Trinity Lutheran Church

Let us Pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable unto you O Lord our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

I have never really fully enjoyed the beauty of “Inside the Actors Studio” until, James Lipton had the cast of Family Guy on his show. They are people who can transform their voices into different sounds and characters, so of course I was interested. One of the last questions James asked the cast what they hoped God would say to them when the reached the pearly gates of heaven. Some of the answers were funny, but one made me think, after I laughed. The creator of the show said, “I am sorry for my followers.”

It made me wonder about how we as Christians are perceived in this world. I started to think about all of the people who are Christian and those who I wish would just close their mouths sometimes. I thought about the people who lump all Christians into one big category as though we all believe the exact same things and have the same ideas. I started to think about the people who make me as a Christian feel as though I need to apologize for their behavior. At times Christians have gotten it wrong, do you remember the Crusades?

In a lot of ways our story for today is about getting it wrong. In our Story of the Family, we hear a story that seems much like the story we had last week; the story of Holy Spirit coming to God’s people. This time though, the effects are dramatically different. The presence of the Holy Spirit is so radical the early followers would not completely understand what had happened until much later, heck we still do not even understand it.

The Holy Spirit broke down barriers, policies, unwritten social guides, and beliefs in one act. The Holy Spirit brought together those early promises to Abraham and Sarah that all people would one day come together and be received unconditionally into God’s family. But that is getting way ahead of us and where our story for today starts. It all begins with a desire.

Cornelius a Roman Centurion, a soldier who was responsible for keeping the peace and also 100 other soldiers, wanted to know more about God. He believed in the Jewish faith, even though he was Roman, but he yearned to know more. So he prayed to God and angel appeared before Cornelius and told him to send men to find Peter.  So he did. As a Gentile, it would have been unthinkable for Cornelius to invite a Jew into his house. During that time Jews and Gentiles did not mix. They would not even say hello to each other. For Cornelius to trust that Peter would come into his house was unbelievable at that particular time.

As Cornelius was receiving his vision, Peter was also receiving a vision from God. His thought involved some animals. As Peter dreamed animals appeared to him, both clean and unclean animals together. Peter heard a voice tell him that he was to kill and eat all of those animals. For him this was devastating. How could he eat an unclean animal? The voice told him it was, that whatever God calls clean and good is clean and good. The voice was reminding him of where it all began, in Genesis, with God calling everything good. The voice told him, that what we as humans think it is bad, is not bad or unclean in God’s eyes. God’s creation is beautiful.

As Peter pondered what his dream meant, the Holy Spirit told Peter Roman soldiers would be coming to his door. Now you have to think a little bit about what Peter was going through. First the voice of God told him that God was the one who would name things good and clean, and when God calls something or someone good, they are. Then the Holy Spirit tells him to go with Roman soldiers! Peter who would have normally terrified to go with Roman soldiers, was told by the Holy Spirit that it was God who sent them. Peter follows this commandment had to completely trust what God was up to.  As the three men approached his house, Peter invited them in, to stay with him. This in and of itself is nothing short of a miracle.

The next day Peter a few of his other Christian friends went with the Roman soldiers back to the house of Cornelius. Then he entered into his house, without hesitation. Peter then began to preach to them and there was no loud debate, fighting, or even yelling over what Peter was saying. Instead they listened and were feed with God’s grace.  Before Peter could even finish all he had to say, the Gentiles got it, well they got the Holy Spirit to be more correct. As Peter would later say in the book of Acts to those early Christians, “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? “Acts 11:15-18

Peter knew the Holy Spirit that appeared to those Jewish Christians was the same Holy Spirit that appeared to those Gentiles. He knew God was up to something in the world, that would forever change it.  The gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God’s grace and love was no longer reserved for those who fit a particular mold. God’s mercy was no longer for those who subscribe to a particular set of rules. God was and is for everyone.

This is where we often get a little tripped up in our lives. We want to think that someone has to be a certain way in order to get God. Or that we are too bad for God to ever forgive us or love us again. We want to think that some people are not going to get to heaven, because well they just are not good enough. Who God loves has been a question theologians, Christians, Pastors, and almost everyone has been asking themselves since, well, since the Gentile Pentecost. Who is good enough? Who did Jesus come for to save? What do we have to do to be good enough? Are we ever good enough?

These are questions that we will forever be asking ourselves and wondering if we are good enough. When we ask these questions about ourselves or about those around us, we need to remember this story for today. During the time of Luke and the other Apostles no one would have ever thought God was for those Gentiles, but we know not only was God present in their lives, but God sent the Holy Spirit to be at work in their world and in their lives. It is the same promise we have all been given- we are loved, regardless of how we see our self worth. We need to remember that what God calls good, is good, and all of us have not only been called goo, but we have been called by name. Amen.