. It’s a commitment we will do
better at some days than others. Christ calls us to more than the cultural
Christianity we grew up with. Christ calls us to trust, to let go of our fear
and to follow.
We
all decide and trust in different ways. If physical action helps you own a
commitment, I invite you right now, while I am still speaking, to come up to
the front as a sign of your commitment. If you want to make that commitment
silently in your heart, that’s fine. And if you don’t know where God is leading
you, if you’re not sure you can commit to trusting in Jesus all the way, that’s
fine too. However you feel led to respond to Christ’s calling in this moment is
OK.
What
I will say, not to pressure but to invite, is that religion is not
entertainment. It’s not something we do to fit in or because we always have.
Christianity means following Jesus in our lives. We are not talking about light
things; we’re not talking about an interesting teaching to learn more about; we’re
talking about the very shape of our lives. Jesus didn’t die to give us
something to do on Sunday morning; he died to free us from sin and death. And
he calls us to a life shaped in every way by love and grace.
Thanks
be to God. Let us pray.
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