Both the lesson from Revelation and the lesson from Acts speak to us about change and new beginnings. They remind us that with God, a brand new day is always on the horizon.

They also bring to my mind the prayer/poem "Help Me Believe In New Beginnings" (Guerrillas of Grace, LuraMedia, 1984), in which Ted Loder prays:

"God of history and of my heart, so much has happened to me during these whirlwind days:

We fail sometimes we succeed sometimes because we know that change can be hard. We also know that change is inevitable. It comes whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we are ready or not.

Change has been described by jazz guitarist George Benson this way:

Indeed the witness of our lives tells us how things change. We watch children grow, we see and feel our own bodies change, we slow down a bit, we gain a bit of wisdom and knowledge. What determines whether we are stifled by change or transformed by change, whether change suffocates us or frees us to be all that God is calling us to be, is whether we see change as something that stops us, or whether it represents a new opportunity. Change and a new day will come.

We heard the first part of the story in Acts 11 a few weeks ago. On Easter Sunday, we heard part of the sermon preached by Peter in the home of the Roman, Gentile, soldier Cornelius. There were several good reasons for Peter to decline the invitation offered by Cornelius. After all, Peter the Jewish Christian would be entering the house of a Roman occupier, who though respectful of the religions around him, nevertheless was a non-Jew, and a non-Christian. He was a soldier who had the life and death of Peter and his brother and sister Christians in his hands. And his house was ritually unclean. It was a violation of Jewish law for Peter to be there.

But it’s a new day. Cornelius had received a vision that compelled him to send for Peter who was in Joppa having quite a vision of his own. Imagine being shown by God all that God has created, every living creature, all that you have heard all your life was unclean, ungodly, and not fit for food for a righteous person.

In the vision, Peter learns that what ever is created by God it is good and worthy of the creator. What God calls clean, we may not call unclean. His vision tells us that in this new day, we might especially beware the labels that devalue the worth of another human being. It is not true that stick and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us. Words do hurt. If they did not, there would be no such thing as verbal abuse, in which people hit and hurt with words that day by day, little by little eat at the worth and self-esteem of people. We know the difference between praise and put-down, words do matter.

In light of his vision, Peter went to the home of Cornelius, and Cornelius welcomed him. Peter shared the good news with one he was raised to fear and despise, but he did it anyway. Peter preached and Cornelius and his household came to see their lives in relation to Jesus Christ, and they believed and were baptized.

Surely when word reaches the leaders of the church, when they hear that the power of Jesus Christ is so strong that even Roman soldiers are moved by it, they will rejoice won’t they? Not exactly. Imagine that Peter is in Jerusalem and has been invited to stop by the central office of the young church. He is thinking, "they want to see me. They know I was close to Jesus, they must want my insight, and my wisdom on what it was like to be one of the twelve. I will go in, we will have a bite to eat, and we will spend the day teaching and learning." In he goes. "I’m so glad to be here and I will be happy to answer any questions you have for me. What can I tell you? Who wants to go first?"

"With all due respect Peter, all I want to know is why you defiled yourself and dishonored us by eating at an uncircumcised Gentile’s house?"

Peter says simply, "God has shown me, it’s a brand new day." Then in great detail, Peter simply tells the story; he tells it without defensiveness, apology, or backpedaling, he just says what happened.

"God showed me something – all of creation belongs to God; the salvation offered to us through Jesus Christ is too much, too big, too powerful, too life changing to keep to ourselves. ‘Go into all the world’, Jesus said, that means talk to the people like us to be sure, but go beyond just what we know, even to the Gentiles. They are God’s people too.

"I went to Cornelius’ house because the Holy Spirit of God told me to go. I stayed and ate because they were hospitable to me. I know it was right because God was with me. And God was with them. When I got to Cornelius’ house", Peter says, "I was not afraid, and he was not hostile. He was eager to share what happened to him, and he was eager to hear me. In fact, I understood like never before that the same Spirit that led me, fell on them, and I saw them not only change, but find transformation.

Peter says, "as they were transformed, I was transformed. The change was so deep in my soul that it expanded my notion of the church."

