This Cannot Be Right

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 9, 2011
Baptism of the Lord Sunday
Rev. Mark R. Miller
Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 10:34-43
“This Cannot Be Right”


Peter is rather bold. In the Gospels he makes all sorts of claims and promises regarding the depth of his faith and the width of his knowledge. Unfortunately, he ends up falling short in just about all of his claims. So when he now claims to “truly understand” that God shows no partiality, how are we to believe him? The only way to check the authenticity of this claim is to check the foundation on which it is built.
Unlike the gospels, this claim from Peter is built on the strong foundation of the experience and revelation of God. While Peter is praying on the roof, God speaks in a vision. Peter sees all sorts of animals known as ritually unclean and impure. A voice speaks to Peter and says, “take and eat.” Peter objects because he knows what the law teaches. They are unclean and forbidden.
God’s message for Peter, and the church, is persistent and strong. Do not call anything I have created unclean. In other words, God will not allow the law to stand in the way of God’s plan for the Gospel. It is clear that Peter finally hears this inclusive message when a Gentile seeks his audience immediately following the dream.
Peter has been changed. Arriving at the home of Cornelius the Gentile, he makes a bold claim. Peter says to those gathered at the house, who tell him he cannot go in, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.” Peter finally understands that, no one is unclean or profane. The Good News is clear. No one is outside the promise of the Gospel.
When we are baptized into Christ every other identity that has claim upon us is secondary to the identity as beloved children of God. Our nationality, immigration status, our politics, our gender, race, sexual orientation, age, ability, all of these no longer take central stage. It is no longer necessary or acceptable to divide or exclude people because of these “other” identities. This also means some changes on how we relate in the household of God. It means the privileges that some received because of these divisions are to end. They are not part of God’s vision for humanity.
This message runs into some trouble when Peter, who does truly understand, comes face to face with the reality of the first multicultural church. Guess what happens when the customs of the Jewish Christians come into conflict with the Gentile Christians? These new converts change what is believed to be essential. As a result, the community perceives itself to be under threat. Even Peter falls prey to these concerns. When Peter is with the Gentiles he is willing to be generous with the customs and culture. However, when his Jewish friends are around he embraces the very exclusion he has testified as antithetical to the Gospel.
While it is a favorite pastime of the church to use Peter as a punching bag, we cannot buy into that practice. Peter is more like us than we care to admit. He does understand the message he received, but when faced with the practical struggles, he falls short. Each one of us, and we as a community, run up against these very struggles all the time. Our actions, despite the best of intentions, often cause trouble and hurt others. This is why as a community of different cultures we must focus on the results of our actions, acknowledging the places where we are hurt and taking responsibility for those who are hurt as a result of our actions. We have to act in this way. If we do not, we will follow the pattern of Peter when he falls short of the vision he saw on the roof.
In our congregational family, it means we have to find out what the customs and expectations are for all those in our community. When the food isn’t what you’re used to, when the ways of doing church seem strange or begin to change, when the music and worship doesn’t seem familiar, ask questions. Take it as an opportunity to learn and to come closer to the gospel truth revealed in others. Like Peter, we are going to see things we never before thought possible. We will even find ourselves doubting the voice we hear as the voice of God. No matter how successful we think we are, even our best intentions can result in foolish mistakes. But the good news is that God calls for our passion and not perfection, and better yet, God is not finished with us yet. In other words, just like Peter, we are going to act in duplicitous ways but God will not abandon us.
Paul writes, there is no longer Jew or Greek, Slave or Free, Male and Female because you are all one in Christ. These words from Paul to the church in Galatia were not a call to create a homogenous church. It was not a call to ignore the reality of our differences. Instead, it is a call to first acknowledge that the world is deeply divided and Jesus calls us to break down those divisions. When Peter goes to Cornelius he is breaking down the social fabric that many thought was ordained by God. But the divisions embraced in this world are not the divisions embraced by God, despite God’s followers claiming otherwise.
At this point, we might ask if nothing is sacred. However, instead of answering that question I would ask another: What is essential? What does it take to be faithful to the Gospel? What is the primary role of the church, the followers of Jesus? The answer to that question is: “To make disciples.” Making disciples in a multicultural world means that those who we share the faith with may not think like us, look like us, act like us, speak like us, have the same customs as us. In order to be prepared for this high calling we have to become students of cultures not our own. We must seek to understand youth culture, white culture, black culture, immigrant culture, and realize that even in each of those cultures is a wide variety of difference. So, what we need to do is to look to see where God is at work in the lives and practices of others. We can begin by asking: “How do you worship God? How do you see God at work? How are you growing in the life of faith?” Focusing on these questions will lead us to the essential. And all the rest is provisional.
This past week I have done two memorial services. Each service opens with these words:
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. In his or her baptism they were clothed with Christ; in the day of Christ’s coming, he or she will be clothed with glory.
It is a stark reminder of the essentials in life. What matters at the last is not often what we expect. When we are clothed with Christ we have a great promise and a challenge. To focus on the essential might mean unlearning much that we believe is sacred, culturally. And, it will mean all sorts of things we cannot even envision at this moment. It is my hope that each of us will hear these words and come to truly understand that God shows no partiality. This is a message that is desperately needed in our deeply polarized world.
By now, most of you all have heard about the violence in Arizona. A Congresswoman lies in a hospital, a federal judge is dead, and many others are as well. The violence in Arizona is the work of an unstable young white man. Unfortunately, we have been here before. In 1995, fear and anger against the government, the godless, liberals, the other… led to the loss of human life in Oklahoma City. Once again the angry and violent words of political pundits have taken root in the hearts of those who would act on their call. Rallying the troops, claiming it is time to water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots, and all the other violent rhetoric of our age have taken root in the hearts of those who have access to guns and the desire to use them. In many divided cultures there are those who will preach division, demonize, and stand back in horror when violence is done with their words. While there is much to be said for the harbingers of hatred, I will simply say this: Those voices, words, and actions do not come from the same Spirit preached to Peter on the roof. They do not come from the same Spirit that transformed violent Saul into Apostle Paul on the Damascus road. And they do not come from the same Spirit that led Jesus to say NO MORE to the violence in this world. In other words, the words of division and hatred being hurled in the political, religious, and other areas of our culture are unchristian, indefensible, and will be judged by God accordingly.
In the face of this violence, our job is to pray. We must first pray for the violence that resides in our own hearts and for the heart of others. We must then stand up as witnesses to a world that has become openly hostile to what we are doing in this place. We must continue to preach the peace of Jesus Christ and the welcome that is at the heart of the Gospel. We must say: “No more!” to the violent spirit of this age. Now is the time. Now is the time! Amen.