Changing paradigms
In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and wild birds. A voice said to him, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat!’ But Peter said, ‘Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten anything ritually unclean or defiled.’
The voice spoke to him again, ‘Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.’ (verses 12-15)
Read Acts 10:1-16
I was recently talking to members of a Greek family. The father called himself James but his son was named Yanni. The father pointed out that he had started life with a traditional Greek name too, but he had been persecuted for it at school and so he had changed it to an English version. His son, however, was proud of his ethnicity and was not teased at school. The new victims of racism, the dad explained, were Asian students.
Ideas about what is acceptable change. It’s clear from the Scriptures that people are far more prejudiced and set in their traditional ways than God is. It must have been difficult for the early Jewish Christians like Peter to cast aside their customs and practices and embrace the new order of the Christian church. He discovered not only that food formerly considered defiled was now permissible but also that Gentiles were acceptable to God.
People often build barriers of prejudice and presupposition. God’s way is to build bridges to everyone.
Dear God, thank you for the freedom and acceptance you extend to me. Help me to be just as open and loving to others. Amen.
by Richard Hauser, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)
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