The Mad Parson

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.” –Acts 11: 1-18

God’s Word to us Sunday was on the types of grand change and sweeping transition that most of us fear and dread. When Peter is told to eat unkosher food by God, it was a turn of events of absolute catastrophic proportions. The dietary laws in Judaism were the foundation and fabric of their community, and it was being thrown out for something new.

Scandalous. Which is why it took God telling Peter multiple times. This type of change occurs in churches that are trying to reach out to unchurched people. When unchurched people show up, there’s always growing pains and two distinct groups of people become one distinct group of people.

But such tumult isn’t limited to churches. All of us have endured some sort of change that we have found tsunamic. While our own little earthquake may not shake others, it has rocked us to the bone. The death of a loved one. A child who wanders off the path. A bad diagnosis from the doctor. A pink slip. Divorce papers. Thanksgiving with family members who are perfect–and insist on reminding us we’re not. The list goes on.

While such events are not induced by God in the way that Peter’s hallucination was, they are life-altering changes, nonetheless. And that’s why I find this passage so horrifying and so peace-giving at the same time. Horrifying, because such changes happen, and sometimes they are instigated by the only Man to ever cow Johnny Cash. Peace-giving, because God’s faithfulness never waivers. The whole change/transition thing isn’t the end of the Church; it’s really the beginning. The passage ends with baptism, repentance, and life–the stuff of eternity, the ingredients of heaven. So perhaps the moral of the story is that when we’re going through the tsunamis–whether on a grand scale as a community, or as a microcosm in our own lives–we can take comfort that God’s will is relentless, and his love for us is unbreakable.