It [the sheet] contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
                                                                                                                         Acts 10:12-14 (NIV)

I love bacon. If a pig full of bacon came down from heaven and a voice told me to kill and eat, I’d grab myself some dynamite and a frying pan.

Not surprising, then, that my reaction at Peter’s refusal was the same one I have every time a fellow Christian tsks as I quote Homer Simpson between sips of Cabernet (I’m a classy guy). “What a fuddy duddy,” I say to myself, or words to that effect. Then I take a puff from my stogie.

Laws of ingestion

To be fair, Peter’s got it tougher than me. The man’s been a Jew for longer than he’s been a Christian. Jews have laws, and an inordinate number of them seem concerned with what Jewish folks can and cannot ingest. It’s no stretch for a guy like me to accept Jesus and then immediately stop swearing at his computer or coveting power tools. But what if, the minute I asked Jesus into my heart, I was infused with the Holy Spirit and told that I was no longer required to stop at red lights?

I won’t lie to you, that’d be pretty sweet.

Too good for bacon

Now we understand. Peter’s just being a civic-minded. Then there’s a knock at the door and the Voice lays on some new instructions. “Hi Peter. Look, I’m going to need you to go ahead and render yourself ritually unclean. There’s a house full of Gentiles in Caesarea that needs my attention, and I’ve sent some other Gentiles to take you there.”

“No problem, Lord!” says Peter. Peter’s too good for bacon, but consorting with Gentiles? “Certainly, Lord!”

Peter has made a lot of mistakes, but here he shows wisdom. God rendered acceptable the foods laid out on the sheet, but He did not render them mandatory. When the Gentiles came knocking, that was Ministry. “Hey, you want some lobster?” became “Go and build My church.”

To the world

Peter listened. That day, he placed the church over legalism and brought Jesus to the world.

Can we do the same? Can we place the church over the petty differences Christians are so famous for? Can we forget what translation so-and-so is reading, or whether Jim-Bob says God created Earth in 7 days or 7 millennia? Can we ignore what gaudy colours our neighbour’s Bibles are and just bring Jesus to the world?

Peter didn’t like bacon. I can live with that, because Peter loved the church and wanted everybody to be part of it, even guys like Cornelius. Even guys like me.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed