Notes on Acts 11:1-18, Revelation 21:1-6 and John 13:31-35

“A little girl asked her mother, “How come when ever I open up a flower it falls apart, but when God opens it up it stays together?” The mother didn’t know how to respond, but then the little girl said,
“Oh, I know, when I open it up I open it up from the outside, but when God opens it up it is from the inside.””1
When we meet up with Peter today … in the book of Acts, … he is still pondering a set of events he just experienced, which begin opening him up from the inside out.
Only a couple days before, Peter was going about a normal day in Joppa. When we catch up with him, … Peter has returned to Jerusalem with much swirling in his head and stirring in his heart. News of his actions and their consequences made their way through the grapevine, ahead of him. You know how fast controversial news spreads through a community. They didn’t have phones or text messaging or facebook, yet news Peter hung out with Gentiles had already been thoroughly discussed by the time Peter had a chance to tell the story himself.
Peter walks in the door and before he can even sit down, his fellow apostles … (the ones who also witnessed Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection) … as well as other Jewish believers (who had heard the apostles’ testimony about God’s amazing deeds of power through Jesus and grew to trust the promise); they all pounce on him with, “What were you thinking? Why did you do it? Eating with uncircumcised men, staying in a Gentile’s home? They are unclean! Go take a shower! Start the cleaning rituals before you come any closer. Have you completely forgotten scripture and what is written according to Moses’ law? You are putting all of us at risk. Explain yourself.”
Instead of giving them a lecture or justifying his actions with a set of well-argued points, Peter begins telling them, word-for-word what happened to him in Joppa and then in Caesarea. This isn’t the first time this story is told in the book of Acts. Luke first tells it in chapter 10, as it unfolded in real time for Cornelius and Peter. But, today we hear a summary of the events from Peter. Repetition in scripture is a flag worth paying attention to. Something major is happening here and from this set of events, the mission of the early church takes a dramatic new course.
The accusations made by his fellow circumcised brothers in Christ are serious charges. Peter’s reputation and fellowship within the community of believers is at risk. Essentially, if the rumors are true, they have the right and the duty to declare Peter unfaithful. Hanging out with a Gentile, a Roman Military Officer no less. It is the equivalent of treason. Romans would rather kill you that eat with you. And, who knows what they served Peter to eat while he was there; pork? Or what he touched without knowing it? They must protect other believers, keep the community holy, and prevent this contamination from spreading.
In defense, Peter simply reports the events as they unfolded for him. “I know. You are right to be concerned. … But, this is what happened. I was in Joppa. At about noon, I got hungry. I asked my host for lunch, then went up on the roof to pray while they prepared the meal. As I prayed, I fell into a trance and had the strangest dream. Something like a big white sail started coming down from heaven. On it was all kinds of animals; clean and unclean. There were pigs and camels and cows and sheep and snakes and birds of prey, turkeys, alligators, pheasants, deer, … all mixed together. Then, I heard a voice. It said, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”
I said, “No way!” I know my scripture. I am a good, obedient Jew. I worried, I was hungrier than I thought and my mind was playing tricks on me. Or maybe the powers of sin were preying on my weakened state and trying to trick me into disobeying God. Or I also thought this might be a test of my faithfulness toward God. You would have been proud of me. I held my ground and said, “Lord, nothing common or unclean has ever crossed these lips and I am not about to start now.” I tried to refocus my thoughts on God, but the voice spoke again, “What God has made clean, you must not call common.” It happened three times. I said ‘no’ each time. Then, the sheet lifted back up and I awoke from my trance to discover three men approaching the house.
It is not always easy to figure out … or the churchier word, ‘discern’ what is of God and what is something we humans think up or might just be a dream produced by indigestion. And, making it even harder, we humans tend to be very skeptical of people claiming to have talked to God or seen visions of what God wants. We call them crazy or dismiss them as religious fanatics or demand so much proof that we take all the mystery and awe out of their story.
Peter’s fellow believers had justified cause to question him. Peter himself was suspicious of his experience. What he was seeing and hearing directly opposed tradition and God’s Word; both of which he based his whole life and faith. The food laws protected his people, but also set them apart as God’s chosen ones. … When other nations and peoples saw their trust in God by their obedience to these commands, it shined a light before others … and testified to the God of their ancestors, who rescued them from slavery and brought them safely to the promised land. Declaring something clean, when God had not or directly acting in an unholy way put, not only Peter’s relationship with God at risk, but could also lead others astray. Which leads us to a common question, how do you know what is a change God brings about and what is not?
Peter testifies, “I was still puzzled and confused by the vision, but then things went from strange to even stranger. The host sent for me. Apparently, the three men had come all the way from Caesarea looking for me. I could tell by their appearance and dress that they were Gentiles; Romans at that. I hesitated because of your same concerns. But, then the Spirit spoke to me and told me to go with them. … It was the Spirit who sent them to me and, I was to go with them, leaving any distinction I held between them and us, behind.
I brought these six men, standing before you today, with me … they can back me up that none of this was my idea. Together, we followed the three men to Caesarea and entered the house of a Roman Centurion named Cornelius.    I think his whole household and all of his extended relatives and friends were there. When I asked why he sent for me, Cornelius said an angel of the Lord appeared to him; an answer to his prayers. The angel told him to go to Joppa and find a man, named Simon called Peter.    The angel said, this Peter would bring them a message by which Cornelius and his entire household would be saved. I know, the idea of Gentiles being a part of the chosen people of God, without having to change their eating habits or bare the mark of circumcision; it caused me to pause too. But, all these things couldn’t be chance or the work of some evil force. This was the Spirit’s doing and I could see Cornelius’ hunger for God.
So, I started telling them the good news of Jesus Christ and there, before my eyes, the Spirit fell upon them all. Just as it did for all of us, the Spirit empowered Cornelius and his household to speak in tongues and sing the praises of our God. It was powerful to behold. It brought back memories of what our Lord taught us, how he said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. All I could conclude from all this is, “If God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in the way of God?”

Silence. The circumcised listeners had no response to this. … But, shortly, after digesting all Peter said, … they too praised God and confessed their rush to judge Peter may have been hasty, “Indeed, God is at work here doing something new, giving even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
As Peter and Cornelius discovered, this resurrection life is a power we cannot control … only come to turn toward and trust. The Holy Spirit blew open the doors for the followers of Jesus and sent the early believers out with only a story to tell and a ministry to share. Others became attracted to this growing community because the Spirit empowered them to live more and more into this resurrection life with Jesus Christ at their center: a life lived with peace, joy, and fullness now because they knew in Jesus, they would live forever; … a life lived offering forgiveness and reconciliation, because through Jesus’ death they received forgiveness of all their sins; … a life lived with love for their neighbor, because Jesus first loved his disciples; … and a life lived with gratitude and giving, because in Jesus they had come to know that all they are and all they have has its source and life in the One seated on the throne, our Alpha and Omega, our beginning and end, our God … who is reconciling heaven and earth and making all things new, so all will once again sing God’s praise without end.