Observation: This is a turning point in the Book of Acts. After Saul's conversion, but before his ministry to the Gentiles begins in earnest (and really before the Jerusalem church really knows what to make of him), Peter has a vision. In that vision, God lowers a sheet filled with all sorts of animals, both "clean" (meaning kosher) and "unclean" (meaning not kosher, the stuff Gentiles eat). God tells Peter "get up, kill and eat." Peter wants no part of it. An angel says, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." When Peter wakes up, he is invited to the house of a Gentile, Cornelius, a Roman centurion, to preach the Gospel. Had Peter not had this vision, entering a Gentile home would have been out of the question, and even still, Peter voices his misgivings. Yet he goes, and he preaches the Gospel. Spoiler alert: this sets up our first reading for Sunday, in which the Holy Spirit pours out on all these Gentiles, and they are baptized.
Application: For some reason as I'm reading this (and preparing a sermon on Acts 10) I'm struck by the image of the Berlin Wall coming down. As of February, that wall had been demolished for the same number of days as it stood. For a whole generation of Germans, it must have felt as though the wall had always been there, and it always would be. Now, there is a whole generation of adults who have never known it.
Now, try to imagine a cultural and religious wall like that--the wall between Jews and Gentiles--that had stood for a thousand years, ever since Moses led the people into the promised land. Imagine being Peter, told by his parents, who were told by their parents, that Gentiles are an unclean people, and we are not to eat with them, or so much as enter their homes. Imagine how shocking and unnatural it would feel to be asked, by God, to call these people "clean". This miraculous encounter notwithstanding, the Bible attests that this was a hang-up Peter took with him to his grave. He gave grudging approval to Paul's ministry to Gentiles, but Peter continued to feel most comfortable among his own kind.
There are so, so many ways this applies to our life of faith today, from simple questions like, "What do Lutherans make of guitars and screens in the worship space?" to much bigger questions like "How can Christian communities work to dismantle racism?" and "How can Christians best welcome those whose sexual orientation, gender identity, or family make-up doesn't look like what we grew up with?" It wasn't very long ago, after all, that divorced persons were not accepted in most churches, and those churches had some very clear scriptural "justification" for their views. But there was a movement in our society, and in the Church, and that wall came down. Maybe it's time for a few others to come down, too.
It's always hard to look at the questions of our own day with historic perspective, but the plain fact is, almost any defining issue for our church today pales in comparison to the Gentile issue in the first century. It was a game-changer. And in that case, God was clearly on the side of breaking down walls. What to make of that with the issues we are now facing, I leave to the Holy Spirit and your conscience. But I can say I'll pray for you as you wrestle.
Prayer: God, help us to listen for your voice, and strain our eyes to see your vision for our society. Break down the walls that separate us, and teach us to love one another as you have loved us.
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