o christ

am i good for nothing

A sermon on Peter & Cornelius' visions

This encounter between Peter and Cornelius is so important that it’s recounted three different times in Acts!

And it is important. It’s the story of how the Christian church began. 

And for us this story holds a special importance, it’s the story of how our inclusion in the church began…

The first real question the church wrestled with, wasn’t whether jewish people could be saved. That was a given. Of course jewish people would be saved, they’re God’s chosen! 

No. The real question was, could folks like us, “gentiles by birth, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God;” whether we could be saved. (Eph. 2:11-12)

And this episode between Cornelius and Peter answers that question; “All receive forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ name!” (Acts 10:43) In Jesus, a new age, post partiality, has dawned! Now, God makes no distinctions! All receive forgiveness!

Now sure, looking back, nearly two-thousand years later, it’s an easy, if not convenient, assumption to make. But believe me when I tell you, this was by no means an easily made assumption in the early days of the Christian church.

It’s here, in this encounter between Cornelius and Peter, that the church looked back and learned God had begun fulfilling ancient promises with these two! Now the promise given to Sarah, Abraham and their descendants was being given to the rest of the nations!

The wild thing, though, is no one KNEW that’s what God was doing at the time! Least of all, Peter and Cornelius themselves!

…These days one of our most cherished VIRTUES is knowledge. 

Knowledge is something we’ve applied to nearly every aspect of our lives; with varying degrees of success. 

Right now we seem to be ruining Jeopardy and, dare I say it, baseball with our applied knowledge. But, it’s something we’ve managed to use well to fight viruses and beam cat video onto our phones.

No matter how you slice it, though, we all agree, knowledge is a good thing. A pathway to power. A means to improve life; our own, & ideally others. 

So it’s baffling to the likes of us that God has nothing to do with our knowledge to fulfill this ancient promise to bless the rest of the nations! To learn that what God uses to fulfill scripture is our IGNORANCE!

Peter, Cornelius and everyone else have no clue about what God is up to!

…These days if the church was going to make as big of a change as the one that Cornelius and Peter’s encounter ushered in; we’d be data-driven to the point of obsession. 

The mystifying thing, though, is that’s not what God does! God works in exactly the opposite way! There’s no formal planning, no gathering public opinion. God just unilaterally CHOOSES Cornelius to begin handing over the long-awaited promise to bless to all the nations!

And to do it; God keeps Cornelius in the dark!

Oh sure, God gives Cornelius a vision, but that’s all! 

The vision isn’t exactly long on details. All Cornelius is informed is he’s to summon Peter. He’s not told why, or even to what end! The vision obscures as much as it enlightens!

The vision ensures Cornelius will be as a clueless as everyone else! 

…All he knows is, he is supposed to get to Peter. 

…Now, at this point, you might think God would at least clue Peter in on the plan! BUT, you’d be wrong! Peter is just as clueless as everyone else! 

Yes, he gets a vision, too. But his is even more obscure! Peter’s visions leaves him more puzzled than anything else!

…It’s bewildering. Isn’t it? 

You’d think that for as something as important as finally and fully blessing all the nations, God would let us in on the plan… Only, God doesn’t! God uses our confusion better than our knowledge!

…Which is as surprising, as it is upsetting. Isn’t it?

Because the truth is, knowledge isn’t just a virtue. Is it?  

It’s also a comfort. What we cling to when life get’s confusing. What we use to make our favorite things; plans and sense.

We build our lives so we won’t have to say those three dreaded words; “I don’t know.” But here, at this important moment, God plan is to put everyone there!

No one, Cornelius and Peter included, have ANY idea about what God’s doing!

Which is how God want it…

-> When we DON’T know what to do, God DOES!

Knowledge is a fine gift. Best used for the sake of our neighbor. But things goes awry when we try and use our knowledge to figure out God’s plan. 

As watching Peter try and puzzle out his vision ought to teach us; everyone -insiders and outsiders alike- call profane and unclean what God has made holy!

Our knowledges doesn’t grasp God’s wisdom!

The hard to see truth is, we don’t understand God’s handiwork! Not readily, anyway. Not in the moment. 

Sure, sometimes we can look back and catch a glimpse. But at it’s best all our hindsight teaches us is we don’t know!

We don’t know…

Which, stunningly, is where faith begins! Faith begins when we stop trying to understand God’s plan, and instead place our lives into God’s capable, scarred hands! 

The foolishness to the wisdom of the world is that God’s plan can only be grasped by letting go! Letting go…

For us, not knowing is one of the worst things that can happen. 

But for faith, it’s one of the best!

When we come to see we don’t see what God’s up to, we’re most ready to learn what God wants most to teach us; God works best with our worst! 

Martin Luther said life; real life, suffering and having set-backs, is what makes true theologians out of us. Experience taught him that. Those times we’re driven to our wit’s end, turn out to be the ones we learn best the counter-intuitive lesson of faith; when we give up; God gets going!

To bless all the nations, God kept us out of the loop! We didn’t KNOW what God was doing…

But that’s not anything new, is it? 

That’s how God always keeps God’s promises; without our knowledge -or anything else we might want to contribute!

Those times you can’t understand what’s happening are the times you learn to live like Jesus. Learn to ask God to take away the cup, but get up and walk toward your cross when God doesn’t. When you learn to ask why you’ve been forsaken, but still commend yourself to God.

What’s hidden from your knowledge in those times you can’t make sense of life, is the way God is conforming your life to Christ’s! Making you into a Christian! Giving you the blessing meant for all nations!

…Only, you can’t tell it. 

Not in the moment, anyway. In the moment there’s no figuring out God’s rhyme or reason. 

But, those times you can’t make heads or tails of what’s what, are the times God KNOWS exactly what’s going on!

-> It always amidst confusion that God fulfills promises!

And we have no shortage of confusing moments in this life. Do we? The Good News is, those moments we DON’T know what to do with, are the ones God KNOWS exactly what to do with! Give us something that makes no sense; Jesus’ holiness!

When we’re in the thick of it, we think it’s the worst thing that could happen. But, when we look back, we see it was the best thing for our faith! 

For then, if only for a moment, we learned to let go of our death-grip, and instead entrust our best-laid plans and everything else, where they belonged all along; firmly in Jesus’ wounded hands! 

Next time you can’t make heads or tails of what’s going on, don’t try and puzzle it out! Instead, look to the one who is the head of your salvation! Look to his wounded feet! 

And there you will see, not the future, but the promise that gives your future hope! In Jesus Christ God has shown no partiality!

Those places we can’t make sense of life are places we think profane or unclean; but in Jesus they have been made holy! Tor those are the places we receive the foolishness of God; Jesus Christ and his unfathomable holiness!

You may have a great unifying theory making sense of life, or life may have you totally out of sorts. BUT in Jesus Christ, God makes no distinctions! 

You may have a great plan for your life, or the plan may have gone to pot. BUT in Jesus Christ, God has makes no distinctions!

God comes to you either way, in either place; and there God does makes no sense; God makes YOU holy! Whether you understand it, or not! Whether you know that’s what God’s doing, or not!

God makes no distinctions! 

The long-awaited promise doesn’t depend on your IQ or pedigree! It doesn’t depend on your whether you were the apple of your confirmation teacher’s eye or the kid everyone always looked over! It doesn’t depend on your financial report or criminal report! It doesn’t depend on your investment portfolio or health report. 

It depends on Jesus and his willingness to hand over his holiness to the likes of us. Thankfully he’s not the discerning type!