Acts 10:9-29 (New International Version)
9About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
14"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
15The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. 18They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three[a] men are looking for you. 20So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
21Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?"
22The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." 23Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.
The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. 24The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. 26But Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself."
27Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. 29So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"
Today’s sermon is about the prejudice of the early church. It’s about how God used Peter as the beginning of the inclusion of all people in the kingdom of God and the realization that Jesus, the Messiah, and grace as for everyone, not just the Jews. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Because I have super powers, I can read your minds. You’re thinking, “Pastor Allan, I am not prejudiced.” And if by chance, you weren’t thinking that, well, you’re thinking it now, aren’t you? In our modern, western world, we all like to think that we are open minded and that we don’t harbor any prejudices. There used to be a comic strip called “Momma” written by Mel Lazerus, remember it? In one cartoon, her son says to her that he is bringing his new girlfriend home for her to meet and he says to her, “Momma, please keep an open mind.” She replies, “Of course, dear” and then speaking to the reader she says, “It’s amazing how much prejudice you can cram into an open mind.”
Prejudice can come in a lot of forms. You don’t have to be a member of the KU Klux Klan and wear a white hood to be prejudice. You might not like teenagers. You might not like old people. You might not like people with tattoos or people who listen to rap music, or people who dress a certain way or you might even judge people the old fashioned way: by the color of their skin. Prejudice can be towards poor people, or rich people, people who went to college or people who did not go to college, people of another religion or even people who like cats.
In today’s scripture, we learn that Peter was prejudiced towards anyone who was not Jewish but he would have an experience that would truly open his mind and his heart.
Sermon:
Peter had a vision. I don’t know too many people who have visions, do you? I used to work with people that had hallucinations and that could get pretty exciting but I’m not sure about the vision thing. Think about this. What if someone came to you, someone you know and said, “God gave me a vision. I saw something and it was from God. God spoke to me. God put me in a trance and it was like watching a movie. God gave me a vision. Well, How would you respond to that? We might be open to it actually happening but it’s one of those things that I’m not sure that we would believe it if someone told us they actually had a vision. This is the first part of the open mind thing that we need to have. Visions occur throughout the Bible. From beginning to end people are given visions from God. All the prophets had visions, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, not to mention that the whole book of Revelation is one big vision. In the Bible, people have visions. In our scripture today, Peter had a vision. I’m not saying that you need to just start believing in visions. I’m saying that if you believe in the Bible as God’ s Word, then you need to be open to the idea that visions are real communications from God.
Webster, that would be the dictionary, defines prejudice as an attitude of hostility towards an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics. In today’s story, Peter, Peter who spent years with Jesus, Peter who would build the foundations for the church, Peter who would travel throughout the Mediterranean world spreading the Kingdom of God, that Peter is confronted by his prejudice.
A Chinese man and a Jewish man were eating lunch together and suddenly with no warning whatsoever, the Jewish man reaches over and gives the Chinese man a resounding whack that is heard throughout the restaurant.
“What in the world did you do that for?” Asks the Chinese man.
“That was for Pearl Harbor” says the Jew
“Are you out of your mind?” Says the Chinese man, “That was the Japanese and it was a long time ago.”
The Jew replies, “Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, they’re all the same to me.” And with that they continue eating in somewhat tense silence.
Suddenly, the Chinese man reaches over and whacks the Jewish man a harder whack than the first one.
What was that for?” says the Jewish man.
“The Titanic”, comes the answer.
“The Titanic. . .are you out of your mind?” says the Jew. “Jews had nothing to do with the Titanic.”
The Chinese man replies, “Goldberg, Feinberg, Iceberg, they’re all the same to me.”
Peter’s prejudice is directly related to his Judaism. The apostles and the disciples of Jesus didn’t know yet, what if anything was going to be different now that the Messiah had come. Peter was going all over Israel telling people about Jesus but as far as we know, he was still a practicing Jew. Meaning that he was still conforming to all the rules and regulations of being Jewish. These are the things that we find mostly in the book of Leviticus and there are 613 of them. The bottom line is that Jesus had not told them to do anything differently. Jesus had not told them not to follow the rules of Judaism.
