Jarrett McLaughlin
The Church Navigates the Cafeteria
June 2, 2024
Acts 10: 1-17, 34-35
Cold Open
Mark Twain once wrote: “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he had learned in just seven years.”
Of course, Twain’s dear old Dad didn’t learn anything in seven years.
Twain himself had a change of heart, a shift in perspective.
In other words, he changed his mind.
A question for you: when was the last time you changed your mind?
Not about something that is of little to no significance;
Not about the superiority of vanilla ice cream or broccoli’s rightful place atop pizza.
When was the last time you really changed your mind about something that matters?
We continue our march through the book of Acts, arriving at chapter 10, where the same Spirit who changed Peter’s voice and made him brave beyond measure now begins to push him beyond the boundaries he has lived with his whole life long.
Listen now to what that Spirit whispers to us.
Scripture – Acts 10: 1-17, 34-35
In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort. He was a devout man who feared God; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.
One afternoon he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God saying to him, “Cornelius.” He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?”
He answered, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.”
When the angel left, he called two servants and a soldier, and he sent them to Joppa.
About noon the next day, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “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 “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared.
The Spirit said to him, ‘Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up and go with them without hesitation.’ So Peter went down and said, ‘I am the one you are looking for.”
The following day they came to Caesarea.
Cornelius had called together his relatives and close friends.
[Peter] said to them, ‘You know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or [even] visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”
Cornelius replied, ‘Four days ago…I was praying…when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. He said, “Cornelius, your prayer has been heard before God. Ask for Peter in Joppa; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. Now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.’
Then Peter began to speak to them: “[Now] I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable.”
Peter has many more things to say to the household of Cornelius, but here ends our reading.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon
“What the enemy doesn’t know is your limits…I intend to find them, test them, push beyond.”
Tom Cruise said these words to a group of hotshot fighter pilots when he reprised his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the Top Gun sequel.
You have your limits – everyone does – but I’m going to push you beyond them.
If the Holy Spirit had a call sign, Maverick would be appropriate.
If there’s a rule, the Spirit will break it.
If there’s a convention – consider it already overturned.
If I were to ask you who is the main character in the book of Acts – some might say Peter, for he dominates in the early chapters. Others might rightfully say Paul, who stands at the center of most stories following his conversion on the road to Damascus. But in all honestly, neither of those two are the main character.
Acts is first and foremost a story about the Spirit –
The Spirit that pushes the Church beyond the breaking point;
the Spirit that conspires against all the borders, boundaries and barricades that keep people away from God.
Songwriter Jason Isbell captures this subversive Spirit about right when he sings:
“You thought God was an architect – now you know. He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow. And everything you built that’s all for show – goes up in flames.”
When we meet Peter on the roof of Simon the Tanner’s home in Joppa, we are getting our last glimpse of the man before the Spirit completely blows his world to bits.
You see, Peter has been an observant Jew his entire life.
When you belong to an extremely minority religious group surrounded on all sides by an Empire, it is crucial to maintain your distinctive identity.
That is one of the functions of kosher dietary laws – to maintain that identity. A bite of pork here, a pinch of incense offered to the Emperor there – all of that is a slippery slope into cultural obliteration. Peter is as committed as any to this act of Jewish preservation.
So what a surprise it must be when Peter has a dream in which he sees a sheet lowered to the ground filled with all kinds of unclean animals – reptiles, birds of prey, creepy-crawlies of all kinds – I bet there were 13 and 17 year cicadas on that sheet. With all these non-kosher creatures Peter isn’t dreaming – he’s having a nightmare.
Then to make matters worse, the voice of God says to him “Get up and eat!”
Heavens no!
As appetizing as that aquatic cockroach may look – what did you call it, a Lobster – as appetizing as it looks I can’t eat that.
What kind of a Jew would I be if I did.
God speaks and we get the first hint that maybe this isn’t about food: “What God has called clean you must not call profane.”
My favorite detail, though, is that Peter sees this vision three times.
Three times he sees the sheet with the unclean animals.
Three times he protests – “Oh, I could never eat that!”
Three times God says “If I am calling it clean, who are you to say that it’s not?”
You wouldn’t tell somebody the same thing three times unless you had reason to believe that they might not get it the first time.
We had our shower re-caulked this week – it needs to be dry to do it properly so the plan was to not use our shower that morning and instead use the one upstairs.
When we woke up Meg said to me “Hey remember not to use the shower this morning.”
“Right, thanks for the reminder – got it.”
