Acts 10:44-48 Sermon, St. Margarets, May 17, 2009

During our family parish at Shrinemont a few weeks ago, Jeanell told us on the way up the mountain, she'd stopped at the store that's become a St. Margaret's tradition.

It's a place which sells incense, scented soaps, Grateful Dead tapestries, and strange garden gnomes riding Harleys.

Jeanell says when the lady behind the counter asked what brought her in, she replied, innocently, "our church calls this the hippie store."

The shoplady, highly offended, responded, "look around, do you see any bongs?"

Many of you might be shocked to know I was the one who came up with the name for the store, bought the tapestry, and that some folks may even have the impression I'm an old hippie.

It's unjust to be sterotyped as a person, or a store, but once in a great while, it can come in handy, which is does now, since this week's reading is from the Book of Acts --

which in fact, with its communal theme, is definitely counter-cultural, way hippie-ish.

Once up on the hill, there was this intense Southerner (ok, a sterotypical Redneck). We were reading Acts in Bible study when all of a sudden he stands up, shouting, "these early Christians were nothing but a bunch of Commies," and storms out never to be seen again.

True story.

He had a point -- viewed in a political light, the entire Bible is radically counter-cultural.

Early on, we see Moses reject the wealth, power and materialism of Pharoah to follow a higher law, God's law, to lead the Israelites on a 40-year nomadic exodus in the desert.

We see Jesus, much later on, not only overturn tables in the Temple, but in so many other ways, pose such a counter-cultural threat to the powers that be, He's ultimately crucified by His worldly enemies who are bound and determined to be rid of Him forever.

The Book of Acts tells the stories of small communities composed of Christians (and it's in this book the term "Christian" is first used) who've given up conventional cultural pursuits to live a counter-cultural communal life.

It's pretty much what authentic hippies had in mind.

In fact, there was a plan for 50,000 hippies to move to Vermont, elect Congressmen and Senators, and establish one gigantic commune...

But we forgot.

Whenever I mention Acts 10, especially, folks say, "is that really in the Bible because I've never read it."

I think what happens is people read the Bible all the way through in the usual way, starting at Genesis, reading the whole Old Testament, crossing that finishline, starting the New Testament, reading one Gospel, only to put it down, exhausted, meaning to come back to it one day, but don't...

By doing that, they miss a lot of counter-cultural stuff.

Acts in one of those post-Gospel books that's a real wild ride.

Except in today's reading, Acts 10:44-48, you can't really tell how wild it all is unless you go back a little ways to where Acts 10 begins.

If you do that, you find out what's going on, is that Peter, our lovable always gets it wrong Peter, finally gets it right -- and when he does that, it changes the world.

How much more counter-cultural can you get than that?

Let's set the scene (and I'll warn you up front, it's gets downright pyschedelic -- Jeanell, it's like taking a trip to the real hippie store).

Our story begins in Caesarea where recent archeological digs show the town was sort of an Israeli club med.

In Casearea, there lives a man called Cornelius.

Cornelius is a Centurian, not an officer, more like an NCO (a 1st Sgt, a Navy Chief, or a Drill Instructor; a tough guy like Lou Gossett in An Officer or a Gentleman, or my favorite, Sgt. Carter in Gomer Pyle).

We know Cornelius is in command of 100 soldiers.

We also know Cornelius is a God-fearer.

A God-fearer is a person who's spent a lot of time at a military duty station in a foreign land. The more time he spends there, the more he becomes, outwardly, like the people who live there (the Brits when they were occupying India used to call it going native).

But only to a point.

In this case, Cornelius the Roman has taken on some characteristics of being Jewish, for example, he respects and fears one monotheistic God. He lives ethically like the Jews in some ways -- he gives a lot to the poor.

But he hasn't gone all the way -- he's not circumcized. He doesn't keep a kosher house.

You wouldn't think that Cornelius, the tough guy, is the type of person prone to be receptive to the supernatural, but, nevertheless, he has a vision.

It's a vision of an angel.

The angel says, "God's noticed how generous you are to the poor. Here's what He wants you to do next. Send your troops to Joppa and order them to find a man called Peter."

At the same time this is going on, in Joppa, meanwhile, our dear lovable Peter goes up on the roof to pray, but so Peter-like, he's too hungry to concentrate.

Here's where it all gets trippy -- if you're the type of person who walks around with theme music in your head, push play for Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride.

