acts 2

we couldn’t understand anybody 

we were alone in the city

this great big city by itself 

but now

with so many visitors 

from so many nations 

speaking so many languages 

we truly couldn’t understand anybody 

we were alone

when we tried to speak the local language 

nobody could understand us either

we would try to find food 

or a shelter 

and people would look at us 

like we were aliens

which I guess we were to them

but still

we kept getting lost

and were alone and hungry

and we didn’t know how to find the festival 

even with all the crowds 

or maybe because of them 

there was some commotion 

in a building 

maybe a house

off to one side

a lot of voices

many people crowded around 

we came closer

there were people speaking 

a lot of different languages 

but amazingly 

as clear as could be 

we heard a voice speaking our language 

we stood gaping

at this new word we could hear and 

understand

then

one of them stepped forward to speak 

to say they weren’t drunk at 9 a.m.

and then to quote a prophet 

and to talk about 

a Spirit being poured out on everybody

and then to talk more about someone 

named Jesus

others came through the crowd 

to help us 

one of them asked us 

not in our language 

if we needed anything 

I said 

as best as I could in their language 

we were hungry 

and somehow she understood 

and took us in

and gave us food to eat 

so we were fed twice that morning 

we knew then

that we would not be returning to 

our homeland alone

even if 

we would be traveling 

by ourselves

acts 11 1-18

if the same story appears 

in some fashion 

three different times 

in the same book of scripture 

we should probably consider 

that it is a

very important story 

acts 10

narrates the original event 

peter will refer to that event 

one more time 

in acts 15

acts 11 is the defense when peter gets summoned 

(not merely called or invited)

to appear before the council 

of church leaders 

in jerusalem 

they are apparently 

bent out of shape 

over peter’s eating with gentiles 

so what does peter do but

tell the story 

more specifically 

tell the story of what God did

right down to 

the Holy Spirit tripping out

on cornelius and his household 

after all

you have to figure some of them 

had been at pentecost 

there was silence

and then there was praise 

that what God had done for them

God had now done for gentiles too

sadly though 

I can’t shake the feeling 

that even through the silence 

and then the praise 

some of those council members 

were still trying to figure out 

a way to get peter in trouble 

for eating with gentiles