Three Sunday Sermons Part 1: We Are What We Don't Do

This is the original manuscript without changes:

May 6, 2007
Acts 11:1-18
“We Are What We Don’t Do”

In his book What's So Amazing about Grace? (chapter called “No Oddballs Allowed”) author Philip Yancey tells of the time he was asked to present the sermon in his church. He started out with a children's sermon and invited all the children in the church to join him on the platform. He had a bag with him and, after they had all sat down, the first item he pulled out was a package of barbecued pork rinds for them to munch on. Next he proceeded to pull out a fake snake and a large rubber fly, which provoked squeals from his young audience. Yancey and a few of the children then sampled scallops.

"Finally, to the children's great delight," he writes, "I reached cautiously into the bag and extracted a live lobster. Larry the Lobster we called him, and Larry responded by waving his claws in a most menacing fashion."

As the children marched downstairs, Yancey, in a sermon called “What Did God Have Against Lobster?”, took on the task of explaining to the congregation how Levitical laws specifically forbade everything they had just eaten and why no Orthodox Jew would touch any of the contents of his shopping bag.

Have you read through the book of Leviticus? I meet with a group of pastors here every Friday morning for Bible study and we spent half of last year going through the book of Leviticus. You’d be amazed at the stuff you’re not allowed to do. There are 613 Commandments in the Law – 26 of them have to do with what people should NOT eat, 45 of them deal with what NOT to worship, 24 deal with who to NOT have intimate relations with, and so on. Now, the reality is that 248 of those commandments are really positives, such as “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength” or “leave an unreaped corner of your field for the poor” and 365 of them are negatives, like “Thou shalt not kill” or, well, not to eat lobster…

Now, understand the context of what we read today in Acts. It really starts at the beginning of Chapter 10. Peter is in the city of Joppa, and he’s staying at the house of Simon the tanner. Now, Peter’s already skating on thin ice here. If Simon was a tanner, he was dealing with the skins of dead animals. Law number 563 says, “That anyone who touches the carcass of a beast that died of itself shall be unclean.” Probably some of those animals “died of itself,” don’t you think?

So, Peter’s staying with this guy and he’s hungry and while lunch is being prepared for him he goes up on the roof to pray his noon prayers. And while he was praying he had a vision – about food, of course, because he was hungry. And he described the vision in our reading for today: a big sheet comes out of heaven, it’s loaded with all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles – apparently all the stuff that the law says are unclean because a voice tells him to get up and kill and eat and he won’t do it. And the voice said, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” And that happened three times before the sheet disappeared and right then these guys came from Cornelius the Centurion, a Roman – a Gentile – a soldier – wanting Peter to come visit him because HE had had a vision from God. Okay, it’s pretty complicated. The long and the short of it is this: Peter went to this Roman’s house and told him about Jesus and about how God raised him from the dead and how, and I quote, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

And the Holy Spirit came on them like it came on the Apostles at Pentecost and so Peter realized that God was making a way not just for the Jews but for the Gentiles as well, so he baptized them. “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

But when he came back to Jerusalem, well, some people didn’t like what he did. And that’s at the heart of our reading for today.

The believers in Jerusalem corner Peter: “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”

Now, understand, this is no simple bigotry on the part of the men in Jerusalem. Oh, it’s easy to caricature them as just intolerant, prejudiced lowlifes, but think about what’s at stake here. 600 years before this, the people of Israel had been taken into exile for 70 years for being unfaithful to God. They had been sloppy with the Law – with purity laws and with their relationships to Gentiles. And when they came back from Exile, they stuck to the law in every detail. It’s easy for us to criticize the Pharisees for their obsession with the details of the Law – but they rose up out of those 500 plus years of not ever wanting to displease God again. And so the people of Israel became scrupulous in their observance of the Law. And over the centuries, they became defined by the things that they did NOT do.

We do not worship false gods. We do not sacrifice to false gods. We do not touch death. We do not touch unclean things. We do not touch unclean people. We won’t even eat with people who DO such things as we will not do.

We are what we do not do.

The people of Israel became defined more by what they did NOT do than by what the DID do. More by how well they avoided the unclean things than by how they were called and chosen by God.

