On
a very cold winter day several years ago, I was driving on Interstate 75 in
northwest, Ohio when I saw a sign for a McDonalds at the Wapakoneta exit and I
thought, “A nice hot cup of coffee sounds
pretty good right now.”
So I get off at the exit and
turn into the McDonald’s parking lot.
And maybe some of you know which McDonald’s restaurant I’m talking
about, because on a wall inside this particular McDonalds’, a New York Times
newspaper, dated July 21, 1969 is proudly displayed.
And the headline reads, “Men Walk on Moon.” I was standing in the home town of Neil
Armstrong who was the first person to step on the moon and the one who said
what has become one of the most famous quotes of all time, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Before buying my coffee, I
just stood there, reading this article about this world changing event, perhaps
one of the most incredible events of our modern era and just thinking how that
event has shaped our thinking.
It’s not uncommon to hear people say, “If we can send a man to the moon, we can
certainly…(and from there you can fill in the blank.) “End
world hunger. End homelessness. Stop crime and violence. Make broccoli taste good.”
OK.
Maybe some things are beyond our reach.
I was only six years old when Neil
Armstrong made history on that summer day in 1969, but whenever I look at a
full moon now, I can’t help but to be in awe of that remarkable event.
As I left that McDonald’s restaurant on
that cold and chilly day, I came away inspired by how one small step made such
a big difference in our way of thinking.
Two thousand years before Neil Armstrong
made history on that mid summer day, another man is about to take a small step
which will literally change the world.
We know him as the Apostle Peter from our scripture passage this
morning, who earlier that day was given a vision from God to begin breaking
down the barriers that had existed between people of the Jewish faith and people
who were outside the Jewish faith.
And because Peter obeyed the vision that
God had given him to go to a pagan city and to the home of a family outside of
the Jewish faith, Peter’s one small step into this home, led to an entire
family receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But unlike Neil Armstrong, Peter will not
come back to a hero’s welcome where he will find a plaque commemorating this
historic event.
When Peter arrives home, everyone is up
in arms at First Jerusalem Church. News
had already gotten back to them that people outside of the Jewish faith were
now joining the church. They can’t help but
to notice all the new faces in their most recent pictorial directory, which
wouldn’t be a bad thing, except that a lot of these last names are pagan names
like “McDowell” and “McCoy.”
“These
two guys don’t know Moses from Adam. How
did they ever manage to join the church?
I mean, who’s next? Let’s just go
ahead and allow murderers to join the church.
Oh wait, I guess that guy from Tarsus, Paul joined the church two
chapters ago, didn’t he? What is this
world coming to?”
This is what Peter is facing when he arrives
back following his historic mission.
And all Peter could tell them was that he
had been given a vision from God. And
the vision was a large sheet that had been lowered from the sky containing all
kinds of animals, reptiles and birds which were considered ritually
unclean. And this sheet which contained
all of these creatures had landed uncomfortably close to Peter there on the
ground.
And that’s when Peter heard a voice, “Get up Peter, kill and eat.” At first Peter refused because he had always
followed the rules of his faith, but the voice kept saying, “What God has made clean, Peter, you must
not call profane.”
And after Peter heard this voice, the
sheet disappeared and standing in front of him were three men who had been sent
from Caesarea to find Peter and take him to the home of Cornelius and his
non-Jewish family.
After Peter finished telling his story of
how this entire family had become part of their church family through Jesus
Christ, the leaders at First Jerusalem Church were speechless. And then it began to dawn on them that
because of Peter’s small step, God’s salvation through Jesus Christ was being
offered to the entire world.
One of the biggest highlights of my life
was when I had the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land and visit the area
where the city of Caesarea was located during the time of Peter. It’s right
along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and it was a picture perfect
day with blue skies as I stood in that historic area with a friend.
