For the last two weeks, we have returned to the first chapters of Acts to discover again the character, spirit, and habits of that first church in Jerusalem. We have seen how that church, created by God of all those who had believed on The Name of Jesus and been baptized, devoted themselves to prayer, to worship, to community, and to generosity. That is what it means to be “church.” But this new community also was called to a new task and new purpose – well, actually it was as old as creation itself. Since the time of the fall of humanity, God has been working in love to redeem the whole cosmos for Himself and His creation purposes. That is what we learn from the most famous verse in all of the Bible, “For God so loved the cosmos that He gave His only Son . . . .” (John 3:16). We could mine the depths of that concept for years to come, but it tells me one essential truth: God has not given up on the world. It belongs to Him, and it will belong to Him again. God is drawing all things back to Himself, and therefore you never know where you will find God. Sometimes you may find Him where you least expect Him.

Read Acts 10:34-43.  Hear the Gospel.

Cornelius was an officer in the Roman army, which was then occupying Israel. So he was a Gentile, who the religious leaders of Israel considered unclean. He was the enemy, and not only that, he led them. A Roman army officer plus a Gentile – well, that means he is really unclean. He would be about as popular in Israel as a Christian American general in Iraq these days. But Luke, the author of Acts, does not define Cornelius that way. He introduces Cornelius to us as a devout man who feared God, gave generously to the poor, and prayed constantly. We learn later that he was even respected by the Jews, which says a lot for this man. As many said of Ronald Reagan this week, even by those who disagreed vehemently with him, he was “a good man.”

It is important to remember that Cornelius did not believe in Jesus Christ. Not yet. Like many of the unlikely characters in Luke’s gospel who find themselves being found by God, Cornelius is where most religious people, and even Christians, thought was outside the sphere of God’s mercy and acceptance. But that wasn’t the case at all. Luke makes a clear point of telling us that Cornelius’ prayers have been heard by God. (Acts 10:4, 31). One of the most common questions I am asked as a minister is, “Does God hear the prayers of non-Christians? Does God answer the prayers of Buddhists, Muslims, and Kabbalahists?” Of course God does. God even hears the words of the atheist. Not only does the Bible record that God heard the prayers of a non-Christian, but there is an even bigger problem with the question – If God is God, how could He be God and not hear everything?

Having heard the prayer of Cornelius, God sends him an angel. That means that this outsider to the church has just received a ministry from God. That is the first thing that we must get straight when we think about mission. Missionaries do not bring God to people. God brings God to people. God finds us. People interpret His pursuit for us, but people do not pursue us – God does. The church’s role is not to bring God to people, but to interpret the actions and Presence of God in people’s lives through the story of Jesus Christ. That is our mission, and that is how God wants to redeem the world through us.

So the angel tells Cornelius to find the Apostle Peter, who is on study leave at the beach house of a friend in Joppa. Now that’s my kind of continuing education. Ha. Cornelius does what he is told, and the next thing we know three of his men are standing at Peter’s gate. Some of you here this morning may relate to Cornelius quite well. You have worked hard to achieve in your professional life. You are respected and quite successful. The whole world seems yours, but you still are restless. It was never enough. So you have started to pay attention to your spiritual yearnings. Maybe you have tried prayer, or given generously to the prayer, or started yoga meditation, or read a book by the Dalai Lama. You may even find Jesus a compelling teacher.

But when it comes to religion, you feel like an outsider. You don’t really buy the words we confess and you have a hard time understanding the songs we sing. Your friends are not in the church. And in fact, you are not even sure the church wants you anyway. You have made some big mistakes, and you feel most people here would find you unclean. You’ve never been baptized. Yet you can’t deny that there is a spiritual side to you, and you know that your soul yearns for God. So you came here today like Cornelius’ men at the gate, staring in, calling for someone to help you understand God. If that is you, then I want you to know that you are welcome in this church. All of us here are on a journey towards God, and we invite you to join us. We all have come here because we are searching for something more of God than we have received. The good news is, that no matter who you are, what you believe, where you have been, or what you have done – God will hear and honor your prayers. Ask. Seek. Knock. God will open the door.

Others of us do not feel like outsiders at all. In fact, we’ve been inside The Lord's church a long time. We can better relate to Peter in this story. You know the first verse to every hymn; you can quote Scripture by heart; and you could do “guard, guide and direct us” in your sleep. You even know the meaning of panoply and you’ve raised your Ebenezer. For many of you, your closest friends and even your family are in the church. You are not even sure if you have one significant relationship with a person who isn’t a Christian. This church is your spiritual home that has become your family – and we together speak the same language, share the same values and practice the same rituals. This place feels safe to you because it is predictable and secure. And that, by the way, is a good thing. But the only problem with trusting in that predictability too much is that we may miss the unpredictable actions of God.

One day while Peter was in prayer to God, he received a vision that was very confusing to him. We are told it was noon, so maybe Peter had lunch on his mind. Suddenly, he saw heaven open and a huge sheet come down out of it. The sheet was filled with all the animals that his Jewish religion had taught him to avoid because they were not clean. Cows, pigs, lizards and chickens. It was like Ole McDonald’s farm in a blanket. (Is that where we got pigs in a blanket? Ha). A voice from heaven said, “Peter, kill one of those cows and have a filet.” (My translation). But Peter argued with God, which always is a gutsy move, “By no means, Lord. I have never eaten anything profane or unclean.” The voice responded, “Oh, Peter. What I have made clean, you must not call profane.” And at that moment, Peter heard Cornelius’ men calling him to the gate of the house, asking him to come to their master’s house.

