Orthodox Dilemma - Part 2

[i]

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

So Peter invited the men to stay for the night.  The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.  They arrived in Caesarea the following day.  Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.  As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him.  But Peter pulled him up and said, “Stand up!  I’m a human being just like you!”  So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.  Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you.  But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.  So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for.  Now tell me why you sent for me.”  Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon.  Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me.  He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God!   Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter.  He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’  So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come.  Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”  Acts 10:23-33(NLT)

We left Peter yesterday receiving impure, untouchable, undesirable Gentiles into his home; now we find Peter at the door of a Gentile’s home, telling the humble God-fearing Gentile Cornelius that God said Peter’s thinking was what was undesirable.  The question I often had – and get questioned about as a Pastor is:  Why did God label Gentiles impure in the first place, and then change His mind?

The whole issue centers in one word:  CHOICE.

Consider these few basic assumptions about our relationship with God:

1.     All humans are created in the image of God (we don’t choose humanity), and therefore are endowed-with (given) intrinsic worth.

2.     All humans sin, and therefore choose to disfigure (sin-away) that image and our relationship with God; we choose our impurity.

3.     Everything follows the pattern of the first two and needs restoration.

Returning to the Methodist fracas du jour for the moment as an example, God never ordained, never said a single word in favor of today’s aberrant sexual depravity, but has much strong condemnation of it.  Setting aside the argument of genetic predisposition – being born a woman in a man’s body, or vice-versa[ii], homosexuality, bi-sexuality, trans-sexuality, as opposed to heterosexuality is largely a matter of choice of behavior.  We act how we choose to act.

Sin is very much that way, a matter of choice.  People are not impure or unclean in God’s eyes (and neither should they be in ours) because of birth, genetics, race, or defect or any kind.  We make ourselves unclean with sin by rebelling against the bond of relationship with God.  Rebellion in sexual matters is no different for a homosexual or any of the other aberrations, as it is for a heterosexual who violates fidelity in marriage, or abstinence in singleness.  Heart rebellion is the center of the issue; when we choose to separate ourselves from God’s will, our free will accomplishes the task…and we know it.  Our eyes are no less opened by our sin than Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened when they rebelled.

So, why did Peter tell Cornelius he’d concluded that he should not think of any man as impure or unclean?  Simple; Peter had watched a woman brought to Jesus for condemnation because she was caught in the act.  Jesus told her accusers, ok, stone this sinner…whoever among you doesn’t have any sin on his card, step forward and throw the first stone.[iii]  They all slinked away.  It’s not a question of if we’re all guilty; we just can’t be proud of the fact that we might be less-guilty than the next guy.  We’re all sinners!

For You Today

Ash Wednesday is tomorrow; it’s a great time to put pride where it belongs.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   By Illustrator of Henry Davenport Northrop's 'Treasures of the Bible', 1894 Public Domain

[ii] I do not set this aside entirely; gender is not an identity, it is chromosomal; and that from conception.  Anything less is subjective science digging for excuses.

[iii] John 8:1-11

Orthodox Dilemma

[i]

Monday, March 4, 2019

The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray.  It was about noon,  and he was hungry.  But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.  He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners.  In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds.  Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”  “No, Lord,” Peter declared.  “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”  But the voice spoke again:  “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times.  Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.  Peter was very perplexed.  What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house.  Standing outside the gate, they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.  Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you.  Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation.  Don’t worry, for I have sent them.”  So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for.  Why have you come?”  They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer.  He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews.  A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.”  So Peter invited the men to stay for the night.  The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.  Acts 10:9-23(NLT)

Peter had his world rocked more than a few times because he was a follower of Jesus Christ.  Often Christian disciples tend to read Scripture, especially parts that contain Jewish tradition, as if it doesn’t apply to us, here in the 21^st century. 

We forget that Peter was a Jew, and here, a very orthodox Jew.  In this account his orthodox menu is challenged by a vision of everything he was forbidden to eat.  It says Peter was puzzling over what he’d just experienced when an invitation showed up at the front door from Cornelius, a Gentile Roman Officer, to come to his home and preach the Gospel message. 

The fact that Peter responded at all is evidence that the message from Heaven’s sheet full of meat was becoming clear to Peter.  If God is in something, you get on board with it.  In Peter’s case it is clear he got it right away, because he invited the messengers to stay the night with him.  In Peter’s orthodoxy it was forbidden to enter a Gentile’s residence, and it would have been a severe offense to have them stay in your home. 

It is dangerous to assume that every whim of change that floats around in the culture is God telling us what’s happening is a new direction for the church, or for individual discipleship.  On the other hand, we cannot, because of settled orthodoxy, summarily dismiss the possibilities.  Therefore, we listen to others before going to war over differences of opinion.  Culture wars are not always about right and wrong; sometimes they’re just attempts to get traction on approval for a new way to sin.

In many cases the development of civilization has meant throwing-out old ways, in favor of something more beneficial.  Slavery, Racism, Sexual abuse, and many more such evils, have been targeted as monstrous, intolerable by godly and civilized humanity. 

We must be ready to listen to those who claim victimization.  At the same time, we must listen closely; not all that glitters is gold, and not all that demands space must be accommodated. 

For You Today

For those who are serious about following Christ with pure motives and heart, even a direct message, let down in a sheet from Heaven must be a puzzling dilemma.  But a genuine move of God can never be orchestrated by demonstration, demeaning, manipulation, or false witness. 

That kind of agenda-driving is not let-down from Heaven, it’s brought-up from below, and it smells like smoke.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   By Illustrator of Henry Davenport Northrop's 'Treasures of the Bible', 1894 Public Domain