Peter and The Foreskins

Everyone who wants to be is at Shell Island, and we pray for them a beautiful spring-summer day, not too hot, no sunburn, and no thunderstorms. Amen!

You may be seated.

In the Episcopal Church, our usual pulpit focus is the gospel reading, but as your preacher this morning, I may look at Acts instead of John’s story of Jesus laying down the law, A New Commandment I give you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know you are my disciples, that you love one another. And that’s the sum of everything it means to be a Christian here in the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement. We are not a law- and rules-bound church, like no dancing and no alcohol: the only Absolute is Love. Jesus loves you, will you remember that? And you have promised to love others by seeing Jesus in everyone as they see Jesus in you, and to love others by respecting the dignity of every human being. 

So Acts today, and perhaps Revelation again another Sunday before Patmos John’s frightening vision goes hiding, lurking and crouching until Lectionary Year C comes back round three years from now.

Acts then, Peter's report of his Grotesque Vision. 

Arriving back in Jerusalem, Simon Peter is confronted by his offended, angry, disgusted colleagues-in-the-gospel, Jewish Christians who charge Peter so contemptuously that it literally spits in his face, 

“Εἰσῆλθες πρὸς ἄνδρας ἀκροβυστίαν - -

“You went to the ... foreskins - -

καὶ συνέφαγες αὐτοῖς." (pardon my French)

and ATE with them".

And that’s what today’s story is all about.

Like Jesus, Simon Peter the Galilean fisherman is an observant Jew - - from Kapernaum-am-See, where the synagogue is the center of town and of life (you can look at a beautiful picture of the excavated old seaside town online). Peter, son of the Jewish mother whom Jesus healed, Peter knows better than to render himself spiritually unclean, untouchably filthy by meeting and eating with ἔθνη, gentiles, ethnic outsiders - ἀκροβυστίαν. 

Acts is Luke’s follow-on story of the origins of the Christian church. Like Jesus before him in Luke’s own gospel, Simon Peter has met with ἔθνη, ethnics, gentiles, and led them to God in Christ - - “Guess Who Came To Dinner” - - and Peter’s friends and neighbors, Jews who believe in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, are horrified, scandalized.

Their outrage is logical and to be expected: the first Christians were a messianic sect of Judaism, like a separate Sunday School class, or a small group neighborhood Bible study meeting in someone’s home. Based on testimony of Peter and other witnesses, they believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, sent by God to reestablish the Throne of David and save the Jews from their enemies, as Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt. 

And here’s their leader Simon Peter telling their Jewish story to ἔθνη, The Unclean (unlike Jews who have nothing to hide from God, which is what circumcision is all about) and bringing them in - - uncut, unacceptable, uninvited, unwelcome.

And so Peter, Simon Peter, tells his fellow Jewish Christians about this grotesque vision that God has laid upon him:

It came down like a sheet from heaven (like a movie screen). And when the show started I saw filthy dogs, and wolves, and lions, and snakes and lizards, and - - vultures, buzzards. And God said, “Petro! Bon appetit!” 

And I said, “God forbid, Adonai! Yuck! I don’t eat filth”.

And God said, “Don’t call ‘filth' anything I have made and bring to you.”

And then I woke up and you know the rest of the story: God brought gentiles to me, and instead of seeing ἀκροβυστίαν, I saw men God loved, and I went home with them, and met with them, and ate with them, and told them about Jesus, I led them to Christ. 

And hearing Peter’s testimony, his friends and colleagues praised God and said, “Well then, alrighty then! God has accepted them, so must we.”

This morning’s reading from Acts is the story of how we gentiles came to hear about the Lord Jesus, and were welcomed into the Household of God. 

But it’s just a history lesson unless there’s a takeaway: every Bible story is about us. We are to put ourselves into the story. And, sure enough, this story is about us: we have our own ἀκροβυστίαν. 

You cannot do that, Christian. You cannot hold anyone else, different from you, in contempt. And as a reminder, we have our Baptismal Covenant with God. From the pew rack in front of you, the Book of Common Prayer, page 292.

As we stand.

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Sermon 19 May 2019, Easter 5C, in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church Panama City, Florida. The Rev. Tom Weller. Text: Acts 11:1-18. Peter and The Foreskins.