At Breakfast: “So….you’ll remember not to use the shower downstairs, right?”
“Oh yeah – I got it.”
“Why don’t you…move your towel upstairs – just to be sure.”
“…..Okay,” I said, “…happy to do that…but I can’t shake the feeling that you have little confidence in my ability to remember this.”
There was no answer apart from a Cheshire-Cat-wide grin.
Now that’s just a simple thing to remember.
How much more difficult will it be for the Spirit to persuade Peter that everything he believes to be true about what is clean and unclean is no longer operative?
How much more effort must it take to convince him that God is doing a new thing.
Will three times even be enough?
It’s little wonder that Peter awakens perplexed by this dream…but then, as if on cue, three Gentiles show up – servants sent by Cornelius – asking for him to come meet their master. The pieces of the puzzle begin to snap into place.
Just so we don’t miss it, the author of Acts has Peter recite what is passing away – he says “you know it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or even visit a Gentile.”
But after meeting Cornelius and his household – after experiencing the sincerity of their faith – Peter knows deep down in his bones the truth that God has been nudging him towards all along. He opens his mouth and the words come tumbling out like an epiphany:
“Now I get it. Now I understand what the Spirit has been telling me. God does not play favorites. No matter who you are or where you come from, you are of equal value in the eyes of God.”
It is a 30-mile journey from Joppa to Caesarea, from where Peter had his vision to where he encounters Cornelius and puts the two together. Those 30 miles pale in comparison to the distance Peter has just traveled in his own heart, his own soul and his own mind.
Changing your mind about a long-held belief is one of the longest journeys you will ever go on.
So when was the last time you truly changed your mind?
When I read Acts 10 – what leaps out at me is Peter’s receptivity to this vision – his ability to welcome a data-set that is completely at odds with his world-view.
I have in mind a person in this family of faith who will remain anonymous – an individual who told me about how she changed her mind about an important issue in our school system – and she changed it decisively once confronted with a truth outside of her own experience.
One issue before the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools is whether to move away from the traditional 7-period school day in our High Schools and instead adopt a 4-class block model that is more in line with the semesters of community colleges.
The 7-period school day works just fine for many students – I certainly grew up with it myself. Changing to a block system would mean students might have large gaps between their engagement with specific subjects.
If you’re learning Spanish and take a 6-month break – will you ever really learn Spanish?
If you take your math class in the Fall and don’t touch it again until next August will you lose so much ground that it will take a month to get you back where you were?
Not to mention that it might put a great deal of distance between completing a class in the Fall and taking an AP exam on that subject in the Spring.
These are all perfectly valid concerns – but they are most concerning to families who are doing just fine in the school system as it is – excelling and achieving at a high level.
This individual walked into the most-recent School Board meeting prepared to speak against this change for all of those reasons. As a mother, it is only natural that she advocate for that which seems best for her family.
But this individual had also attended a number of events, workshops and courses offered by UPC’s Racial Equity team. She’s been practicing the art of de-centering her own experience and making room for the perspective of the other.
So when there was a presentation to the School Board arguing that this change could potentially move the needle on that opportunity gap between white and black students that has vexed our schools for years, she leaned in and got curious.
She learned that 40% of the past two graduating classes either entered Community College or didn’t pursue higher education at all – many of them students of color. Block scheduling would allow them to take courses at Durham Tech or another community college and leave High School with an associate’s degree or up to 2 years of college education debt-free.
She also heard testimony of what the full course load is like for immigrant families, for students who are trying to take all of those classes while also learning English.
Not to mention the fact that she already interacts regularly with students from economically disadvantaged families; students who leave school and work jobs after school, or care for younger siblings so their parents can – for these students a reduced number of courses with time to finish work during the school day would be a game-changer for their ability to succeed.
It was a very different data set from a population who live a life very different from her own, but by the end of a long School Board meeting – she had done a complete 180-degree-about-face. She changed her mind.
Block scheduling vs. Traditional – I’m not going to weigh in on that one from the Pulpit. I’ll leave that to the School Board, but I was struck by this walking and talking example of somebody who honestly changed her mind. I was also struck by how truly rare that is.
So – when was the last time you changed your mind?
Understand that I do not ask that from the perch of one who does it all the time – I am just as much set in my ways and opinions as the next person.
But if I understand this text, the same Spirit that called the Church into being is still working on us – and that Spirit is an absolute maverick – pushing us to our limits – and beyond.
May we, like Peter and countless others before us and beside us, be open to its nudging. Amen.