May 10 2020
Acts 10
The big controversy now in our fight against the corona virus is the wearing of face masks. The idea behind wearing a mask is that if someone unknowingly has been infected with the virus then there is less of a chance that they will spread the virus to others if they are wearing a mask. So, wearing a mask is more about concern for others wellbeing then it is to protect the one wearing it. This might explain why there is a fair amount of resistance to people wearing a face mask. It is strange to go into one store and there are very few who are wearing a mask and then go down the street to another store and everyone is wearing a mask. When you experience this it makes you wonder why it is that some people have no trouble wearing a mask and others obviously do object to wearing them. Is it that the major benefit is for the people that a person encounters rather than the person wearing them, is this the reason why there is such resistance to wearing of face masks? It doesn’t take much thought that everyone at some point is going to be that other person who encounters a person who has the virus and is not wearing a mask and at that moment the whole reason for people wearing a mask might become apparent. The whole point is that the world has overnight become divided among those who understand why they need to wear a face mask and those who refuse to wear a face mask even if they understand that it might be important. This is one of those divisions that is readily apparent; either you’re wearing a face mask or you’re not. There are other things in life, things like being a saint that are not so apparent. Most people will tell you that hey, they’re no saint as if being a saint is just something everyone knows what it is to be one and normal people like us don’t make the grade which is kind of sad because that is pretty much opposite of everything the Bible tells us about being a saint.
I bring up this whole business about being a saint because in our story from the tenth chapter of Acts, sainthood is an issue that is quietly lurking in the background. Our story from Acts concerns Peter the head of the church after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Now, before we read about Peter and his encounter with a man named Cornelius in the tenth chapter, we read about Peter and his travels at the end of the ninth chapter. What is interesting is that in the thirty second verse of the ninth chapter we are told that as Peter went here and there among them all he came down also to the saints at Lydda. Luke, the author of Acts could have wrote that Peter had come to the brothers and sisters in Christ, that he had come to the disciples or to the Christians or that Peter had come to the church at Lydda but he didn’t; no, he wrote that Peter came to the saints. Now, this might be a little weird to our ears and just so that we don’t start thinking that this was some quirk that Luke or Peter may have had when we look at the letters Paul wrote like his letter to the Romans we also find Paul used this title of saints. Paul’s letter written to those in Rome begins with this greeting, those “ loved by God and called to be saints.” This is not the only time Paul uses this word saints because in his first letter to the church at Corinth he states that he is writing to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints…So, this idea of believers of Jesus being saints was a very common idea which has to make us wonder why this is so? Well, we know that when Jesus was raised from the dead he was vindicated as being the Son of Man who is spoken of in the seventh chapter of Daniel. In a vision Daniel had while as a slave in Babylon, David saw one like a Son of Man approaching the Ancient of Days. Strange language to be sure but what Daniel saw was a human, one like Adam, who was righteous as God had always hoped his highest creation would be and since this one, this perfect human was without sin he was then able to approach almighty God, the Ancient of Days, without fear. He could assume the rightful place of glory that humanity was always supposed to hold. This is what David also envisioned when he wrote in the eighth Psalm that mankind was crowned with glory and honor. You, O God, have given him dominion over the works of your hand.” This promise of dominion is also found in Daniels vision because in the seventh chapter of Daniel we read, “And to him, the Son of Man, was given dominion, and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.” To all this you might agree that this sounds pretty amazing, but the real question is what about the saints? Well, right after this part of Daniels vision, Daniel then sees four kings who arise who threaten the kingdom of the Son of Man but Daniel is told that it is the saints of the Most High who shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever. So, what we learn here is that saints are kingdom receivers and kingdom possessors. While the Son of Man is given an everlasting kingdom he does not keep this kingdom for himself but rather he gives it to those called the saints which is another name for the holy ones. Daniel goes on to tell us that the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey them.” This I believe is what the title “saints” is referring to. Once it was understood that Jesus was the Son of Man, the second Adam, then those united to him, those receiving his kingdom these are the saints just as Daniel prophesied about so long ago.
