Clear Eyes

Acts 10:1-48

^10:1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. ² He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. ³ One afternoon at about three o'clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” ⁴ He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵ Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; ⁶ he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” ⁷ When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, ⁸ and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹ About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. ¹⁰ He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. ¹¹ He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. ¹² 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.” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” ¹⁵ The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹ While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Look, three* men are searching for you. ²⁰ Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.” ²¹ So Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?” ²² 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.” ²³ 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. ²⁴ The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ On Peter's arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. ²⁶ But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.” ²⁷ And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; ²⁸ and he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?”

³⁰ Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o'clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. ³¹ He said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. ³² Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ ³³ Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, ⁴⁶ for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.




1 Corinthians 13:1-13

^13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³

 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.




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For whatever reason, God rarely makes it clear,

         right when a God-moment is happening,

         that that is really what is going on.

Instead, it almost always requires us

         to look back at the moment

         in order to recognize God’s hand in it,

         to see what God was teaching us,

         to get that a-ha! revelation

                  that causes us to view the world differently

         than we did just a moment before.

And sometimes that is the case

         even when God has told us in advance what to expect.

That was surely the case for Peter.

         Even when he was with Jesus, up close and personal,

         we have several gospel stories about

         how Jesus would make something crystal clear to Peter,

         and he still wouldn’t believe it until after it had happened.

One of the most well-known was

         that warning that Jesus gave him that he,

         Peter, would deny Jesus three times

         before the rooster crowed in the early morning hours.

Peter was outraged at the thought that he would do such a thing,

         and then, of course, we know what happened –

         that he went right along and denied ever knowing Jesus,

         three times. And then heard the rooster crow.

For him, that a-ha revelatory moment

         was filled with grief and shame.

Here we have heard another similar experience for Peter.

         God shows him a vision of a sheet of some sort,

         filled with all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds.

He hears the Lord say to him, go ahead, Peter,

         you can eat any of these. They’re all ok.

But Peter knows the law,

         and maybe he thinks this is some sort of test.

He says, no way, Lord,

         I have never eaten anything profane or unclean.

The reply he receives is immediate:

         “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

Now, this happens three times. THREE TIMES.

         Each time he is told, go ahead and eat.

Each time he says, I know the law. It’s against the law.

Each time God tells him,

         What God has made clean, you must not call profane.

God does not explain the apparent conflict

         between the law Peter has known and followed all his life,

         the law that is spelled out in excruciating detail in the Torah,

         and these words, this new teaching.

God simply presents the dilemma,

         invites him to respond in a new way,

         and offers him a new way of understanding.

What God has made clean, you must not call profane.

And then the vision, this sheet full of “untouchable” animals,

         is suddenly taken from his sight,

         leaving him to try and interpret what it all means,

to take what he is supposed to take from the experience.

Is it about broadening his food selections?? Hmmm….

The thing is, what Peter doesn’t know yet is,

         someone he has never met,

         a centurion by the name of Cornelius,

         is having a God moment as well,

         a co-incidence,

         a vision and a word from God

         he cannot fully make sense of,

cannot clearly see what is intended by it.

Cornelius is the first person named in Acts

         who carries Roman authority. 

According to the New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary,

         a centurion was a noncommissioned officer

         who commanded one hundred soldiers.

The scripture text tells us Cornelius was devoted to God,

         generous in his giving and constant in prayer.

Just at the time that Peter is pondering

         what the Lord is trying to tell him

         about what he has always thought to be unclean,

this Gentile, this Roman, this uncircumcised non-Jew,

         is also receiving a vision, a revelation from God.

Unlike Peter,

         Cornelius only needs to hear God’s instruction to him once: send men to Joppa to find Simon Peter

         and bring him back to you.

So, God’s timing being what it is,

         Cornelius’ scouts arrive at Simon the tanner’s house in Joppa

         just as Peter is pondering the meaning of his vision

         and God’s response to his hesitation.

Fortunately, he accepts their explanation

         of the mission they have been sent on,

         and he returns with them to Cornelius’ home.

Interestingly, Cornelius asks Peter to tell him,

         along with all his close friends and relatives,

         what the Lord has commanded Peter to say.

