Acts 10:1-28
Peter had a problem. All his life he had lived one way, with one
set of rules. Up until this very moment
Peter could always count on knowing what was right and what was wrong. Beef was good, pork was not. Folks from his tribe were good, others were
not. If Peter had a problem he would
flip through the Levitical laws and find a solution. He might not like what he found but he was
sure he knew what God expected.
Then one night Peter had a vision, or to
be more exact, a nightmare. A sheet was
lifted down from heaven. On the sheet
were all the foods that Peter knew he should never consume. There was pork, shell fish and other
delicacies that had never made there way into Peter’s palate. He was repulsed
by both the sight and smell. Then God
sat down at the table with a rack of ribs in one hand and a napkin in the other
to wipe off the sauce that was dripping off his chin. “Peter, pull up a chair. You won’t believe how good this is. Grab some of that barbeque over there and
slap it on a bun. It comes from a place
called North Carolina. You have not lived until you’ve tasted the
sauce.”
Peter protested. “God, I can’t eat this stuff. I would be breaking the law. It is just not right.”
God grabbed a tooth pick and started to
work on a strand of pulled pork that was lodged in his teeth. “Peter, one of these days you are going to
have learn sometimes there is a difference between what is right and what is righteous.”
“But God, Your Word makes it quite clear
that pork is not one of the recommended selections on the menu.”
“Peter, sometimes you are way too
literal. Besides, this conversation is
not about a ham sandwich, it is about a man named Cornelius.”
Peter’s handbook, The Torah, or what we now
refer to as the Old Testament is an incredible collection of 39 books that lay
out a complex understanding of each writers understanding of God. The Old Testament is filled with stories,
poems and songs. It centers on the
travels and travails of a particular group of people who had the audacity to
refer to themselves as the children of God.
What makes the Old Testament amazingly unique is each time we open those
ancient pages we risk the possibility of being overwhelmed by a fresh, radical
passion that brands our souls. Peter
grew up understanding the Torah as a rule book.
Somewhere he missed out on those writers who wrote about the God of the
Wilderness, the God who marches through the waters of chaos, the God who
preaches of mercy and grace, the God who places righteousness above everything
else. Peter was about to have a panic
attack because God was offering him a ham sandwich while the real crisis was
downstairs. Cornelius was about to knock
on Peter’s door.
Can you imagine what the neighbors were
thinking? Cornelius was a Greek. There was nothing kosher about this guy. He was a goy, a foreigner, an outsider. The neighbors were pulling down the shades,
locking the doors and calling Peter by cell phone to ask him if he knew what
was headed his way. But it was too
late. Peter had just tasted the
imagination of his transcendent God and there was no going back. imagine what
Peter thought as he took that first bite of ham? “This is different…….. this is good…… I’ll
have seconds.
Of all the things that I don’t
understand about the history of the church the toughest is we seem to have our
biggest fights over who is invited to God’s party. In the beginning, only Jews could be
Christians. Then we included Cornelius
and his family. Paul traveled to Greece and Rome. The church moved all over Europe
and then sent missionaries throughout the world. But there was always something odd about the
early missionary movement. For centuries
we sent missionaries to Africa and Asia but
seldom invited black folks to church. If
you weren’t white, you weren’t right.
Then somewhere along the way God reminded us it was not about being
right, it was about being righteous. It
wasn’t about being a particular family, it was about becoming one diverse family,
filled with all kind of flavors, filled with
new and creative ways of celebrating God.
Do you remember the mess the auto
company Ford was in a couple decades ago?
The once proud auto producer was being blown out of the water by Honda
and Toyota. The Ford executives, the same guys that had
given us the Pinto and the Edsel, put their creative minds together and came to
two observations. First, every one in
the room thought alike. Second, this one way of thinking was sinking the
company. So they went out and brought in
a bunch of new folks to design their next car.
Only these folks weren’t just engineers.
Most of them were ordinary folks off the street. They had never designed a car. None of them drove a Ford, and they had no
desire to begin driving one. Ford asked
this group of teachers, soccer moms, policemen and farmers what they wanted in
a car. They responded. Each time a prototype
was built it had to be inspected by this original group. If something didn’t work, it was
dropped. Finally the car was built and
placed in the market. They called it the
Taurus. I never owned one but I know it
singlehandedly put Ford back on the map.
Five years later Ford decided to build the Taurus II. A bunch of Ford engineers designed it. None of the original group was
consulted. Anyone remember the Taurus
II? Exactly!!!
Peter was one of the great saints of the
church. But the Church was going no
where without Cornelius and those other creative folks who had new ways of
praising and understanding God. I contend what has allowed the church to
survive for 2,000 years is not our sameness but our diversity. What a shame it would be if everyone in this
church only listened to classical music, or for that matter folk. What a tragedy it would be we all read the
same books, liked the same movies or had the same hobbies. Think how dull it would be if in November
every one at Rockfish voted for Obama……. or Romney. Think how disastrous it would be if membership
into this church required everyone think the same way. Our
love of God’s incredible imagination and our respect for each other’s vision is
the glue that holds us together.
Open your minds…..Open your hearts….to
God’s banquet.
No comments:
Post a Comment