Daniel then gives us a god start as to who are the saints these holy ones of God who receive and possess the kingdom first given to the Son of Man. What Daniel doesn’t give us is just who these saints are. Just who is it that is one of God’s holy ones? To the people of Israel, the Jewish people it was obvious that they were the saints. They were the nation elected out of all the nations by God, to be separated unto God, to be his most prized possession, to be a royal nation of priests. Only they had received his Law and it is through them that the salvation for the world has been promised. The question then became this: now that Jesus had come and now that he was given up upon the cross for the sins of the whole world, and now that he was risen from the dead and had ascended to the right hand of the Father, had all that Jesus accomplished changed who God considered to be a saint?The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Since the death of Jesus was for the sins of the whole world then everyone is given a clean slate a new chance at being a holy person for God. This is good news yet the problem with this good news is that we just don’t have a very clear understanding of just what does it mean for us to be holy. For a lot of people when they hear the word “holy” they think it means to adhere to a long list of do’s and don’ts that seem to do nothing more than suck the joy out of life. Or holiness is associated with people who are not holy but rather holier-than- thou; people who use their supposed holiness to prove their superiority over others which is not holy behavior at all but is rather the behavior of a hypocrite. So, it goes without saying the there is a lot of negativity with this idea of holiness which is quite unfortunate. God tells us in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus that we are to be holy just as he is holy. This sounds like some unachievable goal for us mere humans. Most of us can’t even to pretend to think that we could be like God. Yet God would not command it if he didn’t think it was possible otherwise he would be a cruel God which he is not. No, when God commands that we are to be like him what we must remember is that we were made in his image; we were created to be like him. The more we are like God the more we are as God created us to be and the better life will be because life is as it was always supposed to be. What is meant when we are told that God is holy is that God is a God of integrity. God is a God not just of love but rather steadfast love. Steadfast tells us that God will love us the same today, tomorrow and always. God’s love is a constant we can count on. This goes along with the other connected part of God’s name which is faithfulness. God can be trusted because what he says he will do is something that is as good as done the moment he speaks his promise to do it. These two attributes, God’s steadfast love and faithfulness are what define God’s holiness. It is these two attributes, steadfast love and faithfulness that God desires to see as an integral part of who we are as people. This is what God longed for to have the people of Israel witness to a life of holiness before a watching world.
We have to remember just what God’s goal were for humanity as we dive into Peter’s encounter with Cornelius. We first encounter Peter as he is having a vision of what appeared to be a large sheet coming down out of heaven filled with all kinds of animals, reptiles and birds of the air. A voice then tells Peter to eat but Peter refused because he had never eaten anything common or unclean.” Now all of this is a pretty strange part of our story. To us with our modern sensibilities, this idea of common or unclean food is something that landed on the floor and we didn’t get to it before the five second rule was up. To Peter though there were for him and the rest of the people of Israel a list of foods written down within their sacred Law that were permissible for them to eat and a list of foods that were not to be eaten. Now, there has been a lot of speculation as to why some foods made the list and some foods didn’t but the best answer as to why some foods were clean and some were not was simply that God said so. If you look at the fourteenth chapter of Deuteronomy where the list of clean and unclean foods is found you find that the chapter begins with the warning that the people of Israel were not to be like the Canaanite people who possessed the Promised Land which God was giving to them. The Canaanite people worshipped the dead something that the people of Israel were forbidden to do. To this warning God reminds the people of Israel that they were a people holy unto God, they were his treasured possession of all the peoples on the earth. The theme of God’s choice is right at the beginning of the existence of the people of Israel. Out of seventy nations on the earth, God chose them simply because they were his most treasured possession. In like fashion God chose out of the different classes of creatures, the fish, the birds the beasts and livestock creatures that his people should eat. The ones God chose were called clean; the ones not chosen were unclean. Out of all the creatures God had created he selected which ones would give their life to feed his people and in turn give them life. So, at every meal the people of Israel would be reminded of not only God’s choice of the food they ate but also God’s choice of them both choices having much to do with life.
