Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Every once in a while, on the Travel Channel, I watch a show where this guy goes all over the world and finds weird food. He was in Ecuador a few weeks ago, eating ants that tasted like lemon.
All things are relative. My Zimbabwean friends thought that the idea of eating shrimp was absolutely disgusting. They would not touch a shrimp no matter how hard I tried to convince them they were delicious.
We are all finicky about food. I am an adventurous eater. On a cruise once, I tried escargot. Escargot is French for snails. Sounds a lot more appetizing as escargot doesn’t it? I was 46 at the time. It had taken me 46 years to work up the nerve to try them.
What a surprise! They were delicious coated in garlic and butter. Something akin to roast beef but a bit different in flavor and texture. Six came on the plate, I ordered a second helping.
I eat escargot.
I am a changed man.
Menus and forbidden foods are on Peter’s mind as well in today’s lesson from Acts. He has a vision from God that directs him to broaden his understanding of who he belongs to and who belongs to him.
Peter was a good Jew. Jews didn’t sit down and eat with non-Jews in the 1st century. They had special dietary laws and cleanliness codes that defined them as a Holy people, God’s people. Their men were circumcised and all of these customs defined them as a people set “apart”. These were outward sign that they belonged to the true and only living God.
People are always setting up barriers. We are naturally suspicious of people different from ourselves. We have a special word for it: “xenophobia”. that is, fear of strangers.
Here in today’s lesson God speaks directly to Peter to tell him that all people are God’s people. God is the God of all the nations, of all languages, all tribes, all races, all skin colors, eye colors, hair colors and textures. God loves every human being that is made in God’s image. St. Paul in the book of Galatians talks about the radical equality of God’s love. He says unequivocally that all of us are loved and all are one in Christ. The words read like this: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
You’ve probably heard those words before, and at face value they seem safe enough. Yet they are so radical. In the Roman world of the 1st century somewhere between 1/3 and ½ of the people were slaves. Most were prisoners of war who had been converted into property. They were regularly beaten, sometimes starved, given the cheapest cuts of clothing. Some were valued as tutors or skilled craft people but they all were without rights and could be killed by their owner and no questions world be asked. This was the 1st century world. Into this world of slavery comes the world of radical, radical, stunning earthshaking love in Christ. All distinctions are gone. Everyone prized, valued, treasured – all invited into God’s family. Everyone to be helped. Everyone to be nurtured and treated as family. It is an astounding concept that still should shake us.
Our “others” change over time. When I was a kid, the Russians were the enemies. I grew up to fear them and hate communism, their form of government. Yet, I had never met a Russian. Then when I was 16, our church hosted a group of Soviet farmers here on a cultural exchange. I was fascinated by them, yet afraid at the same time. But quickly I learned they were just like me.
After 9/11 my others became Iraqis and particularly Afghanis. My daughter, Eliza became sick with a mysterious disease and we had to go to Patient First in Perry hall. The doctor who treated her was named Mohamed and spoke with a Middle Eastern accent. It felt so weird. He was in America, my country, working for an American hospital. I’d had plenty of foreign doctors before but the Twin Towers had just fallen at the hands of Muslin madmen who claimed to be doing the deed for Allah and half of them were named Mohamed too. I didn’t know if I could trust this doctor who seemed pleasant and kind enough.
Our “others’ will always be changing. Russians were once enemies, now they are allies. So were they Japanese and even the Germans. God calls us to a much higher understanding of family then we can accept. Jesus Christ is God’s son. He was revealed to the Jews first but he is the savior of all the nation. In him, the dividing walls that separate and keep us apart are broken down.
This is a message we need to hear in the 21st century again and again, now more then ever.
Division tears at us and imprisons us in ghettos of suspicion and mistrust. Yet each of the “othes” we encounter brings a new opportunity to appreciate the gifts that God lavishes on all his children. Like escargot, others can be delicious and expand our social diet.
So what does today’s lesson have to say to us? How does it speak in the 21st century?
The Bible, God’s living Word among us, says plainly: “You cannot love the God whom you cannot see while you hate the brother or sister that you can see.” If there are “others” in your life, people you suspect, mistrust or don’t know, then build bridges. Befriend those who are different from you. Learn about their culture. Try and move closer to them and share yourself and your life and ask to be invited into theirs.
Of course, this is hard to do. It requires us to take risks, dare to be vulnerable, leave our comfort zone. But is it the Spirit of God who goads and nudges us.
In Christ name, Pastor John
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