Ted Loder’s prayer continues: 
"Help me to make new beginnings: to begin going out of my weary mind into fresh dreams, daring to make my own bold tracks in the land of now;

To begin risking that I may make peace;
to begin loving that I may realize joy."

Can you hear Peter when he says, "I realized that it is not up to me to say who can or cannot be part of the body of Christ. In this new day, Jesus will call, convert, convict, change, transform who he will – including people who seem too far to reach and even people who have been in church so long, they take it for granted."

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are invited into a new day that lets us know the Spirit that led you and me here is leading others here too. Whoever we are, the attitude that says I am all that is necessary is old thinking. New thinking is whosoever will, come on, we can use your gifts and you can use ours.

The old thinking says, I alone know who God saves, redeems, and sustains. The new day thinking says, if God will do for them what God did for us, who am I, who are we, how dare we try to stop God?

Old thinking says, Why did you go there and eat with those people? New thinking says, how could I not break bread with people who were eager to hear the word of God, and to whom I had been sent?

Peter’s reply to his questioners led them to silence. Pondering? Maybe. Pouting? We don’t know. We do know that when they finally spoke they praised God. Their dismay became joy because they had been led to their own vision. "We see now, we get it now, we understand that God has given to the Gentiles the repentance, the means to lead to life, and life in abundance. There is no group of people to whom the God of our salvation is not available. This is indeed the God, the Christ, the Spirit of the whole world. It’s a brand new day."

As was true with Peter, the brand new day is here, it is a given. How then can we see it, claim it, live it? There are four ways, and they happen to be four of the lessons my mother taught my sisters and me as we were growing up.

First, prepare to embrace the new day. Don’t be afraid to learn something new. What is new is sometimes hard, it is not impossible. If all we did was what we have always done, we might very well still be in the agricultural era, we might have bypassed the industrial era, and we would never have experienced the information era we are in now. In our spiritual lives if everything stayed the same, we might never seek God’s wisdom, or ask what, in this new day God is calling us to do. Peter had already seen the amazing things God could do. He was there with Jesus when God worked miracles through him. He could answer the question put to him, because he had reflected on what the embracing a new day meant for him and for the church.

Second, we can practice a basic discipline of our faith. We can pray. Peter was praying when he had the vision that led him to Joppa. In his vision, he saw things he wouldn’t have seen if he had not been praying.

One woman says that some days her prayer for herself and others is simply, "Lord, Lord, Lord." But most days her prayer is "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Perhaps the prayer that speaks to us most is the one that says, "God, help me to know that nothing will happen today that you and I together can’t handle." When we pray, we can ask God to show us what we need to see, to do, to be. Pray, and trust that God will respond in a way that is best for us and for those for whom we pray.

Third, pay attention to the Holy Spirit of God moving among us. It was there with Peter and Cornelius and it is here with us. When the servants of Cornelius came to Peter, the Spirit told him to take a leap of faith and go. Many of you have heard me says that my favorite scene in the movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" occurs when Indiana comes to the edge of a cliff. He needs to get across the chasm below, and it is too far for him to step across. He ponders a minute and then he just steps out into what seems like nothing, but when he does, a way is made for him to cross. When we trust the Spirit we can take some leaps of faith and cross over to where we need to be.

We can dream big and listen to what fresh word God has for us.

We can value our past as good and honorable and look with hope to the future.

We can join with others urging the city and the county to work together to help its neediest citizens have safe, decent, and affordable housing.

We can do far more than we can think or imagine.

We can worship joyfully, serve gratefully, care compassionately.

We can offer ourselves to others because Jesus has offered himself to us and for us.

The fourth way we claim, see, and live the brand new day is to praise God that the Spirit still moves and that God’s new day is here, and in the mystery and promise of God an even brighter days is coming. When Peter told his story, people were changed. First, Cornelius, then the church leaders, now you and me. The brand new day is here.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…and the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new…Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true" (Revelation 21. 1, 5). This is indeed a day of new beginnings for us and for all with whom we will share this great good news.

Loder’s prayer concludes:

"Help me to be a beginning for others, to be a singer to the songless, a storyteller to the aimless, a friend to the friendless;

May it be so now and forever as God leads us into this new brand new day. Amen.