| Acts 10: 1 – 8 “He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In!” –Edwin Markham God is cracking open the world, and, if we have not perceived this before in the ministry of Jesus (Samaritans and Phoenician women, and demoniacs in the Decapolis), it becomes overt in the Book of Acts with the conversion of a large group of Samaritans (considered unclean within 1st century Judaism), an Ethiopian eunuch, and now the movement of God in the heart of a Gentile Roman military man. The Roman military had its own religious prescriptions, advocating the old Roman gods and the cult of the Emperor. This was, furthermore, a time of ferment within the military ranks, with Mithraism especially popular. Christianity quickly gained adherents among the Roman military legions, and its main rival among military men for the next three centuries was Mithraism. |
| Cornelius, like the proverbial Theophilus, loved God. We know that he and his household held God in awe (“feared” God) and were generous in almsgiving. One afternoon at three o’clock he has a vision that fills him with terror. That a seasoned Roman soldier is terrified reminds us that God is not tame, and that the first reaction to an encounter with God or God’s messengers is generally one of great fear. Cornelius is oriented toward God, though the specifics of his dogma are probably not well-defined. He loves God, lives justly, and has thus prepared the ground of his heart for the Good News soon to be brought to him. As an uncircumcised Gentile and a military man, the last source of embrace he might have expected would be from among those of Jewish descent, who fiercely guarded the boundaries of Judaism. Yet he is told in this vision to send for a Jew called Peter, staying in Joppa with a tanner named Simon; and that is what Cornelius does, dispatching two of his slaves and one of the soldiers in his charge. A religion is a rule of life, a ‘regla,’ and necessarily entails boundaries and definitions which guide the conscience and provide contours for healthy spirituality and right worship. Yet, it is error to imagine that God operates within the parameters of any faith-system, however vitalized. God is too vast to be contained within even the most adequate of human religious expression, and human beings frequently come to idolize their religions rather than the God who summoned forth the worship religion exists to guide. Cornelius has no idea what is afoot in today’s reading. Something is up, that’s for sure. His spirit is disquieted and unsettled. He must wait. The moment for answers lays shrouded and yet ahead. Grace and peace, The Reverend Canon George F. Woodward III Rector “Be Thou my vision O Lord of my heart, Naught be all else to me save that Thou art, Thou my best thought In the day and in the night, Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light.” Hymnal #488 Previous Reflections may be found on the parish website StPaulSMA.com under ‘Blogs’ here. YouTube postings are available here. Previous editions of THE EPISTLE can be found here. |
| St. Paul’s Anglican Church Calzada del Cardo, 6 Centro 37700, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 415.121.3424 www.StPaulSMA.com |