May 6, 2007

The past few days I have been planting new flowers in my front yard. That is not as simple as it sounds. First it involved having my brother and son remove 6 large bushes that have been in the ground for 8 years. It took them a total of 6 hours and they made a big mess taking out the old plants. Then, I had to prepare the beds and put in 30 new plants. I also had to clean up the plants and rocks that my brother and son had removed. I had no idea how much effort this took and I can barely squat down and touch the ground as a result of all my digging and shoveling. So, yesterday, I finally finished my planting, including mulching and watering, and I stood back to admire my work. Very nice. My neighbor Ed drove by at this point and he stopped and rolled his window down. Ed is an avid gardener himself, mostly vegetables, so I asked him what he thought of my new flower bed. Ed eyed my flowers, eyed me, and then said, "Do you want to know, honestly?" Course I do! Tell me what a wonderful job I did; tell me that it was worth all the sore muscles I now have!

"Yes!" I said. He said that my flowers were a little crowded. I hadn't left enough room for them to grow. I looked at my work. He was right. Things were a little crowded, but I love full flower beds so I could live with his critique. A few minutes later when I was still raking rocks and weeds up, Ed reappeared with some photos for me to look at. They were beautiful shots he had taken from Descanso Gardens and the Huntington Gardens. He explained to me that they were so beautiful because they were perfectly proportioned and there were only a few different types of flowers in each area. So apparently I had not only crowded my bed but I had too many different types of flowers in there. At least he was comparing my garden to the beautiful, skilled landscape designers of Descanso and the Huntington!

If we ask someone to comment on our work, we are going to get their honest answers. Even if we don't ask for input, people often give us their opinions. People have feelings about what others do whether it is gardening or any other thing! I thought about this during the week as I played with the image of Peter in the Bible reading. Peter does something that surprises and challenges many of the people around him. I can only imagine the reaction that Peter got long ago when he extended the Gospel to the Gentiles. Peter didn't ask anyone what they thought but he sure did have some explaining to do after he did it!

You see, the Gospel of Jesus was first and foremost a mission to the early Jewish people. Jesus was a Jew and the changes he was advocating for within Judaism were meant for the Chosen People. And yet in Acts we begin to see and hear that the message is slowly being extended to others who aren't Jews: the crowd in the streets during Pentecost who are from all over the region as far as Greece; the Ethiopian who is baptized by Philip spontaneously by the side of the road; and now we hear of it being extended to Cornelius, a Roman soldier and Gentile, as well as other Gentiles (Interpretation for Acts, p. 101). This presents a problem for Peter who is at the center of this story today. In the 11th chapter, which was read this morning, Peter is recounting his story to those in Jerusalem who can't believe that he baptized Cornelius and other Gentiles. Peter is being criticized by the circumcised, Jewish believers and he needs to explain his actions. Peter tells a long detailed story about receiving a vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven, and on that sheet are all kinds of beasts, reptiles and birds - and then of hearing a voice commanding him to eat these animals. At first Peter thinks he is being asked to reject his religious food laws and to eat animals and food that are considered unclean by his tradition. Ultimately Peter comes to understand that this is not about food.

But food is used as the image in his vision. Why? Because Jewish dietary laws were very important to the Jewish people - and still are to many Jewish people today. What they ate or didn't eat defined them as a people who were just a fledgling tribe in the desert, entirely dependent on God. Dietary laws had been used for hundreds of years by this point to remind people who they were and who they belonged to. They felt that God had called them to a unique and special history. Their laws, customs, observances and food helped to remind them daily about that special relationship. And now, this early Jesus movement, thought to be extended only to the Jews, was now being opened up to others. It was as if people were being invited to eat food that was forbidden to them; it was as if they were being asked to abandon beliefs and practices they thought were ordained by God. It was about associating with people who were considered to be unclean and letting them influence you. It was a big deal that Peter ate with and baptized Cornelius and others on this day.

What did Peter have to say in response to all this? Peter confesses in his speech that now "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God." It was an important and defining moment for Peter, to learn that God's love is extended to a group of people that he would not normally have even considered.

We have been learning about the early church this week and last week. We learned last week that the early community was made up of loving participants like Dorcas who provided for others out of her compassion. We learned that even someone like Saul can have his life turned around to help others. Now today we learn that God has new things in mind for this community - things that we can't fathom or even understand. We might not think that including Gentiles was that big a deal, but it was for Peter and the early church. What we need to ask ourselves is how is God challenging our thinking today? What wall might God be asking us to break down in our time that we find objectionable or impossible?

The story of Acts is a series of experiences of people finding God and turning their lives over to Jesus' teachings. There is no one formula for how this is done. For some it is a spontaneous experience like the Ethiopian Eunuch who is baptized by the side of the road. For others it is after a mystical vision of God's inclusive community. For Saul it was a blinding experience of disorientation and confusion followed by a few days of being cared for while he sorted out the experience. In all these stories throughout Acts we are hearing of the church of Jesus Christ being built up by the power of God's Holy Spirit. It does so in surprising ways and catches people off guard. Over and over again we learn that God's ways are not human ways and God has plans for the church and the world that we can't even envision.

When we apply these teachings to the church today we are reminded that the church is not an ancient institution living in the past, but a living, vibrant community that needs to be addressing the needs of our day. We may not be shocked by the inclusion of people who are uncircumcised or called Gentiles. Some of us in progressive churches may not even be shocked by the inclusion of women or gay and lesbians in leadership positions anymore. What are the struggles for inclusion of our day? Who are the people that we consider outside of God's boundless love and the church's care? Some people think that we don't care for those who are dying and suffering near and far - those hidden from our view. Some say that our disinterest in the dying in Africa, the sweat shops in countries all over the world, the lack of compassion for those who are Muslims indicates are lack of understanding of what the Church is called to be; last week our adult forum helped us focus on people with invisible disabilities who are outside of our spectrum of care and concern and how we might reach out to them in a different way. These are all indicators that we have not completely understood the mission laid out for us in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts speaks of countless conversions; these conversions are beginnings - beginnings of new chapters in people's lives, new missions, new vocations that emerge out of one's convictions (Ibid). And all of this takes place in the world and not separate from the world. As Hans Kung once wrote: "We must entice people from the world to God. We are not to shut ourselves off from the world in a spirit of asceticism, but to live in the everyday world inspired by the radical obedience that is demanded by the love of God. The church must be reformed again and again, that it may fulfill its task" (Ibid., p. 104).

When we are converted to something by our faith in God, it is the beginning of our reaching out into the world to help, to embody God's love. Whether that is deciding to walk more lightly on this earth to save the natural balance of the earth, standing up and declaring your objection to a war being fought that is not bringing peace or justice, or to looking around your life and discovering how your are called to alleviate the suffering of someone you know - there are numerous ways for us to live out our conversions.

Peter included people who were considered outcasts in his day and he had to answer to others about that. We too need to find ways to share God's love. We are invited to be newly converted to being the kind and loving people that God has called us to be since the inception of the Church. Amen.