I would like to thank you for this invitation and opportunity to speak before you in this Annual Conference session. I am indeed humbled to stand before you as a colleague in the North German Annual Conference, as the pastor of a local church in Hamburg and as a fellow worker for the Kingdom of God.

 

By inviting me – an immigrant to this great country, the pastor of an English-speaking international community -  you have taken a step toward our Conference theme: “Discover what’s possible” (Entdecke was geht!). In this experience (an immigrant preaching in a different language!), you have immediately taken a step onto the waters of the unknown, and dare I say, the uncomfortable, by challenging us as a body to be open to new things. Many of you are now experiencing what we in the International and Migrant churches in this Annual Conference go through daily – and that is the difficulty present in our language differences.  When we come from different cultures, different lands, different language groups, we are challenged to unite into one body of Christ; how do we who are different join together to be one human family, one family of God… but today we have taken one step to discover what’s possible!

 

Discovering what’s possible requires us to see the world with new eyes; to open our eyes to see what God sees; to dare to understand God’s boundless imagination! As we attempt to discover what’s possible this week we will be taking our inspiration from Peter, a disciple who was constantly faced with changing circumstances; Peter, the man who was called “Satan” by Jesus himself and Peter, the man whom Jesus appointed as “the Rock upon which my church is built”. Throughout his life Peter is faced with challenges and his task is to discover the new possibilities God has placed before him and adjust his plans, his ideas, his values to align himself with God’s vision.

 

I personally can empathize with Peter. He had a tough position as the disciple’s representative, the right hand of Jesus, the main guy… For example, this story (which will be expounded upon later this week…):

 

 After a long day’s work, the crowd was fed and the remaining loaves and fishes collected and Jesus wanted to rest and pray. Tired and weary, we went off to the mountain alone and his disciples embarked on a boat trip. “Go ahead,” he said, “and I will catch up with you.” The disciples departed: off on a new adventure, wanting to change their circumstances and broaden their horizons, but as soon as they left the shore, the encountered problems on the sea. The winds blew; the rains battered the sailors and the waves threatened to overturn their boat! And just as they became overwhelmed with fear, Jesus came to them, walking on the stormy waves. When he approached the boat, he invited Peter to join him and Peter stepped out of the safety of the boat onto the perilous sea. (From Mark 6: 42-52)

 

Often times in my work as a pastor of Hamburg’s International United Methodist Church, I feel like Peter in that moment: with one foot inside the boat and one foot on the shaky waters of the unknown.  We, as leaders of the EmK, as a global Church, as a Mainline Protestant denomination, as a Christian community in Germany, we are constantly encouraged to do something NEW: to risk, to change, to try something to save - what some consider to be - a dying Church. But other messages come too: we must keep “doing church’ as it has always been done, to connect with the traditions of the past. We, like Peter have one foot inside the boat of tradition and one side on the shaky waters of the unknown.

 

You see, whenever we find ourselves safe and secure inside the boat, God has a way of disturbing the calm waters, rocking the boat, changing our circumstances, changing the plan, changing the vision. And this we see in our scripture lesson for today, the story of Peter and Cornelius and the changing vision of God.

 

Here we find Peter, in the midst of his active mission to the Jews after the death of Christ, travelling in the Jewish community and converting faithful Jews into the community of Christ-followers. While Peter was visiting Joppa, he went up to the roof to pray and he had a vision: From Acts 10, Verse 10:  

 

10He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 14But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ 15The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 16This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

 

So Peter has this strange vision of unclean animals and reptiles and the Lord’s insistence that nothing –no animal, no bird, no reptile, no food source - is unclean. But, this is one of the primary traditions of the Jewish community, a pillar of the faith – to keep kosher, to eat only foods which have been approved by the Laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (1)… and while pondering this strange vision, Peter meets Cornelius.

 

19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Look, three men are searching for you. 20Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.’ 25On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshipped him. 26But Peter made him get up, saying, ‘Stand up; I am only a mortal.’ 27And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 28and he said to them, ‘You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.

 

Here is Cornelius, a God-fearing Gentile, a Roman Centurion, described as a “man who fears God,”  a man who has not converted to Judaism. Peter realizes – upon this meeting - that God’s vision is not only about FOOD, but about who will receive the gospel!

 

And suddenly Peter’s seas have shifted under his feet: “Wait a minute….. “ he thinks, “First, God tells me the kosher laws, the rituals and traditions of the way we’ve prepared food for generations means nothing and now THIS????” and Peter has to adapt.

