Did Jesus just come for the Jews? He seemed to say so, in Matthew. But here's the risk of proof-texting: just a few verses later he pronounces a Canaanite - a Gentile - woman's daughter healed because of her faith.
Now Peter is in Joppa, near the gentile community of Caesarea Maritima. Cornelius, a centurion of the Roman cohort, a Gentile but a believer in the God of Israel, had a vision, a message from God, commanding him to summon Simon Peter.
Peter, in Joppa, sees his own vision of animals being lowered on a sheet.
13Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 14But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ 15The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’16This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
Peter returns to Caesarea to Cornelius' house, preaches that the good news of Jesus is available to all in every nation who fear him and do what is right.
The Holy Spirit came upon all who heard the word, and Peter baptized all.
He then proceeds to Jerusalem and relates the events to the Council. Peter concludes, and the Council agrees that they should not try to hinder God, who is clearly doing a new thing.
 |
Peter's trance |
How often has God awoken us with a new way of being church?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your thoughts about this reading in the comments. Because of spammers, comments required approval.