“Surprised by God”
Acts 11:1-18
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, October 20, 2024
We used to live in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, a favorite area for tourists. In fact, since we were not Puerto Rican, we were often mistaken for tourists. Joe and our daughter Christa liked to go to the nearby Ben and Jerry’s, for understandable reasons. One time as Joe was ordering ice cream, a new employee behind the counter asked, “Are you visiting Old San Juan?” My husband replied, “No,” and went on trying to decide whether to order Chocolate Fudge Brownie or Cherry Garcia. In the meantime, Christa had found a picture of herself on the bulletin board where they had photos of frequent customers. “Oh, you know someone in the photos?” the server asked. “No, that’s my daughter,” Joe answered. “Then you’ve visited Puerto Rico before?” asked the befuddled employee, still thinking they must be tourists. “No, we live here,” Joe said, starting to get exasperated. “We come here a lot.” “So you’re not tourists?” she asked, finally figuring it out.
Joe and Christa didn’t fit the stereotype of “Old San Juan resident,” even though we had lived there for several years. The Ben and Jerry’s server had already made up her mind when Joe and Christa walked in the door that they must be tourists, so she had a hard time hearing what Joe said. When we’ve already made up our mind about something, it’s difficult to convince us otherwise. Our preconceived notions can sometimes keep us from seeing the truth, even if it’s right in front of our eyes.
Something like this happened to Peter in our reading this morning. He was also hungry that afternoon when he went up on the roof of the house. He wasn’t thinking of ice cream, which hadn’t been invented yet, but maybe he was thinking of a nice piece of broiled fish – Joppa was on the seashore after all – or maybe some fried chicken! The Bible says Peter had a vision, but I rather think he drowsed off thinking about food. In his dream he saw a sheet with animals being lowered from heaven – but wait! These were not animals he could look forward to making a tasty meal of.
Instead of fish, chicken, or beef, these were unclean animals – animals Jews were forbidden to eat, like pigs, shellfish, maybe even a lizard or a snake! He heard a voice telling him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” As a good Jew, Peter could not conceive of eating anything that wasn’t kosher. He would have followed the strict traditions of what can and cannot be eaten, based on the Torah, the Old Testament laws. Three times the strange vision was repeated – it must have given Peter indigestion! Yet the voice told him, “What God has called clean, you must not call unclean or profane.”
Peter was still puzzling over this vision when three men, sent by Cornelius, the Roman centurion, arrived at his doorstep. They asked Peter to come with them to Cornelius’ home to tell him about Jesus. Until that day, Peter had only shared the good news of Jesus Christ with other Jews. Jesus, after all, came as the Jewish Messiah, in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, born to a Jewish family, a descendant of King David, and had carried out his ministry mainly in the land of Israel.
It had never occurred to Peter, and most of the rest of the early church, that they should be sharing the good news of Jesus with non-Jews, or Gentiles, as they were called. Not only were certain foods off-limits for Jews, but certain people were, too. Traditionally, the Jews of Jesus’ day kept as much distance as possible from Gentiles – and Peter was no exception. Besides, Cornelius was a Roman centurion, one of the occupation forces of the hated Roman Empire, part of the very government which had condemned and crucified Christ. The terrible suffering Jesus underwent at the hands of Roman soldiers would have been indelibly printed in Peter’s mind – and here, a Roman military officer was asking for Peter’s time? Peter could very well have said, “Sorry. I don’t talk to Romans, and I certainly don’t go to their homes for a visit.”
But Peter was in for a big surprise that day – when the men sent by Cornelius arrived, suddenly it became clear to him what the strange vision meant – that those they had called “unclean,” – Gentiles who were not of Jewish birth, were also welcome, that the good news of Jesus Christ was for them as well.
