Peter's Dream

 First Tuesday of Advent

Marianne did our Christmas decorations this past weekend. Back in the 1980's we started collecting Byers Carolers, which are little dolls in early twentieth century winter clothes with mouths open singing. We eventually got a couple who represented us, a smaller couple, who represented John and April, our children, and two small children Carolers, who represented our grandchildren, Madeline and Jack. We also have a drummer boy caroler. In the past Marianne has put them together caroling in front of a house or a manger or just straight out caroling at us. It's all a little different every year. This year she put the carolers on the mantle, along with snow covered trees, a little sled, some little gift packages, etc. But this year the Carolers weren't together. They were spread out over the whole mantle. When I asked Marianne about this, she said, "They're socially distancing." Sure enough, she had them scaled to about six feet apart.

It's our Tuesday Bible study day on the blog. We're beginning Acts 10. Please read Acts 10:1-17. Here we meet Cornelius, a Roman military officer of medium to high rank. Cornelius was a God-fearer, that is a gentile who has adopted the Jewish belief in the one God but has not undergone circumcision

Cornelius is stationed in Caesarea Maritima, the Roman provincial capital of Judea. Built by Herod the Great and named for Caesar Augustus, Caesarea was an entirely Roman city, a shining new city, a large city with an extensive port on the Mediterranean and much commerce. It was a sharp contrast to Jerusalem 35 miles to the east, an ancient city that was almost entirely Jewish. In a vision an angel tells Cornelius to have some of his men seek out Peter, who is in Joppa, just a couple of miles away. 

Marianne and I have been to Caesarea and to Joppa (modern day Jaffa).There are fairly extensive remains of Caesarea, including a stone from the period with an inscription in Latin. The inscription says that the building it fronts is an imperial temple, the "Tiberineum," dedicated to the emperor Tiberius during the prefecture of one "PONTIVS PILATVS," (Latin "u's" look like our "v's"). Most of Caesarea is now underwater. Extensive marine archaelogy is going on there.

 

Meanwhile, Peter is praying on the roof of Simon the Tanner's house in Joppa.  In a dream vision he sees all sorts of animals and birds unclean by Jewish law. A voice tell Peter to kill and eat them. He protests that he has never eaten a non-kosher animal. The heavenly voice tells him, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." Perplexed by his vision Peter suddenly encounters the men sent by Cornelius. 

Peter is about to move from the Jewish world into the gentile world. He is not quite ready for it. Christianity is moving into the gentile world. This movement will necessitate the jettison of the Jewish food laws, circumcision, and many other Jewish religious/legal practices. The process will be difficult. 

In chapter 15 the conflict over whether gentiles who convert to Christianity must follow the Jewish laws comes to a head. The Law (those 613 laws in the book of the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy) is everything to the Jews. The Christian abandonment of it will be more than most Jews can take. Christianity, which began as an all Jewish sect will over the course of the first century become all gentile. Acts witnesses much of this change. 

 

We'll pick up with Peter and Cornelius in the next Bible study. 

Here's a little sidebar: Carl King, former pastor of UMCC, was a non-meat eater. He would eat fish. He said that the proper term for people of this practice was "Piscitarian." When he first told me he was a Piscitarian, I retorted, "I thought you were a Methodist." Some time later, this Acts text came up in the lectionary. I laughingly told Carl after the sermon that my favorite verse of the Bible was Acts 10:13, 

"Rise, Peter, kill and eat." I live to grill, and grill to eat, and eat meat.

Faithfully,

Christian