Snip,snip,snip-use those scissors you received at Baptism!

Anybody have any scissors?

Scissors, those things we use to cut things?

Oh, come on now.

No one has a pair?

Well, I am no magician.

I am just Peter.

You know Peter, one of the twelve disciples of

Christ.

No one has scissor, hmm.

Well I can tell you that by the end of what I have

got to say today each and everyone of you will own a pair of scissors.

And you won’t have to go around looking for

them either.

You will have scissors for life.

They will be with you no matter where you go.

You will have a pair of scissors.

Did you know that there are people who do not

like scissors?

Don’t like scissors.

Yep, there sure are.

They do not use scissors.

They do everything in their power not to use

them.

So what happens?

They get all tied down.

Look.

Let’s say this balloon is a person.

We will even draw a face on it…smiling

because if I were to let this balloon go…its going to float on the air.

It is going to dance and soar to heights never

before seen.

There would be no limits on where it might go.

But what happens is…this balloon person makes

a bad decision and gets weighed down by the consequences.

Then life goes on but something else goes wrong

and gets even more weight on their shoulders.

So this balloon instead of being happy and free,

stays put.

Unless…we cut the strings.

But as I said some people don’t like scissors.

In fact I ran into a whole parcel of these scissor

phobes.

In fact, they were my brother and sister

disciples.

Can you imagine.

When they found out that I had used scissors,

they went ballistic.

I’m not talking angry, I am not talking annoyed,

I’m saying they were spitting mad, livid with fury.

They were madder than a whole flock of wet

hens.

All because I snipped, snipped, snipped.

This is what happened.

As soon as I got back to Jerusalem from a road

trip, they were all over my case.

They ripped into me: “What this you’re doing?”

Peter, have you lost your mind?

Your good Jewish mother certainly didn’t

raise you to behave like this.

Peter you simply cannot eat with non-Jews.

You cannot go into the house of a Gentile!

They eat ham.

They worship the wrong god.

They shave.

They throw wild parties.

They go to temples.

There are rules you know.

They are over there, and we are over here and

there is no mixing.

Why you took scissors and cut through the wall

that separates us.

You took scissors and said to them everything is

ok.

You cut away the fact that they got to temple.

You cut away their failure to have just one wife.

You cut away their sin.

You said, “God forgives you.”

God doesn’t forgive them.

God doesn’t forget things like that you know.

How could you Peter, how could you?”

Hold on, I said.

Take a breath.

OK…

Listen: Using scissors is what God wants.

God wants us to cut through all those things that

weigh us down.

Those things keep us away from God and away

from life.

God made it clear to me in a prayer.

There I was on my knees when I had a vision of

a large sheet….not a twin or a full, not even a queen, but one of those king sized top sheets.

We are talking a big piece of material.

Riding on the sheet were all kinds of animals:

lions, beetles, robins.

It was a regular percale Noah’s ark.

As these animals were floating on this sheet,

God said, “Peter, it is ok to eat anything.”

Now I have to tell you I thought maybe God had

lost the divine marbles.

Think about it: A Big sheet floating by with

turtles and birds on it and God is telling me I can eat anything…it was like a psychedelic flashback from the 60s so I said “Oh no Lord. You know the rules. You know the dietary rules, only certain foods are allowed.”

God said, “No Peter. I have made all things

good.”

And again God said to eat, and again I said no,

and again God said everything is good.

This happened three times...three that special

number…3 days in a whale, three days to resurrection, three in the Holy Trinity.

Something big was going on here.

Three was like a big neon sign blinking in my

face.

God was trying to communicate to me big time.

Then after the sheet went up the third time, don’t

you know some men showed up knocking at my door.

Guess how many….three

Three gentile men.

They asked me to come with them to a city, and

not some good Jewish city, but to the gentile city of Caesarea, the very hot bed of paganism, of sin.

Go with them???

I can’t do thaaa…..OW!!!!

The Holy Spirit kicked me right in the pants.

The dream Peter, the dream!

Get over the man made differences between

people.

God made all and all is good.

Take your scissors and cut through the red tape.

No matter who it is, Jew, Gentile, male, female.

The truth is all are welcomed by God, all are

loved by God.

God forgives all.

God cuts strings of the weights that tie us

down no matter who we are.

And brother and sisters, don’t you know, right

before my very eyes, the heavens opened and the holy Spirit rained down on those three men and they became followers of Christ.

Right there on the spot God had cut their strings.

