It depends on how you define “all” Chapter 28 of THE STORY RUMC 3/1/15

It depends on how you define “all”

Chapter 28 of THE STORY 

RUMC 3/1/15

“Dear God, I have a problem. It is those people over there.”

That’s the way Peter thought of the Gentiles. In his mind, there were two types of people: Jews (Whom God loved) and Gentiles (Whom God didn’t love, and good Jews avoided.)

That worked pretty well in the old days. In the old days, it was pretty easy to tell the Jews from the Gentiles. They looked different, the talked different, they thought different, and frankly good Jews didn’t run into Gentiles all that often. With the advent of the Greek and then Roman Empire, things had changed. They call it “Pax Romana,” the Roman peace that broke down borders, built roads, secured trade routes, protected ships, and moved people around within the Roman Empire to places they would have never dreamed of going, as merchants, politicians, tax collectors, entertainers, athletes, and soldiers moved freely from region to region. Therefore, good Jews, just minding their own business, started to come into contact with people they hardly knew existed.

 It used to be that a Jew could live his whole life without encountering a Gentile. Now, they were everywhere. They were in the market, the seats of government, the amphitheaters, the guardhouses, and the neighborhoods all around Judea.

Many Jews had a problem… and it was “Those people.”

·        “Those people” were in the market.

·        “Those people” were in the halls of government.

·        “Those people” were in the theatres and sports arenas.

·        “Those people” were knocking on the door to collect taxes.

·        “Those people” were keeping watch over them in the streets.

Peter had seen Jesus interact with “those people” from time to time. They went to

·        Tyre,

·        Sidon, and

·        region of the Gerasenes. The

·        Canaanite woman entreated Jesus to heal her daemon-possessed daughter, and he

·        healed the centurion’s servant. There was the

·        woman at dinner who asked for the crumbs from the table, and the

·        Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus encountered a number of Gentiles and, even though he was the Jewish messiah, he helped each and every one of them, even though they were “Those people.”

What were Jesus parting words? “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It apparently didn’t occur to Peter that “Those people” lived in those places. Maybe that’s understandable, though, given the culture in which he was raised and lived. The possibility of God wanting anything to do with Gentiles may have just never even crossed his mind.

 The time had come, though. The time had come when Cornelius, a Roman Centurion (a soldier roughly equivalent to a sergeant)… A Gentile was experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in his life and wanted to know more about Jesus.

Now, we are told that Cornelius and his family were God-fearing. That meant that they were Gentiles who ascribed to the Jewish religion. They even did everything a good Jew would do worshipping and giving to the poor. God -fearers clearly, however, were still Gentiles. They were still “Those people”

 In a vision, Cornelius was told that he should send men about 30 miles to Joppa to find a man named Peter.

Now, you would expect that Peter would avoid these Gentile Roman soldiers. One would expect that Peter would, maybe not so politely, decline the invitation to visit Cornelius in Caesarea. That would have been in keeping with how he had been raised, and what the Pharisees taught to that very day.

Something had happened to Peter, though. He also had a vision. His vision was of a sheet with all kinds of animals, clean and unclean, being lowered from heaven. Remember that back in Leviticus, God had designated some animals as clean - or OK to eat, and others unclean. Jews were forbidden to eat those animals.

Pharisees went one step further, then, and taught that anything that touched those unclean animals was impure. There are two different Greek words here. Unclean is an existential problem, defined by God. Impure is a ritual problem, defined by the Pharisees.

So, you have to picture all these animals clean and unclean on this sheet, being held by the four corners. If you put things on a sheet and hold it by the corners, what happens? They all roll to the middle, don’t they? So all these animals clean and unclean were rolling around together in the middle of this sheet. In the Pharisees mind, then, the clean animals were made impure by contact with the unclean animals. Now do you see why I made that distinction, between unclean and impure? It is not that the acceptable animals were made unacceptable, but they were defiled and made impure.

When God then said, “Peter, kill and eat.” Peter, being a good Jew taught by the Pharisees, wasn’t about to have anything to do with those impure, animals. Even when God told him 3 times, he didn’t want anything to do with them. He reassured God that he had never eaten anything unclean OR impure. The punch line is God saying, “What God has made clean you must not call impure.” “What God has called acceptable, you must not despise as unacceptable.”

Now the story starts to make sense, doesn’t it? Because just at that moment, when Peter is still trying to figure out the vision, “Those people” come to the door. “Those people” being the Gentiles… the IMPURE Gentiles. Remember, Peter’s instinct would have been to send them away, but he gets up and goes with “Those people.” And he travels with “those people.” And when he gets to Cornelius’ house, he goes into the house of one of “those people.”

