The biblical text we heard this morning is the conclusion of a fascinating story and the beginning of an even more fascinating story.  Before this text begins, Peter and Cornelius were two men separated by tribe, by geography, by cultural assumptions.  Cornelius was a powerful Roman centurion and Peter was Jewish fisherman who has found himself thrust into the unlikely role of being the leader of a new sect of Judaism that will one day be called Christianity.

When our story opens Peter, our poor beleaguered leader is trying to catch his breath from the maddening crowds by taking a few days off visiting Simon the Tanner who lives by the sea.  Now while Peter is trying to recharge his batteries, he starts having these disturbing visions. Peter sees a large sheet coming down out of heaven. The sheet is filled with all sorts of animals that were not considered appropriate to eat according to Jewish Kosher law.  A voice from above tells Peter to eat but Peter refuses to violate the law which has been a potent symbol of faithfulness throughout his life.  The vision comes to him three times and each time the stubborn Peter makes the same refusal of the all-you-can-eat goy style buffet.  This guy will not eat a cheeseburger no matter who is serving it.
 
Meanwhile in Ceasarea, our centurion Cornelius is minding his own business when he is visited by an angel who tells him that his prayers and generosity have been noticed by God.  The angel instructs Cornelius to send his servants to summon Simon Peter.  In effect God sets up a collision course between these two men. 

Their unlikely meeting will serve as a major turning point in the history of the church.  The question at stake is who will belong in the church of Jesus Christ and who will be excluded. No matter how many times God has attempted to nudge Peter with visions of a religious community that is not dependent upon the purity codes of the Jewish faith tradition, Peter refuses to believe there is any way to be in right relationship with God without following the rules passed down to him by his ancestors.

 It is only when he is brought face to face with the other, with Cornelius the gentile, that his mind is opened in a way beyond any thing he thought possible before.  Peter utters one of the most intriguing lines of his befuddled life, ‘Now I truly understand that God is no respecter of appearances.’  Peter goes on to share with Cornelius the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and then baptizes him and his entire family into the church.  But my attention is continually drawn back to that wonderful line, ‘Now I truly understand that God is no respecter of appearances.’

 It makes me realize that there are many ways we judge and evaluate others and that these evaluations are probably far different than the way that God views such things.  I remember in the aftermath of September 11th NPR did a story entitled Dark Winter.  It was a report on a government study that occurred before September 11th, of a simulated major catastrophe.  It included a gloomy discussion about who should be protected/inoculated/saved if a large percentage of the country faced imminent death from attack of some sort.  It was fascinating and disturbing to hear of the cold reality of how individuals and their occupations, or should I say identities, were evaluated as to whether it was worth the limited resources to keep them alive. Who is more valuable, doctors or political leaders?  Teachers or police?  The very young or the very old?

I am very glad that it is not my responsibility to engage in such a vulgar and basely utilitarian task but I do know that I evaluate and size people up all of the time.  We all have our own share of assumptions, our own viewing lenses by which we judge those around us; Educational level, occupation, personal appearance, sense of humor, demeanor, sexual orientation, race(black, white, brown), religion(Christian, Arab, Jew), nationality(Chinese, Palestinian, Turk).  We all have some formulae of characteristics or criteria we use to place value on others.
 
Peter certainly did.  He had been taught from a very early age that a person’s faithfulness could be judged by among other things, their commitment to following the kosher laws.  It may not seem like it would be that big a thing to forget about in the forging of this exciting new thing, the church.  But it is always easier to minimalize the importance of other people’s traditions and values than it is when someone comes along and challenges ours.
 
 If I proceeded to remove the trays of bread and juice for our communion this morning and came marching back in with plates of pretzels and little glasses of beer, telling you that we can just as easily use these elements to remember Jesus’ last supper I am sure more than a few eyebrows would raise.  I am sure that the conversation at the door following worship would be interesting to say the least.

 It is hard for us to discern the difference between what are our essential beliefs in who God is and who God has called us to be, and what are the human traditions and assumptions that may or may not be important to God in this time and place.  The kosher dietary laws continue to be an important part of many Jewish believers lives, but we as Christians have chosen to let go of that part of the tradition and express our faithfulness in new ways that we believe are just as valid.  We have certain ways of worshipping and praying and being a faithful community
but we may be making a mistake if we believe that the specific details and rules of our way of being are as essential to God as they are to us.  God is no respecter of appearances.
 
Now there is nothing wrong with having human tradition, in the midst of our holy pursuit of God, except when our traditions and beliefs stop us from recognizing the new movement of God in our midst.  God brought Peter face to face with Cornelius so that he would realize that the church
was being led to a place beyond the traditions of his ancestors.  As Peter is sharing the story of Jesus and his life, death, and resurrection he is not only teaching it to Cornelius, but to himself as well.  When Peter utters the line, ‘Now I truly understand that God is no respecter of appearances,’  the verb understand is in the form of the present progressive.  Peter is understanding now and continuing to understand in the future.  Peter’s understanding of these things is continually unfolding. This meeting between Peter and Cornelius is the beginning of the story of the church’s growth from a small sect to a religion offering access to God that spans the globe.
 
That is the thing about this whole resurrection business that Peter is preaching about.  We do not wrap it up on a single Sunday and put it in our pockets as some static, changeless element of our faith.  The resurrection is too big to be placed in any of our boxes of tradition, or our theological presumptions, or our political perspectives.

As we live in a world broken by division and bloodshed on all sides, it is imperative that we do not confuse our view of the world with God’s view of the world.As we pray and struggle for justice and peace let us reach beyond tradition and appearances and allow ourselves to be brought face to face with the other, to watch for God’s new movement in this world.
 
The resurrection of the Christ may have occurred two thousand years ago, but its implications are still unfolding.  It is the biggest rock dropped into the pond of our reality we can ever conceive and the ripples are spreading out across a history larger than any of our books. And it may just change the way we see the world, and its people and our God.

Amen.