Day 1228 - The Same Gift That He Gave Them

A reflection on Acts 11:1-18 for the Second Presbyterian Church Men’s Bible Study, April 21, 2016, Chattanooga TN.

As a prelude to appreciating this passage about Peter and Cornelius, we should acknowledge three ideas underneath the reading. They are the importance of a shared meal, the breadth of God’s grace and the irresistible action of the Holy Spirit.

Also, we should ask ourselves a few questions to get into the state of mind of the passage. Who would you invite into your home for dinner? Your friends? Would you invite the hostile prosecutor who sought to jail your friends because they hold a religious position different than yours (a tactic John Calvin employed)? Would you invite the person into your home whom you thought an apostate because the person thought it was OK for two persons of the same gender to marry? Would you invite one of the school board members in who had been acting the fool in public? Would you invite a Republican who was a fanatical supporter of Ted Cruz or Donald Trump, or a Democrat such as Hillary Clinton? Would you invite a Muslim into your home?

What if the early Christian congregations had persisted in only allowing Jews, people of their own kind, to participate and be welcome in their midst?

William Willamon suggests appreciation of this lectionary passage relies on understanding the entire passage from Acts 10:1 to 11:18. I agree because without reading the extended passage, we miss a number of literary devices used by Luke. As you read it you will find many instances of Luke using repetition to tell this story in a way that solidifies it in one’s memory so it can be told across the ages even if his gospel and history of the start of the "Church" is not at hand.

Luke presents the story of the gift of Grace by the Lord to the human community as a “min-play” of seven acts. Here is Williamson’s take on the answers:

Act 1: A Gentile has a vision.  A devout Gentile, Roman soldier at that, is moved along by the power of God almost as a passive participant without free will. He is directed to go to Joppa and find Simon Peter at Simon the tanner’s home.

Acts 10:1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. ²He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.*

³ One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.”  ⁴He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; ⁶he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” ⁷When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, ⁸and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.

*Read Job 1:1  to find a very similar description of another divinely honored Gentile who provides a lesson in righteousness to the Promised People. I find it interesting sand profoundly important that the Lord uses Gentiles as model of righteousness to open the eyes of his Chosen People, even in the pre-Christ era.

Act 2: Simon Peter has a vision. Meanwhile Simon Peter is confronted by the Lord three times with the same vision or dream and an imperative to do something that violates a cardinal rule of Jewish Law, eat meat of a cloven hooved animal, a pig, even suggesting he eat a snake.

Peter is stunned and troubled because this is exactly what Rome desires of Jews, to abandon their adherence to the Law (that is an affront to Roman power). Maybe he thinks he is on a slippery slope slowly sliding away from all righteousness he holds dear if he reforms his thinking about the law if he follows the state’s intent? After all, the Law is for the Jew, it is inviolate and distinguishes them from all other peoples.

Acts 10:9  About noon the next 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 it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. ¹¹He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners.  ¹²In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. ¹³Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” ¹⁴But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” ¹⁵The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” ¹⁶This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

Act 3: An unexpected visit. Suddenly the emissaries from Cornelius appear before Simon Peter. The Spirit told Peter three men were there to see him and he should accompany them where they desire him to go. But Peter asked the big question, “Why have you come for me?”

They tell him that the Lord told Cornelius, a Gentile God-fearer, to hear Peter’s testimony about Jesus. Peter answers (more or less) with the words of one of our hymns, “Here I am Lord,… I will go if you lead me.” (See the prior edition of the Presbyterian Hymnal, page 525, or listen to a little syrupy version by Eric Tom. This hymn by Don Schutte is also based on the “call experience” of Isaiah 6:1-13  within which the Lord points perhaps to this 6 act play as the great reconciliation.)

Acts 10:17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate. ¹⁸They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹ While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Look, three men are searching for you. ²⁰Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.” ²¹So Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?” ²²They answered, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” ^23aSo Peter invited them in and gave them lodging.

Act 4: Peter and Cornelius find common ground. Cornelius and friends welcome Peter to reside in his home! But even doing so, observant Peter says the only reason he violates the Law to be here is because the Lord told him to come.

Both Peter and Cornelius are giving up something quite valuable - Peter his adherence to the Law, Cornelius, the Roman soldier, his pride and power by exhibiting the humility to kneel and grasp the knees of Peter. Peter is being treated as something divine (anathema for a Jew) but he knows he is only a man. Both are “humiliated" in this divinely directed encounter.

They find themselves in the unexpected context of household hospitality. Conversion is taking on the shape of answering the question, “Who shall eat at my table?”  This is a point every proclaiming believer should acknowledge, grace begins at the shared table.

^24b The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. ²⁴The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. ²⁶But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.” ²⁷And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; ²⁸and he said to them, “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. ²⁹So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?”

³⁰Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. ³¹He said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. ³²Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ ³³Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”

Act 5: Peter preaches a sermon. Peter’s sermon is marked as usual in Acts by (1) proclamation, (2) scriptural proof and (2) a call to repentance.  But he precedes this with a personal confession, “I know God shows no partiality!”

Peter knows his vision is not about what food to eat. It is about what people to welcome with the good news!  (See Isaiah 56:1-12) Surely the Jewish brothers listening groaned at this sermon. The Holy Spirit is fully “upsetting the apple cart" of the world of Jerusalem.

Acts 10:34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Act 6: The Holy Spirit blows where it will. With no evidence of self-determination on the part of the hearers, the Holy Spirit moved all who heard Peter’s words. The author and central actor of this conversion is…The Lord Himself.

Acts 10:44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. ⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, ⁴⁶for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ⁴⁷“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Act 7: “What have you done?” We might call this act a Reprise, except it also provides a full resolution to what has happened that inspired the outrage and question, “What have you done??” Peter Returns to Jerusalem and answers the question hangs in the air, “What have you done??”

How has Peter angered his fellow Christians? He has shared a meal with them, and most critical, as we will find out in Acts 15, his hosts were uncircumcised - that is probably the core of the anger of Peter’s cohorts in Christ.

Acts 11:1. Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. ²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, ³saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” ⁴Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. ⁶As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.

⁷I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ ⁸But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’  ⁹But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ ¹⁰This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

¹¹At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. ¹²The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; ¹⁴he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ ¹⁵And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. ¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” ¹⁸When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

And Peter concludes this account with the most powerful message (vv16-18). “When I saw the Spirit move these people I remembered John said he baptized with water but you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Who am I to hinder God who has chosen to give the same gift to them that he gave to us? And all his Christian critics were silenced."

Yes, even so, Peter has left the rhetorical question hanging in the air for every believer in every time and place to answer, “Who are we to hinder God and the Holy Spirit?”

Amen.