Who Are You Following?
Good Morning Friends,
The tweets of the world are announcing today’s Chinese New Year, tomorrow’s Mardi gras and yesterday’s Super Bowl winners… And this morning we think about the Super Bowl Babies and music that asks us to believe in love and football that celebrated 50 years of Super Bowls and one has to wonder what happens next. And for me this morning it is opening the Bible. So I open today’s lectionary passage from Acts and am pleased that we have a little echo of the teachings of the Transfiguration in a vision of Peter’s that begins with prayer and leads to a purpose. We have an illuminated next step. The back story on the passage is that God had called the people of Israel to a special relationship with Him so that they might be His people, his witnesses, His missionaries to the rest of the world. They were set apart. God had entrusted them with His Word so that they could tell the rest of the world about Him. They were to be witness that God is, that God exists and that men are to worship and serve Him and Him alone. But somewhere along the way the Jews had forgotten their purpose, and instead of proclaiming God they had created barriers between themselves and the rest of the world. And then there was Rome. Faced with the heritage of the law and prophets, they choose the law to a fault and it was killing them. Most religious leaders stopped taking the illuminated steps of the vision of a Messiah and rejected extending the love and the light of the world. In today’s scripture we find that God always finds a way to guide us. Who Are You Following?
Scripture: About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, 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 the 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. 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 again, a second time, ‘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 that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate. They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.’ So Peter went down to the men and said, ‘I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?’ They answered, ‘Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.’ So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him.
Acts 10:9-23a (NRSV)
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105 (NRSV)
Message: The Apostle Peter, as a good Jew, had been taught, not to have anything to do with a Gentiles. If he touched one, even accidentally on the street, he would have to go home and wash. It is easy to see what this attitude, if carried over into the church, would have done to the spread of the gospel. Large areas of the world would have written off as being beyond the grace of God. All of us as Gentile believers would be without Christ. But you will recall that Peter has been drawn by the Holy Spirit’s guidance from one human need to another until he ended up in the city of Joppa at the house of Simon the tanner. God had begun to progressively lead Peter away from his man-made legalist attitude. The very fact that Peter was willing to stay in the home of Simon the tanner was evidence of the softening of his legalist spirit. God was drawing Peter away from his prejudice. The problem is that we can be just as selective about those with whom we are willing to share the gospel as Peter and his Jewish brethren were. Friends, when we stop following Jesus, we do not see those around us as potential believers, but as unreachable. We write people off as impossible to reach for the kingdom of Christ. The beauty in today’s scripture is its witness that when God shows us some new truth he often then gives us an opportunity to act on what we have learned. He often provides situations or circumstances that call upon us to put those principles into action. Friends, expect God to illuminate the next step and welcome the opportunity to be a light for others. Friends, only by Jesus’ love in us will others know we are Christians. Praying down a little heaven to illuminate this dark world of ours with a better vision is just the beginning. Are you ready to take the next step?
Pray that where Jesus leads we will follow. Pray our visions change us and in turn changes the world for the better. Pray we realize that the teaching of Jesus is worth following because God’s love is living and active through Him and His Spirit. Pray we learn to seek the wisdom in following the promptings of the Spirit. Pray we have the commitment to Jesus that includes a responsibility for reaching the lost.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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