Archive for October, 2009
“Word for Today” – Acts 10 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
I just couldn’t stand it any longer. My wife Melody was out of town this past weekend and our apartment was sorely in need of a good cleaning. So I decided to make the most of a lonely Saturday afternoon. I pulled out the big yellow cleaning gloves and the Formula 409, drug the vacuum out of the closet, and scrubbed the apartment.
For as long as I can remember, I have been a neatnik. In college, while many of my buddies lived in what could only be described as disturbing squalor, I was relentless in my drive to keep things clean. We had a community vacuum in our dorm hallway, but it should have just been stored in my room. After all, I was the only one who ever used it. And although I have since relaxed my cleanliness standards quite a bit, to this day, I still have to take a few moments before I leave the house and when I first get home just to “straighten things up.”
If there were ever some biblical neatniks, they would have to be the Jews of the first century. After centuries of being a bit sloppy in their piety, many of the Jews of this day decided to “clean up their acts,” as it were, and get serious about their religion. And so they read and followed God’s commands – carefully. Religious orders, moral codes, punishment for sins – nothing was overlooked – especially when it came to an ancient Levitical distinction between those things which were clean and those things which were unclean.
In Leviticus 11, God gives Moses a checklist of sorts to help him distinguish between animals that are clean and acceptable as food for the Israelites and those that are unclean and therefore prohibited. By the first century, these dietary restrictions had stood for some fourteen centuries and had become a centerpiece of Jewish piety. Any Jew who was even remotely serious about his faith had to follow the dietary restrictions of Levitical law. So you can imagine how surprised a devout and dutiful Jew named Peter must have been when, in our reading for today from Acts 10, he receives a vision from God:
About noon…Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (verses 9-15)
After some 1,400 years, God doesn’t just ask Peter to “loosen up” a little bit when it comes to his neatnik diet, he asks Peter to totally disregard it. A ham sandwich slathered in processed cheese product? Sure! Peter can go for it.
In the final analysis, Acts 10 isn’t so much about clean and unclean food as it is about clean and unclean people. For Jews considered not only certain foods, but also certain peoples “unclean” because they did not follow the ceremonial, religious, and even moral laws of God. Thus, Peter’s vision concerning so-called unclean foods is simply preparation for experiences that Peter will soon have with unclean people. Indeed, almost immediately after Peter’s vision, the apostle hears a knock at his door. It is an envoy asking Peter to come and visit the house of a Roman centurion – a man who would have been unclean according to Jewish religious law.
Upon arriving at the centurion’s house, Peter says, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean” (verse 28). Peter has learned his lesson. His vision from God was not so much about food as it was about people. For God has not just made all foods clean, he also desires to make all people clean through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.
One of the ways that my compulsive cleanliness rears its head is when we host company for a meal. I can’t stand dirty dishes left in the sink. Thus, as soon as we’re finished eating, I usually dash into the kitchen and begin washing dishes while my wife is left entertaining our guests. It’s at these times that Melody has to remind me, “Zach, the dishes can wait. You don’t have to clean them right now. Your obsession with cleanliness is keeping you from our guests.”
Your obsession with cleanliness is keeping you from our guests. What’s true with me in the kitchen is sadly true with so many of our relationships in general. How often do we shy away from those who have messy hang-ups or disturbing dependencies or abhorrent addictions? How often does our desire for clean-cut, easy clarity steer us away from those with unclean lives?
Jesus never avoided a messy person. He always addressed them and ministered to them with deep compassion and love. And so should we. For as there were in Peter’s day, there are also unclean people in our day – people whose lives have been wrecked by unrepentant sin. But as messy as their lives might be, they can be made clean – they can be made clean by Jesus. I hope that today, you’ll get messy enough with someone to share with them the cleanliness that comes through Christ’s cross. For Christ’s cross is a neatnik we all need.
“Word for Today” – Acts 9 – www.concordialutheranchurch.com
I began to notice it during Vacation Bible School. A couple of summers ago, the church where I worked was holding its annual VBS. A couple of days into the event, I began to notice that the contact in my left eye was very uncomfortable and even seemed to be clouding my vision. So, I swapped my old contacts for a new pair. But it didn’t change a thing. My left eye was still red and watering and my vision was still cloudy.
I finally decided that it was time to visit the optometrist. The prognosis was not good. “Your left eye is infected,” he informed me. You’re going to need to get rid of your contacts, wear glasses for a couple of months, and make a visit to the ophthalmologist to get some prescription eye drops. And so began a long road to recovery in my left eye. According to my optometrist, I had been harboring this infection for some time. I had just gotten so used to my blurry eyesight, however, I had barely even noticed.
One of the accusations that Jesus levels against the religious leaders of his day is that they are “blind guides” (Matthew 23:16,24). The religious leaders would have been deeply offended at such a statement, for they prided themselves on their ability to see and discern spiritual truth. As Paul writes concerning the pious Jews of his day: “You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth” (Romans 2:19-20). These Jews, of course, are not nearly so lucid as they perceive themselves to be. Paul continues, “You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law” (Romans 2:21-23)? The religious elite, it seems, had a spiritual eye infection of sorts. But they had gotten so used to their blurry – and even blinded – eyesight, they had barely even noticed.
Our reading for today from Acts 9 recounts one of the most important stories in all Christian history – the conversion of Saul to Christianity. One commentator duly notes about this event:
The most important event in human history apart from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the conversion to Christianity of Saul of Tarsus. If Saul had remained a Jewish rabbi, we would be missing thirteen of twenty-seven books of the New Testament and Christianity’s early major expansion to the Gentiles. (William J. Larkin, IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Acts)
The story is well known. Saul is “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (verse 1). Indeed, he stood guard at the stoning of Christianity’s first martyr, Stephen (cf. Acts 8:1). And now he’s journeying to Damascus to continue his crusade against Christianity. But as he’s on his way, “a light from heaven flashes around him” (verse 3) and the living Lord speaks to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me” (verse 4)? Following his encounter with Christ, Luke makes this important note about Paul’s eyesight: “Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing” (verse 8). It seems as though Jesus had given Saul a physical manifestation of his sad spiritual state. For Saul was one of the blind guides that Jesus had so acerbically condemned during his earthly ministry.
Blessedly, Saul’s blindness was only temporary. Three days later, after he was filled with the Holy Spirit, “something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized” (verse 18). Saul has gone from a blinded spiritual reprobate to a seeing regenerated child of God!
Most everyone has sung the words of the old John Newton hymn: “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” This was most certainly the case – spiritually and physically – in Saul’s life. But it is true in our lives too. For, as God’s children, we can see! Although this sinful world and our depraved natures prevent us from seeing perfectly (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12), we can nevertheless see all we need to see for our salvation – for we can see the cross.
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