A flight attendant was serving dinner to passengers on a trip from New York to Chicago. She placed a plate of lasagna on a passenger’s tray. He sampled it and frowned.  “Doesn’t taste quite like Mom’s?” she jokingly asked.  “Mom’s?” he retorted. “This doesn’t even taste like Dad’s!”  I think I know what he meant but in my house I would take exception his remark.  Whether it is our evaluation of airline lasagna or something else we frequently observe the world around us and then make judgments based on what we see, hear, taste, smell and touch.  Is this to our liking or does it make us scrunch up our nose?  We make judgments based on all kinds of things.  I suppose this is all well and good as long as we keep to judging airline cuisine but too often we don’t stop there.  Our judgments carry over to people.  Do we like this person or not?  Will we let them into our lives or will we keep them out?  We make these judgments based on a variety of things; the color of their skin, where they are from, degree of wealth, level of education, the clothes they wear, and their behaviors.  If you don’t believe me all I have to say is Britney Spears and already I can hear the groans and see eyes rolling.  With her never ending exploits which always seem to draw media attention she has given the public a long list of things by which to judge her.  As the court will soon be making a judgment on her I never thought Kevin Federline would look like the better parent. 

           In the passage of scripture we read from Acts, Peter announces a bold new claim concerning judgment specifically the judgment of God.  God wants the gift of salvation to be made available to all people!  Peter goes on to explain that this new way of salvation for all is at the very heart of Jesus’ ministry especially his death and resurrection. He is “the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead,” says Peter, and “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name”
Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness. Everyone. This is a radical message for Peter, and a hard one for him to learn. Peter is, after all, a pious Jewish Christian who scrupulously avoids both profane foods and unclean people. But now a voice from heaven is saying to him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”  This is a hard jump for Peter, but it probably isn’t any tougher than the leap we have to make when we have to admit those beyond our cultural and religious walls are not only loved by God but God has gone to great lengths to forgive them. In a world where we cast judgments on all kinds of things from airline food to the lifestyles of the rich and famous we are challenged with remembering that God’s love does not discriminate.  You may think with this being so central to the church’s message that this is a piece of cake to remember and live by but as we find out time and time again it is no small thing as the following story told by a frustrated dad illustrates. 

           I took my children to a restaurant. My 6-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As we bowed our heads, he said, “God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!”  Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman remark, “That’s what’s wrong with this country. Kids today don’t even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why, I never!”  Hearing this, my son burst into tears and asked me, “Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?”As I held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job, and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table. He winked at my son and said, “I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer.”  “Really?” my son asked. “Cross my heart.” Then, in a theatrical whisper, he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), “Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes.”  Naturally, I bought my kids ice cream at the end of the meal. My son stared at his for a moment and then did something I will remember the rest of my life. He picked up his sundae and without a word, walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile, he told her, “Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes, and my soul is good already.”  Of all my children, he is by far my most … trying. The quickest to anger, the first one to break something, and the last one to do as he’s told. None of it matters though, ’cause like he said, his soul is good already.

           That is the point to what Peter is saying.  All of us are God’s children even though we have a multitude of differences.  None of us behaves as we should, as God would like us to; we are all trying in God’s eyes.  Some of us are quick to anger, some of us are the first one’s to break something, breaking the hearts of others, shattering other’s dreams, none of us do exactly as we are told by God, and we are quick to judge based on these misgivings especially quick to judge others, some of us are even misfortunate enough to have these misdeeds caught by the media, but in the grand scheme of things none of that matters cause through Christ our soul has already been made good.  We need to remember that extends to others as well, their souls have been made good also.  The power of Christ’s love, a love that was able to break the bonds of death itself, is a power that works however and wherever it will in this world. That is the message Peter proclaims. The Spirit of divine love that raised Jesus from the grave would not let little things like race or nationality, tribe or creed, interfere with the powerful stream of its grace. The risen Christ can appear wherever he wills; the risen Christ can make use of whomever he wills; the risen Christ can work whenever he wills.

           The same resurrecting power that rolled away that tombstone on the first Easter morning can steamroll across any racial barrier between Jew and Gentile; can steamroll any time barrier between first and 21st centuries; can steamroll any heart barrier between believers and nonbelievers; can steamroll any of the other barriers we have made for ourselves, any of the ways by which we judge who is in and who is out; and can steamroll anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God.  In the use of this steamroller of grace and love God shows no partiality. 

            As those who have been claimed by this radical grace and love and especially those of us who have had that claim acknowledged and sealed in the waters of baptism it is up to us to “bear witness” to the continuous outpouring of God’s redeeming love and resurrection power? Will you also “be a witness” yourself to this love within your own life? By our actions and attitudes, we are called to be a witness to the presence of Christ’s death-defying love.  Some times we like the woman in the restaurant who complained the trouble with this country today is that children are not correctly taught how to pray we can be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.   Our charge as Christians however is to be heavenly here on earth.  We are called to bear witness to the way things work in thekingdom of God even while we are on this side of the kingdom by exhibiting the indiscriminate love of God for all people.  This means when it comes to judging, airline cuisine is still fair game but other people are not.  It won’t be easy but no one ever said taking up your cross and following would be easy.  Amen.