This week, I've continued to watch with sadness the unfolding of dramatic Islamophobia in our country. Just this morning, the newspaper included stories about the church in Florida that's planning "Burn a Koran" day on September 11, and a New York cab driver who was stabbed by his passenger after answering affirmatively to the question "are you a Muslim." And, of course, the debate over "the mosque at ground zero" (which is neither a mosque nor at ground zero (it's a community center; there's already a mosque) rages on. On Sunday in my sermon, I said that it felt like our whole country was bent over by fear; we are in need of a collective "Daughter, you are healed" as Jesus spoke to the woman bent over for 18 years. We're collectively bent over by fear, unable to see or hear.
In the daily office this morning, another Scripture passage hit me over the head in speaking to fear of Islam (or fear of gay marriage, or fear of immigrants, or fear of any group). The early church was, we know, in a very diverse context. There were constant questions about who could be part of the church and who couldn't--and what was required for them to do to join. As a movement solidly in the Jewish community, what do to with those who wanted to follow Jesus but weren't Jews? Jews and Gentiles weren't even supposed to eat together, much less pray or be part of the same community.
That all changed with the conversion of Cornelius, the centurion--an officer in the Roman army. He and Simon Peter had simulataneous visions concerning the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. Cornelius was told in his vision to send people to get Peter, while Peter's message was a little less clear. He saw a large sheet coming down with all kinds of animals that were forbidden for Jews to eat.
"A voice spoke: Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.' The voice said to him again, a second time, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane." (Acts 10:13-15).
Totally confused, Peter tries to figure out what's going on when Cornelius' people appear and ask Peter to go with them. He goes, and tells Cornelius and his companions: 'You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection." (Acts 10:28-29)
There's an important shift here, which is why it kind of hit me over the head. Peter's vision was of animals--he could easily have interpreted his vision as being about the Jewish dietary laws (the text even tells us that he was hungry). Kill and eat--it doesn't say anything about people. But in the course of wrestling with it and praying, Peter discerns that God isn't just talking about some narrow ban on certain foods, he's being told that being a Christian is about extending grace and love to everyone--even those who are not Jews or Christians! "God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean." Cornelius was an agent of the state that had oppressed and separated the Jewish people for years. If he wasn't worthy of recrimination, then nobody is.
And if the Roman military wasn't "out" in Jesus' day, I can't think of anyone now who could be, either. At that critical period in the formation of this movement around Jesus, the invitation of the risen Lord was toward wider embrace and wider inclusion. We have to listen to Peter, now, and reconnect with that heritage of our Christian faith. Whether it's gender, race, religion, or sexuality, Christian voices need to be heard--no one is excluded from God's love, and everyone should be free to live and pray as they are called.
Blessings,
Sara+
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