Joy
Lay Speaker
Torii Dickens
Listen to this sermon HERE
I have a confession to make. I sing when I am happy. Now I realize for most people that isn’t really confession material, but that probably means you haven’t heard me sing. The men in my life beg me to stop, and that includes Jacob, who, at two, has already been known to tell me “No, no Mommy” when I am singing. Katie, who is much nicer than her brothers, lies to me beautifully and tells me that I have a lovely voice. What annoys her is when I change the lyrics to suit my mood. And I do this a lot. But I figure it is fine, because Psalm 98 gives me permission. It says to sing a new song. Of course some people might tell you that I make any song a new song by the simple fact that I sing it so out of tune, off key and without a lick of the rhythm that the composer might have intended. This doesn’t bother me. I sing anyway. I sing when I am happy, I sing when I am sad to try to cheer myself up. I sing to teach. We had a phone number song when Nicholas and Katie were little, as well as a song that taught Katie to spell her name. I sing to distract children from the fact that what we are about to do isn’t fun. The Clean-up song is my friend. I definitely sing with joy.
I find joy all around me. Those of you who spend much time with me will know that I can find joy in the simplest of things, such as Jacob taking a nap, although there are days when I don’t feel that is such a little thing. I am filled with Joy by the love I have for my family, by my friends, by my job, and I am not just saying that because I work here. I really do love my job, I spend my time surrounded by kids. And I am filled with Joy by knowing that I have Jesus in my corner.
Some times I take this for granted. I am always grateful for his love for me, but I have never lived without him in my life. I never had to go find him, he has always been there. It is a great source of Joy that I live somewhere that my relationship with Jesus and God isn’t just accepted, but kinda expected. With people I meet in my neighborhood, it isn’t a question of “do you go to church?” It is “where do you go to church?” Now I would like to think that I am living my life in a way that I project a Christian example, but I think a big part of it is Ponder, Texas. I went to a banquet on Friday that was opened with a prayer. So many places have forbidden that simple joyful act.
While reading my choices of bible verses to pick from for today’s sermon, it hit me how joyful it makes me to live somewhere like this. Peter didn’t live in a place like Ponder, where Jesus was acceptable to anyone who wanted to know him. He couldn’t walk up to just anyone to share the joy of knowing Jesus. He found a place to share his joy, but in a place he shouldn’t have gone. It was a forbidden place to be. To get a good picture of what is happening in Acts 10 44-48 we need to do a little backtracking.
This passage takes place in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. Cornelius was a good man, a truly good man. He was leader of 100 men in the Italian Regiment, which compares to the US Marines. He was devout and God-fearing. He prayed regularly and led his family and household to pray. He also gave to the needy. Sounds like a great man, right? Sure, except he was a gentile. Although, maybe I should say that with a little more distain. At this point in Jewish history, the Jews and Gentiles didn’t mix, at all.
Cornelius was praying at 3 o’clock on the first day of this story. An Angel of God came to him. He was naturally afraid but asked “What do you want Lord?” Cornelius was basically told that his prayers and generosity had been noticed by the Lord and Cornelius was to send men to Joppa to find Peter. He was given directions to where to find Peter in the house of Simon the Tanner who lived by the sea. Almost like having a GPS with instead of that annoying ladies voice, you have an Angle of God. After the angel left, Cornelius called two of his servants and one of his soldiers, who was also a believer in God, told them exactly what happened and sent them on their way. It was about a 35 mile trip to Joppa.
