May 9, 2010

Some biblical scholars believe that the letter of First Peter in the Bible may actually have been written by the Apostle Peter's scribe on behalf of Peter. At the very least, it gives an accurate portrayal of the early church in the Diaspora in the first century. Written around the middle of the first century from Rome, it presumes that the community it is writing among includes: Gentile Christians, resident aliens and household slaves in Asia Minor (from Introduction to I Peter in the NRSV Bible). It is written in a time of great persecution by the Romans and it is a letter which encourages Christians to be faithful. There are some beautiful words in this short epistle, which consists of only five chapters (you could read the entire letter in 5-10 minutes!). Here is some of the beauty of First Peter:

"Prepare your minds for action: discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed? do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead? be holy yourselves in your conduct (chapter 1:13f).

And then,

"Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God" (Chapter 1:22f).

And finally,

? " you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of God who called you out of darkness into God's marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people? Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul (Chapter 2:9f).

There are beautiful, poetic words of encouragement in the First Letter of Peter that speak to the situation of the early Christians who are living away from Jerusalem in a hostile land. And within the letter are examples of the cultural landscape that Peter lived within. Some of these words I don't find particularly holy, especially the ones that speak of the culturally defined context of the early church. Words like, "Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly (Chap. 2); or, in Chapter 3 "Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives' conduct, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives? let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight; It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord? Husbands? show consideration to your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life?

The Bible can be a very confusing and irritating text for us modern day folks to read - especially to women on Mother's Day! On one hand it seems very culturally defined - rigid roles for men and women, slaves and free; very respectful of authority in a stratified society with rich and poor. And then we read passages that blow open these divisions and seem to indicate a radical departure from this kind of rigidly defined structure. Lines like, "There is no male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free?" Passages that instruct us to listen to the voice of children, to notice the women who are on the margins and to reinstate them into the community. The Bible can be a confusing and complicated book to wade through if we are not reading it with wise eyes and ears. If we take a text out of context here and there we will get one picture of who God is and who we are called to be. That is why I recommend that we read the Bible in its entirety and compare individual passages to the entire book. What is the message? What is the thread that runs through this ancient text that makes its claim on my life?

There are some that may conclude that the Bible is hopelessly outdated and imbued with a rigid, patriarchal warring God who dominates by power and might. There are others of us who see and read those texts that offend and shock, and yet find the entire book of the Bible to be a radical and subversive call to change and mutuality. There are glimpses of this kind of change throughout the entire Bible, but in the book of Acts is where we really begin to see it fleshed out. In Acts, the extension of the Gospel of Luke, we see a constant widening of the parameters of God's love and the early Christian community. The Jewish/Christian movement is challenged to widen its borders to include Gentiles and the tension of doing this is explored and detailed in Acts. Peter looms large in this book - in the previous chapter we have heard of Peter baptizing the first Gentile - Cornelius, a Roman centurion. One of the tensions between Gentiles and Jews was the strict food laws that the Jews observed. It made a simple act of eating a meal together a difficulty. Hospitality and table fellowship were a hallmark of the early church and it was problematic to eat with those who ate things that were considered to be profane. If you ate profane things, you were considered to be profane yourself - unholy and unclean and thus not welcome in the worshipping community.

This entire world is important to understand as we come to the story today of Peter and his vision in Joppa that is related in chapter 11 of Acts. In this story Peter describes the unveiling of a new understanding that he has of the work and vision of God. The vision of a large sheet floating down from heaven with every type of four-footed animal and beast of prey, reptile and bird is a challenge because there are strict rules and laws about which of these animals one may eat as a Jew. "Kill and eat," says a voice to Peter. Peter responds, "Oh by no means God, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth."

We hear the voice again, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane."

At that moment Peter had his epiphany: God does not see us in categories: male/female, rich/ poor, Jew/ Gentile, old/ young, gay, /straight, educated/uneducated, black/white/brown/yellow, circumcised/ uncircumcised, politically correct/politically incorrect. God's love and grace are open to all.

The teaching is clear to me when I read the Bible. The difficulty is living out this reality! If God loves us all despite our differences, how do we love one another? The image of the heavenly sheet coming down with all the animals is a vivid reminder to us when we want to slot people back into those categories. Floating down from above is a new teaching that makes its claim on us - nothing is profane in God's eyes, even that which is offensive to you and me.

So, as we apply this teaching to our own lives, ask yourself some questions:

First: what keeps you up at night? Are there dreams or fears that haunt you or inspire you to action? I can't imagine this vision was easy for Peter to act on - it flew in the face of everything his culture taught was correct and right and good. But clearly it was a vision that haunted him and made a claim on his soul. What makes a claim on your soul?

Secondly: whom do you have an aversion to? What category of people is hard for you? I'm guessing it may not be those who are uncircumcised or eat certain foods? but maybe it is! Maybe it is people who have piercings or drive different cars than you. Maybe it is people who dress differently or wear different kinds of jewelry or carry certain kinds of purses or bags. Maybe it is their legal or illegal status.

We humans are good at judging people. "I don't like her; I don't want to sit near him; I refuse to listen to them, I'm not like that?." Maybe, just maybe, even that person you have an aversion to, has something to teach us about our God. Maybe that person may even end up on the proverbial "train to heaven" sittin' right across from us!!!!

Today we are being challenged to notice the categories in our world and to do something about them because God didn't come to just our tribe. God came through the person of Jesus to all the tribes!!! Thanks be to God for that image of the heavenly sheet of animals and for the reminder that we are all valued in God's eyes. Amen.