"Double Vision" - Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

Double Vision
Easter 3 – Narrative Lectionary 1
April 19, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Acts 10.1-17; 34-35

In the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, (which is actually Episode 5!) the young Jedi knight, Luke Skywalker, is told to go to Dagobah to complete his training under the Jedi master, Yoda. After a rough landing in a dreary swamp, Luke meets a small, green gnome-like creature who paws through his rescued baggage, eats his food, talks in riddles and generally makes a nuisance of himself. It’s only later that Luke learns that this pesky creature is the Jedi master, Yoda, who is to complete his training.

I think God is a lot like Yoda, poking into our lives, talking in riddles, tossing aside our baggage and prodding us to think in new ways. We have now moved from the end of Matthew and Jesus’ Great Commission to make disciples of all nations to the book of Acts, where we hear how the early church works out this calling. There are some things to note about Acts that are helpful to understand the book. First, there are three general intertwined movements. The book goes from a focus on Peter to one centered on Paul. The mission goes from one begun among the Jews to that of the Gentiles. And the outward action symbolically moves from Jerusalem to Rome. Second, the book should be called the “Acts of the Holy Spirit” instead of the “Acts of the Apostles” because it is the Holy Spirit who drives the action, as evidenced by the fact that the Holy Spirit is named over 40 times. Finally, the book shows that living into this new reality is messy; the young church is literally making it up as it goes along.

Last week, we talked about the interplay between faith and doubt, that the way ahead in the life of faith isn’t clear. In our reading today, we hear part of what the inclusion of the Gentiles into God’s grace means. There are three aspects of the journey of discernment I think are helpful for the life of faith. The first aspect is what I’m going to call revelation, that God rummages through our preconceived ideas about life and in doing so reveals something new and often challenging to us. God comes to Peter in a very startling and even ambiguous way through a vision. Yet, God also works through scripture and tradition to reveal what God is up to in the world.

Even though the encounter with God was powerful, Peter doesn’t know what to do with it. He can’t see how God wants him to change his diet, one that went to his core identity as a Jew. That changes when he hears about Cornelius and Cornelius’ vision from God. Here is a Gentile who essentially loves the same God, prays faithfully and is generous to the Jewish people, just as any pious Jew does. So, through the experience of his encounter with Cornelius, Peter was able to understand what this new and upsetting thing that God is doing, and it has nothing to do with food, at least what he eats. Table fellowship will become extended to the Gentile, unthinkable in the past.

Yet, even after the revelation from God and the experience with Cornelius, one more thing needs to happen. Although it’s outside our text for today, Peter and others will engage in communal conversation about this new thing that God is up to. It won’t be until chapter 15 that the collective church finishes wrestling with this new thing that God is doing. As I said earlier, the process isn’t always clean and straightforward; it takes time and energy. It takes sitting around, talking about how we see what God is up to, telling stories of our encounters with the other. And it takes stepping out in faith and being open to the Holy Spirit, even when it chastens us and prods us into uncomfortable territory.

Like the Jedi master, Yoda, God continually pokes about in our lives, upsetting us and challenging us to be about the ministry of inviting people into a life of faith. God brings people into our presence who help us to see in new ways and then gives us a community to try and figure out what this means. However, there is a caution: it’s not a 1-2-3 process. Sometimes God starts with an experience of another person and sometimes with communal conversation. On Wednesday evening we talked about how God has moved through our livings in many ways, including the role of women, how we worship and who is included in our congregations. So, we are bold to ask: where is God poking around in your life? Who has God put in your path to see in a new way? What are the conversations we need to have here in this place? Christ is risen! His risen indeed! Alleluia, amen.