Rule Breakers
Peter was in hot water. While he was in Joppa, just after he raised Dorcas, he had a vision, one of those Holy Spirit prodding, life will not be the same after this vision kind of vision.
Peter observed the dietary laws of the Jewish people. These practices were so ingrained into his reality that he did not have a choice to think of the consumption of food in any other manner. He knew, deep down in his bones, that not only were the dietary laws he had followed his whole life rooted in the Holy Scriptures but that these laws were a matter of life and death for his community. Israel, for centuries, had been on the receiving end of mocking and persecution by their occupiers (in and out of exile) for adhering to these laws. These laws provided constancy and assurance to a group of people who had been on the receiving end of change at the hands of their oppressors over the course of multiple generations.
It would take a monumental vision, a burning bush, transfiguration, orJesus walking on water-like moment for Peter to budge.
“Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”[1]
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After the vision, Peter went to an officer's home in the Roman Army. Peter went to the house of a Gentile – someone who is not Jewish. He would enter the home of a man responsible, in part, for enforcing Rome’s occupation of Israel. The officer, Cornelius, and his household were baptized by Peter after receiving the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.”[2]
The Church is never quick to change, and that is by design. We cannot be all things to all people. All people are welcome, to be sure, but the lordship of our risen Lord and the Kingdom of God is our primary focus in worship, study, and mission. Orthodoxy – the beliefs held by the Church – along with Orthopraxy – how we do what we do; our physical movements – help us keep our focus on Jesus and not the celebrity of the person making the proclamation or the latest trends on social media.
Yet, Peter’s vision and his response to the work of the Holy Spirit throw a wrench into the neatly curated doctrines and discipline the church holds onto.
You see, it is not that Peter baptized the wrong people that got the folks in Jerusalem in a tizzy. Did you notice their grievance? They said to Peter, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”[3]
Peter ate at the wrong table.
Peter ate with the wrong people.
Peter, eating in the home of Cornelius, violated the dietary laws Peter had held onto his entire life up to this point. Remember, Peter said to the Lord during his vision, “By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.”[4]
Eating a meal with the wrong people is what brought questioning upon Peter, just as it did to Jesus when he dined at the home of Zacchaeus.
A vision from God and the prodding of the Holy Spirit upended the constancy Peter and his Jerusalem-based Christian contemporaries had held onto (for a good reason) for generations.
You see, it’s not just that Peter was released from the dietary laws of the Torah. The Lord said, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”[5]
It was not just food that was considered unclean. Gentiles were unclean as well. And with the new opening of the tomb, Jesus’ Easter morning victory over Sin and Death, our uncleanliness caused by that which Christ is victorious over has been washed clean. Creation, all of it, is what God has made clean. This is what John is writing about in Revelation when God said, “See, I am making all things new.”[6]
This story leaves us with a lingering question.
Retired United Methodist Bishop and all-around church curmudgeon Rev. Will Willimon asks, “Will we allow the Holy Spirit to prod us today, to give us a vision, to drag us, as it dragged our apostolic forebearers before us, kicking and screaming, all the way toward the wideness of God’s mercy?”[7]
In just a few minutes, we will pray that Charlie is so filled with the same Holy Spirit that moved the home of Cornelius that he is never the same. And because he will not be the same, we pray that we will not be the same. The work of the Holy Spirit moves us beyond our bolted down pews, and our Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, toward the wideness of God’s mercy.
Do not misunderstand. Doctrine, disciple, and practice are necessary for the church, just as the law was necessary for Peter and Israel. But our attachment to constancy in doctrine and practice puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to the work of God because we often see the way things are (or the way things were) to be more powerful than what God is doing before our very eyes.
Still, the witness we bear to the world is to the One who does not see our comfort in constancy as a hurdle to the wideness of God’s mercy.
This was the case when Peter received a vision, and Holy Spirit descended upon the home of Cornelius.
It was the case when Jesus dined with Zacchaeus, extending grace to a man who had cheated his neighbors.
It was the case when the power of Sin and Death could not hold back the gravestone.
And it will be the case in just a few moments when the waters of baptism clothe Charlie in new life. And oddly enough, new life that all of us have been clothed in as well because of the wideness of God’s mercy.
[1] Acts 10:9-13, ESV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+10%3A9-13&version=ESV)
[2] Acts 10:44-48, ESV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+10%3A44-48&version=ESV)
[3] Acts 11:3, ESV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+11%3A3&version=ESV)
[4] Acts 11:8, ESV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+11%3A8&version=ESV)
[5] Acts 11:9, NRSV (https://biblia.com/books/nrsv/Ac11.9)
[6] Revelation 21:5, NRSV (https://biblia.com/books/nrsv/Re21.5)
[7] Willimon, Will. “When the Outsiders Become Insiders.” May 10, 1998. Duke University Chapel.