Acts
10:9-16
Martin Sheen has had a
distinguished career as an actor. Besides playing a fictional President Josiah
Bartlett in “The West Wing” Sheen also had a major part in the epic movie
“Gettysburg” as General Robert E. Lee. He recounted to an interviewer several
years ago that he was in the theater audience as “Gettysburg” premiered in Atlanta
Georgia.
According to Sheen, as the film
progressed he began to hear a voice several rows behind him telling those around
that person the plot twists and turns of the actual battle. Although the
unsolicited commentary was quite accurate, Sheen found it to be unwelcomed and
bothersome. Since the long movie had an intermission, he silently vowed to confront
that person during that time to get him to stop talking. Once intermission
arrived Sheen turned around and to his surprise that former President Jimmy
Carter was the fellow making the comments.
One afternoon Peter was praying, resting
and enjoying the hospitality of Simon the Tanner when he saw a vision and heard
God’s voice teaching him that Gentiles were not unclean to prohibit them from
entering the covenantal community of faith. Peter’s lunch was interrupted but God
was beginning the process of leading the Church to go beyond the traditional
tribal, ethnic and cultural boundaries to embrace the whole world.
God’s voice also may be unwelcomed
and bothersome to us at the moment of our hearing. It may prove to be a silent
voice rather than a loud one heard by many. It may occur in a movie theater or
at prayer. Nevertheless, God’s voice will always be accurate directing us through
the twists and turns of our own lives- a character flaw needing correcting, a
relationship needing restoring, a mission needing accomplishing- which are more
hazardous than a horrific battlefield. And as Sheen had discovered that the
initially unwelcomed voice belonged to a man he highly respected, Christians will
always find the divine voice, unwelcomed or not, belongs to the One worthy of
our worship, praise, and obedience.
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