“A Story about Discernment”
Acts 11:1-18
Revelation 21:1-5
I’ll be the first to admit that today’s lesson from the 11th chapter of Acts is, taken by itself, a little odd. The apostle Peter is telling a truncated version of a story to defend his actions—actions he clearly believes were God-ordained and Spirit-led—to a bunch of skeptics.
Did I mention that the skeptics, the people he needed to convince, were church folks? Leaders of the church, in fact.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. Change is difficult for most folks—even those of us who trust, but sometimes forget—that God is always doing a new thing, always expanding the holy circle of love and mercy, continually challenging our hearts and blowing our minds until we, too, are able to see that no one—absolutely no one—is left outside of God’s grace.
And still, almost every time we finally wake up to the truth that yes, “everyone” also means those people, there are some folks, who aren’t so sure. It may be that they need convincing, or it may be that they will never come around to what feels like a new way of thinking and being.
The good news is that, once Peter explained that Spirit had led him to see that God’s good news was not only for Jews and that, at the same time, Spirit had led a group of Gentiles to find Peter, the church folks in Jerusalem also saw the loving hand of God at work. They, too, were able to discern that what had happened was of the Spirit.
There are valuable lessons here for anyone who is trying to make sense and meaning of all that is happening in the world, in our own lives, and in our church.
But to fully appreciate what happened, and to get a better sense of how the Spirit sometimes works, we really need to read the previous chapter, Acts 10, which lays it all out. We don’t have time for that, so here’s a synopsis:
In the earliest days of the church—after the Risen Christ had gone to be with God, after the Jesus followers had been filled with the Holy Spirit, and after some 3,000 people had signed up for the Jesus Movement, came the task of figuring out what that meant: How were Jesus followers to organize themselves? What were the important things for them to do? How were they to love one another? And, who got to be a part of it?
The apostles and other Jesus followers had believed that the Jesus movement was for the people of Israel, God’s chosen people.
But very soon things begin to change—from multiple directions.
The 10th chapter of Acts tells of of a faithful man named Cornelius, who was not a Jew. One day Cornelius had a vision in which he was visited by an angel who directed him to send some folks to find a man named Peter.
About this same time, Peter was having his own vision, which featured an angel telling him three different times to eat his fill from an assortment of animals the Jews considered unclean. When Peter protested, the angel assured him that everything and everyone made by God is clean and holy.
As Peter was trying to make sense of this, he heard a knock at the door and—you guessed it—it was the group sent by Cornelius to fetch Peter to come share the gospel with his Gentile friends and neighbors. Peter went and—would you believe it?—the Holy Spirit was poured out on those people, too!
Now, there’s a lot to think about here, including whether we should send copies of these two chapters to Trump administration officials and supporters who are out to destroy Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and anything else they label as “woke.” Perhaps they would begin to understand that “wokeness” and other labels applied to inclusion and compassion are not modern inventions but, instead, central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. From the very beginning, the church has been in the DEI business. From the very beginning, a central purpose of the church has been to create a new world order by bringing everyone into the fold.
But what I really want to focus on today is how Peter figured that out, especially when it was contrary to everything he’d always believed. What can we learn from him as we seek to figure out—the churchy word for that is is “discern”—what the Spirit is up to in our time and how we and our church can get on board with it.
But before I get into that, spoiler alert: We will also be focusing on the practice of discernment in the congregational meeting that happens after coffee hour today. Please know that I did not choose this scripture reading to get a head start on our meeting; it comes straight from the lectionary.
“Discernment” is one of those big words we don’t hear much outside the church. The world trains us to make decisions quickly and directly by considering what’s best for us, making lists of pros and cons, and maybe consulting a few trusted friends. A basic premise of most business and personal decision-making is that we need to move on already, so we should consider the facts, make a choice (often between two options presented as a false binary), and get cracking.
Discernment could not be more different. Not only is it more about the process of decision-making rather than the end result, but it presumes that Spiritis to be found in the process. When we see the world and approach approach decisions that way, it changes everything—and that’s what was happening for Peter.
The Peter we find in the days after Pentecost is being transformed by the love and mercy of Jesus. The once-impetuous Peter is now more open-minded and open-hearted, more interested in working with Spirit than in reacting to whatever is happening.Now he is more interested in following the ways of Jesus than his own instincts. He is walking through his life actively watching and listening for the Spirit of God.
A second aspect of Peter’s discernment process is that he presumes the Spirit of Love and Mercy is at work—not only in his life but also in the world. So when he has a dream with a radical message that keeps getting repeated, it occurs to him to pay attention. He chooses to look and listen so that he might be able to figure out if what he’s hearing is of the Spirit and, if so, what the Spirit is saying.
A third aspect of Peter’s discernment is that he considers how what he understands to be happening fits with his what he knows and believes. From Jesus, Peter had learned that God’s realm was no longer just for the religious rule-followers, but especially for the marginalized (including women), the sick, the poor, and others the religious leaders had rejected. And from his Jewish heritage, his knowledge of the scriptures, and his experience with Jesus, he was reminded that God is forever doing something new, different, and often scandalous.
Finally, it’s time for Peter to try to figure out if the various “dots” he is sensing are connected to one another and to the Spirit of Life and Love. And so it is that while Peter is trying to make sense of his dream and figure out what to do, there is a knock at the door.
It’s the group sent by Cornelius to bring the gospel, via Peter, to the Gentiles. Of course, Peter goes with them.
Because later, as he tells the Jewish church leaders what happened, Peter shrugs his shoulders and says, “Sure, it felt weird. But who am I to get in God’s way?”
Never mind the irony that Peter had gotten in Jesus’s way plenty of times. Never mind that most of us probably hinder the healing work of God several times a day, usually because we’re just not paying attention. We’re not listening for Spirit’s leading or we’re too busy to reflect or, nearly drowning in the firehose of horrible, horrible things happening every day, we’re more likely to react than prayerfully consider.
But if my faith and the state of the world tell me anything these days, it’s that the world needs faithful, thoughtful, compassionate, generous people who are willing to listen for Spirit’s leading on the best next steps.
This is God’s consistent invitation to us: To be God’s partners in healing and loving the world. The question for us—a question that deserves our attention, our prayers, and our commitment, is what that looks like at any given time.
Because the world needs God’s love, and who are we to hinder God?