They were freed to life.

Well, after I finished telling my brothers and

sister disciples, they were dumbfounded.

They could not believe it.

A silence fell over the room.

No one said a word.

God cuts the weight of sin for all…even

Gentiles?

And then a bigger miracle happened..

Don’t you know my friends realized that they

were being weighted down by their belief that Gentiles couldn’t possibly be loved by God.

My friends took their own scissors and cut the

string that held them.

My friends were freed from the hurtful attitudes

that divide.

They could now be friends with people they

never thought of….

New buoyant and bouncy life had come to the

disciples, all because strings had been severed.

But boy oh boy.

If it were only that simple all the time.

Take the scissors and snip.

But we seem to be allergic to scissors.

We prefer string…rope…we likechains.

Oh those ties that bind…bind us to the past, to

our mistakes, to our poor choices.

We are weighed down by an anchor on a thick

thick chain.

I know what I am talking about.

For I am Peter, the first among the

disciples…HAH!

The first among those who least deserved God’s

love.

Look at me.

Look at my history.

I am the king of string.

Who was it who did not get who Jesus was, even

after three years of living with the guy day and night?

Me, that’s who.

I saw everything Jesus did.

I heard everything.

But I was dense.

Why I called him the political Messiah who

would over throw Rome with might.

Got that wrong, didn’t I.

This was the King of Peace.

When that boat was being tossed around out

There on the sea of Galilee, did I trust Jesus?

No, I thought we were going to die.

And when we were up on that mountain

surrounded by all that glory, I wanted to build houses for Elijah, Moses, and Jesus at the transfiguration so that we could stay in glory and not venture out to do ministry among the sick and dying.

Strikes against me and my discipleship.

Sins tying me down.

And of course…there in the courtyard the night

Jesus was arrested.

Someone asked me if I knew him.

If I knew him???

I could not answer yes.

I was afraid…for MY life.

I had my own needs.

I had to take care of MY family.

What would happen to them if I got arrested?

Besides I had worked hard for Jesus for three

years, I deserved a break.

And so I answered “NO. I don’t know him.”

They asked again, and again I said no.

They asked a third time.

I had three chances to say yes…and each time I

answered NO.

I ran out of that courtyard.

Ashamed, dirty.

I ran and took a shower, trying desperately to get

clean.

But all the scrubbing in the world could not get

off the dirt of failure.

It sat on my skin, seeping down layer after layer,

Even through my bones, until reaching my soul where my action spread out its wretchedness like an overflowing septic tank.

There was no escaping what I had done.

I tried anesthetizing myself with alcohol…sure

the pain was numbed…for a little while but it always was back I the morning.

The softest blanket could not keep me warm

against the cold of living with what I had done.

That’s the thing about our bad choices.

They ooze and bleed and annoy like a bug bite

on our ankle, reminding us that they are there no matter where we go or what we do.

I was so tied I could not move.

I would have lived my life that way, dragging all

this around…if Christ had not been raised on Easter.

For you see the first thing that Jesus did on that

Easter, the very first thing he did was to say “Go and tell Peter to go to Galilee and there he will see me. Go and tell Peter….Peter, the one who got all things wrong, go and tell Peter the hot head, the sinner, the one who denied me not once, not twice, but three time, go and tell Peter he is forgiven. Tell Peter his strings have been cut.”

All those things that tied me down were cut right

there.

And that’s not all.

Christ gave me a pair of scissors of my very

own.

On Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, I was

given scissors for life.

Scissors to cut not only my strings but to help

others cut theirs.

When ever I start adding things on, weighing my

self down with guilt or low self esteem, I can cut the strings and live.

Friends, the same things have happened to you.

At baptism each and every one of you were

given a pair of scissors.

You were handed a pair of scissors and told cut

the strings and live.

God forgives you.

In those waters of baptism God washed away all

the dirt of wrong doings.

And, this is crucial, and at baptism God handed

you a pair of scissors to take with you through life.

They are a reminder that as Christians there is

always new life to be had.

Today God is asking: What are we tied to?

What are we lugging around?

God is asking us to take our scissor out and snip.

Cut the weight of bad choices in the past.

Snip away the guilt of mistakes.

God has forgiven us.

It’s time to forgive ourselves.

Come on.

Let’s dance on the wind.

Let’s be lifted to new heights.

Be free.

Cut the strings

And sail away from all that weighs us down.

Amen.

The Reverend Michele L. Matott 5/6/7 Scissors