One commandment

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 5, 2024) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.

Peter’s Vision of a Sheet with Animals, Domenico Fetti, c. 1619, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” Acts 10:34

Edited Transcript

May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.

Yesterday I got to hear someone talk about what they called "Two-Way Prayer." I talk to God, but also listen for God to speak to me. Right? Two-way prayer. And the obvious question that came up was, how do you know when it's God? And this person's answer was, God is usually telling me something I really don't want to hear. That tracks, that makes sense, right? We can tell it's God's voice because we don't agree with it, because God's inviting us to do something that makes us uncomfortable, speak or spend time with someone we don't really like, pray for something we don't really dare to hope for, try something we wouldn't ordinarily try. It's the voice of God if it's saying something that we wouldn't say to ourselves.

And our reading from Acts today is part of a whole story about two people—two communities, really—that hear the voice of God, and the voice of God is saying something they didn't expect and don't really want to hear!

So this is the story from the 10th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There's a guy named Cornelius. He's a Roman centurion. So he's a "bad guy." Despite being Roman, he is interested in, even devout about, the God of the people of Israel whom he lives among. He prays to their God and he's known in the Jewish community for being a person who gives to the Jewish poor. So he, among the bad guys, is kind of a well-respected and decent guy.

And one day he's praying and he hears God say to him, I want you to go and meet this guy, Peter. Peter lives with Simon the tanner, in Joppa on the seaside. And if you go to Simon's house, you will meet this guy, Simon Peter, that I want you to meet.

And Cornelius, hearing this message, probably thinks to himself, those Jewish people don't want to see me! Jewish people aren't supposed to spend time with Gentiles.

Nevertheless, he listens. And he sends three servants to make the two day journey to Joppa, just on this message he hears from God. And when they're just outside the city, it's around noon.

Now St. Peter, in the house of Simon the tanner, it's time for his noonday prayer. So he goes up onto the roof and because it's noon, he's very hungry. And he starts having visions about food, but they're not the kind of visions that he wants to have.

In fact, this is the vision that God sends to him. God sends him a sheet with four corners. So think of a nice picnic blanket. Down comes the picnic blanket from heaven onto the roof where Peter is praying. But the picnic blanket is full of all the things that Peter is not supposed to eat.

All the things that are against the commandments that Peter has spent his life devoutly following. Reptiles, birds of the air, and all the four-footed creatures that we are not supposed to eat.

And the Lord says to Peter, Get up, Peter, kill and eat. Have at! And Peter says, You cannot fool me. By no means Lord! For I know that these things are against the law. They're unclean. And the voice from heaven says, What God has made clean you shall not make unclean.

And the story says that this happens three times. So God says, what I've made clean, don't make unclean. Peter says, No. God says, Eat. Peter says, Not going to do it! God says, Eat! Peter says, I can't. How can you me to break this commandment that I've abided by all my life? How can you ask me to do the wrong thing?

And I guess God gives up because the picnic blanket goes back up to heaven. And just then there's a knock on the door. So Simon, the tanner goes, opens the door, there's these three guys. Hey, we've been sent here by Cornelius, the centurion. We're here for a Peter. Is there a Peter in this house? Well, there is a Peter in this house. So Simon the tanner goes, gets Peter, brings him downstairs and here are these three Gentiles, these servants of this Roman soldier, and they say, We want you to come with us to his house.

And Peter's like... And then he thinks about the blanket. And God said it three times. Three times—three is a big number for Peter, right? Okay, so Peter says, alright, I'll come with you.

So they go back to Cornelius's house and it's been four days now. So by the time Peter gets to the house, Cornelius has been preparing and he's invited all his family and all his friends. So Peter gets to the house and says, I'm here. And just so we're clear, I don't want to be here and I'm not supposed to be here, but here I am. Why am I here?

And Cornelius says, God told me to invite you over.

So Peter... I guess his heart must kind of break open. He looks around the room at all these people gathered here, expectantly waiting for him. And he says, I truly understand, now, that God shows no partiality, but in every nation where people love God, God is there.

And then he teaches them about Jesus. He teaches them about Jesus who came down from heaven to heal the sick, to free those possessed by demons, to show us what love looks like. He teaches about how Jesus was crucified, laid down his life for his friends, but on the third day, rose again. And he says, This is why we're all here. This is why we're all here—all of us, the Gentiles and the Jews! I truly understand now that God shows no partiality.

And as he finishes speaking, the Holy Spirit fills the room. The Holy Spirit loves to do this in Acts. And all the people start speaking in their languages about Jesus.

And now we get to the part we read today. Peter says, wait a minute, What is to stop us? Who is withholding the water of baptism from these people? Not me! So they're all baptized together that day. They all become and see and know that they're all together the children of God. And that God does not make a distinction between one people and another, but calls all people to be the children of God.

But to do this, Peter had to leave what he knew was right and go and do something that he was sure was wrong. He had to go to the bad guys, to the wrong side, to the people who broke the commandments of God. And he had to join that community.

And this is how he finds out what Jesus has been trying to tell us week after week in this Easter season, which is: there's one commandment. Jesus says, you are my friends if you keep my commandment. And my commandment is this: that you love one another. Love one another as I have loved you. If you keep that commandment, you are my friends.

Now, our friends who are in our weekly Bible study know that our minds are so wired to worry about whether we're in the right or in the wrong. Are we on the good side or the bad side? That even when we hear Jesus say, you are my friends if you keep my commandments, we immediately turn that around to: You're not my friends if you break my commandments.

But that isn't what he says. He says, if you keep my commandment to love one another, you're my friends. I've made you my friends. I give you the power to love one another. Even and especially when it's hard. I give you the power to love one another because you are my friends. That's the only commandment that Jesus needs us to keep.

It's not about being right or wrong, but about loving one another. And this is really important right now. It's getting more important every week, it seems to me! As we build towards an election that I think most of us are terrified about, it seems that all the forces in the world are trying to divide us onto this side of the aisle or this side of the aisle. And you better be on the right one! And the people on either side are starting to square off. And into that situation, Jesus says, there's one commandment, love one another.

In the Holy Land, people are dying of starvation; people are being blown apart. And here in the United States, people are squaring off against one another. Can't listen to the people crying out for justice, can't listen to the people saying, we need to feel safe. People are squaring off, and it becomes more important to pick a side and stand on it than it is to love one another.

It doesn't matter if we're on the right side, because if we're on the right side and we can't love one another, then we're wrong. If we're on the right side and we have no love, then we're wrong.

Peter learned that it wasn't about being right. It was about opening his heart and going to people and going to places where he never would've gone without the power of God to teach him how to love the people that he didn't agree with, didn't like and didn't want to spend time with.

There is one commandment, which is that we love one another. And it is so hard to do. And it gets harder newscast by newscast, hour by hour.

Yet the voice of Jesus says, you are my friends and my friends keep my commandments: that you love one another.

So this week, whatever you do, whatever you believe, whatever you say, try to keep your heart open. This is the only way forward right now. What you do, what you believe—do it with a heart that is open to the love of God. And you will be following that one commandment. Amen.