Skip to main content

Acts 11:12-17: Walk This Way

Peter, who is not only a good synagogue-going person but also a devout follower of Jesus, has a dream. One day he dreams of all these foods he is not supposed to eat - now I am not talking about chocolate or cake or things that were bad for his diet. I am talking about things that in his day good people who followed God wouldn't touch because they were good, God-following people.

Peter has this vision: the Lord asks him three times to eat this food. Now Peter isn't daft and he, not long ago, has already been caught denying Jesus three times and so he is not going racing to any rash decisions; he shows the Lord that he is faithful to his Jewish covenant and declines the invitation three times. This is not what is wanted here though and this is not what the dream, it turns out, is even about.

This passage is not about dietary laws and what foods a good follower of Jesus will or will not eat and Peter should know this because he was there when Jesus fulfilled/abolished the dietary laws by declaring all foods clean (Mark 7:19). Peter knows this is true that he should not call anything impure that God has made. He catches on that there is something else here.

What the resurrected Jesus is talking about is something much more profound than diets. Jesus is discussing the salvation and role of Gentiles. Jews had not thought to this point that Gentiles, as they were, could be saved. They knew that salvation was possible for Gentiles; Ancient Israel always had proselytes. There were always people converting to YHWH-worship but here in Cornelius' household, we have God-fearing people who are not like the regular synagogue-goers. They are different.

Up to this point, Gentiles who converted to worship YHWH, all started to dress like Jews, pray like Jews, talk like Jews, eat like Jews and the men were even circumcised like Jews - they joined in the worship of YHWH by becoming Jews.

Now something is different. There are people who do not eat like them, do not look like them, do not act like them and who are already in a relationship with God. How can this be? They don't dress like Jews, pray like Jews, talk like Jews, eat like Jews, and the men aren't even circumcised like Jews and yet they have already received the gift of repentance through the Holy Spirit. God saved the Gentiles without the Gentiles having to become like the good synagogue/ church-going people.

My question for us today: who are these 'Gentiles' in our society that don't dress like us, pray like us, talk like us, eat like us, and otherwise act like us and do we accept them? How do we ensure that we are following God's Spirit in extending His mission to everyone as is commanded in Peter's dream?
More articles, sermons, and papers at
---
www.sheepspeak.com[1] Based on the devotional by Captain Michael Ramsay, Acts 10-11: Chocolate Cake.  Presented to TSA Nipawin Leadership Team and Tisdale Corps Council meetings on the week of September 2,2007. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2007/09/acts-10-chocolate-cake-devotional.html

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Resurrection and Frankenstein's Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 and Revelation 21 3b-4)

 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  We went to see Frankenstein the Ballet last night. If anyone knows that story. The beginning is like the book. Dr. Frankenstein makes a creation out of the parts of corpses who had had terrible things happen in their lives - and then he brings life to the new creation and it becomes whole - with a whole new lease on life. A new chance to live. No matter all the awful stuff that had happened before. Now - the book actually ends poorly after that but the ballet does not. The ballet includes a story of Giselle. This bride, who herself suffered a horrible fate, learned forgiveness and is resurrected. She meets Frankenstein's creation; they fall in love - and start off again, this time living a transformed life. Revelation 21:3b-4: God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Timothy 1:12: Learn to Suffer

2 Timothy 1:12: That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. Today’s thought on 2 Timothy 1:12 is entitled ‘Learn to Suffer’. ‘Learn to Suffer’ is motto of a Scottish Clan. Anyone know which clan? Clan Duncan. The Clan motto is ‘Learn to Suffer.’ Did you know that 2 of the early kings of Scotland were Duncans: One was Duncan I and do you know who was the other? Duncan II. Duncan I obtained the throne through murder and Duncan II lost it the same way. The Duncans would learn to suffer. The Duncans historically weren’t so good at choosing the winning side in important battles. They supported the victorious Robert the Bruce in his wars and received benefits from that. But later they supported Charles I, who was defeated, murdered and his country conquered by Cromwell’s Puritans. In supporting the losing side in this war, the Duncans would learn to suff...
Post a Comment
Read more

Poor No More! Count me in! (Mt 26:11, Mk 14:7, Jn 12:8, Dt 15:11)

Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you”   As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. [3]   I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. [4]  We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaia...
Post a Comment
Read more