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Text: Acts 10:1-33 ● As someone who stands up every week and talks to you about God, I realize the influence that’s inherent in such a role. My purpose is not to create such imbalance in your spiritual equilibrium that you’re no longer confident about anything; but, it is to encourage within you the heart of one who is on a ‘quest’ for God (“Questor”: what Eugene Peterson in the Message calls Solomon) so that, in continuing to ask (which Jesus himself encouraged us to do), it might result in a faith which is the most authentic representation of the story of God “and that by believing you might have life in his name” John 20:31. We are the “believers who have not seen” ; admittedly, that will require a unique way of believing, one not dependent upon empirical data or irrefutable evidence (even such can be dismissed)… and that makes some of us nervous. Ours will require a quest to gather the best information available and reach the best possible conclusions about that information which will offer us ‘reason to believe’. The real mystery lies in the ‘self-authenticating’ nature of God’s truth. ● The faith that we espouse, “Christianity”, comes to us as ‘story’; an overarching story inclusive of many stories. And, although that term is rife with baggage, it identifies us, first and foremost, as a people who are learning life from ‘the Christ’ (originally referred to as “people of the Way”). ● Christianity is a decidedly Jewish story which included (3) essential convictions: 1. They believed in one Creator-God. This God was distinct from his creation, but remained actively involved in it. 2. They believed that they were chosen by God to reflect his presence and his purposes in the world, and that when God did act to restore order and eliminate evil (set things right) he would do so through them [identity and mission]. 3. They believed that history was moving toward a purposed-end; a time when their God would come and be King. ● All early Christianity was Jewish Christianity; all early efforts at sharing that message was done by Jewish Christians. As Christianity was expanding beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem and Judea, it raised many questions and challenged many of the presumptions that were inherent in their ethnic identity. Does one have to become a Jew to be a Christian? If not, what practices would be required and which would be considered optional? [Obviously, the whole ‘circumcision’ thing was not going to have mass appeal!] ● The theme woven throughout the entire story of God is one of ‘leaving and coming back home’; ‘slavery and exodus’; ‘exile and restoration’. It all started in the Garden and the rehearsal of Israel’s multiple ‘leavings and returnings’ were all re-enactments of humanity’s leaving and hope of return. It’s why we see Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom so filled with celebration over lost things and lost people. ● Another essential theme was that when God acted in history to forgive Israel’s sin and restore her, that ‘all the world’ (not just Abram’s descendents) would reap the benefits (be ‘blessed’). ● Peter’s faith has been pretty ‘manic’ to this point. He has experienced some incredible flashes of brilliance and some undeniable demonstrations of just having ‘totally missed the point!’ So, Peter is not only wrestling with what it means to be a faithful Jew, but what it means to let ‘them’ in (Gentiles; non-Jews). ● If Peter does not ‘repent’- or at the very least, reconsider the limitations of his present perspective, he will be unable to effectively connect with the Gentile (non-Jew) looking for God. If he closes the book on his story, he will also close himself off from those God desires to include in his life. In the process of moving forward, they needed a new way to identify themselves; there just too many labels and too much exclusivity. What they needed was a new identity… one that would better capture God’s heart and the scope of his dream: “in Christ”. ● While those in the first century were just being introduced to Jesus (just beginning to see how Jesus was the fulfillment of all that God had planned) through the somewhat fantastic testimony of many who claimed to have experienced the post-resurrection Jesus for themselves, they were already, what we would consider “religious” (i.e. nearly everyone embraced some form of religious expression or philosophy).
● It was in this context that Christianity
rapidly formed and spread. |
