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Jesus instructed his apostles to take the Gospel into all the world. Yet all of the first disciples were Jewish, and the division between Jew and Gentile in the First Century was bitter. Even a moderately religious Jew would never enter a Gentile's house and certainly would not eat Gentile food. When Peter bridged that gap, a faction of the young church called him on the carpet, and Peter was forced to defend his actions.

Brothers, sisters, my family in Christ,
some of you have asked why I entered
the house of Gentiles,
ate their food,
and then baptized them into the household of God.
One of you even accused me of profaning
the pearl of great price,
the Gospel of our Lord,
by throwing it before Gentile swine.

Friends, hear my story.
What I did was not done lightly;
it was done with much prayer
and with the approval of Christian brothers.
I was in Joppa, and one day
I had gone to the rooftop to pray quietly.
About noon I was hungry,
but while the food was being prepared,
I fell into a trance.
I had a vision:
heaven opened, and a strange vessel descended.
It looked like a great sheet,
held by the four corners;
inside were all sorts of four-footed beasts
and reptiles and wild birds.
Then I heard a voice saying,
"Get up, Peter, kill and eat."
I was shocked,
for the voice seemed to come from heaven,
but all those beasts were unclean by God's law.
I answered at once,
"No, Lord, no, for I've never eaten anything
unlawful or unclean."
The voice spoke again,
"What God has made clean,
you must not call unclean."
All this happened three times,
and then the vision suddenly disappeared
into heaven.

I didn't know what to make of this;
it just didn't make sense.
If this was from God,
why would God tell me to break the holy law
he gave to Moses?
While I puzzled about it,
I heard shouting outside the gate.
Three men were standing there, asking for me.
Then the Spirit spoke to me,
"Get up, go down, and go with them
without hesitation, for I have sent them."
I went down and found they were Gentiles,
and the story they told me
was even more strange.

They were a soldier and two slaves,
all sent by a Roman centurion named Cornelius.
They told me that Cornelius was a good man
who believed in our God
and was respected by the Jews.
The day before, when Cornelius was praying,
he saw a vision.
An angel of God told him to send for me
to come to his house so he could listen
to what I had to say.
What could I do?
They said Cornelius had had a vision;
I had had a vision.
Cornelius was told to send for me;
I was told to go.
What should I tell the three men?
I turned to my host,
for I was staying in the house of Simon the Tanner.
He nodded, so I called the three men in to eat
and to spend the night.

Simon told me, "All the Jews here on the seacoast
have heard of this Cornelius.
He's a centurion in the Italian Cohort,
a chosen band.
You know these centurions:
the backbone of the Roman army.
They're picked as leaders,
men of good judgment,
not apt to fly off the handle,
able when hard-pressed to stand fast
and die at their post.
But this Cornelius is more than that.
He believes in the one true God,
the living God of Israel.
It's said that he gives alms generously.
He hasn't become a full proselyte:
circumcised, eating Jewish food.
I don't know what would happen to him
in the army if he did.
He holds back from that,
but he is trusted and liked by all the Jews
in Caesarea.
If he says he's had a vision from God,
I'd go and find out."

Simon called in other believers from Joppa,
and we prayed.
Then the Spirit guided Simon and five of the brothers.
"We will go with you.
We will bear witness, along with you,
to the grace of God in Christ our Lord.
If there is danger on the road,
we will share the danger.
God must have a great work
for you to do in Caesarea,
and we will rejoice and praise God for you."
It was settled;
the next morning we would go to Cornelius.

On the road I talked with Cornelius' slaves,
and they told me about the man.
Long ago he threw off the Roman myths
of gods and goddesses who act like spoiled children,
and he rose above the pagan do-as-you-please
morality.
When the army brought him to Judea,
he learned of our one God,
the living God,
and he was drawn by the high moral standards
of our law.
He became a worshipper of God.
He prayed; he prayed daily;
and he had faith that God heard his prayers.
He grew to love our people -
unlike so many Romans who despise us -
and he gave alms liberally.
His slaves,
who certainly get a close look at him,
call him an upright man.