Our tour guide talked about this same
story from the Book of Acts and he said that without Peter’s faithfulness to
the vision that had been given him, the church would have very easily kept
their faith in Jesus Christ to themselves and within their own Jewish
faith. But because of this story, people
with last names like McDowell and McCoy are invited to become part of God’s covenant
family.
And when our guide shared this scripture
with us, he had us look out at the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and he
encouraged us to not keep the Christian faith to ourselves, but to share it
with the entire world, just as Peter did in the city of Caesarea and just as
the Apostle Paul would later do by going all the way to Rome with the Gospel.
Have you ever noticed how bold and
audacious our church’s mission statement is?
“To make disciples of Jesus Christ
for the transformation of the world.”
In other words, our mission as a church will not be completed until that
day when the entire world will reflect the love and goodness of the God of all
creation.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes,
just the city of Lancaster seems monumental to me. And then you think about Fairfield County and
you wonder, if we can’t even take care of our own back yard, how in heaven’s
name will we be able to change the world?
Peter reminds us that God’s transforming love happens when we focus on
taking the small steps.
This morning, I’d like to think about some
small steps that we can take to make a difference in our world.
The first small step is probably the most
obvious small step, but without it, we can’t really even begin to talk about
the others. The first small step is for
each of us to ask ourselves, “Do I have a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ?”
Peter was one of the first disciples to
follow Jesus. And not only was Peter one
of Jesus’ disciples, but he was also an eyewitness of Jesus following his
resurrection. Peter saw Jesus in his
resurrected body and knew that Jesus was the embodiment of God. He knew that through
the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus that he was the fulfillment
of the covenant that God had made centuries earlier with Abraham and Sarah.
Peter had taken that small step of being a
disciple of Jesus. Being a disciple of
Jesus doesn’t mean that we’re perfect or that we are all of the sudden given a
halo to wear around our head. Remember,
it was Peter who often struggled to be faithful to Christ and who had denied
Jesus three times.
Being a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean
that we won’t stumble and have doubts.
It means that we have placed our faith in the one who promises to walk
with us every step in life.
The second small step is to begin to break
down barriers that separate people. We
live in a barrier oriented world where we have Liberals and Conservatives, Methodists
and Baptists, Young and Old, Public School and Home School. We have all of these labels that it’s amazing
that there’s any sense at all that we can say we have something in common.
Brian McLaren is a Christian speaker and
the title of one his books is “A Generous Orthodoxy.” I have never seen a longer subtitle for a
book in my life. Here’s the subtitle of
this book. “Why I am a missional, evangelical, post-protestant,
liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative,
fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green,
incarnational, depressed yet hopeful, emergent, and unfinished Christian.”
How’s that for a subtitle? Even just the title of this book covers most
of the barriers that we so often find in the church.
In order for Peter to take his small step
inside a pagan home, he first needed to set aside his own agenda in order to
take on God’s agenda of extending God’s gift of salvation to the larger world.
What small step might you take this week
to break down a barrier that divides people from one another?
And here’s a third small step God may be
calling you and me to make this week.
Invite someone to a worship service or a church event. Three days from now, my phone alarm will go off
reminding me that it is the 1st day of the month which means that I
need to be thinking of at least two people to invite to church during the month
of May.
I will write down names of people who come
to mind that I might invite to our church. It’s amazing how God opens up
opportunities to extend a simple invitation to come to church some Sunday. Whenever somebody joins the church, it’s
usually because someone has taken the time to personally invite them.
What small step is God calling you to take
this week in inviting someone to church?
As a parent, I can remember how excited
Penny and I were when our kids took their very first step. We called our families long distance to tell
them the good news and we made a big deal about that one small step.
I just want you to know that every time
you or I take one small step in having a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, or breaking down a barrier that separates people, or inviting someone
to church, God is overjoyed and heaven celebrates. Who knows how your one small step will change
your life or the life of another person?
Your small step might not get you on a
plaque in a McDonald’s restaurant. But
that one small step along with my small step, eventually, just might transform
the world.
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