November 7, 2010
Rev. Monica Wedlock
Acts 11:1-18
Peter was the impetuous disciple to go all the way for his friend and his Messiah. He loved Jesus so much he committed his life to feeding Jesus’ sheep. However, he didn’t realize that he would be proclaiming a gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation and inviting all of God’s people back to relationship with Him. Peter, a devout Jew and follower of Christ,performed miracles in Jesus’ name and led people to salvation in Jesus Christ. In the text, he found himself in a disturbing situation.
Peter was more of a revivalist than a missionary. A revivalist comes back to his/her own people preaching and igniting the faith that’s already in them. A missionary goes out to those they don’t know and mingles with outsiders. God said that the Gospel would spread throughout the world even to the ends of the earth. Peter encountered a group of people of a different language, culture, and faith. Those people were considered impure and unclean. God has called some of us to people we don’t like or would not normally hang around. Peter was surrounded by people like that, but he was also in the presence of God. Through his interaction with these people, the wisdom and work of the Holy Spirit, and the preaching of the gospel, he realized the implications and the magnitude of God’s intended plan. He went out as a Jewish reformer, and in the process he was reformed by the Gentiles. He went out to convert but became converted. What do you do when you go out thinking one thing but return thinking something else? There was a time where you had your plan in place and before you knew it life took a turn, putting you on a new course. We have our theologies, ideologies, morals, and values by which we strive to work and live. What happens when you run up against a situation that “ruffles your feathers,” challenges your beliefs, and causes you to question that thing to which you held so tightly? What happens when your religious piety tells you one thing but the Holy Spirit tells you something else? We must have the courage to reevaluate our lives to make some adjustments. You must be flexible and wise enough to admit that you don’t have the whole revelation on anything but with the help of the Holy Spirit you can discern God’s way forward.
The Bible speaks about change and a new way forward. The book of Isaiah tells you to forget the old things and don’t dwell on the past. Peter had to deal with the reality of a changing environment like us. He had received a magnificent vision from God concerning God’s people prompting him to include some people in the fold he had previously regarded as unclean and unworthy. He was not mean spirited and didn’t want to exclude people, but he had been adhering to the law he grew up with. He wanted to do what was best for God and God’s people making him the perfect candidate to be set up by God for a new revelation. In the text, he wrestled with his obedience to the law and his commitment to the Holy Spirit. However, he witnessed the Holy Spirit working in people he didn’t even deal with. Have you ever witnessed God moving in an undeniable way? You didn’t fully comprehend the experience but you knew that God was doing something. You prayed and pleaded for revelation. You looked for answers everywhere because you needed some kind of confirmation that your experience had some truth to it. That was Peter’s dilemma. He experienced the work of the Holy Spirit among the Gentile people though he thought they were unclean and impure. He had to put his religious piety aside and go back to the deep convictions of his faith. The longer he stayed at Cornelius’ house the more he realized those people weren’t too different from him. That’s the funny thing about relationship. The more you get to know someone the more you change your perspective on that person. The more youinteract with someone the more you find in common. Meaningful relationships tend to ignite our passions, broaden our thinking, and challenge our beliefs.
Peter had to go back to his people after enjoying his time with the Gentiles and receiving a new revelation. His people didn’t like the fact that he had been with the Gentiles; they wanted to indict him for breaking the rules. Peter wanted to appeal to his brothers in the faith that God was doing something new in the lives of the Gentiles, but he didn’t tell them the whole story because he didn’t want it to affect his status. You get a new revelation from God that is confirmed by the Holy Spirit but you become nervous when it is time share because it is unpopular, challenges others’ beliefs, and puts you on the side of the oppressed. We, like Peter, don’t want anyone to know we are associating with a certain kind of people because we are afraid. You want to be politically correct in a society that is judgmental, self serving, and hypocritical.We smooth things over and try to persuade people that our experiences are valid. It is painful to be revolutionary. It is lonely to stand for something unpopular and untimely. Sometimes we get in the way of ourselves and God. We spend too much time protecting ourselves to learn from our own stories. What is it about us that we can’t truly surrender to the Spirit? We would rather hold onto our limited and unfounded beliefs than to reconstruct a healthier life of faith. We don’t like to be stretched beyond our boundaries or our faith challenged. We would rather live in denial instead of being honest about ourselves and/or others.
There are still some unanswered questions. God’s intended plan for the liberation for all of man, and creation has not yet been fulfilled. Have we gone further back than forward? When the stories of our lives are written will we leave out some major details? Our stories will be without the vital details, and that can mislead others. The socially popular and the politically astute will continue to play us like puppets. How long will we make others comfortable by sacrificing our convictions? If we want to stop the bullying in our schools you have to speak the truth. If we want peace in our communities you have to speak the truth. If you want meaningful relationships, start telling the whole truth, love unconditionally, and reconcile your differences. Some of you have history that you conveniently forgot about. There are some people who need to know the part of your story before you got saved so that they can see that God has been moving in your life. If you want to save people, you have to tell the truth. God created us in His image and He gets no joy in favoritism, sexism, classism, or racism. Not only will God free those you tell your story to, He will also set you free in the process. God will bless you as you tell the whole story.
Peace
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