“God Shows No Partiality”

Acts 10:34-43

I’ve spent a lot of time over this past week contemplating the passage of time and my life with our son Sam, who just turned 30 yesterday. I cannot believe he is that old, or that I am that old. I’ve looked at a bunch of photos over the last few days. It has been amazing to think about how many fun and memorable things we have done together- Vacations all over the place at Lake Tahoe, Disneyland, Monterey, Oahu. We’ve really done a lot together, and it is all preserved in photos. There are also a few trips we took together that have no photos, yet I can remember them vividly. 

I remember taking Sam to an incredibly significant major league baseball game. The Oakland A’s (a team that once played in Oakland) hosted a home game against the New York Yankees in the 2001 American League playoff Division Series. This was the second year in a row these two teams played each other in the playoffs, with the Yanks winning three games to 2 in 2000. The A’s won 100 games in 2001, and most A’s fans thought this was our year. Whoever won would go on to the AL Championship series, and Oakland was actually favored to beat the Yanks that year. The series started very well for Oakland, as they won the first two games at home. Then the series moved to New York, and the Yanks beat Oakland twice. The 5^th and final game was going to be back in Oakland, and the A’s had their ace on the mound, pitcher Barry Zito. I knew I had to be at that game, so I took Sam, five at the time, to his first playoff game.

We were seated in the bleachers, out behind right center field. The stadium was packed, mainly with A’s fans. But there were some VERY vocal Yankees fans as well, who bordered on downright obnoxious. There happened to be a Yankee fan a couple of rows behind us who was particularly obnoxious, calling the A’s “a bunch of no-talent whimps,” adding some rather spicy additional language not appropriate for sermon time. Since I had my young son with me, I wasn’t too thrilled by his salty tongue and asked him to please watch his language. Thanks to the beer he was guzzling, he was in no mood to do so and continued his ranting. I tried to ignore him while the game went on. It was a taut ball game, tied 0-0 going into the 8^th inning. In the top of the 8th, the Yankees scored on a home run to left, but that was all.

Going into the bottom of the 8th, the A’s had a great chance to tie the score. One A’s batter hit a single and landed on first. Then the next batter hit a line drive base hit down the right field line. The runner from first tried to score and would’ve made it if he had slid, and all of us in the stands were yelling, “SLIDE!” But he ran through the “slide” sign and was tagged out at the last second by the catcher after an incredible relay throw by the Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter. You can look that play up on YouTube as one of the greatest defensive plays ever. It took the wind out of the sails of the crowd, as well as the A’s. The ninth inning was uneventful, and the A’s were shut down by the Yankee closing pitcher and lost the game 1-0. Their playoff run was over, and all of us A’s fans were devastated.

It was then that the Yankee fan behind us really started going off on how horrible the A’s were as an organization and that all of us fans were a bunch of losers, etc. As we got ready to leave, I turned around with a look of absolute perfect hatred in my eyes, looking directly at him. In that moment, which I am not proud of, I saw him as an enemy, as something other than a human being. I wish I had remembered Proverbs 15:17 in that moment, which says, “Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is, than a fatted ox and hatred with it.” Alas, I did not. He then challenged me to fight. It was then that I remembered my Christian principles: I had my five-year-old son with me, needed to be an example in that moment, turned the other cheek, and walked away, grumbling about Yankee fans.

I share that story with you because it was one of several times in my own life when I have felt true bias and prejudice towards another human being. In that moment, I truly hated that Yankee fan with perfect hatred. I didn’t see him as a human being, as a child of God. I saw him as “other”- as different and an enemy. I think we human beings tend to make enemies of those who we view as “the other”-those who threaten us in some fashion, who root for other teams and “hate” our favorite team, who look different, who come from another country, who say things about us that are hateful, who are from opposite political parties, or who are from another religion. Perhaps in such moments, we are led by fear rather than love. We sense some sort of threat because they aren’t like us.

