Acts 10:24-45

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him. Acts 10:34-35

I recently Googled "When do rhododendrons bloom in Maine?" to plan a trip to the Botanical Gardens. Within minutes, my Facebook feed and New York Times banner ads enticed me with gardening supplies. Internet algorithms are now my concierge, guiding me through life transformation. Facebook thinks I would love "Yoga, Grampa," who, at age 70, has washboard abs and great biceps from doing chair yoga 15 minutes a day.  An option trader turned $2000 into $1 million in 15 minutes a day and will teach me how. Or a guru who can teach me Consciousness Manifestation to shape my life perfectly. My wallet, body, and consciousness can each be transformed in about 15 minutes daily for $297 each. So, I estimate for $1000 and one hour a day, I could be a vibrant, enlightened, multi-millionaire. By 2025, I will be Batman. 

While these offers might not be scams, the siren song is that transforming your life is not that hard. And if you aren't transformed, something is wrong with you. Who doesn't have 15 minutes to change your life? It also puts pressure on this quarter-hour to capture the life-transforming nature of Easter. We may see 6000 ads daily!¹. Life-changing promises are made to us so regularly, how can Easter and the resurrection compete? 

Overcoming skepticism about the Easter message has been a problem since Day One, and even Jesus' disciples struggled to comprehend this truth. Listen to the last verse of our reading from Mark's Gospel as an angel speaks to the women at the tomb. 

⁸ Trembling and bewildered, the women fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

If the first witnesses who saw the empty tomb were bewildered and afraid, we have some room to be questioning believers rather than certain saints. Understanding the facts won't get us to understand the Easter message, especially in an age where we can't agree on any facts. We can fake everything now, from Princess Kate's family to a President's voice. So, what can we trust? Would you believe a video of the stone being rolled away? How can we trust 2000-year-old witnesses when we can barely trust our eyes and ears? 

In Acts 10, we read a short sermon from Peter to the household of Cornelius the Roman centurion. This scripture is the only reading listed every Easter in the lectionary cycle, which seems strange since it happens about six months later. I'm sharing a deep dive into Peter's sermon because it is the most compelling case for Easter I can give.

This story is about two people, Cornelius and Peter, who are searching to know God. Scene one begins with Cornelius, a Roman centurion stationed in the Galilean town of Caesarea. He is known to be God-fearing, regularly prays, and is generous to impoverished people. If you read this text as a first-century Christian, you might say, "Wait a minute! Do you mean to tell me there is a God-fearing Roman, even after the crucifixion? A Centurion is no joke, the bedrock of the Imperial army and enforcer of Roman rule. To which god does he pray? How much did he give to poor people? So many questions, so few answers. All we know is he has a vision from God telling him to send for Peter in Joppa. 

In scene two, Peter feels hungry during his noon prayers and falls into a trance. He has a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven, which is filled with all the non-kosher animals he is not supposed to eat, animals listed in Leviticus, like pigs, lobsters, eels, and reptiles. When a voice tells him to kill and eat, he immediately vows he never eats anything unclean or profane. The sheet comes down again, and a voice says, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." After this happens three times, Peter wakes up. Three times is essential because Peter denied Jesus three times, and he is not doing that again. It's like those dreams where you are doing something that makes no sense. Like my dream where my third-grade transcript is missing, I must return for a redo and be nicer to Ms. Mitchell. Peter could be inclined to forget this weird dream, but these servants with a Roman accent show up and ask him to visit this so-called god-fearing centurion. 

In scene three, Peter travels from Joppa, a Jewish town near modern Tel-Aviv, up the coast to Caesarea, recently built by the Romans. The most logical route is to go by sea. Guess who else in the Bible also took a ship from Joppa? The prophet Jonah boarded there for his ill-fated trip to the belly of the whale. Jonah was charged to preach to the Assyrians, the occupying enemy of ancient Israel, and he thought this was a terrible idea. Did Peter wonder, leaving the same port to visit a Centurion occupier, that he was heading to the belly of the beast?

Listen to Peter's first words at Cornelius' house. 

You yourselves know that it is improper for a Jew to associate with or to visit an outsider, but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.²⁹ Now, may I ask why you sent for me?"

Peter puts the issue on the table. We are from two different worlds. I'm a fisherman; you are a centurion. We speak other languages and are from different classes; you watch Newsmaximus, and I watch Rachel Maddowitz; in fact, my religion doesn't allow me to eat your food. I can't make a connection, so tell me what you want. 

After Cornelius explains his vision, Peter speaks with a summary of the Christian message, beginning:

"I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him." 

God shows no partiality. What is partiality? In Greek, the word is "prosōpolēmpsia ." It's really two merged words. Prosopon means "face, or person," and lambano means "to receive." Literally, it means "to receive a face." Think of phrases like "losing face" or "saving face," which are about respect and reputation. We have face-offs or take things at face value. Prosopolempsia means you are giving someone favorable treatment. When you acknowledge their status, you give face.

Everything in Roman society is about your place in the social hierarchy. You must always be calculating everyone's face value to see if you are higher or lower than they are. Every social meeting is a face-off. If you don't measure up, you lose face. 

Peter says God shows no partiality. We are not going to face off because God loves us both. At this moment, Peter is not welcome in Roman society, and Cornelius is not welcome in Jewish society. But now Peter is going to baptize Cornelius as a follower of Jesus. Who is the convert in this story? If you say, Cornelius, you are only half correct. Cornelius is the first Gentile convert to follow Jesus; he is later canonized as a saint and has a feast day in October. Isn't Peter also being converted here? He must transcend where he came from to take this step in following Jesus. As Paul would soon write about the new Christian community, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." And also, "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ."

So, let's circle back to the beginning. Why is this story from Acts about Peter and Cornelius in our annual Easter readings? I believe it reminds us that Easter is not just a historical event. It's more than proof of who Jesus is or that God can raise us from death. The resurrected life is to transform us in such a way that we become healers of the brokenness of humanity. 

Think about what convinces Cornelius. The story of Jesus must sound very difficult to believe to his Roman ears. Peter's sermon in Acts 10 is average and seldom quoted. A centurion is disciplined and knows you don't transform your life in 15 minutes daily. And the cost of true transformation is priceless.

Peter's character and courage must penetrate Cornelius' breastplate to reach his heart. The man of battle respected the courage of a man of faith. Peter does not see him as the oppressor who crucified his teacher but as another person searching for God. This centurion discovers the power of a risen Christ in a fisherman. 

Our Lenten theme was “Preparing to rise.” Now the time is here. “He is Risen” were the first words from Mary Magdalene after seeing Christ. Christ does not simply rise from a tomb into heaven. He rises in a fisherman and a centurion and maybe even the person next to you. Our great hope is he rises in us. Christ is risen so we may do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. Friends, how will you rise? 

Rise well!

(Photo taken at the Easter Sunrise Service at the Maine State Aquarium on McKown Point in Boothbay Harbor, Maine)