All of a sudden, up on the roof, Peter has a vision too (Acts is full of visions starting with Paul's on the road to Damascus, there are seven in all).

In Peter's vision, some type of sail, sheet or carpet, flies out of a hole in the sky and slowly floats to the ground held aloft by its four corners -- and roosting on the carpet are pigs, bats, snakes, frogs, toads, vultures, all matter of what's considered to be unclean at the time.

As Connie knows, all those animals (except the pig) freak me out, so, if this was my trip, id'd be a bad trip, so far...

A voice says, in Jewish-mother voice, "Peter, you're so hungry, so kill an animal already, eat a little."

Peter, ever the good Jewish boy, in Acts 13, replies, "no way, not only are the critters totally unclean, they're not kosher!"

The voice responds, "Listen and listen good. If God says the whole concept of what's clean or unclean, kosher or unkosher, is no longer in play for Christians, then from this day forward, that's the way it is!"

Either Peter has a solid rep for being really slow on the uptake, or this is really, really important, because God, in Acts 15 and 16, instant replays the flying carpet scene, three times.

It's only after the third tivo, that the carpet, with all critters thorougly dizzy by now I'm sure, flies back through the hole in the sky, which seals after itself.

Is this wild or what?

In the meantime, Cornelius' troops arrive downstairs and start to mill around in the street.

Peter's still on the roof trying to connect the dots, lost in a daze.

We all know God has infinite patience -- but even God's patience, at this point, in Acts 10:20, may be exhausted because He sends the Holy Spirit to the roof, to yell in Peter's ear, "Snap out of it! You've got visitors! Downstairs! Go! Now!"

Peter gets the message and goes downstairs where the troops say, "Cornelius the Centurion sent us. He's a God-fearer, even digs Jesus and all, but please understand, he's not a Christian. Even so, he had this vision. An angel told him to send us to get you."

The next morning, Peter, the troops, and some Christian hangers-on (who seem to have bit-parts but are important to the story later on) walk the 30 miles to Ceasarea to meet Cornelius.

When they first meet, Cornelius falls to his knees doing the "I'm not worthy" bit but Peter quickly says, "Rise, I'm just a man, like you, no more, no less."

Peter, ever the impetuous one as our Priest, Kate, describes him, then says (Chevy Chase-style), "I'm Jewish and you're not. Normally that means I wouldn't even give you the time of day. But I just had this vision - there was a carpet, and animals, and I was hungry, but I couldn't eat...but you know what God told me?"

Here's where our beloved Peter finally gets it right and shows he's learned the lesson which changes the world.

"You know what God was trying to teach me? That no matter who you are, or where you come from, if a people come to God, love Him, listen to Him, show Him some respect, and try their best to obey Him, then He'll love, heal and save them, no matter what they eat.

Or don't eat.

What's more, I know it's true, and so do twelve others, cause when we walked with Jesus in this world, He personally showed us, and what's more..."

But there's no reason for Peter to go on testifying because the gentiles are speaking in tongues the same as what happens on the day of the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon the crowd like a mighty wind.

When the hangers-on from Joppa (remember them?)witness this, they say, in unison apparently, "Well, we never -- we still don't think the Holy Spirit is present - how could it be - these are only gentiles, after all."

Peter responds so perfectly, so succintly, so elegantly, for once, in today's reading, Acts 10:44-48, "How could anyone not think it's time to baptize these people as Christians, the usual ritual way with water, cause obviously, you can see with your own eyes, they've already been baptized by the Holy Spirit."

In other words, "give me one good reason why not!"

You see, if Peter hadn't been convinced, like Paul had already been trying to persaude the headquarters office in Jerusalem, all along, that gentiles didn't need to be circucized or keep kosher, first, to become Christians, then Christianty today might consist only of small groups of Jews for Jesus!

When Peter understood what the great lesson of the flying carpet meant, it opened the door to sharing the good news with all the peoples of the world -- and remember, too, it's critical the gentiles in Ceasarea were baptized by the Holy Spirit before they were baptized by water.

Rules, old and new, were broken that day -- this is an ultimate counter-cultural happening in so many ways.

Before I read even read the Bible, or Book of Acts, I'd always been guided by the Book of Groucho, in which it is written, "I'd never want to join any club that would have someone like me as a member."

