Love and Holiness: Acts 10:1-16 - Third Sunday of Easter
I confess that I am a picky eater. And occasionally, that has gotten me into trouble.
Elizabeth never lets me forget how she found out I don’t like peas. She made them for dinner when we were dating, and even though I ate every bite so as not to offend her, she could tell by looking at my face that I don’t like peas.
Therefore, what Peter calls a vision I would call a nightmare. While he was praying, he fell into a trance. He saw the heaven opened, and a large sheet descended. Upon it were all kinds of “four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air.” Peter then heard a voice saying, “Get up, kill, and eat.”
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But Peter says, “by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is profane and unclean.”
The text is rather vague about what creatures were on God’s picnic blanket, but if I had to guess, I’m sure they included the very animals designated as unclean in Leviticus 11, which include camels, pigs, rabbits, vultures, buzzards, mice, rats, bats, snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads.
Are you hungry yet?
If I were in Peter’s dream, the only thing I would eat would be pork, especially bacon—provided it’s ready to cook. But no, these foods were not ready to cook. They were still moving.
Peter may have been more adventurous in trying new foods than Andrew Zimmern from the Food Channel, but he had been raised since birth not even to touch these animals, let alone eat them. The Children if Israel honored God by what they ate, and by what they didn’t eat. The dietary regulations of the Old Testament prevented God’s people from sharing tables with anyone who did not adhere to the Law of Moses. This was a holy boundary one dared not cross.
Except now, God is commanding Peter to cross it. Not just once, but three times. Incidentally, the text doesn’t tell us if Peter actually ate.
Nevertheless, the ancient boundary line which had set the people of God apart for more than a thousand years was now being knocked down. But now, the disciples of Jesus will sit at the tables of Gentiles who eat the very foods God had designated as unclean. This is a new holiness that is about relationships; about mission; about love. Love without limits.
We cannot comprehend how confusing and unsettling this must have been for early Christians. If the unclean is now clean, and the unholy is no longer profane, what is clean? What is holy?
Even though the Church has long resolved the controversies surrounding food, the ancient struggle over what is holy versus unholy remains with us.
Consider the holiness of time. The Third Commandment states, “remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” This church was packed back when the stores were closed, and people knew better than to schedule activities on Sundays. But that’s in the past. What do you do when Sundays are workdays? Do you prohibit your children from participating in sports and extracurricular activities that meet on Sundays? What do you do when Sunday is the only day that no one’s making demands of your time? Should we do business with businesses that are open on Sundays? These are hard questions without easy answers.
Even more problematic are all the culture war issues and partisan divisions. We all have beliefs and convictions about what is holy and unholy. Are we being holy in how we speak, act, and relate to those who differ from us? Is it holy to wage a culture war against those we deem as unholy?
Debates among Christians over what is holy and unholy, sacred, and profane will remain with us until the second coming of Christ, but the greatest unholiness is turning your beliefs and convictions into weapons against those who would differ from you. A thing becomes unholy the instant you love it more than Jesus, or the instant that it takes precedence over loving the neighbor (including the neighbor you don’t like). To be truly holy is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Nothing else matters more than love. There is no righteousness without love.
Obedience to these commandments, the greatest of the commandments, is not always going to be easy and comfortable. The holiness Jesus demands will be challenging and uncomfortable and even costly.
This church has committed itself to providing space at the table for everyone who comes to the feast. But people aren’t going to come merely because there’s an empty chair. This is where holiness really counts, because at the end of the day, people weren’t drawn to Jesus because he was liberal or conservative, because he broke traditions and held fast to others; they were drawn to the holiness of his love, his mercy, his humility, and for the fact that he made the first move to love them. They were drawn to Jesus because he cleared away all the obstacles that kept them on the outside. Are there things we do which we call holy that are obstacles for the outsider?
It’s not because of your holiness that Jesus welcomes you to his table. It’s because of Christ’s. So let us pray for the Spirit to use the Gospel and the meal to make us holy and obedient. Let us pray for the Spirit to liberate us from the boundaries we create and call holy, to do the works of God in the world. Let us pray for the Spirit to make love be the driving force behind how we relate to all people. including those who are easy to love and those who are a challenge.
Let us pray for the Spirit to guide us in the stewardship of our precious time, that the hours and the days be holy, and that the decisions we make and priorities we set be centered on God’s love.
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