The Cornelius Factor

Acts 10:1-23:

1 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, "Cornelius!" 4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 "Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; 6 he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea." 7 When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, 8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!" 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.
17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon's house, appeared at the gate; 18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 "But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself." 21 Peter went down to the men and said, "Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?" 22 They said, "Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you." 23 So he invited them in and gave them lodging.

I've been watching a lot of tv lately....I finally succombed to DVR syndrom (digital video recorder), in which I can press a button and instantly save lots of programming my life could probably stand to miss. There is still a bit of great programming on television..I try and catch it as much as I can (I am now, officially, a Sundance Channel slave); but, I don't just watch great tv..I also watch a lot of schlock.

A lot of people are making some interesting choices out there. With the onset of the writer's strike, television is even more bombarded with reality tv. Of course, the reality in reality tv is something so foreign as to be unrecognizeable. Its easy to look and cast judgement...I do it every day.....about 100 times a day when I catch Entertainment Tonight (thankfully, not often).

As I parse my world into two simple sets (the sane and the insane), it's helpful to remember the Cornelius story from Acts. Cornelius was one of them...a soldier in the occupying army; but, one who had earned a great deal of respect by paying homage to the Hebrew God and being fair in his dealings. He was still one of them, though...a Gentile.

The passage posted above shows Peter receiving a surprising dream which explodes some of his sensibilities. Peter, a committed Jew, is shown that principles which formed a easy barrier between believers and non-believers had evaporated according to God's will.

I want to be clear on something: it is beyond a stretch to say that Peter's dream made every possible pagan action ok for Christians...it is actually pretty specific to kosher eating principles.

That said, the important part of this passage, to me, was that Peter was surprised that God had Gentiles in His plan. If we trust the passage, then we must acknowledge that, until this moment, Peter did not believe that the Gentiles were part of God's plan, or, at the very least, that the Gentiles would have to abandon all non-Jewish aspects of their existence before they came to Christ. This argument would continue, later, at the Council of Jerusalem..and would be a factor in the splitting of Paul and Barnabas. But, before this revelation, Peter would have acknowledged Christ as really only coming to save Jews...not Gentiles.

Peter is butt-headed; but, he is not an idiot. He was one of the closest disciples to Jesus, and yet he missed the fact that Christ was coming to save the entire world, and not just the Jews.

I think we need to pay close attention to God's teachings, and do the very best we can to follow in His ways. That said, we should also be very very careful about assuming we know God's specific plan for acceptance and salvation....we don't.

God is still moving in the world.....