I love the Bible. It’s at its best when it invites us to think…to
think about those things we thought were true that may not be. This morning
that invitation is extended to Peter, the Rock, the Apostle on whom Christ
built the church. Cornelius, the Gentile captain of the Roman guard, a member
of the Roman army that had just days ago carried out the crucifixion of Jesus, has
a vision. The story is in the 10th chapter of the Book of the Acts
of the Apostles. An angel appears. “What is it sir,” the Roman asks. “The angel
begins by acknowledging Cornelius’s generosity. “Your prayers and gifts to the
poor have not gone unnoticed by God,” the angel says.
The angel instructs Cornelius to send men to Joppa to invite Peter
to his home. As they near Joppa, Peter kneels on the roof of his house to pray.
He falls into a trance and sees a large sheet lowered by its four corners containing
all sorts of reptiles, birds, and animals forbidden to be eaten by Jews. A
voice tells Peter to kill ‘em and to eat ‘em. Peter’s first reaction is to
default to his long-practiced religious rules. Peter be like, “Hey I know what
the Bible says and it says I cannot eat this stuff.” Peter refuses. “By no means, Lord; I have never eaten
anything that is profane or unclean.”
Peter’s “by no means Lord” becomes,
“Yes Lord, by all means,” as the voice responds by saying, hey, if God says
it’s clean, it is clean. The vision is repeated three times, the number of
times Peter had recently denied knowing Jesus. But Peter is left baffled.
It is baffling to learn that
something you believed for years, something taught to you by preachers and
Sunday school teachers may not be true, especially when it seems contrary to
what you’ve been told the Bible says. It is baffling when you are asked to toss
out years of prejudice taught by parents, enforced by friends, preached and
lived by Christians you trusted. Baffling indeed and disorienting. Peter wasn’t
given much time to think about it. The Spirit announces the arrival of
Cornelius’s servants. Peter is told to follow them, arriving at the Roman
captain’s home the next day.
But, Peter is still baffled and
says to the Gentile, ‘you know it is unlawful for Jews to visit a Gentile; BUT,
Peter adds, ‘God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or
unclean.” Or in other words, not my will but his.
Just that quick, Peter, the Rock,
gets it. “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every
nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to
him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace
by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.”
But read on. Peter’s eyes may have been opened but his circle of friends was clinging to the old prejudices. Ever have that happen? You have come around; you’ve begun to update your stereotypes, you’ve removed the scales from your eyes and opened them to see that we are called to love all of God’s children…but your friends and family aren’t there yet and you have to face them and justify letting go of the prejudice to which they still cling?
Chapter 11 opens with the sort of confrontation you may have had. The other apostles demand to know just Peter was eating and spending time with outsiders. Apparently, these followers of Jesus weren’t paying attention when Jesus made a point of hanging out with outcasts like Gentiles, prostitutes, and tax collectors. So, Peter gives them a refresher course. He proclaims what I call “the Peter Principle, saying, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.”
Peter tells them about the sheet and how it was filled with unclean animals and birds, how he had been commanded to eat them, how he refused. You can see all of them around him, nodding affirmatively, as if to say, “Of course you refused, that’s what you were supposed to do. Surely you quoted bible verses about why you had to refuse? Right”
“I know,’ he said to the group, “that we’ve been taught that God only loved certain people but that has changed, there are new rules.” Peter talked about how the angel told him that if God says something is clean, it is clean, how God sent him to the home of the Gentile Roman, how the Spirit taught him that Jesus loves everyone and that everyone means everyone. The scripture says that when they heard Peter’s explanation, their bigotry was silenced. And that, my dear friends should have been the end of racism and bigotry among Christians.
Imagine how shocked our Creator must have been to learn how humans use differences such as skin color, sexual orientation, gender identification, immigration status, and different ways of believing in God to marginalize others…imagine the look of shock on God’s face and the pain in God’s heart upon realizing that humans use the way in which God created God’s people against them and to sort them between those with privilege and those without.