 

So how does he react? How does Peter adjust to this new reality? How does Peter change his vision to align with God’s vision? By seeking a relationship with Cornelius, by accepting an invitation of hospitality, to join Cornelius in his home. This is surprising because Jewish travelers tended to seek hospitality exclusively among their fellow Jews, as demonstrated in the book of Judges 19:12 (2)

 

As author Andrew Arterbury explains, “Hospitality becomes the vehicle through which the evangelization and incorporation of the Gentiles into the life of the Christian community are first realized.  In addition, the custom of hospitality functions as the prism through which Jewish Christians are able to see Gentile converts in a new way—no longer as “profane or unclean,” but rather as covenant partners in the community of Christians. Hence, Luke creates a direct link between the custom of hospitality, which bridges the gap between people of different regions and cultures in antiquity, and the integration of the Gentiles into the life of the Church. (3)

 

Today, as we attempt to discover the possibilities God has set before us, as we stand with one foot steady in tradition and the other on the uncertain waters of the future, we are challenged to see others – not as those “outside the flock”  - but as our brothers and sisters in the family of God. And we can only do that if we connect with each other in relationship.

 

We, the people of the Methodist Church in Northern Germany, are blessed with an abundance of opportunities that God has given us. But if we retain our own vision, if we cannot adapt to God’s future, we will be stuck in our reverence for the past. Like Peter, we need to remake ourselves and our plans, to align ourselves with God’s new vision for the future.

 

It is as if God is lowering down a sheet from heaven and it is filled to overflowing just for us: overflowing with people and circumstances and music and prayers and language and gifts and possibilities, all for us! And God says to us, “Here! Take! This is a gift of the abundance of God.” And we take one look at this abundance from God and say… “But God, this is not what we’re used to… nothing looks familiar, sounds familiar, smells familiar… These are not OUR people, these are not OUR traditions, this is not our plan!”

 

But God sends us Ghanaians, South Africans, Brits and Northern Irish, Americans and Turks, and those from Poland, Romania and Vietnam and Russia. God sends us people from all over the world, people who will be with us permanently or only for a short time. People who speak German and people who don’t. People who know our songs and those who don’t. People who like drums in worship and people who don’t. People who know our traditions, our culture, our WAYS and people who don’t. God has placed this abundance on the sheet before us, and who are we to say, “No, thank you.”

 

Our church is in partnership with a small rural village in central India and it has been my pleasure to travel there to assist where I can. For two years I have led devotions for the staff and patients at the Christian hospital in Padhar, preached in the local Lutheran church and helped to paint murals at the Mission Secondary School. In 2009, I arrived for the first time with my sketch: I was the leader of the painting team, I had my plan and I organized the members of our team to begin painting. So we began to paint and I was in my best director mode: “You do this and you do that!” But I kept getting resistance from my team… they wanted to change the plan, they wanted to paint flowers where I had not designed flowers, they wanted to paint butterflies where I had not intended butterflies. So I adjusted my plan to include their suggestions and we continued. At the end of the first day, the children of the Indian school were excited by our progress and soon, they TOO wanted to be involved in the process! Some of the older girls picked up spare paintbrushes and began to paint their own designs on the wall – designs that were not approved by the supervisor! Although it made me anxious and frustrated, I realized that this experience was an example of God’s vision.

 

When we left India, the school was THEIRS: not mine, but THEIRS, born of the simple sketch of an American pastor, born of the creativity of our German team and born of the passion of the Indian children themselves. God’s vision is a creative collaboration, an encouragement for us to work together to make the dream of the Kingdom, a reality!

 

Our vision – no matter how well-researched, is destined to fail if we do not have input from our neighbors and if we are oblivious to the vision of God.

 

As we discover the new possibilities God has placed before us, may we become aware of the vision of God. And may we rejoice in the opportunity we have to be a part of God’s amazing work in this time, in this place, in these circumstances, in these changing seas. And may we honor God in our work together for His kingdom. Amen.

 

 

 

1. From the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_foods:  “One of the main biblical food laws forbids eating blood on account of "the life [being] in the blood". This ban and reason are listed in the Noahide Laws and twice in Leviticus as well as in Deuteronomy. The Priestly Code also prohibits the eating of certain types of fat from sacrificial land animals (cattle, sheep, and goats), since the fat is the portion of the meat exclusively allocated to YHWH (by burning it on the altar).”

2. 2.Judges 19:12 “But his master said to him, ‘We will not turn aside into a city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel; but we will continue on to Gibeah.’
   

3. “Entertaining Angels: Hospitality in Luke and Acts” by Andrew Arterbury, found at http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/53378.pdf