Easter 5C
May 15, 2022
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Kensington, CT
1Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” 4Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5“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. 6As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12The 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. 13He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17If 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?” 18When 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
31When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:31-35
Heavenly visions would be nice, don’t you think? I don’t really know – I can’t say I’ve ever had one. A gut sense of call, a community of fellow people of faith to discern with, a retrospective sense of God having led me through life – yes. But no grand heavenly visions which open up the church of Jesus in new and profound ways. At least sometimes I’d like the kind of clarity that Peter gets with the vision from God in today’s first reading: Here. Do this. You’ve been wrong, and that’s ok, but going forward do this instead. This and not that. I just long for that clarity sometimes.
Peter has been faithfully following Jewish practices of the time – keeping kosher, attending festivals, reading the scriptures. At this point in the story there isn’t really yet something we’d call Christianity, at least in any modern sense – it’s still a Jesus movement emerging in the midst of first century Judaism. And there is this persistent question, despite all of Jesus’s boundary pushing and openness, about whether people have to become Jewish and follow Jewish custom in order to follow Jesus. This is not some sort of legalism as if Judaism has strict rules and what emerges as Christianity doesn’t, but rather it’s a matter of how people practice their faith. Those Jewish food customs and other ritual ways they oriented their life are as dear to these folks as our favorite hymns and liturgies, our potluck suppers and candlelit Christmas Eves – these are the ways they have practiced their faith. With this new thing emerging, will what has been still be part of where we are going? Will what has been continue to be part of who we are going forward?
It’s a question we ask a lot these days as our church both in the big, broad sense of church, and in our individual congregations. Things are shifting, changing. But if nothing else the story of Peter’s vision about how the Jesus movement will go forward should remind us that people of faith are always asking this questions. Faith is embodied – embodied in people, embodied in living institutions which by nature change, evolve, move, and, yes, even die. But what will remain and what will change? What new things will emerge? What old things will be lost.
For Peter it’s about what foods are lawful to eat – though, really, as I’ve already hinted, it’s bigger than that. It’s about who gets to be in and who gets to be out. This vision – the blanket with the food and God’s pronouncement – it’s toward greater openness. If God’s said it once God’s said it a hundred times – all are welcome. So, Peter, here’s your vision – go forth and live it out. Leave this behind. Do this instead. If only God helped us sort out our deep questions about our lives of faith and the life of our church in such straightforward terms.
You have a decision before you here today at Prince of Peace. That decision is about whether you are ready, after much discernment, to officially vote to pursue Holy Closure. You’ve talked about the options available to you and you’ve come to some consensus already about where you are leaning. And though your anxiety about this decision may have made it into your dreams, I’m guessing at least most of you haven’t gotten the kind of clarity that Peter got, no grand visions of God saying this way and not that way.
Here’s the thing, though, these grand pronouncements from God, these visions that provide clarity of direction and unambiguous theological dicta – they are actually pretty challenging. I can’t think of a single bold vision from God that doesn’t result in upending life changes for the recipient. Abram is called to wander to a new land. Moses to upend the society where he was raised. Hannah to give over her child to God’s service. Esther to defy authority and advocate for her people. Every prophet ever to go do and say hard things to people in power. Mary to birth the Christ child. God’s visions don’t ever result in just keeping things the way they are, sailing along comfortably along doing what you’ve always been doing.
It may seem trivial to us looking back after 20 centuries, but God’s vision to Peter is a setting of a new direction for the emerging church. And it means loosening his grip on his own traditions and customs. It means being willing to stand and face the opposition of those who think otherwise.
I want to pause here and give a disclaimer – God does not interrupt people’s lives with visions that say “What you did before was wrong. Now you’re going to do what’s right.” God simply says, we’re doing a new thing together, come join me. It does not invalidate the beautiful traditions – in Peter’s case the beautiful tradition of keeping kosher which carries forward in beautiful and ever-evolving ways in our sibling religion, rabbinic Judaism. But this vision and God’s other visions don’t shame anyone for what has been or imply that something wasn’t right. It’s that something else is happening now, too.
And that’s how I hope you think of your decision today. Prince of Peace has lived out its mission. It has been a place for God’s people to gather, experience grace, serve neighbors, deepen faith, and be God’s hands in the world. It has come to a time to make critical decisions about what that mission looks like now. And in some form or fashion God is going to do something new. It will be hard, no matter what choices you make, but then, so is every call from God.
So perhaps we ought to be careful what we wish for, what we pray for, because a clear vision from God is both gift and challenge. It is a transformation that often means losing something of what you have known as new things emerge. It means, as we continue here in the Easter season, death and resurrection.
And, in fact, we do, my siblings in Christ, have a clear call, a clear vision from God in our gospel reading today. No, it will not tell you what to do about the life of your congregation – not in the sense of congregational votes and legal decisions. Jesus gives a new commandment as he prepares for his glory – for his death that destroys death – and that commandment, that clarity of vision is this: Love one another. It is as simple and complicated as that.
This is the definition of the Christian church, the definition of discipleship, the way in which we are known: by our love for others – all others.
I know and cherish the ways in which our individual faith communities shape us and form our identities. We are embodied people and it means something to gather week after week in a particular space like this one. It means something to go through life events alongside others in your community of faith – particular people who stand beside us in joy and grief and everything in between. It means something to identify with a congregation, a denomination, a way of worship, a particular pathway of service. Those are all deep identities. And when they change, when congregations close or rethink their mission, there is deep pain and grief.
And yet those identities are not primary for Jesus. Not primary for our life of faith. The call to love one another is not defined by church buildings, congregational identities, denominational affiliation. It isn’t even defined by baptism – that call supersedes even the most fundamental of our welcome rites as Christians. Your call here at Prince of Peace has been to love one another. Your call in the coming months at Prince of Peace, whatever decisions you make today, is to love one another. Your call wherever you go, wherever you worship, wherever you find community is to love one another.
Because love is stronger than death. More than anything, I think that’s what Easter is really about. That God is willing to put God’s very body on the line for the sake of love. That love defeats the grave. That love simply can’t be held back – not by our failures to love in individual moments, not by institutions that change or close, not by the power of death to rip our beloved ones away from us. Love will prevail.
That is God’s vision for you this day, every day. Love prevails. God’s love for you. God’s love for your neighbor. God’s love for your enemy. God’s love for all creation to the end of all things. God’s love prevails.
Pastor Steven Wilco
Stewarding the Word 