Prayer:

Prayer: Give us, O God, we pray, firm faith, unwavering hope, a passion for justice. Grant that we may seek your Spirit in your Word with all our heart, soul and strength.

The year after I graduated from college, I participated in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, or JVC, a year long domestic peace corps-type program run by the Catholic Jesuits.
The challenge to Jesuit volunteers is to integrate Christian faith by working and living among the poor and marginalized, by living simply and in community with other Jesuit Volunteers, and by examining the causes of social injustice.

My Jesuit Volunteer year was spent in Atlanta, Georgia, living with six other volunteers in a low-income area in Atlanta and working with the homeless and poor. JVC’Äôs ’Äúmantra’Äù is ’Äúruined for life,’Äù the idea that when you integrate the four JVC values of social justice, community, simple living and spirituality, along with working and living alongside the poor, your life is turned upside down and, hopefully, changed forever.

JVC ruined me. I had just graduated from Denison University as a Religion major, studying Liberation Theology, an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor's suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and Christianity through the eyes of the poor. So on a theoretical level, I felt ready to take on JVC and my work in Atlanta. JVC took me to a predominately African-American city and spending days in and out of homeless shelters, parks, underpasses and anywhere the homeless and poor lived.

Ruined for life. For me, this meant so many things. The most important and life altering was that my world-view had changed. According to the dictionary, World-view is defined as a look onto the world. It implies a wide world perception; a framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it.

After a year in Atlanta, my world view had shifted, flipped, to be shaped by the concerns
of those who were hungry and homeless. How I looked onto the world changed. How I was interacting with the world was transformed. It wasn’Äôt just my world view that had been flipped. But God had been flipped. This went beyond an intellectual shift for me.
This flip of a theological world view and how I interpreted God and God’Äôs interaction with the world led me to living a way of life I could have never imagined. I realized that God had opened a door for me; God let me cross a threshold of how I experienced God’Äôs expanding vision of an inclusive community and to live into the prophetic call for justice.
There was no turning back for me.

Our story this morning from the Acts of the Holy Spirit has Peter and his companions crossing a threshold of a theological world view and their experience of God’Äôs expanding nature of community. Peter’Äôs interpretation of God’Äôs intentions for the world and early church change in this story.

Our story has Peter re-telling his vision of being told by God that eating non-kosher food was Okay. Being a good Jew, Peter had never tasted non-Kosher food. The dietary laws established in the book of Leviticus made Israel distinct. The laws reminded the Jewish community what sort of behavior was expected, that Israel had been called to be holy in an unjust world. Keeping Kosher served as a daily exercise in self-discipline, strengthening the Jewish community’Äôs ability to live the Jewish life. Keeping Kosher was a means of connection; binding the Jewish community in table fellowship and an experience with the Holy. Keeping Kosher was a way of life.

But now, in this vision, Peter’Äôs interpretation of a holy way of life is turned around. God told Peter that there were now new ways for being in community; new rules for being a follower of the Way. It’Äôs Okay, said the voice of God, eat what is common to all; nothing that God makes is profane.

This story is a threshold moment in the early church as God expands the inclusive nature of community. God pushes the boundaries of who is welcome into the life of faith. In giving Peter the ’Äúok’Äù to eat non-kosher food, God welcomes and allows the Gentiles, or non-Jews, to fully participate in the life of the community. In expanding the dietary law,
God removes a barrier, or road block, for the Gentiles to be part of the body of Christ.

This is earth shattering. This is revolutionary. Up until this point, it was unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But now, Jews and Gentiles can connect together as one body of faith. One body in baptism. One body in table fellowship. One body, connecting together, to live out God’Äôs expanding world view. God’Äôs spirit calls for a new lens or way of seeing the world. God gave Peter a new way of interpreting the world and Peter’Äôs role and place in it.

