The Wholly Holy Unholy
Perhaps, that’s why I enjoy watching NASCAR events from time to time. There I can see all kinds of people… including people like me… who are really enjoying their time together… and enjoying the event, too. And those folks in the infield… the ones in their RV’s… they always seem to have the most fun. Busy international airports, like DF/W, are another good place to people-watch. You can see anything… and everything… and all kinds of people… in such a place. Maybe it was just because my mind was on this text this weekend that I looked for those who were missing at the Kentucky Derby and was disappointed when I could not find them.
The Jews in first century Palestine believed that they were a chosen people… a people chosen by God and set apart to be God’s people. They build a religion… and a nation… based upon that belief… a belief that isolated them from others because they believed that they were different… that they were special… that, through a special set of circumstances, they had received the only ticket to heaven. Their belief system excluded those of other races… those who were sick or disabled… and even those who worked in the wrong professions. Jesus spent his entire ministry trying to show his disciples that God’s love extended to all peoples. Yet, in our text today, it is clear that Peter still didn’t get it.
I was in high school when I first experienced the wonder of Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” as a member of the shepherd’s chorus. Mary Chaffee, my first voice teacher and an amazing and courageous woman, pulled together an international cast of musicians, technicians, and performers to present this opera in Bangkok, Thailand, in the early 1960’s, barely a decade after it was first performed at NBC studios in New York City. “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” you see, was the first opera specifically composed for television.
“Amahl and the Night Visitors” is the story of a disabled shepherd boy who, although he has a kind and pleasant heart, has a problem with telling tall tales and, occasionally, lies. For this reason, his mother doesn’t believe him when he tries to convince her one evening that there is an amazing star "as big as a window" shining in the night sky. Later that night, there is a knock at the door and Amahl goes to see who it is. He is amazed when he finds three men, dress in royal robes, who look like kings standing outside. They tell Amahl and his mother that they are on a long journey to give gifts to a wondrous child, and that they would like to rest that evening at Amahl's house. The mother invites them in and goes to fetch all of her neighbors, so that the kings might be fed and entertained properly. In the early hours of the morning, the mother… who is very poor… attempts to steal some gold that was meant for the Christ Child for her son. She is caught in the act by the kings' page. Seeing Amahl's defense of his mother, and realizing the mother's motives for the theft, King Melchior tells her that she may keep the gold she has taken, as the Christ Child will not need earthly power or wealth to build his kingdom. The mother, finally understanding the child's greatness, wishes to send a gift with the Magi when they leave, but she has nothing to send. Amahl, who also has nothing to give the Christ Child except his crutch, offers it, and as he does so, his leg is healed. With his mother’s blessing, Amahl goes off with the three kings to see the child and to worship him.
While we, today, get some sense of the power of this story, it becomes even more powerful when we realize that Amahl, as a fatherless boy who was crippled, would have been rejected and shunned by religious Jews in first century Palestine as an undesirable person. His disability alone would have labeled him as one who had displeased God in some way… someone who deserved to be shunned… someone unclean… unholy. Beyond that, he would have been seen as a person of little worth as he had no land… no sheep… no inheritance… and, worse, he could not work to earn a wage. Yet, in this wonderful story, the Christ Child heals this boy. Through the love of God, manifest in the Holy Child, a poor, half-orphaned crippled boy is restored to fullness of life. It does not matter who he was or what he was… the reality was that he was a child of God… loved and treasured by his Creator.
In our text today, Peter… in what, to him, must have been a confusing vision… was shown all kinds of unclean animals and told to kill them and eat them. When he resisted on religious principles… claiming that the animals were unclean… and, therefore, unholy, he was told that nothing that God had made clean should ever be considered unclean. This bewildering vision was repeated three times. Then, three men… three Gentiles… three uncircumcised persons with whom good Jews were not supposed to socialize… three men sent by God… came to see him. In a flash of insight, Peter began to comprehend the breadth of God’s redeeming action in Jesus Christ. For the first time, he understood that the good news was for all of God’s people… not just the Jews, but also people that Peter believed were excluded because they were not Jews.
I love this story of Peter’s vision, for it is my story… our story. We are not Jews… and all of us would have been excluded in Peter’s original vision of God’s kingdom… for we are Gentiles! Because of this vision sent to Peter while he was in Joppa, there is hope for all of us… and for everyone else in God’s creation. We are all invited to be a part of God’s plan. We are all invited to participate in the blessings of God’s love. We are all invited to come to the table together… sharing the redemption that is ours in Jesus Christ… and sharing in the feast that our Savior has prepared for us. Come, join the party… whether you are in the infield or in the skyboxes. Come, share the joy… whether you are holy or unholy. Come, give yourself to him, for he has given himself for you… for all of us… that we… the unholy… might be wholly holy. Come. Share the feast. Live the joy. Amen.
Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6