Becoming Church Together: Peter Tells Jerusalem About Cornelius

Acts 11:1-18

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.” And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 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?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’

Dear beloved of God, grace and peace to you this day from our Lord and Savior Jesus who is the Christ, Amen.

There’s a lot going on in the world. A lot of hurt and uncertainty and fear. So let’s just take a break, at least for a little while, and immerse ourselves in this peculiar little bible story in front of us. It’s your favorite and mine. Peter and his meat sheet. 

The bible can at times feels a little inaccessible. But this story pushes that to a whole new level. If, while you heard me reading this story, you found yourself wondering what on earth is going on here, don’t worry — you’re not alone. Everyone else was thinking the same thing. 

So let’s break it down. Not because I think it’ll make things any clearer mind you, but because this story has some incredibly hilarious details that I don’t want anyone to miss.

All right, so our story picks up in Jerusalem. Peter is back in town after a little junket to Joppa. He’s in front of all the other leaders of the emerging Jesus movement. These people are all Jewish, just as Jesus was and Peter is. They’ve heard that Peter had brought a number of Gentiles to faith in Jesus. Yay! But they’ve also heard that he ate with them, he shared a meal with them, which was a no-no. Jews and Gentiles didn’t share things in common, they didn’t mix, and they certainly didn’t eat together. It made the Jewish people ritually unclean. So what Peter did with Cornelius was a big problem.

The leaders are like, hey Peter, what gives?

So he shares with them a recap of his trip to Joppa and his little side trip to Caesarea where he meets Cornelius. He begins to argue his case. He says look, I was in a trance and I had a vision.

Nope, nope, nope. If I’m the leaders in Jerusalem, I’m done. Right there. I’m not gonna hear another word he says.

Nobody has ever convinced me of anything by uttering the words: I was in a trance and I had a vision. Zero credibility, Zero. Craft a reasonable argument. Put some facts in front of me. Show me how this is going to benefit me in the long run, great I’m all ears. Pie charts? Excel spreadsheets? Nope. I was in a trance, and I had a vision.

Ok, fine, Pete. Tell us about your vision. Well you see there was a giant sheet that sort of unfurled from heaven, and on the sheet was a bunch of meat, birds and four-legged creatures, the kind that we as Jews aren’t supposed to eat, but I heard God speak to me and he said, look at all the meat on that sheet — you should eat.

Right. So there was a sheet, with meat, and God told you to eat?

Peter continues, “Yeah, and I of course said, I’ve never touched that stuff before. I couldn’t possibly. But God said, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ So I went and had lunch with Cornelius. The Holy Spirit showed up and we baptized everyone. And that friends is why we should allow uncircumcised gentiles into the church. The end.”

Bonkers. Imagine someone presenting this as their case for why your group should totally and fundamentally change who it admits into membership. Up until this moment you had really clear and pretty universally understood parameters about how to define us and them. But now Peter makes an argument that completely and totally undermines your whole way of understanding your identity based upon a sheet, with meat, that Peter saw in a vision, while in a trance, a lunch with an outsider, and a giant baptism party.

This doesn’t work for me. Would it have worked for you? 

Think about how suspicious we all are right now of leaders, suspicious of anyone who tries to move us to change. We don’t trust people. We are especially mistrustful of anyone who is asking us to change, to do something different, to do something uncomfortable or that goes against how we perceive the world to be.

I’m sorry, you want me to do what? Based on what evidence? How many people are potentially impacted? I don’t see any? You just want me to trust you, because you’re some sort of expert with your trance and your vision?

But that’s not how the folks in Jerusalem responded.

“When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’” 

Through the peculiar details of this story, the people in Jerusalem saw God at work. Even though the story transgressed boundaries and made them uncomfortable and failed to resonate with their own lived experiences, they saw Jesus at work.

Because they trusted in the Spirit enough enough to know that maybe if it sounds like something Jesus would do, and feels like something Jesus would do, it probably is Jesus.

If it’s actually uncomfortable and stretches you beyond what you think is proper or right but it feels like love, it’s probably Jesus.

If it’s big and expansive and it’s drawing more people into relationship with God, it’s probably Jesus. 

If it’s showing up in the difficult moments, the grief-laden moments, the life and death moments, it’s probably Jesus.

If it’s giving yourself away for the sake of the other, if it’s suffering at the hands of those that don’t understand and don’t see you as worthy of being loved, it’s probably Jesus.

Hey church. We aren’t that different from those leaders in Jerusalem. We know what Jesus’ work looks like. We know what it feels like. You have been loved irrespective of whether or not you deserve it. You have been brought into to God’s family by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. You are a part of God’s forever.

We know that God changes things and changes us. We know that it can be uncomfortable. Like the early church, we know that sometimes something of the old way of being in this world must die so that something new can be born. We know that the path to new life always leads through death.

So if we know and have experienced what the church has always known, how will we respond?

So how we will we respond when we are brought news of God’s work in the world, of Jesus loose in the world, that is uncomfortable and unbelievable? How will we respond when we hear of Jesus’ body being broken again and again? Will we change? Will we celebrate and participate in the hard way of repentance that leads to life? Or will we remain silent?

This past week we were brought a story of a young black man named Ahmaud Arbery who, by all appearances, was hunted down and killed in the streets of his own town while he was out on a run, jogging, exercising — back in February.

It’s a story that joins itself to a larger, painful, sinful story in our country and in our country’s history that says white and black people experience life differently. It’s a story that speaks of a reality in which our black brothers and sisters live with less freedom, less opportunity, less safety, less dignity than those of us who are white.

There have been moments where we as a country have believed that we’ve gotten past all of that. But this sinful story keeps coming back, and our brothers and sisters in Christ keep telling us that it’s true.

Now of course you or I might not experience it. We haven’t seen it. It’s uncomfortable to contemplate and it might mean we need to change something about how we live and move in this world. The story demands repentance. 

So what will we do? Will we assume it’s a ridiculous story, will we scoff as those it’s a tale of a man in a trance who has had visions of meat on a sheet rolling down from heaven?

Or will see Jesus, doing what Jesus does, showing up in the difficult moments, the grief-laden moments, these life and death moments, carrying us from the places of death and destruction to the promised land of life in God’s presence?

Is this their story? Or does it become ours?

Amen.