The Conversion of Peter's Church (Acts 10:44-48, May 13, 2012, Easter 6B)

6th Sunday of Easter, Year B

Acts 10:44-48

May 13, 2012 (Mother's Day)

The Conversion of Peter's Church

 Rev. John M. Caldwell, PhD

First United Methodist Church

Decorah, IA

“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” Clearly we are missing something. Who were these people? What was Peter saying to them? Why were others astounded? What’s going on here? 

 

To find out what’s going on we have to go back to the beginning of the story, back at least to the beginning of the chapter. I don’t wonder that the lectionary committee decided not to include the whole of the tenth chapter of Acts in our lesson for this morning, but, really, unless we get the whole story, these five verses will only tease us when they ought to shatter our world and put it together aright.

Simon Peter begins the chapter in town of Joppa on the Mediterranean seacoast. He was staying at the home of another man named Simon. This other Simon was tanner. This might not matter to us. After all, what difference does it make what Simon did for a living? Well, it would have been obvious at the time. Simon took the skins of butchered animals and processed them into leather. It’s no wonder that his house was near the coast. Without the tides to wash away the waste materials, Simon’s house would have been unlivable. 

Simon’s smelly job also meant that he has often unclean. I don’t mean dirty, though he was that, too, I don’t doubt. I mean unclean. As it was (and is) for many religious traditions, the Jewish world was divided into two parts: the clean and the unclean. Some things were inherently unclean and some things might be either clean or unclean depending on the circumstances. All animals, for example, clean or unclean, became unclean when they died. A person became unclean if they touched the body of a dead animal. Being unclean meant that a person wasn’t allowed to do some religious things. It sounds like a bigger deal than it was, since there were cleansing rituals that took care of this. But for tanners—like Simon—or butchers, uncleanness was something that had to be dealt with on a daily basis, otherwise ordinary Jewish life would have been impossible. When the story tells us that Simon was a tanner, it’s tipping us off that the issue of cleanness and uncleanness is going to come up again. And so it does.

Peter is in Joppa with Simon the tanner. Meanwhile in Caesarea there was a retired soldier named Cornelius who had used his pension money to settle in Roman Palestine. To a fair number of non-Jews in those days, the Jewish religion was attractive, mostly because of the clear call to an ethical life that came from the Jewish God, a call that was unusual in the ancient world. Cornelius had heard that call. He was both pious and compassionate. 

 

One afternoon Cornelius was praying and saw a vision. In this vision, he was told by an angel that his prayers had been answered and that he was to send for a man named Simon Peter who was staying in Joppa at the house of a man named Simon Tanner. Cornelius sent two of his servants along with an army buddy of his to go to Joppa and return with Simon Peter.

Now the scene shifts again to Joppa where it was noon and Peter was praying. Peter was up on the roof of Simon Tanner’s house, maybe to get away from the smell. Anyway, Peter was hungry. He was trying to concentrate on his prayers, but his stomach was growling. In spite of that—or maybe because of that—Simon Peter had a vision. Heaven was opened and a sheet was lowered down to earth. In the sheet were all sorts of animals. A voice told him to kill and eat. Peter refused, saying, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” (Didn’t I tell you this would come up again? But wait, as they say on television, there’s more!) The voice said, “Never consider unclean what God has made pure.” There’s the vision: sheet with animals, a voice saying to kill and eat, Simon Peter refusing, voice saying not to consider unclean what God has made pure. Simon Peter saw this vision three times. 

 

In the meantime, Cornelius servants and the old army buddy arrived at Simon Tanner’s house. No, I’m sorry. They arrived at Simon Tanner’s gate. This important. 

 

The voice that had been inviting Simon Peter to kill and eat told him that three people were looking for him and that he was to go with them without asking any questions. He wasn’t to appoint a commission, file a petition, make a motion, hold a hearing, schedule a referendum. He was just supposed to go with them.

He went down to the gate. “Yes, I’m the man you’re looking for. What do you want?”

The three men told him the story of Cornelius’ vision. They were at Peter’s disposal and would listen to whatever it was he had to say. Peter invited them into the house.

Wait a minute! They had been waiting at the gate for a reason. And the reason was that, if they, being Gentiles, were to come into the house, the house would become unclean. But Peter—maybe already under the influence of his hunger-induced vision—invited them into the house.

The next day, Simon Peter, Cornelius’ army buddy and two servants, together with some of the Jesus-followers from Joppa, got up and traveled to Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting. In fact, he had invited some friends and relatives. When they arrived, our text tells us, “Peter entered the house.” Peter entered the house. Peter, the good Jewish boy, who had never eaten anything impure or unclean, entered the house of Cornelius, the Gentile. This house was, by definition, unclean. For Peter to enter it rendered him unclean. Peter entered the house. 

 

Traditionally, this story is known as the Conversion of Cornelius, but that’s not a good title. Cornelius didn’t need any converting. He was just fine the way he was. Yes, he became a Jesus-follower, but he ended the story has he began it, as a man who was trying to obey the God of Jesus by being as wise and good and compassionate as he could be. It wasn’t Cornelius who was converted. It was Simon Peter. Simon Peter, the pious insider in the community of Jesus-followers, was the one who needed converting. And it happened for him, beginning with the hunger induced vision and culminating at the doorstep of Cornelius’ house. At that moment, Simon Peter’s fundamental commitments and his view of the universe were changed for ever. 

 

The new convert Simon Peter began to speak. 

 

I wish I could say that his words lived up to his new reality. They didn’t. That happens sometimes. Sometimes takes a long time for our heads to catch up with our hearts. And our big fat mouths lag even further behind. So it was for Simon Peter, “You all realize that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate or visit with outsiders. However, God has shown me that I should never call a person impure or unclean. (Even you.)” Well, it was a start. And that’s all we could ask for. 

 

Simon Peter went on to ask Cornelius to explain why he had been sent for. Cornelius did that and Simon went on to tell Cornelius about Jesus’ ministry and message. And while Simon was still speaking, it became clear to the Jewish Jesus-followers that God had given them the Spirit just as God had given it to them. Cornelius and his family and friends had done none of what there were supposed to do: they hadn’t become Jews. They hadn’t attended a membership class. They hadn’t even been baptized. None of that mattered for the moment. For the moment all that mattered was that God had made them pure.

Now there are some people who believe that the most important story in the book of Acts is the conversion of Saul who became the Apostle Paul, carried the good news of Jesus through the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, and wrote a huge chunk of the New Testament. Some people believe that Acts turns on the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost that gave the little band of Jesus-followers the audacity and courage to share their message in the same city where Jesus had been executed. Others say that the story climaxes when Paul reaches Rome, the center of their known world which was , in principle at least, the same thing as the “ends of the earth.”

But I say that the story of the Conversion of Simon Peter is the pivot of the whole book. I say that because at the heart of Simon Peter’s conversion lies this pivotal realization: We do not get to decide whom God loves. It does not matter if we are Simon Peter,leader of this band of Jesus-followers. It does not matter if we are ordained. It does not matter if we are bishops, even. It does not matter if we are delegates to General Conference,or members of the Judiciary Council. We do not get to decide whom God loves. God decides whom to love. God decides and Simon Peter could only try his best to keep up. And we can only try our best to keep up with Simon, so that the story of his conversion may at last become the story of our own.

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