Modern Day Cornelius (or: How Formulas Just Don’t Work)

March 26

Read: Acts 10:1-33

Modern Day Cornelius (or: How Formulas Just Don’t Work)

“God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” (v.28)

The Christian life cannot be lived out in any other way but through relationships… personal relationships between one another and personal relationship with God. No “theology” will truly make sense until it is lived out or applied in a relationship with a specific person. This seems like a straightforward idea, but I learned yesterday how much I had forgotten it. The most well thought out “theological positions” are challenged and refined when we meet another human and actually try to apply these biblical truths. Let’s take a look…

In Acts 10, Peter heads to the roof top to pray. (v.9) While doing so he became so hungry that he had to send those with him downstairs to make some food. Notice how Peter’s hunger precedes a vision about food. Spiritual realities and the natural world are being woven together. Peter is about to see a vision concerning food and I wonder if God wanted to link the truth he was about to show Peter with the sensation of being hungry… you know… like Pavlov’s dogs a little bit? In either way, the GOOD and normal rhythms of spiritual life (withdrawing for prayer) had brought Peter to a point where the “normal formula” for communication would not work. There were centuries of traditions and instructions concerning prayer, what to eat, and who to eat it with… and God was about to disrupt it all in a major way.

What happens next is pretty odd, it says, “he fell into a trance…” (v.10) A “trance”? What a strange idea to have happen while praying… right? God wanted something beyond the normal rhythm of prayer to shake Peter up. This word translated as “trance” has this as one of its 3 definitions:

“a throwing of the mind out of its normal state, alienation of mind, whether such as makes a lunatic or that of a man who by some sudden emotion is transported as it were out of himself, so that in this rapt condition, although he is awake, his mind is drawn off from all surrounding objects and wholly fixed on things divine that he sees nothing but the forms and images lying within, and thinks that he perceives with his bodily eyes and ears realities shown him by God.”

Peter needed to feel like he was “out of his mind” for considering what he was about to see. He needed something beyond the formulas and traditions of Judaism to grasp what God was doing next (bringing the message to the “others”, the “outsiders”, the Gentiles). What did Peter see?

“saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.” (v.12-16)

He had to see it three times! This idea was so crazy for him that he had to experience it… hear it and see it… three times in a row for him to really believe it. And he did. Peter would follow the servants sent to retrieve him and eventually meet Cornelius. Peter would eventually declare, “God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” The true gravity and weight of what God was doing would not truly make sense to Peter until he MET Cornelius and his family. When he saw Cornelius’ kids and household… as he ate food with them and laughed. This is when it all came together. This is when the larger plan of God came bursting forth. I wonder if after that moment, every time his stomach rumbled… did peter think of that rooftop? Or maybe his first meal with Gentiles eating food that had once been “unclean” and “forbidden”?

I had my own “Cornelius” moment yesterday. The specifics are not important - but the general outline is what maters. I went into a shop to buy some parts that I needed for a project yesterday and was met by an odd group of workers. A couple friendly, a couple cold, and one that frankly struck me as quite “different”. In my arrogance and pride… I thought I had it all figured out. As the conversation carried on, it turns out that the worker who I THOUGHT was LEAST SIMILAR to me turned out to be the MOST SIMILAR out of the bunch in that we both loved all the little details and nuances of what I was doing. This person - so “different” than me - ended up being the person who was able to offer a tremendous amount of help in getting the parts I needed. I enjoyed the conversation and comradely with this person - and some of the “differences” seemed to fade away. I felt like Peter in a sense - as if I was outside of myself watching myself have this conversation. As I was checking out I realized I had not even asked this person their name… so after paying I went to the back, peeked in, and offered a handshake while asking their name. Then I walked out.

It sounds boring as I type it out, but I can tell you this: I sat in my car conflicted AND convicted. My formula had previously been disdain and disgust for the sort of person I just met… and God convicted me of that. I also realized that this was the first time a person like that had talked with me… and I with them. The “formulas” I had created for these sorts of “gentiles” had been like Peter’s old formulas… “I don’t eat what they eat and surely don’t share a meal with them!” (v.28) As I sat in the car yesterday my first blush response was… “well I am not going to go there again”. Then the Lord convicted me again. “Is that right?” - the Lord asked me. “What if I brought you here this afternoon? What if I am calling the people here to myself? “ The Lord asked me. I drove home bewildered. I am writing you all this morning to say… my old formulas are breaking down.

I think I will go back to that shop the next time I need something.

Formulas don’t work in Christian life the way that they do in math. Peter and Cornelius are a stunning example. Sometimes we need to be shaken up… put into a “trance”… moved outside of our normal rhythms to discover again the beauty of what God is doing. I was reminded again of Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I no longer think of “those people” the same way… one conversation one afternoon changed all of that.

We all have our “those people”. Many people in this world feel the same way about Christ followers. For them, WE would be “those people”. What if the conversations we have are designed to break BOTH of us down? What if God is big enough to set up these meetings - like Peter and Cornelius - that break down our barriers and make way for the gospel to burst in? I am done with the formulas. I am asking the Lord to break the parts of my heart that are still stone… and give me a heart of flesh. Love you guys! - JDP