At noon the following day Peter went up to the flat roof of the house he was staying at. He went up to pray. While he was up there he became hungry. And God used that to teach him a lesson. Peter went into a trance and saw a huge sheet lowered from the sky, folded in at the corners. It contained animals, all kinds of animals, hoofed, birds, reptiles, the works. A voice told him to kill one and eat it. Who but Peter would say, “oh no Lord, it isn’t kosher?” Not exactly those words, but pretty much. God told him “do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times before the sheet was lifted back to the sky. Peter and three go together often enough. He denied Jesus three times, he was asked by Jesus if he loved him three times, and now God gave him this new lesson three times, a lesson that goes against everything that Peter was raised to believe. But then it wasn’t just eating the non kosher food that was wrong. It was also wrong to walk with Gentiles, go into their house, invite them into your house, associate with them at all. Pete was about to break many of these rules. God’s voice then told Peter that three men had arrived and Peter was to go with them because they were sent by God. And true enough, while this was happening the men were downstairs at the gate asking for Peter. Peter invited the men to stay the night. Sounds like the polite thing to do, but like I just said, Gentiles in a Jewish household was not allowed. Broken rule number one. Now this rule breaking doesn’t get that much attention because the house belonged to Simon the Tanner and having a Tannery there made it less kosher than another Jewish house.
The next morning Peter, the three gentiles and six Christian brothers left for Caesarea, travelling together. Broken rule number two. It was the following morning by the time they arrived. When they got to Cornelius, he fell to his knees in front of Peter, but Peter lifted him up and said that he was just a man himself. It was a nice polite way of reminding him to only worship God. Cornelius would not have been raised on the Ten Commandments. When Peter walked into the house, he found the house full of people, gentiles. Peter reminded them of the law saying that the Law said he shouldn’t be there with them because they were unclean, another rule broken. Then Peter let them know that God told him that he was not to consider any man impure.
Cornelius tells his story again, this time in front of the Jewish witnesses that came with Peter. And Peter spoke of Jesus, what he accomplished and what he entrusted the apostles to do, “preach to the people and testify that he is the Judge of the people who are alive and already dead.” He is the judge of the people, not just the Jews. Just as it said in Psalm 98, he will judge the people with equity. That sounds to me like he counts us all the same. And he tells us how prophets have said anyone who believes in Jesus will be forgiven.
This is when the Holy Spirit comes in. This is when the Christians who came with Peter watched the Holy Spirit pour out on even the lowly Gentiles. You have to figure that the brethren who went to Caesarea with Peter only went with him out of respect, or to see what was going to happen, the were fans of Jesus and Peter, not gentiles. They were “astonished.” And why shouldn’t they be? Who would have expected the God of the Moses to go against the Laws of Moses, the very rules that told the Jewish people that they weren’t allowed to associate with the gentiles. But He did. He made it clear that He is the God of us all.
Peter asked who could stop these people from receiving baptism knowing that people would try. Years of biases don’t go away overnight. Days later, Peter left Caesarea. Days. The bible says he spent days in Cornelius’s house sharing the word. I don’t imagine that he fasted those days. I while we have a Mickie D’s on every corner, Caesarea didn’t have those same conveniences. It is easy to imply that Peter ate in a gentile house for days. There goes another broken rule.
Later, Peter went to Jerusalem. There he had to explain what he did, the laws he had broken. This is why he when he left Joppa, he took the six Christians with him. Peter and his six witnesses yet again told the story of the Angel of God going to speak to Cornelius, and the message from God that Peter himself had been given. Each of those stories are repeated three times within Acts 10 and 11. It would have been easy enough to shorten it. Say something like “Cornelius told Peter of his visit from the Angel.” Or “God told Peter that all men are clean.” But both stories are told, some versions shorter, but with all the important details, three times. We are back to the threes again, aren’t we? It reinforces, after being asked three times if he Loves Jesus, that Peter was supposed to feed His lambs. Not just the circumcised lambs. All of us.
Peter was given a new song. One that he could share with all the world. For the rest of his life, he sang praises of Jesus to the Gentiles. He fought for our right to not have to become Jewish before being baptized, as many wanted. He shared stories of the wonders of Jesus so that we can be here sharing in that joy. We can open our doors and welcome everyone in. We can know the joy of watching someone feel the spirit of God wash over them for the first time. And I know the joy of being sure that those I love, from all backgrounds, can welcome Jesus into their hearts and be sure of their place in God’s family. That is worth a joyful song.