Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; I John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17
The Rev. Candice B. Frazer
Our reading from Acts today begins in a small town on the coast of the Mediterranean a few miles outside of Tel Aviv. That town is called Joppa. Joppa is a picturesque place with winding, narrow streets, and old buildings. You can hike down one of the streets to what is thought to be the place where Peter was staying when the centurion, Cornelius, sent for him. Where our pilgrimage tour group got to go a couple of years ago when we visited the Holy Land.
Cornelius was a centurion of the Italian Cohort stationed with his family in Caesarea. Caesarea is a town located on the Mediterranean Sea about 35 miles north of Joppa. The day after visiting Joppa, our tour group headed straight there on our pilgrimage tour. Of course, when we were there, it was a place of ruins. At the time of Peter, it was a thriving place called Caesarea, Maritima. It was the capital of Roman Judea, having been established by King Herod I who dedicated the town and its port to Caesar Augustus. The port alone was a major feat of engineering, but Herod did not stop there. He went on to build a palace with an impressive pool jutting out over the sea. He also built a marketplace, roads, aqueducts, a temple to the goddess Roma, a theatre, and a hippodrome. He was quite cultured and even built public toilets. Herod’s building project there became one of his crowning achievements. The town would go on to become the home of the Roman Procurators who ruled over Judea until the 6th century.
It’s most famous relic for Christians is the 1961 discovery of the Pilate Stone—Pontius Pilate had the stone placed as a dedication for a building and he is mentioned by name, “Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judaea, erected a building dedicated to the emperor Tiberius.” Not only does the stone offer concrete, or limestone, proof that Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect, the inscription is written in Latin and speaks to the significant Romanization of the province in the time of Jesus and subsequently Peter.
Caesarea is the place where Cornelius lives, where he commands one hundred troops of the Roman guard, and summons Peter too. It is no small back water village, but a thriving economic, religious, cultural, and political center of Roman power in Israel. Cornelius is described as a devout man who feared God—which means he worshipped him but had not become Jewish (remember there is no Christianity yet—everyone from Jesus to Peter to Saul who will become Paul are all still very Jewish). The Book of Acts describes Cornelius the centurion as giving alms generously and praying constantly—not typical behavior of a Roman soldier. It does not say that he did not have other household gods—pagan gods that he would have been required to worship as a faithful centurion and Roman citizen—so we can assume that he probably did. Nor does Cornelius seem to follow the strict Jewish dietary laws. But he has found God—the God that you and I know—and an angel of God appears to him and tells him to send to Joppa for Simon, now called Peter, who is staying with Simon a tanner in a house by the sea.
The next day, as Cornelius’ slaves are heading to Joppa, Peter has a vision in which food is lowered from the heavens for him to eat. All of the food in the vision is profane or unclean and Peter refuses it. To which, God replies, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happens three times and suddenly there is a knock on the gate. Cornelius’ men have arrived. The men can convince Peter to come with them and meet their master and some of the other believers accompany them as well.
Peter, as a disciple of Jesus, is walking into the lion’s den. He and the other disciples are continuing the work of Jesus and taking a lot of heat from both Jewish and Roman authority for their continued evangelistic efforts. But they go to Caesarea, not because Cornelius has sent for Peter, but because a holy angel directed Cornelius to send for Peter so that Cornelius might hear what Peter has to say.
It is important for us to understand why Peter goes. He is not simply responding to someone who is calling for him to tell him about Jesus Christ. He is responding to God’s call to go and tell someone about Jesus. Cornelius is considered the first Gentile to be converted by the disciples—and, of course, the honor goes to Peter. Peter’s work and efforts have paid off but maybe not in the way Peter thought they would. He will stay with Cornelius—in a house filled with pagan gods and profane food. Peter even tells Cornelius, his family, and close friends that they all know that as a Jew, he is not allowed to associate with or visit Gentiles, yet here he is. And he is there not because he is some rebel trying to push a cause, but because just as God has done something new in the life of Cornelius’ faith, so too has God done for Peter. Cornelius is not the only one converted that day. Peter is too. God has shown Peter that he is doing a new thing—he is declaring that no one is profane or unclean—that all people are invited into the message of God’s love for them.
Peter begins to witness to Jesus’ message of love—the Good News. He tells Cornelius and his household about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and forgiveness and love. And while he is speaking, the Holy Spirit falls upon all who are listening. Peter doesn’t do the converting—he gets to bear witness to this conversion by God—the God who is always doing something new. The God who continues to convert even Peter by inviting him into ever deepening and new ways of understanding God.
The circumcised believers—the Jews who had been persuaded by the message of Jesus Christ—are astounded that the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon these non-Jews, these Gentiles—and not just any Gentiles, Romans. But Peter, who might also be astounded, is not surprised. He has embraced the responsibility of feeding Jesus’ sheep. He is beginning to understand that there truly are sheep who do not belong to this fold and yet, will be brought into Christ—they will listen to his voice—so that there will be one flock, one shepherd.
That is what our lesson from Acts speaks too. In the middle of the most important city of his time, in the home of one of the highest-ranking military officers of the invading army, in the presence of what is his enemy, Peter humbles himself and allows God to remake his heart. He baptizes these Romans in the name of Jesus Christ. He does not circumcise them, nor does he tell them to destroy their household gods or clean out their pantry. He invites them into God’s abiding love—just as they are. He stays with these Roman Gentiles for several days so that his, theirs, and God’s joy may be made complete.
This is what Jesus means when he invites us to “abide in his love.” The new commandment he gives us is to love one another. It is the way in which we participate in God and the only way we might begin to truly know God. Love for one another is more than loving our neighbor, it is loving the person that is radically different from us. Peter’s love for Cornelius can only be mimicked by us when we love the other—one who is different from us in race, socio-economic condition, position, influence, whatever the criteria might be. When we can see the other, not through our differences but in how we are the same, we can discover how to love them. Peter makes that discovery through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And he invites them to abide in him and he will abide in them just as they will abide in God; simply as they are.
Amen