Unhindered

Here's the message. Please don't miss this. There is a faithful calling to the people of God and followers of Christ to take a moment. It is this. Take a pause from the theologizing. Come down from the roof and step onto holy ground. I began talking today about the ancient notion that impurity can rub off onto purity and never the other way around. But what is being called to question today is the real impurity of a Christian who chooses to isolate themselves from the difference. [01:12:23] (42 seconds)  #ComeDownToHolyGround

God is actively pushing Peter off the safety of this clean rooftop and sending him down into the complex, me messy reality of the street. Peter wanted to protect his purity. He wanted to stay on the isolated roof, but the spirit is declaring that true holiness is not revealed by guarding boundaries. It's revealed by crossing the threshold. It's revealed by coming down to holy ground. [01:04:21] (32 seconds)  #HolinessInTheStreet

Here's the ultimate divine mic drop in my perspective. In the traditional Jewish framework, you had to get clean before you could receive the presence of god. Right? You had to fix your life, align with the normative rules, and cross the proper ritual checkboxes before holy ground would be acceptable to you. But the holy spirit circumvents everything that's taking place here by human gatekeepers. [01:09:36] (25 seconds)  #SpiritBreaksBarriers

we live in a world where human stories, identities, and realities just don't fit neatly into our traditional black and white boxes. And I'll be honest, it makes me uncomfortable. When faced with the complex non normative lives of people around us, especially during a month like this, our knee jerk reaction is to run back up to the safety of the roof. Lock ourselves in our churches and affirm our beliefs. We wanna protect the parameters of our institution. [01:11:23] (33 seconds)  #EmbraceComplexity

Call it the hunger, call it the holy spirit using the hunger, whatever you want to call it. He gets knocked into this trance, and some of you know full well what this vision entailed. It's quite a famous story about this sheet that was laid down. All kinds of animals were in this sheet. and as he as he looks upon the sheet being lowered, he starts to be very quizzical, and he's concerned about what he sees. Inside this sheet is basically a living, crawling museum of all kinds of animals that he was hard coded to avoid growing up as a young Jewish boy. [00:53:04] (46 seconds)  #VisionOfTheSheet

And I just want you to understand the sheer weight of what is happening here. Let's be entirely fair to Peter. His hesitation wasn't a superficial one. It's not a modern black and white racism that I'm just gonna put on Simon Peter like that. Sure. There was racism, but for centuries, I want you to understand the the context of Peter as a Jew. For centuries, foreign empires have invaded Israel, defiled their temples, slaughtered their children, and tried to erase their identity. [01:05:03] (30 seconds)  #TraumaShapesBoundaries

We wanna guard our inherited checklist. But I wanna be clear about something that's happening in this passage today. This message is not to declare a theological position on non heteronormative lifestyles or activities. That's not my purpose here. This message has absolutely nothing to do with trying to make bold statements about what is righteous and what is unrighteous in human identities or practices. [01:11:56] (27 seconds)  #ThisIsNotAboutCondemnation

We are finally answering the invitation of a savior who is calling us to stand on holy ground unhindered. Today, charge for you is this. In the name of Jesus, come down from the roof because there is holy ground. God bless you. [01:18:59] (32 seconds)  #ReturnToHolyGround