The 5th Sunday after Easter - To Banish Barriers

For three Sundays this month we have engaged in Holy Conversations.  These conversations centered on topics important in our society today: solemnizing civil unions, repeal of the death penalty, and today--guns and the problem of violence.  In this post-modern world--a world where we no longer believe that human civilization is continually improving--we find that people of good will and a strong faith in Jesus Christ do not agree on how these social issues should be addressed.  How can this be? Shouldn't we be able to consult the Word of God and all come down at the same place? Apparently not.

And we shouldn't be surprised at this state of affairs either.  Our reading from the Book of Acts about Peter's vision in the city of Joppa deals with the conflict between certain religious practices and a different way of looking at scripture and tradition.

This is a small portion of the Jewish dietary laws from the 11th chapter of Leviticus: "Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying, "These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth: Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud; that you may eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the rock hyrax, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the hare, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you.'"

The dietary laws of Leviticus and the Jewish tradition of not sharing a meal with Gentiles who did not have to observe such laws put Peter's belief that he was to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people under great tension.  How far did Christians who came from the Jewish faith have to go from their usual practices in order to accommodate Gentiles?

As we have discovered in our Holy Conversations this concern about changing cultural norms and our response to them as people of faith continues to this day.  In 1951 an American theologian named Richard Niebuhr published a book entitled, "Christ and Culture."  In it he described ways in which Christians have dealt with the cultures in which the they lived.  The backdrop for this book was the Holocaust when the official state church in Germany did not oppose the rise of the Nazis.

Niebuhr saw Christians as taking various stands concerning culture throughout history, the earliest stand being against the culture of Roman civilization in the first century of the Common Era.  At the time depicted in our reading from the Book of Acts Peter believes his encounter with God in the vision of the sheet with "unclean animals" was leading him to set Christ against the religious and cultural norms of the Judaism.  Later St. Paul would deal with the issue of taking a stand against cultural practice in the context of the pagan culture where meat that had been offered to idols could be served at meals where Gentile Christians would be present. In both instances being a faithful Christian meant acting in a way that would bring you into conflict with current cultural practices.  Christians were supposed to act in a way that set themselves apart--which meant they, like Jesus, might expose themselves the wrath of those in power.

We are no longer living in the world of first century Palestine controlled by the Roman Empire.  We are not breaking away from mainstream Judaism to practice our faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God.  If any of us today is asked to describe the culture in which we live, we may well come up with as many different answers as there are people in this room.  However, the question remains: how will we practice our faith in the world--in the community--in the family--where we live?

I believe our readings this morning/evening are directing us not to "circle the wagons."  There may be something "new" to which God may be guiding us.  Even more than today, people in the first century disliked change. Tradition had great value; something new could not be trusted. Yet Peter insisted he now finally understood what God wanted.  Here is what he said: "The Spirit told me to go with them [the Gentiles from Caesarea] and not to make a distinction between them and us . . . And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them [the Gentile household which Peter had entered] just as it had on us at the beginning . . . If 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?"

All these were part of Peter's understanding about this new approach: an unexpected vision, listening to God's leading through the power of the Holy Spirit, and not rejecting the request of people he might have dismissed as outside God's blessing.  Peter's example enacts what Jesus taught the disciples after Judas had left the last supper: "Just as I have loved you, so you should love one another."

Jesus called this the "new commandment," because it created a community based not primarily on holiness, but on agape--a love that empties us of selfishness and propels us into community where we can be free to accept even folks who may be quite different from us. How might we put Peter's example into practice today?  Who is it that we should no longer make a distinction between them and us? And to whom can we offer in unselfish love in order to build a community among us?  Let us ponder these questions as we consider how we--as followers of Jesus Christ--should respond to the cultures (both local and world-wide) in which we live.