Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, June 29, 2013 Read – Acts 10:1-8 The story of Peter and Cornelius is a watershed story in the book of Acts and in the story of the church. The story of the mission of God’s people to the Jewish people of Jerusalem and all Judea, and with it the mission to the Samaritans lies now in the past, in the background of the story. We can be certain that the mission to the Jewish people continued and the point here is certainly not that this first mission was complete. But the mission to the Jewish people is in the past with regard to Luke’s story. It will be important that we do not forget this mission. Without it the second mission could and would never have happened. But a new day is dawning as we begin to read Acts 10. We noticed that the story of Saul on the Damascus Road was an important story because Luke tells it three times – this story is also important and Luke repeats it twice and refers to it later. Because Luke tells the story twice in a short span of time makes reading the book of Acts a bit tedious at this point – however originally the story would have been heard orally since most people did not read and an oral experience of this story is far from tedious. What makes this story a watershed story and so crucial in the structure of the book of Acts is that Cornelius is a Gentile. So far everyone who has become a believer in the story is Jewish. The one possible exception is the Ethiopian eunuch, but Luke slips by that by leaving his race ambiguous and it is the fact that he is a eunuch that rises to importance. Here, it is abundantly clear that Cornelius is a Gentile – a Roman soldier at that! While he is pictured as a God-fearing man and devout he is certainly not to be thought of as a proselyte. The line of demarcation between Jews and Gentiles is crystal clear in the OT scripture. By this time in history the rules about conduct between Jews and Gentiles were even more strict and hardened. Jews would not eat with Gentiles, nor enter their houses or welcome them into their Jewish house. To do so would have been to become contaminated spiritually. We cannot stress enough how terribly difficult it was to cross the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. Even Jesus seems to respect this barrier – the command to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel is clear. The story of the Canaanite woman who pleads with Jesus to receive even the crumbs that fall from the table is witness to how firm this barrier was (Mark 7:24-30). It is significant and peculiar that Luke omitted that story from Mark – perhaps he was looking forward to the story he would tell in the book of Acts. The story begins with God sending an angel to the Gentile, Cornelius. God makes the first move! That is an important thing for us to notice in this story. Luke tells us Cornelius sees this angel in a vision – just as Ananias had been told by God in a vision to go and pray for Saul. Cornelius provides a perfect first venture across the barrier since he is so devout – he sounds almost like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon, and Anna. So the story is engaged and God has taken the first step. Cornelius is to send for Peter.