And so we build up walls, making another sports team and its fans the enemy, looking at other cultures or nations as inferior, believing the political party we aren’t part of is just plain ignorant and evil. 17th-century mathematician and philosopher Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) once wrote, “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”

We humans build those walls in part because we thrive on seeking differences in others and on separating ourselves into homogeneous, like-minded groups. One sad example comes from our own denomination. Presbyterians have at least 20 splinter groups, due to different theological interpretations of scripture. An even more glaring example comes from our current mess in American politics and an incredibly bitter partisan divide in Washington.

Indian Spiritual philosopher and writer Jiddu Krishnamur (1895-1986) wrote, “Though we are all human beings, we have built walls between ourselves and our neighbors through nationalism, through race, caste, and class - which again breeds isolation and loneliness.” 

Today’s passage speaks against our desire to divide, to separate, to build walls of intolerance and hatred. What can we learn from this section of scripture to help us stop building walls and instead focus on building bridges? First, we must set the context for the story. I invite you to follow along as we go through Acts 10 together. We need to explore a few verses before this section to better understand it.

Before this morning’s section, we learn that Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, has demonstrated that he "fears" or respects God and does "righteousness" (v. 35) by his regular prayer and generosity toward the poor (v.31). Centurions were the principal professional officers in the Roman army, the highest office to which an ordinary soldier could aspire. A centurion was, literally, "leader of a hundred." They would discipline, drill, inspect arms, and command in camp and in the field. Cornelius was stationed at Caesarea Maritima,  a commercial, military, and governmental center of approximately 50,000 inhabitants. A military cohort of about 500‑600 soldiers was stationed there.

Peter, a Jewish man, saw Gentiles as different and Romans as oppressors of the Jewish people. And yet through a shared vision in a dream, God brought Cornelius and Peter together under the same roof. Although the Hebrew scriptures have no direct command forbidding Jews to "associate" with Gentiles, when Peter entered Cornelius’ home, he explained that "it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with or approach a foreigner" (v.28). Food prescriptions for Jews made joint dinners with Gentiles difficult (Acts 10:12‑14; Deut 14:7‑19). The Mishnah (a collection of rabbis’ oral teachings) was more limiting. And according to rabbinic law, Gentiles who entered a Jewish home rendered it ritually unclean (M. Tohoroth 7:6).

Despite the walls of difference between Jewish and Gentile people, God called Peter into Cornelius's home. God’s purpose was to begin a mission to those who were different from Peter, those outside the faith, the unclean Gentile people like you and me.

Cornelius gathered relatives, close friends, and servants to meet Peter and other Jewish believers (Acts 10:7, 23-24, 45). After Cornelius explains how he had followed the directions of an angelic visitor (vv. 30‑33), Peter has an “Aha” moment. A rather strange dream he had the afternoon before suddenly makes sense. (vv.9-16) He saw a large sheet descend from heaven, filled with many unclean animals. Good Jew that he was, Peter was offended by the heavenly command to eat these animals (quite the BBQ extravaganza, I would say!). But God convinced Peter in this very moment that such animals were clean, in part by repeating the dream in Peter’s head three times! Through this dream, God gave Peter a higher level of understanding (v.34). The Greek word for “perceive”, “Katalambano,Katalambano” literally means to "take" or "grasp" the prize, a sudden and aggressive "grasping" of the truth that "God is not partial" (v.34). Peter’s life was changed; kosher food was no longer a requirement in his religious life. He understands for the first time that God shows NO PARTIALITY- that is, God does not play favorites, is not biased, prejudiced, or particularly fond of one group over another. Here, Peter grasps that God sees all people, all nations as God’s children. He then says that in “every nation anyone who fears the Lord and who does what is right is acceptable to God.”(v.35)

Then Peter begins preaching one of the earliest recorded sermons in Christendom. What is his message? Peter tells Cornelius and the family and friends gathered that they know the word God sent to Israel, preaching the Good News of peace through Jesus Christ.