We will gather together for worship this Sunday in the parking lot, with the option to bring your own chair and sit socially distant, or to stay in your car. We will also continue live-streaming on Facebook and call-in on WebEx, so you can participate if you are not comfortable gathering with others (for health or whatever reasons). It will be the first time we will worship in person since March 8. It will be different from what we did before March 8, and it will be different from what we’ve done since March 8.
But seriously, what hasn’t been different about these past several months? In the midst of so much change, so much adaptation, so much disruption of our regular patterns of life, we find ourselves relying onto our faith in God, our commitment to follow Jesus Christ, and our openness to the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit, as we negotiate this “life as we don’t know it”.
The thing is, what we do in that reliance, commitment, and openness to comfort and guidance looks different too. It has to, because the context of living all of that out has changed and therefore the practice of it changes.
This is the situation of Simon Peter in this passage from Acts 10. He was living his life as Simon the son of John, a Jewish fisherman, when Jesus came along. He followed Jesus in person for three years, living out a vision of his and Jesus’ mutual faith that had some clearly different emphases—and as Peter, given a new identity by Jesus. Peter didn’t always get it. But then Jesus was executed, raised to new life from death, and Peter got it a bit more. Now, with Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter is continuing to follow Jesus, is carrying on this clearly different emphasis of his and Jesus’ mutual faith, and is engaging people and bringing them along with him.
But now he is encountering people who are not from that faith, and he’s working out what that means, and what to do as a leader in this new thing—this thing that was at that time called “The Way”. If people who aren’t part of this mutual faith of his and Jesus’s are wanting in, what does that look like? What practices matter from how he’s lived, and from this new emphasis on how he’s lived? What doesn’t matter? How does this work out in this new reality?
We are confronted with those kinds of questions too. And it seems to me that we need to avail ourselves of the same resources Peter did—prayer, openness to the Holy Spirit, whether it fits our preconceived practices and understandings or not, and encountering and engaging with the new situation—which for Peter is this new group of people, and for us are these new circumstances. We, like Peter, are in a situation unlike anything we’ve been in before. We draw on our faith, but we trust God when something challenges the way we’ve understood the practice of our faith—God may be showing us a new thing—teaching us HOW to see when it looks different.
Acts 10:1-17, 23-29, 33-48
1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3 One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius.’ 4 He stared at him in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.’ 7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8 and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.
9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 14 But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. . . .
23 Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. 24 The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him . . . 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 28 and he said to them, ‘You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objection.
33 . . .all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.’
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. . . . 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47 ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ 48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.