|
By the time we get to Acts 11, Jerusalem “Headquarters” is getting field reports, and they sound a little strange.
- Philip gets caught up in the Spirit and welcomes Samaritans in the new church.
- Philip still in the Spirit welcomes an Ethiopian eunuch into our new church.
- Ananias welcomes the murderer Saul into his home, our enemy,
- Then we hear, Peter goes to a gentile home and welcomes in Gentiles.
Philip and Ananias ok; but Peter? That can’t be true. Peter is one of us. Well, this may all be fine and good in Samaria, Gaza, Damascus, and Caesarea, but this is Jerusalem.
Samaritans, Eunuchs, and Gentiles, oh my.
Samaritans, Eunuchs, and Gentiles, oh my.
Peter, what is going on?
Peter begins: Let me meet you where you are and take you step by step.
Prayer, led to trance, led to vision, Peter tells the story ending with a voice from heaven “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean/profane.”
Prayer, trance, vision, voice.
So I go. Then the Spirit blesses them fully as we were blessed. Just like us. Right away, I didn’t even get to finish my sermon. I had to get out of the way and not hinder God’s work.
Prayer, trance, vision, voice, spirit…everything I was taught dropped away. Unclean no more.
Habits, beliefs, rules, how it has always been, undone..
Prayer, trance, vision, voice, experience of spirit.
Queer singers Jo Lampert and Ryan Amador perform, Define Me. The song moves from the ways they have been called unclean to asking the world to “define us as we are as God’s children.” Essentially singing, What God has made clean, you much not call profane.
We're starting this party tonight
Where people will be undefined
We're starting this party right here
Where people will shake off fears
With prayers, trances, vision, voice, interruption of the Spirit, God will make a way from what we thought we knew to the kin-dom here and now.
Define Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyNSGff-Nh4
Eternal God, Mother and Father of us all, interrupting spirit, take us by the hand just where we are and lead us step by step ever deeper into your love, trusting that we are defined fully as your children. Rain down Holy Spirit, shower us with your love. Amen.
| 