Imagine God’s reaction to finding that those human attributes are used to deny others of the dignity with which God created them. God so loved all the world, that God sent Jesus, anointed him to proclaim the good news. In Peter we see the message take hold, how it changed his beliefs so we know it can, believe it should. Old prejudices die slowly though you’d think 2000 years would have been enough.
I have some regrets about my life, most because, in hindsight I know I should have made a better choice when given the opportunity. There is one regret I have about a choice God made for me. I regret I was born a white, first world, heterosexual male into a Christian family. When God made that choice for me, God denied me the experience of my brothers and sisters for whom God made different choices.
As a white, first world, heterosexual male raised in a Christian family, I can never understand the experience of those who were born otherwise. I can never know what it is like to have skin that is not an acceptable color or to have been born into the poverty of the 3rd World or be a gay or transgender person in a world where that can get you killed or cast out of your family. I’ll never endure the struggle for equality that our mothers and sisters fight or a cultural minority of any kind. I’ll never know what it means to be “without papers” or without the hidden privileges I, as a white, first world, heterosexual male raised in a Christian family, can take for granted.
A writer named John Howard Griffin
once said, ““Humanity does not differ in any profound way; there are not
essentially different species of human beings. If we could only put ourselves
in the shoes of others to see how we would react, then we might become aware of
the injustice of discrimination and the tragic inhumanity of every kind of
prejudice.”
In 1960, Griffin put himself in the
shoes of others, undergoing treatment transforming his white skin to black. He traveled
the South to find out what it was like for black people. He wrote a book about
his experiences titled “Black Like me.” As Griffin is completing his skin-color
change, he asks friends, “Do
you suppose they'll treat me as John Howard Griffin, regardless of my color or
will they treat me as some nameless Negro, even though I am still the same
man?" One said, "They're not going to ask you any questions. As soon
as they see you, you'll be a Negro and that's all they'll ever need to know
about you."
He experiences the same treatment
blacks had always experienced in the South and elsewhere. He observed, “Racism always
hides under a respectable guise, usually the guise of patriotism and religion. It
was clear that we would have to live always under threat.”
Racism and bigotry could be
conquered, it would end tomorrow if it became unacceptable to enter a church while
hating a fellow human being because of who God made that person to be…if
preachers preached the Gospel of the Peter Principle, how if God says something is clean, it is clean, how the Spirit taught
him that Jesus loves everyone whom God had created…and that everyone means
everyone…if every church preached the Peter Principle, bigotry would disappear
like a leaf in the Wyoming wind.
Red or
yellow, black or white, gay or straight, documented or not, Jesus loves us all,
the Bile tells me so. Sadly, despite what the Bible says, dozens of groups claiming Christian identity are identified by
the Southern Poverty Law center as hate groups, choosing names like “Holy Order
Ministry,” the “Christian Revival Center,” and “Sacred Truth Ministries.” There
are 21 Christian identity organizations on the list.
At Highlands, we take great pride in the Core Values
of this congregation, one of which proclaims, “We
value diversity and accepting God’s children without judgment. We welcome all
persons regardless of race, sexual orientation or identity, immigration status,
or other characteristics that may define cultural differences.”
I know I have gone a bit long this morning but can I get an enthusiastic AMEN
We are a part of the PCUSA, which has long preached
against the sin of bigotry. Antiracism
is not optional for Christians but is an essential aspect of Christian
discipleship.
So, what are Jesus followers to do?
Proclaim the Bible as it insistently reveals that God created the diversity
and loves justice. Use the words of the prophets to reject oppression and
steadfastly resist the use of race, sexual
orientation or identity, immigration status, or other characteristics to define
differences among God’s children.
Proclaim the Peter Principle. Learn
something about the privilege we enjoy by having been born white and how that
privilege puts those who have not been born white, first world,
heterosexual males into Christian families at
a disadvantage. Write your political leaders, write letters to the editor, put
friendships on the line by challenging those who, like the early disciples,
need to be challenged, proclaim the Good News that the God you worship truly
shows no partiality. Can I get one last AMEN?
No comments:
Post a Comment