When Jesus Loves People We Don't

        "Dave, I need to talk to you right away."

       From the look on Robin's face and from the tone of her voice, I knew it was serious.  I told her I would join her in my office as soon as I finished greeting the people who were leaving worship.

       I already knew part of the story Robin told me.  Two years before, I had been called to her home after an automobile accident.  Robin's mother-in-law had been killed on the Olive Highway at the hands a drunk driver.  She had died in the arms of the only other passenger in the car--Robin's ten year old son Mark.  Mark had not been injured.  But he had been through a horrible experience.

       There was a trial and a woman was sent to prison for felony manslaughter.  The event faded.  .  Mark continued as a secure, happy child --seemingly unscarred by what had happened.  But the pain and the anger did not go away for Robin.  She was not able to forgive.

       She was obviously badly shaken.  It was hard for her to talk.  But she composed herself enough to tell me that that morning in worship, she and her family had sat down next to a woman whom they recognized.  She wanted to know if this woman was part of our church.

       I told her that the woman, Karen, had been worshipping with us for about six months and was active at the mid-week Bible study.  Karen was a new Christian who was very excited and growing in her faith.  They had not met before because they had been attending worship at different hours.  They had sat together that morning because it was the first Sunday in our one-service summer schedule.

       Robin digested this information.  Then, in a tight, controlled voice she said: "Dave, you need to know that I cannot worship with that woman.  She killed Mark's grandmother."

       How do you handle it when God comes to a person you don't like?

       Maybe you have a reason.  Robin had a reason.  If anyone ever had cause to reject someone as a sister in Christ, Robin was the one.  Or, perhaps, you don't have any hard reason.  You don't feel that you need a reason.  You just know that the person rubs you the wrong way.

       Or perhaps, it's simply prejudice.

       Last November Janet preached on the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius from Acts 10.  Today I want to look at what happened next – the reaction in the church and how it was handled.

       You may remember from Janet’s sermon that Cornelius is a centurion in the Roman army--in command of a hundred men of the unit called the Italian cohort.  We meet a number of these centurions in the New Testament.  All of them are mentioned in a favorable light.  They are the honest, solid, professional  backbone of the Roman army at its best.

       Luke describes Cornelius as a devout man who feared God.  Cornelius, though a Roman, born a pagan, worships the God of Israel.  He hasn't received circumcision.  He doesn't follow all of the dietary laws.  But he is drawn by the Jewish belief. His wife, children, servants, and some of his soldiers have been drawn into the same faith.  Luke tells us that Cornelius gave liberally to the people and prayed constantly for a fuller knowledge of God and His will.  He is a man who is seeking God.  In Acts 10, God finds him.

       At 3:00 one afternoon Cornelius has a vision of an angel who tells him to send messengers down the coast to the city of Joppa to invite a man named Simon Peter to come and visit.  He is frightened but he doesn't need to be told twice.  He sends two servants and a devout soldier to carry out the command.

       While they are on their way, Luke shifts our focus to Simon Peter who is about to have his own vision.  He sees something like a large sheet being lowered down from heaven.  It is full of all sorts of four footed animals, reptiles and birds.  Some of the animals on the sheet are kosher.  But they are tainted by being close to various unclean animals like pigs, crows and snakes--animals forbidden by the dietary law.  This is the lunch menu. Peter hears a heavenly voice, "Rise, Peter!  Kill and eat."

       This is all wrong!  Peter's ancestral conscience tells him it’s wrong.  Unclean animals must not be used for food at all.  And even clean animals must be slaughtered with ritual propriety before their flesh can be eaten.  Peter says that he has never eaten this kind of food.  He isn't about to eat the stuff on the sheet.   Then there comes a voice: "What I have made clean, do not you call unclean!"  This happens three times.

       Peter remains on the roof pondering the meaning of this vision.  Then, suddenly the Holy Spirit of God, by an inward motion, tells Peter that three men are downstairs looking for him. The messengers from Cornelius have arrived. 

       Peter goes to Caesarea . When he arrives, Cornelius pays him the respect which he judges fitting for a messenger of God.  The minute Peter walks into view, Cornelius is up on his feet greeting him and then down on his face worshipping him.  These kind of things don’t happen to fishermen.  Peter pulls him up and says, “None of that!  I am a man and only a man.”  Then Peter walks into the house.  He finds there a large group of Cornelius's gentile family and friends.

       You know, a couple of days previously, Peter would not have believed it possible that he could find himself in this company.  He would not even have entered a Gentile home. "You know very well," he says, "that to mix in Gentile society is taboo for a pious Jew; but god has taught me to call nobody common or unclean."

       Cornelius tells Peter his story--how prayer had led him to Peter as a man who could give him a more complete understanding of God.  Now Peter grasps the meaning of his own vision with the sheet. 

        I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases Peter’s response in The Message:  Peter says: “Nothing could be plainer.  God plays no favorites. It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from.  If you want God and are ready to do what He says, the door is open.  God is giving a message to you through Israel – that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again.”

       So Peter tells these Gentiles the good news of Jesus Christ.  Peter doesn't even finish speaking before the Holy Spirit is given to Cornelius and the other Gentiles who are hearing and welcoming the gospel.

       This is huge. This is the beginning of the Ministry to the Gentiles.  In a real sense it is the beginning of Moorpark Presbyterian Church. 

       But not everyone is happy about it.  In fact when Peter gets back to Jerusalem , he is brought before a fact finding committee of the church – called to investigate rumors about Peter’s ministry.  “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them!” 

       Now Peter could have said, “I am an apostle.  Heck, I’m the first Pope.  I bind, I loose. I have the keys. God speaks to me and through me.  God told me that going to the house of these Gentiles was all right.  So if you don’t like it, you can just leave my church.” 