The evidence for Peter’s prejudice is found in verse 28. Peter is quoted saying, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him.” How do you like that? Now this sounds very much on the service like an insult to anyone who is not Jewish but the real reason for this was because of dietary law. A Jew is required to eat in a kosher way. For food to be kosher, it had to be prepared in ways that are consistent with Jewish law. Now what does visiting someone have to do with food? What happens when you visit? Here, have some cake. Please stay and have dinner. Oh, I just made some brownies. But the jew in a gentile home knew that that food was not kosher so they simply did not accept invitations to visit. Eating non kosher food would have made the Jew “unclean”. Following all the rules made the Jew “holy”. Holy means set apart. The Jew was to follow all the rules in order to be “set apart” for God.
So Peter has a vision about kosher and non-kosher, clean and unclean, holy and unholy. In this vision, he is told to kill and eat that which is not kosher. But notice that God assures him that the food he is about to eat has been purified by God himself. In fact, Peter seems to be chastised for calling it unclean when God has made it clean.
Now God had a plan and that plan was that the message of God’s love through Jesus Christ and the grace of God be spread throughout the world not just to the Jews. For that to happen, Peter and the others like him needed to get over the prejudices that had built up over centuries of kosher living.
We read here that after Peter’s vision, he travels to the house of Cornelius the centurion, a gentile, a soldier, someone that Peter would not have associated with prior to his vision but now to Peter, he is someone who like everyone else, needs to here the message of the good news of Jesus Christ.
What if you had a vision like Peter’s? What if God were to confront you about your prejudices? What would they be? Would they be the popular prejudices like homosexuality and illegal aliens or would they be your own private ones, perhaps handed down through generations. Our prejudices limit us. Our prejudices get in the way of us getting any kind of grasp of the extent of God’s love for us. Our prejudices prevent us from being the vehicles of God’s grace that he wants us to be. Who do you hold at arm’s length? What kind of people? Do you judge by color, income, age? Maybe there are even some people, who like Peter, you won’t associate with at all.
After Jesus had completed his mission here on earth, he returned to heaven and of course the angels were all excited and gathered around him and pestered him with questions and stuff.
Did you accomplish your task?” the angels asked.
“Oh Yes, all is finished,” Jesus replied.
“We have a second question,” said the angels. “Has the whole world heard of you?”
“Well, No, Not yet” said Jesus.
And so the angels asked, “Well, what is your plan?”
Jesus said, “I have left 12 men and some other followers to carry the message to the whole world.”
“The angels looked at each other, and then at him and then each other again and then at him and maybe each other again and then they said, “So, um, what ‘s Plan B?”
And you know what, there really is no plan B. God wants his word of grace to be carried by people to other people. God wants His kingdom to grow by our willingness to set aside your prejudices and understand that God’s love is meant for all people. Sometimes we forget that no matter what a person’s nationality, no matter what a person’s social or economic situation, no matter what a person’s mental status or intelligence level, God wants every person on the face of this earth to believe and be a follower of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it’s hard to fully accept, that God loves me, but he also loves the dark-skinned child in Afghanistan just as much. God loves me, but he also loves that homeless person who’s mumbling and begging on the street – God loves him just as much. God loves me, but he also loves that person who has made too many mistakes in life and is now sitting in jail – God loves that person just as much as me. God loves me but he also loves that tattooed teenager whose pants are held up by his kneecaps and he also loves that elderly gentleman sitting on a bench all by himself and he also loves that red neck with the baseball cap on, riding in a two story pick up truck and he also loves that young lady who will go to bed with anyone who will have her because she is so scared of being alone. And God’s vision to me is simple. Creation is unfolded before me like a sheet and all these people whom I would judge and condemn and do my best to avoid are called clean and loved by God and my prejudice must be peeled away from me like the skin of a banana. God is a God who loves all people, and wants all people no matter who they are to experience the love and grace found in a relationship with our Lord Jesus. There is no plan B.
