Rumors and Trials

Reading: Revelation 21:1-6, Psalm 148, John 13:31-35, Acts 11:1-18.
Preached at Baldwin Presbyterian Church on May 2nd 2010

There were rumors spreading in Jerusalem. They were rumors of a disturbing kind. It had come to the apostle’s attention that one of their number, no less a person than their leading light, Peter, had done the unthinkable. He’d gone to dinner at a Gentiles house.

If they had been Gentiles, then there wouldn’t be a problem. But the apostles weren’t Gentiles. They were Jews. Their mission was to take the message that the Messiah had arrived to the Jewish people scattered throughout the known world. The whole enterprise was tied up with their history and destiny.

God was their God and they were God’s chosen people. God had promised them a Messiah and they were witnesses that Jesus was the One. Witness to the Servant/King, the sacrificial Lamb, who became their atonement and their Great High Priest through His death and resurrection, their nations future hope and present joy. “Welcome your chosen one!” This was the message they had for their people.

Gentiles? Who invited them along? Since when had they ever been part of God’s plan? Why would they be interested in a Jewish Messiah? Did they even believe in God? Weren’t they still worshiping idols and emperors? Of course there were Gentiles who had become Jews, through marriage or through circumcision. Of course they’ll want to know the Messiah has arrived. But the rest of them? What’s a Messiah to them?

Just when things were starting to go well, what was this foolishness Peter had got into? Just when they’d finally had a notable convert in the former persecutor and now disciple, Saul of Tarsus, why did Peter want to go and confuse things? If the Gentiles wanted to know about the One True God, then let them firstly give up their Gentile ways and get on board with the chosen people, get with the laws that God had given and by which the real people of God had always been known.

Amongst those laws were strict ones about what was clean and what was unclean. Gentiles came under the second category. Unclean. Can you imagine a Jew like Peter sitting down and eating - in a Gentiles house, at a Gentiles table, laden with Gentiles food – can you imagine Peter ignoring all those cleansing rituals and food laws and rituals that were the heritage and privilege of the chosen people. It was not kosher! They would have to have words with Peter.

So Peter heads for Jerusalem. To face a trial. To explain his actions. To defend this breach of traditions that had been honored as holy, true and godly for nigh on the last 3000 years! This was more than bad theology. Didn’t he know what the Bible said? He is deliberately flaunting himself contrary to the Word of God. This is heresy! This could be – probably might turn out to be – Satan up to his old tricks.

Meanwhile, Peter had been having an interesting time of things. There was no guidebook for the journey his life was taking. There was no “Dummies Guide to Being an Apostle”. He had known Jesus. His experience of following Jesus had led to so many unexpected twists and turns, had illuminated his view of life, religion and just about everything else in life with unexpected color.

There had been the crucifixion. His own personal failure in denial. His feelings, even after the Resurrection, that it was all over as far as he was concerned and that he might as well go back fishing. Then those encounters on the mountaintop. The Commission;” Go into all the world…” The experience of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit with wind and fire, the awareness of God’s Spirit, the living Christ, guiding and prompting and leading him in ways he had never known.

And strange things happening. Powerful things. Doors opening to the courts of rulers. Prison doors not being allowed to hold them captive. A community based on love and mutual sharing coming into existence. People selling everything they had just to be a part of it. There had been powerful healings and miracles.

He had witnessed those like Steven, who in their death brought glory to God. He had witnessed Steven’s persecutor Saul, turning his life around and start preaching boldly for the faith he had once persecuted. And then there’d been that incident with “Dorcas” also known as “Tabitha”. He’d prayed and she’d come back from the dead. If these things were preparing him for something God was about to do, what on earth could it be?

The answer wasn’t long in coming. On a rooftop near Joppa, Peter has the strangest vision whilst having his prayer time. You know how it is that sometimes your stomach gets the rumbles when you’re waiting for dinner? Dinner is on the way, but Peter is somewhere else. He has this vision of a huge sheet full of creatures that his beliefs told him were unclean, and yet hears the voice of God telling him to eat them. Three times he has the same vision. He’s not sure what it means. He’s perplexed.

Over the other side of town, a Gentile called Cornelius has been having an equally strange time. Cornelius has been praying to the only God he knew about. An encounter with a messenger of God leaves him with the strong notion that he needs to go and look for a man named Simon Peter, who is staying at the Tanners house.

So there’s Peter on the roof, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. And there’s Cornelius, equally perplexed, trying to find him. Cornelius finds the house; knocks on the door and for Peter things start to make sense. A few days later he is in Cornelius’s house, preaching the gospel. And it’s like the day of Pentecost all over again. The Holy Spirit falls upon the Gentiles, with great force.

It took the disciples a while to figure out that when Jesus said, “Go into all the world”, he meant ‘all the world’ – not just those bits that they were comfortable with. This was “BIG” with a capital B. I. and G. Elsewhere; Paul was beginning to realize the same thing. They had to go to the Gentiles. They had to abandon their sacred cows and reach out to people they once considered beyond God’s reach. There was just one obstacle left for Peter. How would he explain all this to the church back in Jerusalem, who now summoned him to explain his strange behavior?

It is to Peter’s credit that he does nothing but give them the plain facts. He tells it like it is. This is what took place. (He relates a series of events.) This is why I did it. (He relates the vision from God.) This is what happened. (The Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit.) God commanded God’s blessing to fall and it happened just like Pentecost.

It is to the council in Jerusalem’s credit that they do not argue the point but accept his testimony. God’s New plan, the New covenant, embraced both Jew and Gentile as One.
Our reading from John’s Gospel states 13:34-35 “ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Today we meet around a table laid with bread and wine. In a while you'll be asked to share that bread and wine and recall all that Jesus was and did, to recall His promises and seek for His love to change your life.

We have reflected on the journey of Peter. How he constantly needed to be challenged and received deeper and deeper insight into the inclusiveness of God's love. How because he allowed himself to be changed, so the world was changed.

Be in no doubt today about the love of God. He gave His Son to be broken for You and poured out His love in Christ for you so that there need be nothing in the way of you living your life for Him.

Come to this table thinking about the lessons of Peter's journey. Where in your life do you need to change? What attitudes are there in your own heart that exclude some to the preference of others? What is the next lesson you need to learn from God? Have you lost sight of the vastness of God's love and need a reminder that You are God's child? Here is a great place for that to happen! Are you facing hard things and are not sure how to get through? Here is a great place to nurture your faith!

Taste and see that Lord is good. He guided Peter. He guided Cornelius. He guided the council in Jerusalem to accept unthinkable insights. And the love of God bound it all together and moved them forward. Today let us seek for that love also to move our hearts. In Jesus name. Amen.


Rev Adrian Pratt