And the early Christians were all Jewish at this time. They had added their Christ theology ON TOP of their Jewish heritage and practices. Circumcision, ritual purity, dietary laws, rules for relationships were all a part of who they were and how they worshiped.

Peter challenges all of this. Peter’s actions here challenge the status quo of being the people who are what we do not do. How could they ever welcome the Gentiles? What did the Gentiles know of being a good Jew – and follower of Christ?

I’m reminded of a story that Emo Philips, the comedian, once told:

He was going somewhere and met an old friend of his on a bridge and the conversation unfolds like this:

I said 'Are you a Christian or a Jew?'
He said 'Christian.'
I said 'Me too! Protestant or Catholic?'
He said 'Protestant.'
I said 'Me too! What franchise?'
He said 'Baptist.' I said 'Me too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?'
He said 'Northern Baptist.'
I said 'Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Reform Baptist?'
He said 'Northern Conservative Baptist.'
I said 'Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reform Baptist?'
He said 'Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist.'
I said 'Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Eastern Region?'
He said 'Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region.'
I said 'Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912 or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region of 1850?'
He said 'Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.'
I said 'Die heretic!' And I pushed him off the bridge!

Yeah, we can poke fun at that, but when I remember in my Methodist History class in seminary that something like 56 different denominations have spun off of John Wesley’s Methodist movement in just 250 years. And don’t forget that Methodism was a movment out of the Anglican church in England. Divisions in Methodist history include treatment of the poor, division over slavery and racial prejudice, how we emphasize or ignore the Holy Spirt, scriputre, tradition.

Levitical law was very clear about what was clean and what was unclean, who was acceptable and who was not. Anyone who had a skin disease, open sores, anything with blood was unclean so women and the injured and those who dealt with the sick and dying were all considered unclean. Law 561, There are eight species of creeping things that deifle by contact. It seems almost impossible to believe in this day and age that so many in society would be outcast – especially the already marginalzied. But by the time of Jesus the critera had become that anything abnormal in any way was unclean.

We are what we don’t do.

But this isn’t the message of Jesus. One person once said that the Christian life isn’t about the can’d do’s it’s about the get to’s.

Jesus’ ministry on earth was not about imposing rules and drawing lines in the sand that we don’t dare cross – but about opening up the world to the kingdom of God.

The sermon on the mount opens with the beatitudes: Blessed ARE the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed ARE those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed ARE the meek, for they will inhereit the earth.
Blessed ARE those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are…not a can’t do in sight.

Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is and his response, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And a second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two hang all the law and the prophets.

The Christian life is not a life of can’t do – we are not defined by what we are not allowed to do. The Christian life is not a list of rules and regulations to follow in every detail – the Christian life is about relationship with God through Jesus Christ and relationship with each other through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our identity is not tied up in what we do or don’t do, but in who we are, and, more importantly, WHOSE we are. We belong to God. His saving work through the cross – through the blood that Jesus shed for our sin – has changed who we are. We are Christians because God has called us to repent of our sin and we responded.

And think about the things that Jesus taught that mark us as Christians:
You are the salt of the earth – you are the light of the world.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
When you give, when you pray, when you fast…

So, we are the people who give and pray and fast – who love – who are light in the world. The story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 is one of the most powerful statements of what I’m trying to say. The righteous are shocked that they have clothed and fed and visited the Lord, and Jesus says, whatsoever ye have done onto the least of these my brethren, thus ye have done unto me.

We are who we know – and we are whose we are.

Both my girls have said to me, “Daddy, I want to be just like you.” And I know what they mean – and I smile and say something like, “I want you to be even more.” But I’m glad that there’s something in me they want to be like.

There are things about my dad that I don’t want to emulate, but I admit that I am my father’s son. I’m Roger’s boy, through and through – and I’m content, even happy to say that. I had friends in high school and college tell me that their goal in life was to not be like their parents. To Be What I Don’t Do. But I’m happy to say that I am like my dad AND my mom in many ways – I’ve tried to hold on to the good, and toss the bad.

More importantly, I am content and happy to say that I am God’s child

In the lectionary reading from the Gospel of John today, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give you – love one another as I have loved you.” Not thou shalt not – not be what you DON’T do – but be what you do – who you are – whose you are. They’ll know we are Christians by...our love. Let’s let ‘em see it.