The Final Act Part II

Acts 10:34-43New International Version (NIV)

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

In the Sonrise service I spoke about our personal agendas and narratives.  I spoke about how they should be fluid, dynamic and ever changing and I believe Peter’s quote that started our scripture for this morning backs what I said.  Listen to how Peter’s narrative changed, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” “I now realize....”  Something changed in Peter.  Perhaps this quote takes place shortly after one of Peter and Paul’s “heated” discussions.  You see, Paul and Peter disagreed on something that seems foreign to us today.  Paul believed that pagan converts to Christianity did not need to follow the Jewish laws of the Old Testament.  Peter believed that they should.  The book of Acts chronicles the lives of the disciples after the resurrection and this is the same place we find ourselves today.  We gather to celebrate the resurrection but we find ourselves nearly 2,000 years after the fact so the same post-resurrection quarrels and questions still plague us today.  In Galatians 2:11-14 Paul tells the story of this confrontation.  The scripture says that Paul “opposed him to his face...”.  This was not some simple, well-mannered discussion.  Paul called out Peter for drawing away from the Gentiles when “certain men” were around because “he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.”  As we gather to celebrate the resurrected Christ, let us also give thought to the resurrection of Peter’s faith.

In addition to the context of Peter and Paul’s discussion, Peter also had a dream shortly before visiting a Roman Centurion, or soldier.  The dream was about the animals that Peter’s Jewish faith did not allow him to eat but God was telling him it was now ok to eat.  The discussion between Peter and God happened three times before Peter got the jist of it.  Sound familiar?  Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him.... Peter denied Jesus three times after telling him he wouldn’t.  In the limited research I conducted, I could not find solid evidence of the timeline of these two points of context.  I don’t know if the timeline matters as much as the context.  

You see, Peter was stuck between the legalism of the religion of his youth and the new doors opened by Christ.  Here is something we all relate to... Christianity is supposed to have these set of borders.  Some follow these to the letter and say this is what God commanded.  Some do the exact opposite and say that Jesus blew those borders to smithereens.  Agendas and narratives.  In raising or teaching children you will find this on a daily basis.  Growing up, I stayed well within the borders, most of the time, and my brother blew them to smithereens.  While I am kind of joking, there is truth there.  Peter was stuck between what he believed for so long on the one hand and Christ changing or going against some of that.  It was a real struggle for Peter.  After Jesus rose from the dead, we find Peter in Acts 2 speaking in tongues and preaching to all sorts of Gentiles.  He was given the Spirit and he used it to expand the Kingdom of God.  As our scripture for this morning catches up with Peter again, it seems like part of that spark has left him.  It’s almost like he realized what Christ did and then part of him forgot due to his past.  Here is how we relate.  Most likely, most of you have been there.  You catch the spark of Christ and then for whatever reason, it dwindles.  It may not disappear but you lose your grip of what you had before.  The emotional excitement escapes us and we resort back to how things were before in some way.

A fellow preacher and good friend used a phrase in her Good Friday service that has stuck with me.  She said that God’s love and grace covers us.  We are immersed in it.  It surrounds us every moment of every day.  I love the thought of this.  We may lose that spark, we may lose focus on Christ but we aren’t lost on him.  Not at all.  Peter lost this spark and God made him a pillar of His church.  The emotional excitement of the resurrection was sometimes lost on Peter and look what God was able to do with him.  How are we, today, in this very moment, not covered and immersed in that same love and grace?  We are.  You are.  And everyone outside those doors is immersed and covered in the grace and love of Christ.  Speaking plainly, our narrative or agenda is faulty if we fail to see this.

We gather this morning to celebrate the resurrection of Christ but this resurrection not only occurred those many years ago, it is still happening today.  Some place in the world, it is happening in every moment.  God is eternal and transcends time which means the resurrection does as well.  Some will debate the nature of this resurrection, let them.  What I am talking about in this moment is a resurrection of faith, much like Peter’s.  This resurrection may happen once, monthly, or daily but it has to be something we think about when it comes to faith.  Whether we live well within the borders, on the fringes or well outside them, this is a conversation with God we are remiss if we do not have it on the regular.  The resurrection means so many different things to so many different people.  It happened and in my mind that fact is indisputable.  It’s a large part of my narrative.  But what do I do with it?  How can I use it to help others and love God?  This immersion and coverage of God’s ever reaching love and grace is not an excuse to continue to sin.  Rather, it’s the reason to repent and change course.  Sin, addiction, greed, pride and many other things can get a stranglehold on us but those things fail in the presence of the resurrection.  They fail while Christ conquered death for you.  They may get their grip and seem like they will prevail but in the presence of the resurrected Christ THEY ARE DEFEATED.  They are demolished and destroyed when we drop them at the foot of Christ on the cross and sprint with all that we have to the empty tomb.    Amen.