What Peter saw that day in the vision of the sheet coming down from heaven was all of the unclean animals he had never and would never eat. This vision happened three times just so God could get his point across that what God had made clean, Peter should not call common or unclean. Peter of course, was trying to unravel the mystery of what he had just experienced but it was not long until the mystery was solved as men sent by Cornelius were at his gate. The Holy Spirit spoke to Peter that he was “to go with these men without hesitation.” It thus becomes pretty clear what Peter’s problem was. As a good Jew who ate only certain foods labeled as clean according to the Law, Gentiles who didn’t follow such rules were considered unclean. So, a clean Jew wasn’t to hang out with an unclean Gentile. What Peter’s vision was telling him that just as God had decided which foods were clean and unclean in the same way it was God and God alone who would decide who is clean, the blood of Christ was after all shed for everyone, to cleanse everyone from sin. While at one time it would have been unlawful for Peter to enter into the home of a Gentile now Peter understood that the death and resurrection of Jesus had changed everything; now all people had to be understood as being clean because of the blood of Christ. God had made a choice, a choice to give his Son for the sins of the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.So, Gentiles like Cornelius were now to be considered clean, they were ok to hang out with even though they didn’t eat all the right foods.
Cornelius was a Roman centurion who was a devout man who feared God, a man who gave generously and a man who prayed continually to God yet in spite of all of this, under Jewish Law, Cornelius would never be thought of as anything more than a second-class citizen. To Jesus though, Cornelius was part of his family and Cornelius needed desperately to know who he and his household were in the eyes of God. As Peter explained to Cornelius, he now understood that God is a God who doesn’t pick and choose but he is a God who accepts anyone, from any nation who reveres him and does what is acceptable, loving others faithfully just as God has always done.Peter then went on to tell the story of Jesus, how Jesus went about doing good and healing all oppressed by the devil for God was with him. Yet in spite of all the good he had done, this Jesus was put to death on a tree by those who thought all along that they were the saints of God. Three days later though Jesus rose from the grave and he commanded his apostles to preach and testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. Everyone who believes in this Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name. What Cornelius discovered through hearing the story of Jesus is that God had made his entry into sainthood very simple and easy; all Cornelius had to do is to believe in Jesus, to have faith in God the Father that he is the one able to make something of our nothingness. This faith is the faith that puts no hope in the power of our flesh knowing that sin finds its power through the weakness of our flesh. Only by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the only power able to conform our flesh to the way of Jesus can we be saints, the holy ones of God. When Cornelius placed his faith in Jesus at that moment he experienced the steadfast love of God as God was merciful to him and forgave his sins.
It was evident that Cornelius had placed his faith in Jesus because the Holy Spirit came upon him and his household with power. This gift of the Holy Spirit was given by God in response to the prayer of Cornelius. The life of Cornelius is a real life example of what Paul wrote about in the eighth chapter of Romans where he writes that “And he, our Heavenly Father searches our hearts and he knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”Our Heavenly Father calls people like Cornelius clean because he is the searcher of our hearts. It is our Heavenly Father who calls upon the Holy Spirit to interceded for the saints, to step into the lives of the saints. It is the Holy Spirit who is the one who creates those who place their faith in Jesus into God’s holy ones, peoples whose lives conform to the will of God. So, the saints, God’s holy ones, are holy not because of any effort on their own, nor because they follow some supposed list of holy behavior but rather it is because they yield themselves to the working of the Holy Spirit. When we remember that it is the saints who will receive and possess God’s everlasting kingdom we then also recall that Jesus taught that it is the meek who will inherit the earth. This word “meek” speaks about people who have let go of their need to be in control, free of their need to have their life validated by others and therefore they are free to surrender themselves to God. It is those who surrender themselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, surrendering to his recreating of who they are so that they conform to the image of Christ, these are God’s holy ones, his saints. The resurrection of Jesus witnesses to the power of God to take the nothingness of our dead lives and create out of this nothingness a life of holiness and beauty. This power is available to all Jew and Gentile alike through faith and trust that God who is able to do all that he promises us he can do, to trust in his love and faithfulness and in these alone find new life, a life that one day will receive an everlasting kingdom. This is the hope of sainthood, the hope found in the holiness that only God can create in us. May you ground your life in the hope of this holiness today and always! Amen!
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