Cornelius had gathered quite a crowd and after clearing up some confusion about who should be worshipped, Peter said, “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.” The moral of the story is “I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”

Peter preached to them and the Holy Spirit worked in their lives. The Bible reads, “The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” “Those people” were the first Gentiles to become Christian.

THOSE PEOPLE became US. The lesson is that ALL PEOPLE are GOD’S PEOPLE

The whole direction of THE STORY changed. It turned from inward to outward. It turned from US to THEM. Or should I say it turned ALL OF THEM into US, or all of THEM into US.

The upper story vision is complete. Not fulfilled, but complete. That ALL PEOPLE would come to believe in, trust, love, and obey the one almighty God. Someday… but that’s not easy to swallow. ALL? Really? ALL?

We pray, “Dear God, I have a problem, and it is my neighbor. Surely ALL doesn’t mean my hypocritical neighbor does it?” We all have at least one of those neighbors don’t we? Either next door, or down the street, or at the next desk, or maybe even sitting next to you in the pew right now. You know they are such hypocrites. God certainly can’t have much love for those who make a show of their faith. They pretend to be Christian, but we all know that they are just pretending… because they are one of THOSE PEOPLE.

Jesus taught that we ought not be like them, but he never taught that they shouldn’t be in the church, or that they are outside of God’s love.

Maybe our prayer ought to be “Dear God I have a problem… and it’s me because I am not sure what you mean by the word ALL.”

We pray, “Dear God, I have a problem, and it is the people in Gladbrook.” Surely, ALL doesn’t mean THOSE PEOPLE who have lied and said evil, selfish things. Surely it doesn’t include people who wanted to shut down our school does it?

Believe it or not. Like it or not. There are good people on both sides of every issue. Their behavior may not be attractive, but they are deep down good people and more importantly, they are God’s people.

Maybe our prayer ought to be “Dear God I have a problem… and it’s me because I am not sure what you mean by the word ALL.”

We pray, “Dear God, I have a problem, and it’s those homosexuals. Surely, ALL does not mean THOSE PEOPLE does it? Look what they have done to the United Methodist Church over the last 40 years. Look what they have done to our culture and family values. Surely, ALL does not include them does it?

You can debate whether you think homosexuality is a sin. I don’t think being homosexual is a sin. I would argue that the Bible views our God given sexuality as a gift. Further I would argue that  ANY sexual behavior (heterosexual or homosexual) that

·        degrades,

·        controls,

·        manipulates,

·        abuses, or otherwise

·        hurts people, or

·        damages relationships is condemned by God.

We can disagree about that, but we cannot disagree that homosexual persons are of sacred worth to God, and deserve the church’s ministry and our love and respect.

Maybe our prayer ought to be “Dear God I have a problem… and it’s me because I am not sure what you mean by the word ALL.”

Maybe we pray, “Dear God, I have a problem, and its militant extremists.”

Frankly, we all have a problem with the politics of terror and hatred. However, I was reading a story about a prisoner who witnessed to her militant extremist captors and turned them to Christ. I had a strong visceral reaction when I read that story… I wasn’t sure I wanted that person as a brother in Christ. For most of us, lining 21 Christians up on a beach and beheading them for a propaganda video is way beyond unforgivable… but not for God. THOSE PEOPLE… even THOSE PEOPLE are loved by God. I know it’s hard to believe. Nevertheless, even THOSE PEOPLE are inside God’s circle of love.

Maybe our prayer ought to be “Dear God I have a problem… and it’s me because I am not sure what you mean by the word ALL.”

Maybe we pray, “Dear God, I have a problem, and it’s THOSE PEOPLE”… I don’t know who THOSE PEOPLE are to you.

·        Maybe it has to do with differing opinions in the increasingly divisive political climate in our country. Maybe it has to do with race- (although I think we should be long past that by now).

·        Maybe THOSE POPLE are on welfare.

·        Maybe THOSE PEOPLE are drug dealers or users.

·        Maybe THOSE PEOPLE just dress differently.

·         Maybe THOSE PEOPLE go to a different church.

·        Maybe THOSE PEOPLE have questionable immigration status.

·        Maybe THOSE PEOPLE… I don’t know… you fill in the blank.

The question is, are any of THOSE PEOPLE outside God’s love? Are any of THOSE PEOPLE so far gone that they are beyond God’s reach? I assure you, they are not.

God’s circle was a lot bigger than the Pharisees realized. It was a lot bigger than Peter realized. It is a lot bigger than most of us realize--- and if we are honest, maybe even bigger than we want it to be. “Dear God I have a problem… and it’s me.” Right?

Edward Markham wrote

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In![i]

God has drawn a circle and it includes ALL people. If you have any questions, let’s talk about how YOU define the word “ALL.”

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[i] From the poem " Outwitted”