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2 December. Acts chapters 9-10
Yesterday I wrote about the changes that Stephen experienced, and his challenge to the Jewish leaders that they needed to change their worldview too. In today’s reading, several more people are challenged to similar realignments of thinking. First we have Saul (later called Paul) whose blinding vision on the Damascus road turns him overnight from a persecutor of the church to its strongest witness. Then there is Ananias who is persuaded by an angel that Saul is now “one of us” rather than “one of them”.
And then there is Peter. He is challenged in two different but related ways. Firstly is the vision of ‘unclean’ animals (non-kosher meat) which he is told to eat, for “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (9:8). This turns out to be a metaphor for having to accept that Gentiles can be as clean in God’s sight as observant Jews. And as the Gentiles turn to faith, they receive the Holy Spirit, and Peter realises again that there is no longer any distinction in God’s eyes between the Jews and the rest of the world.
The lesson about not calling unclean what God calls clean could be applied to many of the ways in which people discriminate against each other in our day – whether on grounds of religion, or ethnicity, gender, age or sexual orientation. “In every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:35) should be a key text for those who would challenge such attitudes.