A New Truth (Part 1)

Acts 10: 9b-16

“9b Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.”

Peter, praying on the roof of a friend’s home in Joppa, was given a vision of the new thing God planned to do. Orthodox Jews believed that God had no use for the Gentiles.  God revealed to Peter that he did, indeed, have use for the Gentiles.  Prior to this vision, Peter would have called the Gentiles unclean.  Through this vision, God was asking Peter to unlearn an entire lifetime of prejudice and ignorance.

We often think that our prejudices are also God’s prejudices and we may even blame our prejudices on God as we point to scripture as justification.  This very thing was done to justify slavery and to oppress women in this nation not so many years ago.

To Peter’s credit, he allowed himself to be used by God and took actions consistent with God’s vision (as we shall see).

To grow spiritually, we must be open to new truths revealed by God and be willing to be led by God into those truths.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)