God’s Favorites
Lev. 11:44-47 & Acts 10:1-16
Scott Stearman, Paris April 30, 2000
You may have heard a different version of this story, but let me tell you the "truth". An old Oklahoma Farmer’s bird dog died. He had loved this animal for years, and couldn’t conceive of burying his best friend without a proper funeral. He goes to the pastor of the First Baptist Church of the small town, and asked for a funeral for Rover. Alas, says the humored pastor, I don’t do dog funerals. Well, says the farmer, I can’t just dig a hole and throw him in, tell me what to do. Hum, I’ll tell you what. There’s a Catholic church down the street, and I imagine that that priest will say last rites over anything. Go and talk to him. "Well", says the farmer, "ok, do you think that a donation of $10,000 to the church will cover his services?" Oh! You didn’t tell me your dog was a baptist dog!
Whether you believe in baptist dogs or catholic cats, undoubtedly you do categorize people. They are Baptists, Methodists, or Presbyterians. They are Jews, Muslims, or Christians. They are Americans, French, or Chinese. They are white, black, or red. They are Oklahoman or Texan. Et cetera. We are defined by these identities, and we accept them because they are a part of realty. We not only define others, but we define ourselves by these categories. To be a human being is great, but all that tells us is that we can eat, sleep, breath, and think – that we are self-conscious beings. To say that you are American is to say something more than that you like McDonalds. You are from a political and (like it or not) a cultural place. To say that you are French is to say more than that you like fromage. You are partly defined by this nationality. To say you are Baptist is to say you believe and hopefully live in a certain way. And, of course, it is to say that God likes you better than anyone else.
We are God’s chosen people. Aren’t we?
In Acts 10:34 we find a rather disturbing thought: "Peter began: I now understand how true it is that God has no favorites."
Today I want to talk about how we – in this church, today – are God’s chosen people, unique, utterly distinct in our status before God. And in one sense, just like everyone else in the world.
In our very small world of 2000, where people are talking about the global village, where our neighbor is Buddhist, and our grocer is Muslim, and our boss is agnostic, do we talk intelligibly about be God’s chosen people? How do we understand for ourselves that God loves everyone, but accepts only a few?
Peter was a Jew. He sought to be a good Jew, or he wouldn’t have followed Jesus. We sometimes forget that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi, who made it clear that his first mission was to his people group. Peter assumed that in following the teaching of this roaming rabbi he was doing nothing other than rebelling against the rigid system of the Pharisees and getting back to the true understanding of the prophets. And in a sense that is what he was doing. Until, after Jesus was gone, he had this very strange dream.
It wasn’t exactly a dream, because Luke says that Peter fell into a trance. He also remarks that he is hungry. I don’t know about you, but when I’m hungry I often fall into a trance and start dreaming about food. But what makes this so different than the sort of day dreaming I might do about a nice juicy rib-eye, is that he sees a pork chop. While a pork chop makes my mouth water, to Peter it was repulsive. Like a horse steak might be to some Americans. Or like a Big Mac is to some Europeans. "I can’t eat that!"
Let me recount the dialogue in detail, because it is instructive. Verse 14: "No, Lord! [how often have you said to God – no! – he felt strongly about this] I have never eaten anything profane or unclean." All his life he had been taught that these animals are off limits. To eat them might be to risk your life, but more importantly, to eat them is to transgress the law of God – to ignore the Torah – to become like a Gentile. A fate worse than death.
Verse 15: "The voice came again, a second time: ‘it is not for you to call profane what God counts clean.’ This happened three times, and it went back to heaven." How was he to know? The law was there in black and white, how did he know God had changed his mind? How do we?
The last question is easy. We know because Peter had this dream, and because Paul had his Damascus road experience. But how was Peter to know? How do we expect people like Peter, who had been raised to eat nothing but "kosher" food, nothing but sanctioned meat, to know there had been a change?
Here the words again! "it is not for you to call profane what God counts clean!" - either the Lord is being harsh and exceptionally exigent OR Peter had some reason to pick up on this himself. I think the latter is true, and the former unfair to God.
Here is my point. As a Jew he should have known by heart God’s covenant with Abraham from Genesis 12:3 "all the nations of the earth will be blessed because of you." As a Jew he would have known well the story of Jonah. God desires that even ugly and evil people like the Ninevites would repent and worship him. In the Hebrew scriptures there is a consistent tension between two truths. The Israelites were God’s chosen people, they were to be holy, different, distinct. Yahweh was their God, everyone who wasn’t a Jew didn’t worship the true God. AND the other truth, that Yahweh was the creator of the world, and all of its peoples. And he wanted all people to worship him.
Someone recently sent me the story about people dying and going to heaven. The Methodist landed at St. Peter’s gate and was instructed to go to room 11, but be quite while passing room 8. The Catholic was instructed to go to room 16 but be silent while passing room 8. Finally someone who was in the back of the line asked why the tip-toeing around room 8? St. Peter said: it is the Baptist room and they think they are the only ones here.
Old joke, I’m afraid. It still contains a hint of truth, I’m more afraid.
