I didn’t write a blog post last week for this past Sunday’s sermon because I was really busy planning the worship service. We held a joint service with our new friends Igelesia de Cristo Manantial de Vida (Spring of Life Church of Christ) and we did our best to make the whole service bi-lingual. It took quite a bit of thought and preparation. Thanks to great help it went well. Keith Tungseth from our conference Hispanic ministries was here to translate the sermon, children’s message etc. Mantial de Vida’s worship team was able to lead singing in both languages and our own pianist Lynn Kane likewise. Our sanctuary was packed and everyone had a great time, not to mention a lot of great food afterward.
So it’s fitting that this coming Sunday we arrive at a turning point in the book of Acts which stresses that worship like we experienced Sunday was the new norm for Christianity. In Acts 10:1-23, Peter learns that his hang-ups in regard to associating with non-Jewish people are something he needs to get over, along with getting over his upbringing in regard to what is acceptable food.
Though one might read this text as a spiritual lesson about loving others being taught with the mundane image of eating strange or objectionable food, it’s actually all part of the same thing. Yes, down in verse 28, Peter makes the metaphorical connection between not calling any food profane or unclean and not calling any person profane or unclean. But being able to eat the unclean food was part of that lesson. At the end of the chapter, verse 48 we find Peter not only needed to visit Cornelius’ house, he needed to stay there several days. That means he had to eat Gentile food for awhile. He could not live out the lesson about people without also living out the lesson about food.
For us this means that our Christian love for others has to take form in practical ways. As many a missionary has discovered, it may mean eating some strange food when offered. It may mean sitting through worship in a language you don’t understand. It could mean going to parts of town where you don’t feel comfortable. We don’t just get to have a warm, glowing good will toward folks who are different from us. The Holy Spirit calls us to demonstrate that love in concrete sacrifices of our own feelings of security and comfort.
Peter had to get over it in order to follow the Spirit’s leading. So do we.