Emily Dickinson wrote, “The truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind.” Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 13:12), “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” It seems that each of these writers is implying that too much of a good thing would be too much of a good thing - that is, we’d be overwhelmed if God revealed ALL THINGS to us in the midst of this earthly life! We might also fall into the pride against which Paul warns in Ephesians 2:8-9: We are saved because God desires to save. Our salvation is not a reward, “so that no one may boast.”

The main characters in this week’s reading (and next week’s) are Cornelius, a God-fearer, a Gentile who chose to offer regular prayers and alms to God, and Peter, who had been the main speaker in the Pentecost events of Acts 2. Cornelius has seen, in a vision, an angel of God and has received a most beautiful affirmation: “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have ascended to God.” And he has received and obeyed the angel’s command that he send men to find Simon Peter.

Peter, meanwhile, is up on a housetop, waiting for lunch to be served. And he, like Cornelius, sees a vision (but of a different kind) - a sheet or canvas lowered to the ground by its four corners, filled with creatures Peter has dutifully avoided eating, because of the animals’ unclean nature, all the days of his life. And he hears a voice: “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” Three times comes the canvas, and three times comes God’s pronouncement.

What Peter THOUGHT he KNEW was now a matter of perplexity. And before Peter had had a chance to figure out what his experience MEANT, the Spirit informed him that he was to accompany, without hesitation, the three Gentiles who were “downstairs” looking for him at that very moment.

As we saw this week and will see next week, it seems that God graced Cornelius with PART OF the truth - and graced Peter with PART OF the truth. But each of these God-graced men remained incomplete in his knowledge of God’s plans. Each was caught by surprise and then led by the Spirit to join with the other in an unexpected partnership of faith.