That day Peter stepped outside the box into which he had neatly wrapped his faith, and a whole new era of the church began. The early church started to realize that the Good News of Jesus Christ was not just for their own people, but for the whole world. In moving outside of his preconceived notions, Peter took a risk – that other Christians would not understand what he was doing, that they would accuse him of doing something wrong – and, indeed, that is exactly what happened. After his encounter with Cornelius, in which the centurion and his entire household accepted Jesus Christ, received the Holy Spirit, and were baptized, Peter went to Jerusalem, to report these events to the other church leaders. They criticized him and asked, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’”
Peter explained what happened, how he felt the Holy Spirit nudging him to go to Cornelius’ house, and how as he began to speak to Cornelius and his family, “the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.” Peter remembered how Jesus had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Peter was thinking back to the day of Pentecost, when the believers had suddenly been overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit and began preaching the Gospel in different languages, speaking in tongues as some would say. Peter understood that this gift of the Holy Spirit was a sign of God’s approval and acceptance. It was out of Peter’s hands – God had decisively shown that Gentiles, even Romans, could accept the word of God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Peter said, “Who was I that I could hinder God?”
Peter’s words convinced the others, who replied, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
Today we might add, “God has given even to those who do not belong to our particular denomination the repentance that leads to life,” or “God has given even to those of a different ethnic, cultural, or socio-economic background the repentance that leads to life,” or “God has given even to those of a different sexual orientation the repentance that leads to life.” Maybe some of the disputes that threaten to divide the church in our day could be resolved by a careful study of this passage. God may yet have more surprises in store for us.
Has something like what happened to Peter ever happened to you? We are so sure God would not act in a certain way, but then God does something that makes us do a double-take. My father-in-law, an elder in the church and a very wise man, told me once, “You can never be sure what God will do, but you can be sure that whatever He does will surprise you.” I am sorry that he did not live to see me ordained as a pastor. I don’t know if it would have surprised him or not, but it certainly surprised me when I realized God was calling me.
When I was younger, just like Peter, I thought I had my faith all figured out – and God definitely did not call women to the ministry. After all, hadn’t Paul written that women should be silent in the church? Even though I think God was calling me to be a pastor from a very early age, it took God a long time to convince me it was ok for a woman to preach. I was like Peter, so certain I knew how God operated that I couldn’t conceive that God might do things differently.
I also thought God did not want gays to be pastors. But then I met Pablo, son of a Baptist minister and grandson of the pastor who started the Lutheran Church in Puerto Rico. Pablo was clearly called to the ministry. He gave excellent sermons and his work with those suffering from HIV-AIDS was compassionate and sensitive. He brought many of them back to a relationship with God and a church they thought had abandoned them. But Pablo was gay, had been rejected by his family and was ineligible for ordination. I had several classes with him at seminary.
Once after class when he saw me waiting at the bus stop, about 8 months pregnant, he said, “I’m taking you home.” I protested, but he insisted, and that is when I heard his story. During the rest of my time in Puerto Rico I sometimes officiated together with Pablo at worship services. He would preach and I would serve communion, since he was not allowed to stand behind the table. Like Peter, I found myself asking, “If God has given him the same gift he gave me, who am I to hinder the calling of God?” Sometimes our actions and attitudes limit the work of the Holy Spirit. We need to be open to God’s surprises.
And why shouldn’t God always be surprising us? When Jesus was here on earth he constantly surprised those around him with what he did and said, like healing the sick on the Sabbath, which was forbidden, and throwing the money-changers out of the Temple, which was shocking to many. Those people actually met the Son of God face-to-face, but didn’t recognize him. They had already made up their minds about how God acted, so they missed out completely on who Jesus was and what he was offering them.
A pastor friend used to tell a story about his dog, who was so happy chewing on a bone, that he wouldn’t let go of it to eat a steak. We get so happy chewing on the bones of what we believe and how we think God works, that we miss out on some of the best things God has to offer us. As Peter found out that day, being part of God’s plan for the redemption of the world may mean letting go of some of our most cherished notions about how God works. We might have to do something scary, like preach a sermon or share Christ’s love with someone different from us. Like Peter, we may discover there is no limit to God’s grace.
The pastor who preached at my ordination said, “Never think you have arrived.” I’m glad she chose to remind me of that fact. All too often we think we’ve arrived, that we have all the answers, and that our answers are the right ones. But as Peter found out that day, God always has one more thing to teach us. Like Peter, may we, too, be open to being surprised by God. Amen.
©Deborah Troester 2024