If You Love it, Let it Go

I started the sermon this past Sunday acknowledging that I had a lot to say, but I definitely didn’t have time to say it all.  I thought there were a few important things that didn’t make the cut so I'm grateful for the opportunity to share some of them here.  Ultimately I talked about letting old, death-dealing images of God die so that more full, life-affirming images of God can emerge.  This is what Peter had to do in order to respond to an invitation of a Gentile named Cornelius.  It had taken divine intervention for their paths to cross, for we learn in the text that Peter’s religious practice prohibited him from associating with Gentiles like Cornelius.  But Cornelius had a vision instructing him to send for Peter, and Peter had a vision that instructed him to go to Cornelius without hesitation.  Both take heed in spite of their reservations.  When Peter arrives, he finds Cornelius’ family and friends gathered awaiting his words of wisdom.  But Peter wasn’t the only one who had something to impart.  Peter’s experience with this group of Gentiles opens his eyes to God’s presence among those who were non-Jewish.  Ironically, his first words to them are simply a reflection of what they have taught him.  Peter declares, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality…(Acts 10:34)” 

This was more than a revelation.  It was a resurrection of the image of God in Peter’s understanding.  It was a game-changer! For me, there are a few reasons why it’s important to shed the image of an exclusive and inflexible God for a God that shows no partiality.  For one, it assures us that God is with us, even when others have tried to make us believe that our differences somehow place us outside the bounds of God’s love and acceptance.  It allows us to affirm that we are God’s own.  By extension, when we can affirm God’s presence with us as the “other”, it should be easier to affirm God’s presence among those who are marginalized in other ways.  So becoming acquainted with the wide welcome of God is not only life-affirming for us, but it also enables us to affirm the lives of those who are different from us as holy.  

But maybe we’re not the only ones who feel the love.  Recently, I was listening to someone describe the affirmation they feel when people address them with their preferred pronouns. How it makes them feel seen, understood, and free from the pressure of trying to live into other’s misplaced expectations.  I wonder if God feels the same way, when we shed primitive understandings of the divine for a more expansive and complex framework.  

When Peter declared “God shows no partiality” maybe God touched hand-to-heart and said, “You see me!”  Maybe God breathes a sigh of relief when we lose our grip on the image of a God that excludes and condemns.  Maybe it makes God feel more like Godself when we’re willing to accept what our lives together have to teach us about who God is.  Maybe when we let God die, all of us feel more alive.