Easter Day
Year C
March 31, 2013
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2,
14-24
I
Corinthians 15:19-26 St. John 20:1-18
Hymns: 180, 371, 207, 208
“I truly understand that God shows no partiality…” That is what Peter said. Sadly many people who claim to be Christians
believe that God show partiality and a lot it.
People who believe that only if you believe like them you
will go to heaven. People who believe
that only if you belong to their particular denomination, will you go to
heaven. Probably the most extreme
example is the Westboro Baptist Church.
But there are those even in our own community who also believe
this. They believe in a god of
partiality and I find this extremely sad.
I want to do something rather unusual this Easter Day. You see, today I’m not going to talk about
the resurrection. Instead I want to talk
about Peter’s revelation in today’s first reading. Of course this reading from Acts comes after
the resurrection. It deals with the
early history of the church and the church leaders, in particular Peter.
You see, in spite of the experience of the apostles in
living with Christ and living through the experience of the resurrection, they
still had their pre-conceived notions of how God was acting in the world around
them. The resurrection experience had
not yet transformed them or Peter. There
was still work to be done in his life.
The resurrection experience merely prepared him for changes he could not
even imagine.
Too often I feel that in the Christian community we look at
the resurrection or conversion experience as a one time event in which we are
somehow magically transformed by God and that is it. But there is usually always much more head of
us in that experience. It is merely the
first step when God begins to work in our lives.
In this particular instance Peter was struggling with the
issue God’s partiality. Yes, Peter and
the apostles believed that God was indeed partial to some. That God had a preference for some people
over others. It was a deeply ingrained
believe and not an easy one for Peter to overcome. In fact, in a dream he had to get the message
repeated three times from God before it sunk in.
What brought Peter to this point was a dream. In the dream, all sorts of unclean animals
are placed before Peter and he is told to kill and eat them. He had been raised all his life to not eat
certain things because God did not what him to.
It was a life long, and scripturally based belief that Peter
was struggling with. So there were very good
reasons in Peter’s mind for not wanting to accept this change from God. And yet, once the light dawns on Peter, he
embraces is whole-heartedly.
Not only that, but in the stories culmination today, Peter
actually expands this dream to include something completely different from what
was in the dream. Rather that restrict
his dream to a literal interpretation of exactly what he had seen, that is that
God had done away with dietary restrictions, Peter greatly expanded the
interpretation of this dream to include the understanding that the good news of
the resurrection and power of Jesus was open not to just those of the Jewish
heritage, but to everyone.
Peter issues that powerful statement we hear in the first
reading: “I truly understand that God
shows no partiality, but in every nation any who fears him and does what is
right is acceptable to him.” There is
something very important in this simple sentence that is important for the
Christian church.
You see, many in the church say, yes that is true, BUT we
“have to do what is right” to be acceptable and you are not doing what is
right. But remember, Peter originally
believed that the preconceived notions that God was overturning were
WRONG. Not only that, but peter went to
far as to expand it to include more that was just in his dream.
So it is not just say, ok, sure as long as you do what I
think God wants you to do, you are good to go.
Rather it is understanding the potential that God is trying to correct
something that is wrong.
We individually and the church as a whole needs to be open
to the possibility that our understanding of what is right and what is wrong
from God’s perspective may actually be the wrong thing that needs to be
change! This is pretty frightening
stuff both from an individual and a organizational perspective.
But like Peter, we need to be open to seeing things in a new
light. And the church as an organization
needs to be open to seeing things in a new light as well. That is probably the greater obstacle. Churches are like glaciers when it comes to
change. They move very slowly, if they
move at all. And yet, by our failure to
be open to seeing what God may be doing or how God may be trying to change us,
we lose out on opportunities to grow and open our community to becoming more
and more inclusive.
Just imagine what the church would look like had Peter not
boldly embraced this change. It would
not be what it is today.
Just imagine what the church would look like had brave
people not fought against slavery. It
would not be what it is today.
Just imagine what the church would look like had brave
people not fought against racial inequality even after the battle against
slavery had been won.
And imagine for a moment how people felt when those in power
in the church argued in favor of slavery and racial inequality. Imagine the damage that did to the cause of
the gospel message. Imagine what it did
to the message of Easter.
I believe we are each called to be in the forefront of
expanding the meaning of the gospel to all.
St. Peter’s is called to be a beacon of light and hope in Seward. And I believe it is!
I don't think there is any danger that God will ever judge
us for being too easy on our fellow human beings or for loving them too much.
So this Easter, as we celebrate the joyous event of Christ
risen. Let us all commit ourselves to a
church that is in the forefront of the spreading the gospel message. Let us be in the forefront of speaking out
for those who others would denigrate and despise. That is what Jesus did. That is what Christians do.
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