Readings:
Acts 10:44-48, John
15:9-17
Let
us pray: Open our hearts, our minds, our very souls to your word for
us O God and may we know both challenge and affirmation in our
responses. Amen.
One
of the commentaries on our Acts reading of today, the story of Peter
baptising the Gentile house of Cornelius, suggested that this
passage, if it was ever to be made into a feature film, would be a
powerful and action packed story filled with conflict, tension,
relationship struggles, surprise and surrender and even a touch of
the supernatural that changes lives forever. The writer, Jacob
Myers1,
further suggested that it would take an extraordinary actor – his
words were “a profoundly emotive thespian” – to play the role
of Peter – and he suggests Ton Hanks or Denzil Washington!
What
makes this such a powerful story? First of all we have Peter, a
conflicted character torn between everything that he has ever learned
– from his mother’s knee so to speak – and what he is being
instructed to do now. All his upbringing, all his religious teaching
has been about excluding those who were unclean ie the Gentiles and
now he is being instructed directly by God to include them. He is
finally having to get to grips with Jesus teaching that this gospel
good news is for all
people not just the Jews. Whilst his head may have picked up this
distinction – it is pretty obvious that it hadn’t yet sunk in,
become a habit. Remember when the road rules were changed a month or
so ago – experts warned that the danger would come not from the
days immediately following the change when we were all on high alert,
but in the time after - before the changed rules became a new habit
and the old habit died. Peter was still engaged in his old habit -
in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, four times he said he was
speaking to his fellow Israelites. Acknowledging that Christ was for
all people still hadn’t sunk in. This tension was not helped by
the people who had come with Peter – showing disbelief,
astonishment that Peter should do this thing, even in the face of the
evidence of the Holy Spirit – and he was to face further criticism
on his return to Jerusalem by the circumcised believers. And yet
Peter ordered their baptism – for he was convicted by the presence
of the Spirit descending on these people - and stayed to enjoy their
hospitality for some time after – also a radical decision in light
of the laws of association in the Jewish community.
We
read on in Acts 11 that Peter came before the believers in Jerusalem
to defend his actions and explain how he came to do these things.
And his bottom line defence was: If God, by giving the Holy Spirit to
these people, welcomed them into the faith community, who was he to
gainsay that! It might not still be an imbedded understanding but he
was going with it, because of his faith in God. So there we have it:
conflict, tension, new understandings and new relationships,
persuasion, following the heart, and commitment - all the elements
for a potential block buster, you agree?
So
how do we bring the drama and depth of this story about Peter, his
associates and his new friends into focus for today and for us? I am
sure that already you are picking up on some possibilities – here
is what immediately came into my thoughts as sub-scripts,
- that of constantly revisiting what it is we believe always in the light of the love and commandments of Christ,
- that of both mind and heart accepting the truth of the statement “we welcome all people” - without limitation
- that of standing strong for what we believe even if it means putting ourselves into a position of isolation,
- that of letting go of the head sometimes and recognising that there are some things that we just don’t understand or that we might be wrong on,
- that of a growing and deepening understanding of who God is – forever challenging and drawing us on into Christ-like living in relationship with God and each other.
I
invite you to expand on that further. But for the moment I would
like to develop what I consider a common thread of all those points –
and that is that all of these teachings from the story of Peter and
the coming of the gentile household of Cornelius to faith point to
this place: the place where Christ says “I no longer call you
servant but friend”. There is almost a sense of Peter growing up
at this moment – of sloughing off a skin that has been constricting
him and walking in the freedom of friendship with God.
The
difference between servant and friend in this passage is defined by
Jesus as the difference between living obediently in the law of God
or living in the full knowledge of the purpose and will of God, where
laws were always measured against the command to love God and one
another. Ludicrous as it seems to say about Peter the Rock, the one
who had been through every test, every character building moment and
emotion possible in his faith journey, Peter had still had something
to learn of this distinction between servitude and friendship.
So
how might it look for us to be friends of the living God:
We
are to measure all that we say and do in the light of that love –
so if we find actions or rituals or attitudes that contradict that
purpose we have to question why we are doing it and often let them
go. For Peter it was the necessity for circumcision before baptism,
for us it might be doctrine that excludes, or ways of living that
hurt and harm or exploit others
We
are to welcome all people – for Peter it was the Gentiles, for us
it might be those who are angry, or ragged or disrespectful or
irritating, those who disagree with us or those who do it
differently.
We
are to stand strong for what we believe in – even if it puts us at
odds with others and even if we don’t totally feel comfortable with
it. Transformed living means we will often be standing in a very
different, and often contrary, place to those around us – but we
can do this because we are convinced of the way we are following,
heart and mind both.
Interesting
though isn’t it? Peter didn’t try and convince others of his new
understanding with deeply complex and unassailable arguments of
theology – he simply told them what had happened, that God was
present in that situation and so he believed. It is in our actions
and attitudes, our convictions that we offer real proof of the
purpose of God in this world.
There
are times when the evidence of our eyes, of the presence of God
assaults our long held opinions and we have let go of them or modify
them. For Peter it was giving up a whole way of living – a culture
as well as a faith that told him to not associate with the
uncircumcised – a major rethink of his attitudes – but he was
able to do it because of a greater direction in his life – that
God’s love was for all people in all places regardless of their
ethnicity, their cleanliness, their behaviour or their genes.
Makes
you realise, doesn’t it, what a great movie script our lives make
when we too walk with the integrity and purpose in the knowledge of
God made known in Christ and through the Holy Spirit. There is no
doubt there will be sub-plots of conflict and tension with ourselves
and others, there will be scenes of uncertainty where the only way
forward is in faith and trust in others, there will be times where we
are challenged by the establishment and have to find ways to respond,
and where our vision is not the vision of everyone else.
But
if we, like Peter, can learn trust the working of the Spirit way
beyond our imaginings and comforts, if we are truly living in the
knowledge of the one who calls us friend then we are presenting the
world with a captivating and inspiring script for how we might
re-image this world and all who live in it – in the love of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen
Margaret
Garland
No comments:
Post a Comment