My son discussed what his grandmother is eating. It is the comfort food of her childhood[1], which looks odd to me In part, he did this because many Chinese delicacies induce nausea to someone raised on porridge. potatoes and three veg and meat. What is clear in this passage is that Peter had kept Kosher all his life our of habit. It was what he knew: it was what everyone cooked. Show him things he does not know how to eat and has never eaten and he is disgusted.

It would be like someone serving me dog or cat. (Yes, there are places in this world where both would be eaten. In most places, there is no moral issue: there may be health issues. But the culture is not salvation, American and Jewish included.

Acts 10:1-16

¹In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. ²He as a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. ³One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” ⁴He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; ⁶he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” ⁷When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, ⁸and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.

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

Peter is the pioneer of transcultural evangelism. He had some advantages: he came from Galilee, which was considered a pretty interbred place, and he had been taken by Jesus into Samaria and across into the Decapolis, which was pagan. Palestine was run by the tetrarch Herod, but when he went to Jerusalem he was forced to interact with Roman legionaries.

Most of the Pharisees, however, argued that you should separate yourself from such. you should not eat with them. The rules of Kosher were more than the law, they were a barrier. There were many who sat in the synagogues but who could not join the people of Israel, for they were not Jews: they were Galatians, Italians, Greeks and Roman citizens.

The Romans did not care what cultus you worshipped provided you let the public religion continue.

This was about to be torn apart. With the conversion of Cornelius, a new thought entered the Roman world, one that would destroy the deification of emperor. lares and penares: Jesus Christ is Lord.

You cannot make religious compromises.

The king shall kneel at the altar with the beggar, for they both need forgiveness and salvation.

And our missionaries will eat food they find disgusting, lest there be a barrier to faith.

q. Water Egg, a steamed, gelatinous omelet.