I wondered what Cornelius would say
when I entered his house.
What if he offered me food?
Could I insult him by refusing,
or must I accept and break our law?
I thought again of my vision.
Was the Lord telling me to accept all foods?
Then I remembered that Jesus had once told us
that what defiles a person
is not what goes into his mouth.
It is from within,
from the human heart,
that evil intentions come;
those are what defile a person.
That must be the meaning of the vision:
the Lord has sent me to Cornelius;
to obey God I must go.
"Get up, Peter, kill and eat," the voice had said.
It must mean that if Cornelius
offers me Roman food, God has made it clean.
But can it mean more than food?
What of the Roman himself?
Can it mean that God will make the Gentiles clean,
that God will accept Gentiles?

We reached Caesarea in the afternoon.
As I entered the house,
Cornelius himself came up to me,
a tall man, strong,
with an air of command.
Then he fell down at my feet.
I was shocked.
Roman centurions do not fall down before anyone
except God or Caesar.
It would be blasphemy to let him worship me.
"Stand up," I said, "I am only a mortal."
Then I looked around the room.
This was no private talk;
he had called together his relatives
and his friends to hear what I had to say.

I explained my vision, saying,
"You already know that it is against the Jewish
law for me to visit in a Gentile house,
but God has shown me that I should not
call anyone unclean.
So when you sent for me, I came.
Now, may I ask why you sent for me?"

He replied with his vision.
While he was praying,
he suddenly saw a man in dazzling clothes.
The angel said,
"Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and
your alms have been remembered before God.
Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon,
who is called Peter."
Cornelius added, "So now all of us are here
in the presence of God to listen to all
that the Lord has commanded you to say."

Did anyone ever have a clearer invitation
to tell the good news of Jesus Christ?
I knew this must be from God.
The Spirit had brought these people to the gospel;
I must bring the gospel to the people.
I told them of Jesus:
his baptism,
his teaching,
his great signs and works,
his death,
his glorious resurrection,
his coming day when he will judge
the living and the dead,
the promise that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

I did not expect -
I was overwhelmed -
at what happened.
While I was still speaking,
the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard,
and they began to speak with tongues,
praising God,
just as we had done on the day of Pentecost.

Then I was struck with the full meaning of my vision.
The vision wasn't about food at all;
the vision was about people!
Jesus didn't die on the cross for food;
he died for people!
God had accepted these Gentiles,
just as he had accepted us.
God makes people clean,
Gentile and Jew alike,
clean by the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.
I remembered the words of our Lord,
"John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
If God gave them the same gift that he gave us,
who was I that I should hinder God?

I turned to the six Jewish believers
who came with me from Joppa.
"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing
these people who have received the Holy Spirit
just as we have?"
All the men from Joppa answered with one voice,
"God has received them;
God has baptized them with the Holy Spirit;
who are we to refuse?"
I gave the word;
the brothers from Joppa baptized
the new brothers and sisters in Caesarea.
We embraced each other,
Jew and Gentile alike,
in a holy embrace.
We praised God together with joy and thanksgiving.

There was so much that Cornelius and his house
wanted to learn about Jesus,
so much they asked about the believers
here at Jerusalem and in other towns.
They begged us to stay and teach them,
so we stayed for several days.
While we were with them,
they began to spread the news
among their kinfolk and friends,
arid soon more new believers were added
to the body.
Then they sent us off to Joppa,
rejoicing that God had given to Gentiles
the repentance that leads to life.

What will happen to Cornelius?
He is a man in the chain of command,
obeying the officers over him
and making decisions about the soldiers
under him.
Now he has a new commander;
he will obey God.
He will make his decisions in the light of his faith
in Jesus our Lord.

Cornelius made a decision to believe in Christ
and to obey him.
I made a decision:
Cornelius had been accepted by God,
and so I must accept Cornelius.
You and I, all of us in God's church,
have made the decision to belong to God
through Jesus Christ.
Yet also you and I have decisions to make each day,
several times each day.
At each fork of the road, we make the decision
to follow the way of Christ or some other way.
At each transaction in the marketplace,
each meeting with a friend,
we make a decision
based on our commitment to Christ
or a decision that backs away
from that commitment.

God grant that each of our decisions
shall show the love of God
embodied in Christ our Lord. Amen.