After I was baptized as an adult, and came to St. Maggies, I found, to my great surprise, I didn't feel like that so much --

whether it was serving harmoniously with folks from many other cultures, like Myra (may she rest in peace) and Sylvia on our joyful altar rail team for so many years;

or like when we had our youth groups going strong, we were famous for taking in strays regardless of origin. A lot of our kids didn't go to ohurch, or any, or may not even have been baptized, but to them, Youth Group, was church, their Acts faith community.

What's more, the Holy Spirit travelled with us wherever we went.

We were up in Baltimore, once, at the Mariner Arena, to attend an Acquire the Fire rally. There were at least 10,000 other kids and leaders there. As usual, we arrived on Friday evening when it opened and stayed through Saturday evening when it cloased.

Around 7 p.m. on Saturday, after we gathered the kids and stood up to leave, we leaders noticed, for the first time, we'd picked up yet another stray.

She was sitting there (I don't know where her own youth group was) softly crying.

We formed a circle around her to see what was the matter.

It turns out she was deaf.

She thought by the end of the rally she'd be healed.

So our ragtag group of kids and leaders (it was one of those trips I had corn-rows; I still had hair!) comforted her the best we could, said some prayers, and laid on hands in our way through hugs.

Why I ask, in this vast arena, thousands of people, hundreds of churches, did she end up with us?

Why did this happen time and time again wherever we went?

I think it's the same reason many out-of-step-with-the-world people, like myself, end up, despite Groucho's law, as members.

In fact, that's pretty much the point of the lesson today.

I still have a picture in my head of this young girl sitting there alone, as we left, waiting for her youth group to take her home.

And you know even if that girl wasn't healed on the spot, or that night at home, or the next week, I know she was healed in some way, in God's time and His way, eventually, and found peace.

If you can't accept that or say it's impossible, I'd respond to you, like Peter did to the hangers-on, "how can God, and we, not respond to someone who believes so purely, and has obviously already been baptized by the Holy Spirit?"

Give me one good reason why not.

One other story out of that Acquire the Fire rally, one closer to home.

One of our youth came from a military family -- his father was even a tough NCO-type like Cornelius. A few years before, his mother had moved to another state.

As a defense mechanism, probably, to guard against additional pain, the child overcompensated with a macho attitude. He tended to resort to pushing and shoving to get his way. I remember seeing him at a lock-in once kicking another kid, my beloved Tony in fact, in the head, while Tony was lying on the ground.

Now, a lot of the time at an Acquire the Fire rally, there's a lot of noise and loud music, flashing lights, screaming videos and such. But, for a few minutes, a couple of times during a weekend, it gets very quiet when they conduct altar calls.

At this rally, they asked the kids to come down onto the arena floor from the bleachers and pray to forgive anyone in their lives who'd even done them any harm.

So, the kids went down, and I with them, and we're on the floor, kneeling, arms around each other, holding tight, and all of a sudden, I feel a slight tap on my shoulder.

It's the hardcore kid.

We opened the circle and he knelt with us.

God must've given him the strength he needed for he let all that anger and rage loose in torrents of tears for thirty minutes.

I reckon he had a lot to forgive.

Months later, it was the end of the school year and his dad had been transferred to the West Coast. I was driving him home from a youth group meeting for the last time.

I intended to just drop him off quickly and go.

As I pull up in the parking lot, he turns to me and says, "I guess you need a hug."

I don't remember all his background - don't know if he was baptized or confirmed in the Episcopal Church, or any.

For all I know, he might as well have been a gentile.

But there it was -- for you see on a cold day in Baltimore, six months before, at that rally, what I do know is that he'd been baptized by the Holy Spirit and it had changed his life.

If you can't believe the same can happen to you, or anyone, I'd have to say, "How can God not respond to you like He did to that child, or any person such as you, or me."

Give me one good reason why not.

I've been puzzled as to why it's so hard to rein this church in during the exchange of the peace. Now I realize it's because this is such a 'I guess you need a hug,' kind of place.

So, here's a challenge for ya'll today - an opportunity to break a rule and create your own counter-culture. When we pass the peace, instead of saying "Peace be with you," say, "I guess you need a hug."

Then, when you leave here to go out in the world, your challenge next week, is to boldy share your faith, just like Peter did with Cornelius, and invite someone, gentile or not, to become a part of this Acts community.

If you don't think you can, give yourself one good reason why not.

Amen