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Acts 10:1-48
When my son Jonny was about two years old we had a dinner for international students at my house in Leicester. He was in my arms when I answered the door to a very tall man from Cameroon; this wonderful man was the colour of a black olive. Jonny pointed at him suspiciously and said, “You’re black!” The African grinned all over his face and pointed back at Jonny, “And you are pink!” he said. Jonny was nine when we left Leicester, after five years in a school where over a third of the kids were Asian. When he moved to Houghton and began school there he instinctiveley made friends with the only Asian boy in the class. Jonny was effectively colour blind.
Human beings do not like those who are different and it takes quite a lot of training to change this deep-seated prejudice inside us. The fact is that, if you dig deep enough, we are all racist, it is part of being human. Peter, one of the first leaders of the Christian movement, was no exception, and we are going to look at the process God used to change his heart.
Jews and gentiles
Imagine the biggest gulf of racial tension and prejudice today: Jews and Arabs: Hutu and Tutsi: Black and White. Peter’s world was no different but the sharpest tension was between Jews and gentiles. People in the Greek world thought Jews were superstitious fundamentalists, and the Jews thought that the gentiles were morally polluted and born to be cursed. The only thing that brought Jew and gentile together was the prospect of making loads of money, everything else kept them appart.
Nevertheless, some gentiles admired the Jews. Here is the story of Cornelius the ‘God-fearer’ (1-7) – a man who loved the real God and worshipped him from a distance. God knew all about him. (take a look at verse 4: good works don’t save you – but God certainly notices them - nothing you do for others is ever wasted).
Cornelius, the gentile, sent his men to find Simon, the Jew.
Simon-Peter’s dream
Simon’s Bible was quite explicit about people like Cornelius. God favored Israel over all nations: they had a special relationship with him (some say they still do). Jews were to keep separate from gentiles. Even so, God’s ancient people were to respect the ‘alien’ and care for the economic migrants and assylum seekers in their midst (Leviticus 19:33-34). But Cornelius was not a refugee.
Simon’s family and friends would have filled his head with tales of the viciousness and cruelty of the Roman army – the epitome of gentile godlessness. Cornelius was a seargeant major in this occupying force.
Peter and Cornelius are sparated by a cultural barrier (13-16) and a racial one (28). Remember that racism is complex, not just about genetics, but culture and custom and history. Now God bridges this massive gap.
First, he tells Peter that everything he has been taught about ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ foods is now obsolete (9-16). Then, he meets the gentile servants of Cornelius (you can see Peter thought that this was unusual 27-29). And then he sees this gentile family receive Christ as their Saviour and Lord (37-46) and the Holy spirit confirmed it.
Just as he had fallen on the apostles on Pentecost the Holy Spirit now filled Cornelius’ family – there was no question that the gentiles were Kosher! So now you see Jew and gentile, ancient enemies separated by religion, race, culture and history, worshipping god and living together. Jesus Christ changes everything.
Can I ask you some questions?
What is stopping you believing the story that Peter tells (36-41)?
You believe it? Then what is stopping you receiving Christ like this now?
You have? Then why haven’t you been baptised yet (47)?
You are? Then why are you still a racist?
You’re not? Then can you see the deeper challenge of this story: the challenge to let God work deeply within us to change the most fundamental things in our hearts and make us into the kind of people he wants us to be. Follow Peter on his journey to become more like Christ.
You find change hard? So did Peter. The time would come when pressure from his friends, would pull him back into his old ways of thinking, the New Testament is honest about this:
Galatians 2:11-13
Paul had to confront Peter about the resurgence of racism in his heart – Peter and Barnabas were saying that gentiles were not quite acceptable.
Deep change is difficult, and you need the help of others to achieve it – but the challenge of this story is to be willing to make the journey. With Peter, the problem was racism, with you it may be something else entireley.
What is stopping you? Begin the journey again.
The domino effect
When Christians let God change their heart, they can act like salt and light in the communities around them. More people change; it’s like a row of dominos.
When Jonny and the rest of the Burke family moved to Houghton le Spring there were only two non-white families in the town: the one that ran the Chinese restaurant and the one that ran the Indian. A few years later a dozen or so assylum seeker families were housed there. In the city of Sunderland as a whole these families were not well received and there were a high number of racist incidents. In Houghton there was only one – a family had a brick thrown through their front wondow.
People on the estate were so concerned they searched high and low for the person who had thrown the brick: it turned out to be a six year old boy who was not aware of the family in the house, he was just out for the afternoon chucking bricks through windows!
The city council produced a report on the reception of assylum seekers and mentioned the different attitude in Houghton. Among other things, they mentioned the fact that the four churches in the town had led the way in receiving these strangers and that they had a significant influence on the whole community.
Across this city the people of God no longer have that kind of influence, and I plan to change that.
It starts when I let God change me.