In general we are not fond of change.
Think about the angst we suffer when our computers run an update and
things are changed from what we are used to. Think about Sheldon
Cooper who has to sit in the same spot on the couch or has to eat
oatmeal on Mondays and not French toast. What happens if we are
forced to change pews? A new BCP has all kinds of people worried.
And I'm still upset about having to change from knickers to those
black pants. In general, we don't like change.
Change can be good or bad. Good change
can be badly implemented. And ultimately, I think all change, to be
effective, must appeal to the heart. If we aren't emotionally
comfortable with the change, it most likely won't be successful. The
“We've always done it this way/We've never done it that way”
argument against change is more often than not an emotional response
based in fear of losing identity or purpose or power or all of the
above.
This is what's going on in the reading
from Acts today. There is a group of people who understand that they
belong to God and God belongs to them. This is how it has always
been since Genesis 12 – God chose Abram and Abram chose God. And
we see examples of this in other places where, in order to be part of
God's circle, you had to meet the requirements of the gatekeepers to
enter that circle. One example of this is over in the Book of Ruth.
Ruth, a Moabite outsider, forsook her own history and heritage when
she told Naomi, “Your people will be my people, and your God will
be my God.” In other words, the circle of God was a closed system.
Jesus, however, did a new thing. He
may have changed how God was doing things, and he definitely changed
how people were understanding how God was doing things. In the eyes
of his Jewish followers, this primarily meant that Jesus was the
Messiah, the Savior. But that change, although hard for some to
grasp, ie the religious leaders, still seemed to mean that outsiders
had to become Jewish in order to enter the circle of God. It was
still a closed system. So when Peter begins mingling with Gentiles,
the leadership of this new movement had a hard time. “Why do you
go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”
“We've never done it that way
before.”
In response Peter tells them about a
vision he had and his interpretation of it. He was in Joppa and a
sheet filled with animals appeared, along with a voice telling him to
kill and eat. The animals given were unclean according to the Law.
Peter, being a good, law-abiding Jew, had never eaten an unclean
animal, so he declined. But a voice from heaven says, “What God
has made clean you must not call profane.”
This happens three times. This is
significant. Three times Peter denied Jesus. Three times Peter had
the chance to stand up and be counted. But this thing with Jesus was
new, they had never done it that way before, and he was afraid of the
consequences.
Three times Jesus asked Peter if he
loved him. Three times Peter said yes. And three times Jesus said
to Feed, Tend, and Feed his sheep. This was a new way of doing
things, especially when we remember that Jesus said he had other
sheep that didn't belong to this fold. I'm not sure Peter knew yet
what this change would look like, but it was coming.
And today we hear of Peter's three-fold
vision where God has cleansed that which was formerly profane. Peter
is seeing that God is changing the way we've always done things. He
is seeing that God is doing something we've never done before. That
something is to keep the circle but make it porous and
ever-expanding. That something is to allow us to open our eyes to
see all people as part of God's family. That something is to see all
people as clean, not profane.
This is a change that scares us. This
is a change we fear. We spend a lot of time making sure we follow
the rules. Some people spend a lot of time also making sure other
people follow the rules as they interpret them. Christians in
general have gotten a reputation that says we work to make sure only
the right people make up the circle of God. But, as Peter found out,
that's looking at it the wrong way.
Several years ago there was an artist
who wanted to be edgy and provocative. He displayed a photographic
piece in which a crucifix was submerged in a tank filled with blood
and urine, and he called it, “Piss Christ.” You may remember
this.
The levels of rage from various
Christian groups and Christian law makers was through the roof and
they succeeded in having it removed from whatever art gallery it was
displayed in. It was edgy. It was certainly provocative. And it
reminds me of today's lesson.
A group of believers wanted Peter to
stop associating with Gentiles for fear of being profaned. A group
of believers wanted a piece of artwork removed for the same reason –
that it was profaning the crucifix (in particular) and their religion
(in general).
In both of these incidents, the people
opposed to the artwork and those opposed to Peter, held to the view
that the profane contaminates the clean. They hold to the idea that
the profane has power over the clean. And on some level, we all have
that view; which is why we want to keep God holy and separate from
that which defiles.
Theologian Richard Beck wrote an Advent
meditation on this very thing several years ago where he argued that
when we do that, we limit the power of God to cleanse us. We limit
the power of God to heal us. We limit the power of God to make holy
that which we think is profane.
God (and equally Jesus) doesn't work
the way we think. That which we think is profane has no power over
God. In fact, it is God/Jesus who has power over the profane. It is
God/Jesus who makes the profane holy. The darkness doesn't overcome
the light – the light scatters the darkness.
This change in theology – God is
greater than the profane – is a change we need to work on. It is a
change we need to make not in our heads but in our hearts so that we
no longer recoil in horror at the sight of what or whom we classify
as profane.
Like Peter did, we need to put holes in
the circle, welcome the outcast, sinner, profane, and unclean, and
let them know that God chooses to make them holy. We need to find a
way to change our thought process that tells us the profane
contaminates the holy into a thought process that tells us the holy
cleanses the profane. For some, though, this is a change to fearful
to contemplate.
But this is Easter where the biggest
profaning act, death, has not only been destroyed but made holy.
This is Easter when things which were cast down are being raised up
and where life is changed, not ended.
Will you allow God to change you, or
will you allow fear to keep the God of change at bay?
Amen.
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