Finding and Accepting Provision for Ministry

   Easter 5 2013

Acts 11:1-18; Ps 148; Rev 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Father Adam Trambley

April 28, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

If something matters, God will provide.  We may not expect it.  We may not know about it.  We may not even want it.  But if it matters to God, we will get what we need.

In today’s reading from Acts, Peter has been out and about, going from one place to the next, heeding whatever messages people have sent him to come see them.  Finally, after raising someone from the dead and witnessing some Gentiles get the Holy Spirit, Peter is returning to Jerusalem to check in with other leaders of the church.  Suffice it to say, they are not impressed.  “So you went over to uncircumcised folk’s for dinner,” they ask.  Such interfaith house parties were no-no’s in those days.  “Well,” Peter says, and then he goes on to tell them all the ways that God led him to being at a Gentile’s house and eventually even baptizing the family Christian. 

In this important event in the early Church, we can see how God stepped in and provided to make it happen. 

Peter is praying when God provides him a vision of this sheet filled with unclean animals and tells him to kill and eat.  When Peter resists, God provides him greater clarity and direction, so that God’s preference is unmistakable.  Meanwhile, God provides an angel to Cornelius telling him to send for Peter, and God provides directions, as well, since even a Roman Centurion in the first century couldn’t get a good GPS.  When Peter goes with the messengers to Caesarea with six other Christians, he begins to preach to them.  Then, God provides the Holy Spirit, in the midst of Peter’s sermon. The Holy Spirit comes upon the Gentiles, just like when it descended upon the disciples at Pentecost.   Finally, God provided Peter with a memory of Jesus teaching about being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Now this provision of God to Peter that leads the church into an entire new direction of evangelizing the Gentiles may not seem like a big deal.  Sure, God gave dreams and messages, but that doesn’t seem so hard.  Even giving the Holy Spirit may seem to us a pretty straightforward kind of gift for God.  We may not be able to do it, but we can easily take for granted God’s provision of the Holy Spirit with all the love, joy, peace and all the gifts and fruit of the Spirit that accompany it. 

When we stop and think, however, it seems to me that those are some pretty heavy duty provisions.  Clear guidance from God, tailor made to overcome all our objections, and a transforming experience of God’s Spirit falling upon us are no minor gift.  Certainly the same God who can provide Peter what he received can provide all the other resources we get so anxious about whether or not we have before we are willing to do what God wants us to do.

·         Do we think God who gave Peter clear directions in a dream is unable to lead us to people who need our ministry?

·         Do we think that God who sent messengers from another city for Peter is unable to give us whatever financial resources we need to make a difference for his people?

·         Do we think that God who sent the Holy Spirit is unable to change people’s lives in our presence if we go where we are called?

·         Do we think that God who brought Peter back to the church in Jerusalem is going to leave us without the wide variety of gifts we need to keep his work going?

Of course God can provide whatever we need, and we can trust that he will if we are doing what he wants.   Peter’s actions show us how find and accept God’s provision.  Peter prays. Peter is open to what comes his way.  Peter does what comes naturally until God shows us.  Peter shares his experiences with his brothers and sisters.

First, Peter prays.  If Peter isn’t on the roof praying during the middle of the afternoon, none of the rest of the story happens.  If we aren’t spending time with God, not only won’t we receive the direct guidance and direction that can come, but when God’s provision comes, we probably won’t recognize it.  No prayer, no dream.  No dream, and Peter probably sends away the Gentiles from Cornelius.  Notice, too, how Peter prays.  He brings all of himself to God.  He’s not sure what he is hearing, and he tells God that it doesn’t make sense.  He isn’t disobedient, even though he sounds a bit that way, but he needs God to overcome all his objections. So he voices his objections.  Telling God our fears and hesitations is a much better idea than to say, “Yes, Lord,” then going out and not doing what we are told because we can’t really allow ourselves to go where God is leading.  Instead, like Peter we make the time to pray and bring all of ourselves to God so we can hear him.

 

Second, Peter is open to what comes.  When the people come from Cornelius, he goes with them.  Think about this a minute – Peter has just had this triple vision saying “kill and eat.”  He could have kept all the messengers standing on front porch while he went out to find a bird of prey and a lizard and a pig to make his first ham and hawk and iguana non-kosher sandwich. But he didn’t take himself that seriously.  Instead, he assumed that these people asking for him were coming from God in some way, and he dropped everything and went.  Often the most powerful ministry we do continues to be when we stop living out our own plans and pay attention to what God has put right under our nose.  We can try too hard and wrap ourselves in knots when God has something pretty straightforward in store.  The consultants for our Seeing Through New Eyes process had a motto: Be who you are, see what you have, do what matters. Look at what God has put around you, whether messengers from Caesarea or other people or opportunities, and do something helpful.  If we are praying, we can trust that what comes to us is part of God’s answer, so we can go with it, however unusual the situation may seem.      

Third, Peter does what is natural.  When Peter gets to Cornelius’s house, he starts preaching.  Why?  Why not?  He is a fisherman turned preacher and Cornelius doesn’t live on a boat.  So Peter preaches until God shows up, and God does show up.  Sometimes in our lives, things are also that straightforward.  We don’t have to help people by doing what is difficult for us.  If we just do what we are a natural at, we open the door for God to be at work.  Some people are great at feeding people, and when there is a crisis they keep everyone fed until God brings the next thing.  Some people can tell stories, others play music and sing, still others may say prayers, and others organize everything.  These effective activities we naturally do are a way of describing our spiritual gifts, and they are ways that God works through us build up the Kingdom of God.  When we use those God given propensities, we can expect to find the Holy Spirit and other elements of God’s gracious provision show up.

Finally, Peter shares his experiences with his brothers and sisters.  This element may not seem so important, but actually this step is critical.  God is doing something amazing, and Peter has been privileged to be a part of it.  But only after he goes to Jerusalem and shares it can the next steps be taken. Only by honestly talking to people who see things differently can he deal with the friction and the conclusions jumped to prematurely.  We can imagine what those Jerusalem folks were saying about him, or at least thinking about him, until they heard the whole story.  But more than that, Peter needs the rest of the church to be with him, or else this great ministry to the Gentiles isn’t going to go forward.  Remember, Peter is not the primary person who carries it out, Paul is.  And Paul takes other people with him.  Peter also needs to hear the wisdom of the church.  Just because he’s convinced he had a divine dream doesn’t mean he’s right.  He may just have been really hungry and saw all sorts of animals ready to eat. 

We need to share our experiences with one another, as well, especially as we stretch ourselves following God.  Whenever God is up to something with us, we are always tempted to keep to ourselves.  But we need the honest discernment from other people.  We need to be on the same page with others lest we get mired down in wrong assumptions or misunderstandings. And we need others to help whatever we are being called to do thrive.  Other people may also help us recognize the provision God is placing around us, or they may be the provision themselves.  

Like Peter, each and every one of us has an important purpose God has made us for.  Like Peter, God is preparing everything we need to make a difference in the lives of people around us who need us.  All we need to do is prepare ourselves to recognize and accept God’s provision.  Part of how we do that is by praying, by being open to what comes to us, by doing what comes naturally to us, and by talking with our brothers and sisters.  We may not become the first Pope or open salvation to the Gentiles, but if we live into these four steps, we will be used by God to touch lives.