I think I might just have to remain kosher if the Lord told me
to eat reptiles even if rattlesnake does taste like chicken. Of course the come
down on a sheet menu is really just a set up for what comes next. Three
gentiles come a calling and Peter goes to their house which is like eating
shrimp on the Sabbath. The categories of clean and unclean are designed to keep
one group pure by profaning the other. It begins with keeping oneself separate
and while segregation will satisfy for a time eventually violence is the final
solution. In the vision of the sheet the future imagined by God is revealed
where distinctions of clean and unclean and everything in between are erased
from the human vocabulary. The prophet Isaiah sees it as the sheet that covers
the nations, hatred, violence, pride leading to prejudice, lifted in favor of
forever feasting. To be faithful to the future is to follow it in the present
so as not to hinder God. Paul will say it this say it this way. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free because in Christ God
declares there is no distinction. So, while you certainly may decline the
rattlesnake appetizer, loving neighbor as self is not optional on the Christian
menu.
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