From every nation
Day 501, Thursday, Dec. 25
Acts 10:23-48
What was suggested in yesterday’s reading is made explicit in today’s reading. Peter tells the believers gathered at the house of Cornelius: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”
While Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit comes upon all those who are listening. “The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles.”
Circumcision, like dietary laws, is a source of recurring disputes in the New Testament. Christianity in its very earliest days was seen as a sect of Judaism; there were those in the early church who believed that a person must become a Jew in order to be a follower of Jesus. That conversion, for men, required circumcision.
In verses 47 and 48 Peter makes it clear he does not require circumcision before allowing the new Gentile believers to be incorporated into the believing community by being baptized.
It is worth noting that baptism, the entry ritual for the Christian community, is open equally to men and to women, unlike the Jewish entry ritual of circumcision.
There are times that the New Testament seems to diminish the role of women when judged by our 21st-century standards, but it’s important to realize how much it elevated women’s place in the community by the standards of its own day.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Thursday meditation

Psalms 49:1-12
Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike: My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:
Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me—those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—so that they should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.
People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.

Prayer focus
On this Christmas Day, Lord, we thank you for coming into the world to save us all from sin and death.