In the early days of the spiritual movement that we now think of as the early church, the followers of Jesus were pretty much all people who share Jesus’ Jewish faith. The followers of Jesus, those who believe he had been resurrected from the dead for the salvation of the world, didn’t see themselves as “Christian,” as members of a new religion, but as Jewish people who follow Jewish laws and traditions and who understand what has happened as a piece of the story of how God relates to just the Jewish people. But little by little, experience by experience that understanding was challenged, like in the experience Peter is telling his fellow apostles about in Acts 11.
While on a mission of preaching and teaching, Peter received a vision during prayer. In his vision he saw a large sheet coming from heaven and on that sheet were a bunch of a different animals that one might use for food. Only on that sheet were a mix of animals, including some that Jewish people are forbidden to eat as part of their unbroken covenant with God. A voice that Peter understood to be the voice of God tells him to go ahead and eat all the food whether it is spiritually clean or unclean. It may sound like no big deal to us, but it would have been shocking to Peter and even more shocking to his peers in this new Jewish movement, the ones to whom he is telling this story, since they didn’t get to hear it themselves. This is NOT what they expect a divine voice to be telling them!
But the story doesn’t stop there. After receiving this vision the Spirit tells Peter to go to the home of a Roman centurion – someone who isn’t Jewish, but someone who is part of the oppressive enemy government, someone who definitely doesn’t keep the same Jewish food laws that Peter and the others would be expected to follow and someone who does not bear in his body the sign of the covenant God keeps with God’s people. All-in-all his report is shocking – the vision, the words of the voice from heaven, the call to visit a Roman in Caesarea, the visitation of the Holy Spirit on that Roman, a foreigner, someone unclean and uncircumcised. This is not what any of them are excepting. It’s not how they thought the good news was going to spread. It’s not to whom they thought the good news would go. And Peter, a leader in this movement, the early church we know it becomes, is telling the story to try to explain what might feel inexplicable.
He knows it’s going to be surprising to his fellow leaders. He knows it will be hard to understand for other people who have been following and listening and learning. But he also knows he had no choice but to do what he did. He knows so clearly, so certainly the divine source of his vision, the teaching, his calling, his actions, the sharing of the good news that took place. He knows it was a voice from heaven. He knows the Spirit told him to go. He is certain that the Holy Spirit fell on these people – the same Holy Spirit that he and the other apostles had received at the beginning of their ministry. He knows that the same grace he received could not be withheld from others.
And this silences them all. Any who may have pushed back. Any who may have doubted the centurion was worthy, the Romans, all Gentiles. They were all quiet, because in hearing the story they knew, too. They knew that this Spirit that was driving them was not under their control. Their comfort zones, their traditions, their expectations weren’t the only way the world would be welcomed into the ever-expanding covenant of God’s grace.
“The spirit blows where it chooses,” as Jesus says in the gospel according to John, and what Peter tells us is that it’s our work to get out of the way. But getting out of the way doesn’t mean sitting on the sidelines. It doesn’t mean we hide in our homes or rooms or the church, insulated and separated from the work God is doing in the world. It means that we recognize that the same Spirit that blesses us, that welcomes us, that calls us to repentance and forgives us, that sends us, is going to do some very unexpected things in order to bless the whole world, and we can, we must, join it.
Peter’s report to his fellow apostles of his vision and the ever expanding reach of the Holy Spirit is particularly relevant to our worship today. This morning we are ordaining and installing new officers – both elders and deacons – for our congregation. While the first apostles didn’t have the same structure we do and an organization for governance was probably the farthest things from their minds, I can’t help but imagine this whole story as a meeting of the session of First Church of Jerusalem or a gathering of their Board of Deacons. Peter has come back from his activities and needs to report what’s taken place to his fellow leaders. “Well friends…. You’re never going to believe what happened,” he says before diving into the unbelievable story. And when he’s done and they all end up praising God, I imagine someone reluctantly raising their hands, “Now how are we going to tell everyone else about this?”
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been a part of a church leadership group that’s had *that* conversation – – well, it would be a very noising offering. Because it’s not uncommon for the Spirit to move our leaders in ways that are unexpected. It’s not uncommon for the group to get together and think they’re going to plan a regular year with the regular traditions and the usual worship services and the mission partnerships we all know and love and expect – only to find the Spirit of God has something entirely different up her sleeves.
So it’s not uncommon for them to wonder how they’re going to explain the unexpected to everyone else. It can be pretty scary for the Peter in the group who needs to report back an experience of God’s leading they didn’t expect. It can be pretty scary for the other leaders who are having their knowledge and experience challenged with a new idea. It can be pretty scary as they think about how they are going to tangibly communicate an experience of the intangible divine wisdom, how they are going to share what they have discerned is the next right step for the people of God to take together, to get out of the way of where the Spirit chooses to go, and follow that way to be a part of the good news of Jesus Christ in the world.
It can be scary, and that’s why we take the time in our worship service to lift these leaders up. That’s why we recognize they have a particular call to a particular service in a particular time. It’s why we ask them questions about in whom their leadership is grounded, on what sources of strength and wisdom and knowledge they will lean. It’s why we respond as a congregation saying we will pray for them in their work. We will receive their care and love. We will listen to their decisions. We will honor their discernment.
This whole thing – this movement of followers of the way of Jesus our Christ, this Christian faith, this particular congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Allentown – all of it is a participation in the abundant life of Jesus when we believe that the same gifts given to us are given to the whole world. All of it carries the good news when resist the urge to hinder God’s expansive welcome. All of it works when we let ourselves be open to the unexpected movement of the Spirit of God in ourselves and throughout the world. Amen.
