In his sermon to his new Gentile friend Cornelius, and his family who lived in Caesarea, Peter said, “In three days, God had Jesus up, alive, and out where he could be seen. Not everyone saw him–he wasn’t put on public display. Witnesses had been carefully handpicked beforehand–us! We were the ones, there to eat and drink with him after he came back from the dead.” What Peter didn’t say was that his and the other’s response when they saw the risen Jesus was to run and hide, and hope that they didn’t end up on a cross like Jesus did.

  Something happened, though, to Peter on the way to Caesarea, even though he wasn’t planning on going there. Peter and the others had seen Jesus alive. They watched as Thomas stuck his fingers in Jesus’ wounds. They had eaten with Jesus and talked with him. They had been commissioned by Jesus to be his witnesses. Nevertheless, all Peter and the others seemed to want to do is go pick up the nets they had left behind and pretend this whole Jesus thing had never happened.

  We read at the beginning of the Book of Acts, though, that the risen Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem. So they hid out there and then one Sunday morning this wind started blowing through their hideout, and flames touched their tongues. In the power of the Holy Spirit, they fearlessly ran out of their safe house, and actually started being witnesses to the resurrected Jesus. But that’s another story.

  They started the very first church right there in Jerusalem. They became the living presence of the living Jesus, rather than confused bystanders at some kind of resuscitation. For the resurrection of Jesus was no longer just about Jesus and this amazing and weird thing that had happened on Easter morning. It was about them, as well. Jesus wasn’t simply alive, he was alive in them.

  Peter became their spokesperson. The same Peter who had denied Jesus three times on the night Jesus was arrested. The same Peter who, like the others, scoffed when the women said Jesus was alive. The same Peter who hid out from the authorities until things cooled down. The living Jesus was coming to life in Peter.

  So Peter had come a long way, but there were other thresholds he had to cross. One was a real one in a real home in Caesarea.

Cornelius, by all accounts, was a godly man. But, he was a Gentile. And by all accounts, including his own, Peter had never planned to set foot in a Gentile’s home. That was a threshold he promised God he would never cross.

  Toward the beginning of Acts 10 we read that Peter had this crazy dream one day, while he was waiting for lunch to be ready. In that dream God told Peter he could eat any food he wanted to eat, and that he wouldn’t be violating any dietary laws. Peter wanting to remain true to his faith and the scriptures, of course, told God not to worry because he wouldn’t do any such thing. Three times God told Peter it was okay to eat whatever he wanted and three times Peter said no way.

  Then there was a knock on the door. Some people were looking for Peter. They wanted him to come to Caesarea and spend some time with Cornelius and his family.

  Peter figured this must have something to do with the dream he had just had, so he went with them. And, lo and behold, he crossed the threshold of a Gentile’s home, changing the whole course of the young church.

  In the Book at Acts we see how the risen Jesus kept coming more and more alive in Peter. This story says Peter was so taken by what he was saw after he crossed that threshold that he almost exploded. “It’s God’s own truth,” he cried out. “Nothing could be plainer, God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from–if you want God and are ready to do as God says, the door is open....through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again, he’s doing it everywhere, among everyone.”

  The whole idea of Judaism and all other religions of that part of the world was, indeed, that God does play favorites. For Jews of that day, like Peter, it was not only that God loved Israel more than anyone else, but that God loved Israel and despised everyone else. But Peter knew that was pre resurrection talk. He realized that in the risen Jesus, this was all a lie. Jesus was putting this fractured world back together again.

  Peter was starting to see that the resurrection was not only about Jesus being alive again, not only about Jesus and the disciples being alive together, but this whole world coming to life.

  Think about it. The resurrection is an uprising. It is a revolution meant to turn the whole world upside down and inside out. Peter was watching it happen, watching it happen in his own life.

  Do you remember the story from Ezekiel 37 of the dry bones coming alive and putting on muscle and sinew and skin, and God’s breath flowing through them. When Peter crossed that threshold, when resurrection grabbed hold of him, he could see the possibility for new life for this whole world. Old things that had meant everything to Peter’s faith passed away, and something new came to life. Where there had once been strangers and enemies, people Peter assumed to be no more significant to God than a gnat was to him, there were now brothers and sisters in Christ. This was an uprising.

  And we Gentiles are here with each other celebrating the resurrection of Jesus because Jesus came alive not only is some garden but in Peter. And Peter was able to cross that threshold in Caesarea and the uprising, the revolution, continues.

Peter’s story has always been the story of the church. The resurrection makes little difference if it remains this really strange ending to the story about Jesus that we really don’t know what to do with. Jesus crossed that odd threshold from death to life, but if it doesn’t lead us to cross other thresholds ourselves, Jesus becomes a one hit wonder, and there is no revolution.

 That’s why this Sunday is not simply about Jesus coming to life, but us coming to life with him. The way the Apostle Paul thought about it was calling us the Body of Christ.

  There was nothing more real to Paul than the resurrected Jesus. But that resurrection didn’t mean much of anything, Paul knew, if Jesus wasn’t coming to life in his followers and we, ourselves, becoming the living presence of the living Jesus, experiencing our own uprising.
 
  Paul said if the risen Jesus is going to mean anything to this world it will be because his followers are living his life in this world, we are his living presence, his body in our world. “You know the story of Jesus,” Peter said, “how he went about Israel doing good and healing everyone who was beaten down by the devil.” And Paul says the resurrected Jesus means to continue to do the same, but through us, by bringing us alive in new ways, just like Peter and Paul and Priscilla and Joanna came to life, and became the living presence of the living Jesus.

  We are the Body of Christ. Ours are the wounds the doubters need to touch. We are the ones the scared and hopeless and shattered need to eat with. So many need to see our witness to Jesus and hear his words through us, “Peace be with you.”

  We are not here this morning to gaze at some kind of resurrection freak show. Get your tickets! Step right up! Get your tickets! Watch the dead man come to life! And then go home scratching our heads and trying to figure out what the trick was. We are here to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus that is meant to take root in us and bring us to life with him. We are a part of the uprising. We are here to take the resurrection of Jesus to the next level, to be the Body of Christ, the living presence of the living Jesus in places like Caesarea and Oberlin and LaGrange and Elyria and Lorain and to the ends of the earth.

  And you can’t do that without crossing lots of thresholds, ending up in places you never imagined you would want to go, or where God would want you to go. But like Peter learned that it’s on the other side of those thresholds where we discover what Jesus was really talking about, and why life was so strong in him.

  Crossing those thresholds has never been easy, but it’s what Jesus’ life was about and what our life is about as his followers, the Body of Christ. People want us to hold back. We are comfortable behind our lines and we don’t easily tolerate people who cross thresholds. Just ask Barack Obama, as we have seen in this past week how his life has become a parable for the lines Black and White folk insist on. But he’s confessing his faith in the risen Jesus. Whether you want him to be President or not we see that he’s joined the uprising, resurrection has taken root in him, he’s stepped across the threshold.

  In this world it’s hard for people to believe in the resurrection. It’s one of those thresholds we are told you can’t cross. It goes against all we think can happen. We have such lame imaginations.

  It’s true, there’s no evidence to support the resurrection. All we have are those like Peter who have come to life in Jesus and see their own evidence of his resurrection in their lives at nearly every corner they turn and every threshold they cross. It’s not a time for us to run and hide, but to join the uprising, for he is risen, risen indeed.