Angels and Visions – July 11, 2021

Psalm 111, Acts 10:1-23, 34-42
July 11, 2021

It’s hard to know how much of this story to read – and still follow the “20 verse rule of thumb.”  (That rule is, don’t read more than 20 verses in a scripture lesson on Sunday morning.)  But when you get a chance, it’s well worth reading this whole chapter.  Because it’s an amazing story!  And, it’s one of the most important stories in the book of Acts!

One of the reasons this is such a long story, is that it’s really two stories!  Actually, it’s a story within a story – a vision within a vision.  Peter’s vision was happening at the same time as Cornelius’ vision.  And they both meant the same thing!  God was telling Peter, that what was seen as “unclean,” “non-Kosher,” “Verboten,” was changing.

Cornelius was an officer in the Roman army.  He was a “centurion,” which meant that he was in command of one hundred soldiers.  But, he was also described by Luke as being “a devout man who feared God, with all his household, who gave alms liberally to the people, and who prayed to God constantly.”  That’s what Luke  tells us.  And in our story, we will see that God chose Cornelius to be the focal point of some big changes in the life of his people.

The story starts with Luke telling us that Cornelius was praying at the “ninth hour.”  That’s one of the Jewish “prayer hours.”  There were several of those throughout the day.  And while he was in prayer, he had this vision of an angel.  And I love how it says, “And he stared at him in terror!”  I’ve said this about angels many times.  They’re not usually the tall, thin, blonde, white women we often see in artists depictions.  Angels are often male, and they’re usually frightening!  And that’s the case here.  Here we have this seasoned soldier, and he’s terrified!

The angel says to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended to heaven as a memorial before God.”  In other words, “Your prayers have “honored God.”  And isn’t that great?  We might have expected him to say, “God has heard your prayers.”  But it was more than that.  “Your prayers and your alms have ascended to heaven as a memorial before God.”  Do we ever think of our prayers as “ascending to heaven as a memorial before God?”  That is quite a thought, isn’t it?

Well, this angel gives Cornelius a task.  He tells him to go fetch Peter.  No explanation.  Just go get him!  But meanwhile, Peter is having a vision of his own.  And it was a vision that was very disturbing to him.  In this vision he saw something like a huge sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners.  And it was filled with “animals and reptiles and birds of the air.”  And we can infer right away that what was in that sheet was not “Kosher.”  What Peter saw there were things that the Jews were not allowed to eat.  Because Peter protests here!  He says, “No, Lord, I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”  In other words, I have never disobeyed the dietary laws.  But then the vision repeated two more times.

So about that time, when Peter was pondering all of that, the servants of Cornelius show up.  And they ask Peter to go with them, which he does.  Again, there’s no explanation.  He just goes!  And when he hears Cornelius’ story, he realizes that they both had visions, and the two visions were related.  And this whole affair had to do with who would be part of this new thing called “The Church.”

Think about it.  The whole story of Jesus came first to the Jewish people.  That makes sense, doesn’t it?  It was all part of their tradition, and scriptures, and prophecies.  Jesus was the Messiah – the Christ – who was foretold in all their scriptures, and who the people had longed for, for hundreds of years!

Now, we’re talking about the gentiles!  Cornelius, a Roman Soldier, and his whole family, embraced what Peter told them about Jesus!  And the big question that we will see unfold for several of the next chapters was, “How would the new ‘Church’ react to this?”  In the next chapter, Peter would have to make his case to the leadership in Jerusalem.  But for now, here is his take on what was happening with this whole business with Cornelius and his household.

Peter says, “Truly, I perceive that God shows no partiality.”  That is a huge statement!  It’s huge in this story!  It’s huge in the whole of the book of Acts!  And it’s been a huge statement in the history of the Church ever since!  “God shows no partiality.”  In other words, God doesn’t share our “partiality.”

Think about that.  Think about the “partiality” we have.  And we all have them.  We don’t like certain people or certain things, do we?  And if we’re honest with ourselves, we all could say that there are things we “just can’t stand.”  I think that’s only natural!  The old comedian Tom Lehrer once said, “There are people in this world who do not love others, and I hate people like that!”  We all have things – and people – we like, and we don’t like!

And the next question we must ask is, how do we feel when we have a friend who likes somebody (or something) we don’t like?  Maybe that’s a political figure, or a movie, or a neighbor, or a kind of food, or a sports team!  Maybe it’s just somebody – a person we don’t particularly “get along with.”  How do we feel when a friend does like that person?  Does that ever make us uncomfortable?  Would it ever make us want not to be their friend?  (I know this sounds “Jr. High.”  But it still happens to us!)

And we can take that a step further.  And we can ask, do we ever not like it, that God likes people we don’t like?  I think that’s why Paul said that we should strive to have the “mind of Christ.”  Because if we are to be like him, does it not follow that we should love the people he loves?

That would be the issue – the controversy – for the next part of the book of Acts.  They would have to wrestle with it then.  And if we’re honest with ourselves, we still wrestle with it, all these years later.

This is not easy stuff, my friends!  We’re called by God to love the unloved – like Jesus did.  But it becomes harder still when we’re called to love even the people we don’t like!  And remember, love isn’t just a word.  And it isn’t just a feeling.  Love is a choice of how we treat someone.  It means choosing to treat them with dignity and respect, and sometimes even when they do not give us those things!

You still want to be a follower of Jesus?  Nobody said it was easy!  Not even Jesus!  He said, “Because you are my followers you will face persecution.”  And he said, “In the world you will have tribulation.  But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33)

Prayer

Eternal God, help us indeed to have the mind of Christ Jesus, our Lord.  Help us to have his heart, and to see the world with his eyes.  Lord, give us the strength we need to follow him.  For we pray in his name, Amen.