It is 7:30 Wednesday morning local time and in just a few minutes I must meet our group and file on the bus for the day's journey. As I write, I am sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Tel Aviv. To my right is the Mediterranean coast looking remarkably like the South Texas coast. Dead ahead along the beach about five miles distant is St. Peter's Church in Jaffa, (ancient Joppa) built on the traditional sight where Peter received the revelation of a boat sail filled with iced-down brewskies and heard God say, "Arise, Peter, pop a top and chug-a-lug." (Acts 10.13) Well, all right, it was non-kosher animals and God said, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat," but to someone raised fundamentalist Baptist the emotional impact comes through more clearly in my paraphrase.
Dr. Jim Dennison, our guide, pointed out last night that Joppa is also where Jonah went in an effort to, as Herman Melville phrased it, "flee world-wide from God." (Jonah 1.3) The connection struck me: Jonah went all undocumented alien from the port at Joppa because God told him to go preach salvation to people Jonah didn't want saved. Now Peter finds himself in the same city and sees a ship's sail (the Greek term used by Luke) full of forbidden food and hear's God tell him to chow down. Next comes a delegation of actual Gentiles (reading their menu had been sickening enough) and the call from God to preach salvation to them. Peter faces a choice: Go with these seekers as ordered, or catch a boat for the nearest whale's belly.
This becomes personal for me: I don't like to travel. I don't like having my routines interrupted nor my biases disarranged. But as I sit staring up the coast to Joppa on our first full day in Israel I hear God say, "Arise, Jackson, open up and take it all in."
I'm going to try. I hate the smell of fish. . .especially from the inside.
Very lighthearted and yet decisively thought provoking. Looking forward to the trip.
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