Reflection on Peter’s vision and encounter with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11.1-18) 

            In our first lesson from Sunday, we read of Peter’s vision of a massive sheet that is lowered down from heaven (v.5) and he sees creatures on it that are traditionally forbidden for him as a jew to eat.  However he hears a voice which tells him three times, “To get up, Peter; kill and eat.” (V.7)

            Now at first, as a pious jew, Peter protests, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” (v.8) But then he eventually gives in as the voice from heaven tells him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” (v.9)

            Later, Peter is sent by this same Spirit to go to a house of gentiles; again people, that pious jews were supposed to never come into contact with, but after Peter witnesses the same Holy Spirit descend upon the gentiles as it had upon Jesus’ original apostles, Peter concludes, “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” (v.17) 

            In this encounter, Peter’s understanding of what or whom is clean versus unclean is being radically transformed, as well as who he is to serve and care for and to spread the gospel to.  This encounter with God’s Holy Spirit invites us similarly in our own day to consider, “who’s in, and who’s out?”  Who is clean versus who is unclean?  And just as in Peter’s case, we should not be surprised that the Holy Spirit is inviting us also to ever expand and deepen our understanding of who we are to serve and to love.

            So it makes me wonder, “who are some of our gentiles today?”  Who are those whom we or our society have traditionally labelled as unclean or are not part of our “in group?”  In our incredibly polarized and hyper-charged partisan culture today, there are plenty to choose from.  Is it perhaps the other political party?  – The party we didn’t vote for.  Or perhaps could it be the other denomination, or faith group altogether?  Or the other ethnicity?  Or those who love others in ways that we don’t?

            These are not simple questions to answer or easy traditional boundaries or prejudices to cross, but what I am reminded of is what Jesus once told Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, how “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3.8) 

            I believe as Christians, that even today, the Holy Spirit is continuing to challenge us to cross boundaries and deeply ingrained prejudices and to move beyond a simple model of “us versus them” in our relations with one another; of who is clean versus unclean, or who is in, versus who is out. 

            And just as in Peter’s case, we should not be surprised that it will lead us into some pretty unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory at times.  But then again, I believe that Jesus himself encourages us to draw the circle wide.  Jesus ate and drank with outcasts and sinners and those his culture thought were both ritualistically and morally unclean.  And yet on his last night with his disciples, he gave them a pretty clear new commandment, “that you love one another.  [For] Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13.34-35).  Draw the circle wide, for “the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (Matthew 7.2)