       Some Christian leaders handle controversy in that way.  Peter did not.  Peter doesn’t pull rank.  Instead he began with a humble recitation of what happened.  The Greek makes this particularly clear.  It indicates that Peter began at the beginning and explained everything precisely – a very strong word – as it happened. 

      If anybody questions his presentation of the facts, well, there were the six brothers who had gone to Caesarea with him.  They could say, as undoubtedly they did, “It is exactly as Peter has reported.”  The fact finders aren’t asked to believe only an unconfirmable vision.  They have several witnesses to what followed the vision. 

       Peter is clear that he did not set out to convert Gentiles. It happened over his protests. He was practically forced into it by God through a series of visions and divine commands.  Peter did not decide that the Gentiles were converted, baptize them, and then learn that the Spirit had come on them.  The way it happened is that even before Peter finished what he had planned to say, the Spirit fell on the assembled Gentiles. Clearly, this was an act of God from beginning to end.  As an obedient servant, Peter can only confirm what God has done. That’s all we can do.

        In his book Freedom of Simplicity, Richard Foster tells about Dr. Graham Scroggie who was a  gifted preacher of another generation.  Scroggie preached on the Lordship of Christ at a huge convention in England . 

       “After the crowd had left, he saw a young college student seated alone. He went to her, and asked if he could help.  “Dr. Scroggie,” she blurted out, “your message was so compelling but I am afraid to truly make Christ Lord.  I’m afraid of what he will ask of me!” 

       Scroggie turned his worn Bible to the story of Peter at Joppa, where God had taught him about racial and cultural discrimination. Three times God brought down a sheet laden with animals and said, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”  Three times Peter responded, “No, Lord.”

       Dr. Scroggie said, “You know it is possible to say ‘No,’ and it is possible to say ‘Lord,’ but it is not really possible to say, ‘No, Lord.’ I’m going to leave my Bible with you and this pen and go into another room and pray for you, and I want you to cross out either the word ‘No’ or the word ‘Lord.’”  When in prayer he felt that the matter had been settled he slipped back into the auditorium.  The young woman was weeping quietly, and peering over her should her saw the word “no” crossed out. 

       That is the meaning of holy obedience.  That’s where it comes from – when we cross out the “no” and leave in the “Lord.”

       In verse 17, Peter draws a parallel for the investigating committee between what happened  to the household of Cornelius and what happened to him and the other original disciples on the day of Pentecost.  He says "how can we refuse baptism to those who received the Holy Spirit ”just as we did?   If God gave them the same gift as He gave to us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"  

       A very good question. 

       The gospel is meant to remove barriers – to break down walls.  As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:14, “Jesus is our peace because He breaks down the dividing walls between people.”  Jesus did it in the early church.  He still does it today.

       A missionary tells how he led a communion service in Africa .  Beside him as an elder sat an old chief of the Ngoni tribe called Manly-heart.  The old chief could remember the days when the Young warriors of the Ngoni had left behind them a trail of burned and devastated towns and come home with their spears red with blood and with the women of their enemies as booty.  And what were the tribes which in those days they had ravaged?  They were the Senga and the Tumbuka.  And who were sitting at that communion service now?  Ngoni, Senga and Tumbuka were sitting side by side, their enmities forgotten in the love of Jesus Christ.

       Who are the people who, if they sat down beside you next Sunday to worship, would make you want to get up and leave?  Maybe there's a person or group you kind of enjoy disliking.  Maybe there's someone like Robin's Karen--a person you have every rational reason to reject.  Your dislike isn't blind prejudice.  It's well researched and well founded.  How would you handle it if you found that Jesus was calling that person to be your brother or sister in Christ.  Would you be able to say with Peter: "Who am I that I can stand in God's way?"

       We cannot be whole, as individual's or as a congregation, if we are narrow, angry, and unforgiving.  Even if we have a reason for our bitterness--as good a reason as Robin had with Karen--we still need to learn that unforgivenss is just too expensive a way to live.  We need to learn that it is impossible for us to keep people in the gutter with our anger without living in the gutter ourselves to keep them there.  We need to learn that forgiveness isn't an option.  It's a command.  We need to learn that forgiveness isn't only for the benefit of the one who is forgiven.  It is for the cleansing and emotional and spiritual detoxification of the one who forgives.

       Now we can't do this on our own.   We can only do it by saying our firm “yes” to the lordship of Jesus Christ, following the leadership and example of Jesus Christ and by trusting that He knows what he's doing when He calls us to forgiveness and reconciliation.  Like Peter, we need to hear His voice: "What I have made clean, do not you call unclean."

       How much are we to love?  Jesus says, "Love one another as I have loved you."

       How much are we to welcome?  Paul writes in Romans: "welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you."

       How much are we to forgive?  Scripture says: "As God in Christ has forgiven us."

       No more.  But no less.

       I talked to Robin several times about Karen.  And with her permission, I talked to Karen about Robin.  Karen’s first instinct was to just run away.  That’s how she had handled things her whole life before she came to faith.  But Karen also told me that prison was the best thing that ever happened to her.  Because it was while she was in prison that Karen had her life changed by meeting Jesus Christ.

       Of course it was hard.  Dealing with real pain is never cheap or easy.  But Robin was mature enough in the Lord to know that she had to extend forgiveness.  And Karen was growing enough in the Lord to fully confront the pain she had caused – to stare it right in the face -- and humbly receive the forgiveness Robin offered.  It wasn't easy.  They were still human.  But a few weeks later they sat down and prayed with and for each other, as sisters in Jesus Christ.