And this is when Peter has his A-Ha moment, his revelation. What has been unclear to him,

         what he was seeing only dimly, now makes sense to him.

His vision has been cleared, as we can tell by his very first words.

“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts those from every nation who fear God and do what is right.”

For Peter, it’s not just that Cornelius is exhibit A

         of someone not from the Jewish nation

         who, nevertheless, fears God and tries to do what is right.

It’s also that God has admonished Peter, three times,

         hat he should not call anyone profane or unclean.

Not even this Gentile,

         whom it is unlawful for a Jew to even associate with.

The clouds are cleared,

         and Peter comprehends the Word of the Lord in a new way,

         a way first presented by Jesus Christ,

         and now revealed in a new way

         by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so, with the same love he has shown Christ’s disciples,

         those who are following The Way,

         he speaks with love to Cornelius,

acknowledging him as one who faithfully follows God,

         and now sharing with him the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Book of Acts,

         we see primarily how Peter and Paul

         are prepared by God to go out into the world

         and make disciples.

The two of them take different paths, go to different places,

         and experience God’s revelation in different ways,

         but it is the same God being revealed to them,

         so that they can reveal God in Christ to others.

A God of unconditional, unending love.

Paul describes it in his first letter to the Corinthians.

         He is assuring the church in Corinth

         that even though they have different gifts,

          different experiences,

         that God works through all and in all

         those gifts and experiences,

         through a more excellent way – the way of love.

And he gives us this beautiful description of the love of God –

         patient, kind, not envious or arrogant or rude.

Not insisting on its own way.

Bearing, believing, hoping, enduring, all things.

Never ending.

This is the love that the Triune God has for Paul,

         for Peter, for Cornelius, for Jew, for Gentile, for slave,

         for free, for all.

This is the love we find hard to comprehend,

         the love that we only see dimly,

         the love that we are grateful to catch a glimpse of.

This is the love that is given to us freely,

         in the waters of baptism, in the breaking of the bread,

         in the giving of new life.

This is the love that is continually teaching us

         how to understand beyond understanding,

         to know the depth and breadth and length and height

         of God’s love.

Not condemning others, but loving them into new life.

If it was so hard for Peter to comprehend it,

         then maybe we should be more understanding

         with ourselves and one another

         when we find it beyond comprehension as well,

how God can love even those who do not see God as we do..

The Reverend Will Campbell

         had a similar a-ha sort of moment in the South

         during the Civil Rights movement.

He was a white Southern Baptist preacher

         born in the 1920s and raised in Mississippi.

His life’s calling was racial reconciliation.

He was one of the closest friends

         of the young Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.,

         and he was the only white person present at the founding

         of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

         that led the charge for civil rights in America.

The day that nine black school children

         walked through hostile crowds

         to integrate the public school system

         in Little Rock, Arkansas,

         Will Campbell was one of four people at their side.

For Will Campbell,

         an A-ha moment came just after he and several friends

         had just learned that one of their close friends

         had been murdered by the KKK.

He was in a room with another friend,

         grieving, when his friend said to him,

“Will, you loved Joe, didn’t you?”

And Will said, you know I did.

And then his friend said,

         Will, do you love the man who lynched Joe

         as much as you loved Joe?

And Will suddenly realized

         that the God he loved and served,

         the God who loved him,

         and who loved Joe,

         also loved the man who lynched Joe.

And that this was his calling as well.

         He ended up also being pastor to members of the KKK,

         even as he continued his work in Civil Rights.

I ask you to stop and consider this:

         what or who has God been placing in front of you

         to consider in a new way,

         to accept even though

         all your prior understandings told you not to?

Who in your life needs to hear right now

         what God’s new word about love and acceptance

         has meant to you, has taught you?

Who needs to hear the witness of your own a-ha moment?

For the love of God in Christ Jesus is beyond comprehension,

and so it is left for us to simply accept it,

and to share it, by loving one another

with the abundant love Christ has placed in us,

seeing the vision of the kingdom of God, even if only dimly,

until the day that our eyes are cleared and all God’s beloved chldren see God face to face.