Ok, here’s the rub. We live with the same tension, we grapple with the same issues, as our spiritual ancestors. We know that God loves us, and has embraced us, not on the basis of our own merit, but by his grace. We know that Jesus’ two commandments (love God and love your neighbor as yourself) is the summation of the law and prophets. We have a conviction about that Christianity is the truth! But tn a post-modern world where everybody’s truth is valid, this makes us bigots.
You and I struggle with this more than some. We come to France from Africa, Asia, or the Americas, and we eat snails, we drink wine, and eat certain dairy products we formerly would have assumed to be biological waste. In other words we come to understand in our international world that so many of our tastes – even our religious tastes – are contextual and cultural.
God’s instruction in Leviticus I’ve heard summed up as this. It was Phillip Yancey at last year’s Interlaken. The basic teaching of Lev.: No oddballs allowed. Everything that doesn’t conform to this standard of normalcy is unclean, and to be avoided. An oxen is ok, but a crawly thing, a thing with claws, a slimy thing is too weird to be included in a holy diet. Others may eat that stuff, but not God’s people. Re-read Leviticus and notice how this seems to be the central picture. Oddballs not allowed.
The truth of Jesus, then, is that oddballs are allowed. It’s a good thing, since we are the oddballs, who now are included. The doors to the kingdom have been flung open and we who live on the street have been invited inside.
So does that mean there are NO limits? Has God made not only pork chops ok, but also, Hitler? Are we to assume that tribal religions which worship the tree spirits are also made clean, and just one of the many ways to get to the truth?
Let me say something that may sound rather pointed. If you aren’t interested in this question, then you haven’t let the impulse of the Gospel sink into your heart. Today the very second commandment of Jesus is impossible to fulfill without facing this question. How do I love my Muslim neighbor? How do I tell him he’s wrong – in a Christian way?
Back to our text for a moment. Acts 10. After the dream Peter hears a knock at his door. Hey Peter – Cornelius wants to see you. So Peter goes. He acknowledges to this Gentile that he is not supposed to cohort with such types, but he has had this dream and realizes that God has no favorites. Cornelius, who is a god-fearing Gentile, has also had a dream in which he is to call to ask for Peter.
Let me read the rest of what Peter says to this Roman centurian: (vs. 34-36).
"I now understand how true it is that God has no favorites, but that in every nation those who are god fearing and do what is right are acceptable to him. He sent his word to the Israelites and gave the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all." He then tells Cornelius the story of Jesus. His life of teaching, healing, and his death and resurrection.
In the original Peter’s words are a bit richer than in translation. He says, I’ve understood that ALL are acceptable to God, BUT (strong conj.) in every ETHNOS there are "God-fearers" (cognate of phobia) and "good-workers" (cognate of ergonomics). He uses two participles in parallel form, which you can see from my absurd attempt at literal translation, are hard to communicate in English.
"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness." From his faith, he was granted rightness before God, and from that followed a a life of good works on Earth.
It is the same for you and me, it is the same for our various neighbors, and for the world at large. What does the Lord require of you?, the prophet Micha asks. But to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.
Two participial realities must be a part of your life – this is the message of the Bible. One is a disposition of the heart (fear God), the other is a disposition of your decisions (do good). One is to love God, the other is to love your neighbor. One is a personal relationship with your Creator, the other is a compassionate walk with your fellow creatures.
Jesus had his two commandments. According to the gospels he repeated them over and over. It must have gotten through to Peter – albeit after his dream – OH! So that’s it – fear-love God, and love your neighbor. This is what God wants.
St. Augstine said, "love, and do what you want." This is what Peter comes to understand. God wants as Hosea stated – not excessive sacrifice but lovingkindness.
Do you see how this understanding of the good news for humanity is both breathtakingly liberating, and strikingly scary. On one hand we are liberated from rigid rules about what to eat or what to wear, or who to talk to. We are free. Paul himself says in Gal. 5, it was for freedom that Christ free us! Free, Free, Free – like slaves whose chains have been shattered, we are free!
But freedom is frightening. As Dostoyevsky said: there is nothing more alluring, but nothing more frightening. There is no precise formula which if you follow and check in every square you will be in God’s favorite box.
I was reading Iris Murdoch this week. A non-Christian, but very smart philosopher. She was talking about the angst of the existentialist, the fear and frustration of modern man that the philosophers and psychologists love to talk about. She said it is not, as is so often stated that we are simply afraid of freedom and feel so hopeless in the face of so many choices in life. Rather the anxiety, and angst comes from the comprehension that we know we won’t do the right thing. Call it angst, anxiety if you like – but they are just fancy words for guilt. We know we need to love our Creator more, and our neighbor better. We know we ought to make more of our lives. Our only hope is grace.
With this I must close. Peter moves from making this statement, to talking about the event of Jesus, and that our hope in grace. My exhortation: Love God, as he allows, love your neighbor as he gives you strength. As you do so you follow the example of Christ, and are empowered by the Sprit, to do good works while you can. To the Triune God who works in infinite ways, be all the glory and honor.