So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every situation everyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Peter opened his mouth and spoke God’s truth. Peter who on many occasions was known to act before thinking, Peter who was so often impulsive. Who said he would die with Jesus and then days later denied Jesus three times, who even at the Transfiguration interrupted the holy conversation Jesus was having with Moses, and Elijah. This same Peter spoke after the resurrection of Jesus about God’s love for all people- Jews and Gentiles alike.
Something changed in Peter’s life. How he saw things, what life meant to him, and how God’s mercy is manifested in the world- all of these looked different to Peter.
The month of May is for some a month that is rich with emotion. There is mother’s day, which we celebrate today, which brings awareness of change and relationships we are grateful for.
In the month of May High school and college students typically close out their school year and about a quarter of college students are finishing a degree program. From first steps to first day of school. First lost teeth, to first day with a driver’s license. And now walking across the stage a young man has graduated high school and is now starting a new direction in life – leaving behind the years of life with family.
So much changes when a young man or woman goes off to college. From mom’s kitchen to a college dorm cafeteria. New routines in life abound in this context, when you sleep and when you rise, who you spend your time with, new friends and social settings, novel class subjects and many possibilities for change in identity.
Many college students must chose for themselves to continue attending a church and abiding in Jesus. Going along with what your family does is no longer an option. How can you really know what you believe until you can choose things for yourself?
Family loyalty can be a strong thing. Yet Jesus teaches that following his commands is a choice a person needs to make apart from the tradition of family: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Apart from the tradition of Israel, Peter learned to welcome Gentiles. Earlier in Acts chapter 10 Peter is on a roof top praying and the Lord put him into a trance where he sees the heavens opened and a great sheet being let down by four corners. The sheet holds and abundant array of animals that are not part of the designated clean foods outlined in the law- including birds and reptiles. Accompanying this great sight Peter receives a voice that says: “Rise Peter, Kill and Eat.” Right on cue Peter answers with the obedience of one who follows God’s law: “By no means, Lord: for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” Now Peter receives a more clear statement with the same message: “What God has made clean do not call common.”
Peter grew up knowing the difference between what was clean and what was unclean. He knew well what things you can eat and who you can eat with. What once Peter knew and experienced about life is now changing rapidly before Peter’s eyes. Next Peter has a gentile visitor, Cornelius. Peter catches on that where in the past it would be unlawful for him to receive him in his home- now this is God’s good and perfect will. Peter learned a lesson about God’s love to all people. Jesus has made everything clean. Jesus has made everything new. On the cross as Jesus paid for the sin of the world all of the old distinctions between clean and unclean no longer mattered- for in Christ all is made clean.
Ephesians chapter 2 talks about the change Jesus brought to the world: “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands- remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise , having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Peter experienced this change- where the separation from God was bridged, and hope now abounded.
Peter preached this change to all who would hear, including the gentiles he is addressing in our reading from Acts. He could never go back again to the old way of seeing everyone as either clean or unclean, Jew of Gentile- all he could see instead was the righteousness of Christ adorning his people with gladness and joy.
When you have reached the next step in your life- when the movie posters come off your walls and Ramen noodles are no longer a staple- you move on to the next things the Lord has planned for you.
It is amazing how much you can accomplish in a new role in life. Whether you had that experience of change in going away to college or if there have been other milestones of change that have come to your mind- in either case, the novelty of a new place in life has a way of bringing clarity of purpose in life. Good intentions abound, and motivation is usually in a good place.
Sure you may look at the past and remember how things used to be- and the past does shape the person you have become, but you do not find the same purpose in the past because you have changed. In Christ you are a new creation.
Jesus knew ahead of time the changes that were coming in our lives and in the lives of the twelve disciples. In our gospel lesson Jesus is speaking with the twelve at length for the last time before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus knew it was time to prepare them for this change where their lives would never be the same again.
“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Jesus asked them to remain in His love and to keep his commandments- these are one and the same things. To remain in Jesus’ love is to forsake old family loyalties for the sake of following Jesus, it is to remain as a new creation in Christ, leaving behind our sinful nature, leaving behind all of those old outdated and useless ways. Keeping Jesus’ commandments requires that we accept that he is one with the Father’s commandments.
And Jesus gives on specific example of following his commandments- of walking in the way of His love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
The love of Jesus changes us to the point where the meaning of love is much different than we may have been raised to think living in our culture. Love is no longer a feeling of infatuation that comes and goes, but instead it is an enduring commitment to sacrifice for one another- to look for the good of the other even to the point of laying down your life to protect another.
One of the most enduring instances of sacrificial love described in the scripture is that of marriage. “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” This calling to love so selflessly is not done of our own power, but through the power of Christ.
Marriage changes us to where we leave mother and father and the two become one flesh. And this change St. Paul teaches us, is a change that points to an even more profound mystery – the marriage between Christ and the church- a relationship we are all in whether single, widowed or divorced. We are the church, we are the bride of Christ, and thanks be to God, our lives will never be the same.