There are some religious people who run from anything unclean because they are scared of it. They are not scared of the evil that is present there, which we should take seriously, but they run away from what is unclean because, at the end of the day, their faith and their lifestyles are built on a shoestring of conviction. While talking a good game of eternal security, their lives and faith are anything but secure. So, they run from people and contexts that are not like them. But Peter does not avoid the unclean world because he is scared of it. He is just doing his best to be pure and pleasing to God. But Peter makes the mistake many of us who want to be pure have made – He believed that God could only work in the places and people where he gave God permission. And God could only bless Jewish people. But the truth of this story is that sometimes God is found working in places and people you would never expect, longing to redeem and love the world He has made.

When Peter looked upon those animals, he saw nothing but impurity and profaneness. When he looked upon Cornelius, his mind would automatically have registered, “Good man, but unclean.” “He might be spiritual, but he’s of the world.” Fortunately, the Bible knows nothing of our sacred-secular distinction. Instead it speaks of things which are holy and those things in which the holiness has been profaned. Since God created the world, everything and everyone in it belongs to Him. It all is holy by design. Sin and evil have distorted and profaned God’s holiness by using creation and our lives for purposes other than honoring God. But that was not their intended purpose – their purpose was to give glory to God.

The difference is huge. To call things, or schools, or culture or people “secular” is actually to commit heresy because it is to say that they do not belong to God. And that just isn’t true. To call things or people “profane” or “unclean” is to give a person his identity according to the evil that has enslaved them and not according to The God who made them. Notice what Peter said to Cornelius’ men, “God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.” (Acts 10:28). Did you hear that? No one. Not even Britney, or Madonna or Howard Stern? Not even Bill Clinton or George W. Bush? Not even OJ Simpson or Saddam Hussein? Not even my spouse who left me? Not even the person whose opinion I do not like? Not even a homosexual? Not even . . . No, no one.

Perhaps the actions, or agendas, or lifestyles of some are profaned by evil. But to call profane what God has made good, and desires to make good again, is to just repeat Satan’s distortion. The world and the people in it do not belong to Satan. We belong to God. To say something less of a person is to label them according to the Distortion and not according to The Truth. It is much easier to look at politics, or entertainment or business and find the demons than it is to find God there. It is always a temptation to see a person through the eyes of evil rather than as the object of God’s salvation.

The good news of the gospel is that we still belong to God through the gracious act of Jesus Christ. God is still saying “yes” to the world He created and to all those who inhabit it. No one is beyond the sphere of God’s ear or the touch of God’s hand. God hears the longings of those who are searching for Him. God is still working in, through and with the world He made and called “good.” For that reason, God can be found almost anywhere – even where you least expect Him. Even in Ole McDonald’s farm. Even in the heart of a Gentile. Even with you and me.

A couple of weeks ago a friend called me to tell me that I had to go see Madonna in concert. He said that I wouldn’t believe it. I had seen Madonna describe her spiritual journey on a talk show last year, and I was quite impressed. But when I went to her concert last week, I could not believe what I saw and heard. I went with the same reservations that all of you would share – I had seen Madonna as a great musician but . . . profane. Holy would not be a word that comes to mind when you mention the name “Madonna.”

The lights in the concert hall went down, and on the screens in front of the stage were images of Madonna in a sleep hearing the words of a vision. The words that she spoke as the concert began were the words of the throne room scene in Revelation 4, “Holy. Holy. Holy, The Lord God The Almighty, who was and is, and is to come.” She quoted almost the entire chapter of Revelation 4 as the concert began. Gone were the lewd costumes and scantily clad dancers. She imposes a fine of five dollars per swear word on her tour staff. She sang two songs about prayer with images of people praying all over the world. During two songs, the great words of Hebrew faith appeared on the screen. Images of the crucified Christ appeared during another song. She sang none of her songs about promiscuity. We never heard “Like A Virgin.” One video was devoted to the spirituality of children. The show ended in darkness with two screens that said, “You can be reinvented.” Interesting. I came expecting uncleanness, and what I found was surprising cleanness. Not perfect cleanness – there was still plenty to redeem – and Madonna makes no claims to be Christian – but there definitely a sense in which I could see the footprint of God in a place and with a person that I had come to see as beyond His reach. If I don’t believe that God can reach Madonna, perhaps it is because I wonder if God can really reach me.

He can, and He has. He is not far from any of us. Or far from the places and people that seem most unclean to you. It is all a matter of how you are looking. If you look with the lenses of distortion, you will see an unclean world just waiting for damnation. If you look with the lenses of grace and truth, you will see a world being cleaned up as it waits for the redemption of God. (Romans 8:22). God is in love with the world, and its time for His church to come out of her fortress and declare that the world has not been abandoned -- that in the midst of the great tragedies, suffering, and loss -- beauty can be found in The Presence and goodness of God who has not given up on the world but intends it for His reinvention. If we hole ourselves away in a protected Christian world, God will interrupt our cocoon and reveal to us again His love for the world.

Do not call unclean what God has made clean. If you do, you will miss the person at your gate ready for God to make them clean. You will not hear their longings or see the unfolding plan of God in their lives. Open your eyes to the vision of a God who loves the world and everything in it, and then you will find The Presence of God in the most unlikely of places.

You see, this text really is not about the conversion of Cornelius. It should not be surprising that God redeems people who seek Him. This text is really about the continuing conversion of the church. God is redeeming His world. The question is whether the church will have a large enough vision to see it.
Amen.

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