In releasing Peter and the early church from dietary laws, God clarifies the intention of the early church: all are welcome, all have received God’Äôs spirit, and there are no barriers to connecting with one another in the name of Jesus Christ. In this story, God appears to be willing to change some established biblical rules about what is acceptable. God seems to be offering Peter a way of experiencing God as the Spirit, the agent that changes how the world and a particular community are experienced. Most importantly, Peter’Äôs theological world-view, or his understanding of God’Äôs intention for the world, is challenged. Peter’Äôs God-talk was pushed. This challenge to Peter’Äôs theological world-view wasn’Äôt just an intellectual endeavor. This challenge led to something’ÄîJews and Gentiles connecting and sharing the same body of faith. Peter’Äôs interpretation of God, the world and who he interacts with were all transformed. God revised the rules.

What was God’Äôs purpose in revising the rules? In Acts, God revised the rules to bring about more justice, more equality, more equal and full participation for those called to follow the Way.

When have you, like Peter, had your theological world-view challenged? Where has that led you? When have you, like Peter, had a significant shift in your understanding of God?
When did your understanding of God shift and change, impacting how you envisioned the world and your place in it? Has your theological world-view been challenged, leading you to a new understanding of the church and your place in it? When have you experienced rules being changed for the purpose of a more just, expansive interpretation of justice and equality? Do you remember a time of your own transformation when God empowered the changing of laws so that the here and now became more loving?

Maybe you witnessed the civil rights movement? Maybe you were part of the women’Äôs movement? Maybe you are part of the GLBT movement? When have you experienced God at work overturning rules and regulations so that justice might be tasted?

When my theological world-view was challenged in Atlanta, my place in the world changed. I invested myself in the well-being of the world, particularly in the lives of the poor and homeless. God’Äôs intention for an inclusive community was revealed to me in this transformed world-view. Not only were the poor and homeless revealed to me as God’Äôs special ones, but my new theological world-view called me back to the Christian community.

The past two Sundays, we’Äôve done something interactive during the sermon. During our sabbatical time, we have two themes that have set the foundation for our own time of reflection and self-discovery: connection and clarity. We’Äôve done something interactive
during the sermon so we can live out these two sabbatical themes. We want to connect
with the text not only in new ways but in a way that shows our lives are bound together
in these biblical stories. We don’Äôt sit outside the drama of these stories. Our lives, today, connect with the reality of our ancestors in ancient times. We’Äôve done something interactive to clarify, or help us realize, that stories of transformation continue on today
in this sacred space. That when we are connected through Jesus Christ, we are called to live in the city and the world in ways that are just and creative.

You were given an index card with your bulletin this morning. To help us connect with this incredible story of God transforming Peter’Äôs theological world-view, I would invite you to take a minute, and write down on your card a time when you have, like Peter,
had your theological world-view challenged. Where did that lead you? When did you witness God at work overturning rules and regulations so that justice might be tasted? After you’Äôve finished writing, hold on to your card. I’Äôll pick them up during the offertory.
Take a minute, write down a time when you have, like Peter, had your theological world-view challenged. Where did that lead you? When did you witness God at work overturning rules and regulations so that justice might be tasted?
Take a minute, write and reflect.

Please join me in our Litany on Peter’Äôs Vision

Once we believed in us verses them. Now we know we are connected and all are one in Christ.
Behold, a new heaven and a new earth!

Once we believed in clean and unclean. Now we know we are connected and all are one in Christ.
Behold, a new heaven and a new earth!

Once we believed everyone had to be the same. Now we know we are connected and all are on in Christ.
Behold, a new heaven and a new earth!

Once we believed in the power of status and money. Now we know we are connected and all are one in Christ.
Behold, a new heaven and a new earth!

Once we believed in divide and conquer. Now we know we are connected and all are on in Christ.
Behold, a new heaven and a new earth!

   ✞

Seasons of the Spirit CongregationalLife Lent, Easter:  90.

© 2007 Ashley Goff