Uncommon
Acts 11:1-18

May 6, 2007


I served in a Japanese-American United Methodist Church in San Francisco during seminary, a place I learned an awful lot. One story passed around of the previous generations was what happened when you were baptized and became a Christian, perhaps out of a Buddhist or Shinto background. You had to change your name, give up taking baths, use a fork and wear shoes. That is, in order to be Christian you had to adopt a Western Christian name, a saint’s name was never a bad choice. No traditional deep hot tub baths favoured by the Japanese, not least because both genders tended to bathe together. Chopsticks were simply not the proper Christian utensils and sandals are not what Christians wear - forget about Jesus and the Franciscans.

To be a Christian required a dramatic change to one’s culture. It wasn’t just your heart that had to convert, it was your whole way of living in this sinful world that required a drastic alteration. This applies to what you eat, how you eat, what you wear, personal hygiene, the kind of art and music you are allowed to appreciate, the way in which you use language, and inevitably sexuality. This may all sound ridiculous or obvious, and probably nothing that applies to you and me, but once again we live in the times and cultures where being Christian is more often being perceived as ridiculous and no an longer obvious way of life and choice.

In Canada we are striving towards a multi-cultural society and that means a lot more than reading one’s Corn Flakes in French. Europe currently has become mired in the throes of multi-cultural conflicts, from the head dress of Muslim women, the content of cartoons, and the viability of vibrant religious faith that is not sanctioned by the state in an increasingly secular society. Multi-culturalism is a great idea; living it is harder on a deeper level than most of us dream to imagine. It’s also why this story about Peter is one of the more radical events in the Bible.

Peter remained in Joppa, a city on the Mediterranean coast, after he had raised Tabitha up from death, staying at the home of a certain Simon the tanner. At noon one day Peter went up on to the roof to pray, but was seized with hunger pangs, eventually going into a trance and the trance was about food. This is the natural result of many a commercial aired by fast food restaurants. For Peter, the food was surreal being lowered from heaven on a huge sheet - animals of all sorts, particularly the unclean sorts according to Jewish dietary laws. A voice came, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” Peter was a devout Jew for whom the thought was impossible, “No, I don’t eat unclean food.” The voice came a second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” Three times this scene was repeated.

While Peter was trying to figure this out, three men came to see him. The last time three men appeared like this to a Biblical patriarch, they were angels telling Abraham and Sarah that she would soon be pregnant. These three were regular human beings, but they were God’s messengers to bring him to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a God-fearer, who wanted to hear all he could about God. Peter taught and then baptized all these Gentiles.

Everyone knows that bad news travels fastest. By the time Peter returned to Jerusalem everyone knew he had become friendly with Gentiles - Simon as a tanner of animals was one of the worst, most unclean occupations imaginable for a Jew - and had eaten with them and even made them Christians. He had betrayed and profaned their traditional faith and incredulously they demanded from Peter an explanation. So he told them about trances and raw unclean food and three men and the Holy Spirit that baptized them all. All of God’s children in the Jerusalem church shouted Amen, “God has granted salvation to Gentiles as well.” And the world changed, for it was then that to be Christian meant to become multi-cultural.

Becoming multi-cultural is the right tense, for people prefer their own culture to anyone else’s. You cannot be born multi-cultural, you are nurtured in one way of life as the norm and then you encounter and cope with others. One way to define a culture is the right way to live, to do things and think about life the right way. When you meet someone whose culture requires them to live differently, to do something the wrong way, it stops you like few other things.

Language is a critical part of culture, even the same language. An English woman lived in the next block to us, and at the coffee hour she made plans with another church member to work together the following day on a project. They agreed for 9:00 a.m. “OK,” said the English woman, “I’ll come by at 9 a.m. and knock you up!” A different culture speaking!

In a resurrection time, Peter found that he couldn’t speak the same way; he had to use the same words differently, for the Gospel compelled him to knock up on some new doors. Peter found that he needed to eat with people who eat differently and who eat different foods than he was normally allowed. Peter found that there were many more people than he was ever allowed to believe who were part of his culture.

It really isn’t the case that Peter out these things; these things found him. The Gospel - that vague name identifying our Christian culture and way of life - is not a culture we have thought or invented; like all cultures it has been given to us. Peter did not so much reject his old culture - he realized he had a new culture, a new way of talking, of eating, of living with people different from him, a new way of thinking and a new attitude about the importance of life and the importance of all people.

Most cultures are based upon an “us vs. them” strategy to constructing who we are. Setting up boundaries to define your territory, who is in and who is out, who is included and who is excluded. Peter knew all the taboos, like you and me, this mind-blowing vision told him that God has cleansed a lot more than you have and you can’t label things and people as unclean or filthy or profane or common.

The Gospel finds out that all people are “us” - that all people find a place in God’s kingdom through God’s compassion and mercy. More poignantly, we are “them” - knowing we share the suffering of those who are different from us, as in Pogo’s great line, “I have met the enemy and he is us!” As long as discrimination and injustice rages against any group of people in any society, we are all not free.

The Gospel is the most radical of cultures because it states that no matter which language you are speaking, you are speaking God’s works and ideas. The Gospel doesn’t settle for declaring that none of us are common; the Gospel bellows that we are all uncommon folk, that you are blessed with God’s holy power to be extraordinary people and accomplish extraordinary things. Extraordinary and uncommon because they are fueled by the love that world can never seem to comprehend, make room for, or accept.

The Gospel is radical and threatening because most of human society and its institutions are intent on maintaining those boundaries, excluding those who are different. It is easier to think you know who you are not than to think and imagine and dream of who you might be and with whom you might be sharing your identity. Most cultures, whether religious, political, social, expend most of their energy in building up walls to those exclude those who would cause us trouble. In the Gospel culture we spend our energy in tearing down the walls to include those who make us richer in the kingdom of heaven.

Paul found out that he too had been granted the gift of a new culture and he made it clear to the Galatian church (3:28) that “you are all one in Christ Jesus, for in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, gay nor straight, Saskatchewan nor Quebec, Canada nor the United States, First World nor Third World, First Nation nor favoured nation, communist nor capitalist, fundamentalist nor liberal, Catholic nor Protestant, Evangelical nor Orthodox.” Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan