Fried Rattlesnake (Acts 10)
Do you think St. Peter ever ate a snake? Acts chapter 10-11 it says that God showed Peter a vision of a hillbilly banquet coming down out of heaven (this is how some folks prove that heaven is East Texas, but I am not so sure). Anyway, it says there’s a snake on the blanket and God tells Pete to kill some and have a bite.
I’ve eaten snake—fried rattlesnake to be more precise. Some people say it tastes like chicken. No, it tastes like snake.
The authorities would not let me have an open flame cooking class up here today. I can, however, tell you how to prepare a fried rattlesnake dinner that contains all four food groups.
1. Bake a chocolate cake (this is the 1st food group).
2. Fry two pounds of bacon in a cast iron skillet. Leave ½ pound on the drainboard to much on while you’re cooking, and put the rest in the fridge.
3. Leave the bacon grease (2nd food group) in the skillet.
4. Go outside and find a big rattlesnake.
5. Kill the snake.
6. Nail the snake’s head to a tree.
7. Go in the house, skin and boil six large potatoes.
8. Go back outside and cut the snake down the middle being careful to not ruin the rattles.
9. Cut the skin away from the head.
10. Pull down hard and steady.
11. Lay the skin in the sun to dry.
12. Instruct the dog to leave the snakeskin alone.
13. Cut the body away from the head.
14. Disengage the guts.
15. Wash whatever you are left holding.
16. Slice the meat into half-inch thick patties.
17. Pour a lot of flour onto two plates, and scramble three eggs in a bowl.
18. Put black pepper and some cayenne pepper and some salt in the second mound of flour.
19. Put some more pepper and salt in the first mound of flour.
20. Put in more pepper—you’re about to eat a rattlesnake.
21. Check the grease. It should be hot enough that a lady spit jumps back out of the skillet. (Lady spit is small, projectile spittle shot off the front of the tongue as though you were trying to get rid of a piece of lint or a hair.)
22. Dip the meat in the first mound, then in the egg, then in the second mound.
23. Do not drop, but gently lay the battered meat into the hot grease. If done correctly you’ll not get burned. If done wrong, you’ll learn.
24. Heat up the oven.
25. Wrap a bunch of bread in foil.
26. Put the bread in the oven.
27. Leave the meat in the grease until it’s brown on the bottom, then turn it over.
28. Put a couple paper towels on a plate.
29. When the meat is brown on the other side lay it on the paper towels.
30. Cover the meat with two more paper towels.
31. Repeat the above snake cooking steps until all the snake is cooked.
32. Fork-test the potatoes.
33. If they’re done, drain off the water, add a stick of butter (3rd food group) and some milk.
34. Mash the lumps out of the potatoes.
35. Put two cans of peas in a big bowl with a half stick of butter.
36. Put the bowl in the microwave.
37. Nuke the peas.
38. Leaving the fire low, slowly sprinkle the left over flour into the left over grease and scratch it around until the flour is cooked.
39. Slowly add whole milk, while squishing out the lumps. Do not add too much milk. The final consistency resembles grayish-brown wallpaper paste. This process takes some practice, but eventually you will scratch through the lumps and have the fourth food group: gravy.
40. Take the peas out of the microwave and the bread out of the oven.
41. Put everything on the table.
42. Call everybody to eat.
43. Feed them fried rattlesnake while you eat mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and chocolate cake.
If Peter had the recipe he probably would not have drawn back from that tablecloth full of food. Mudbugs, rabbit, possum, ham, oysters, all that stuff is pretty good when it’s prepared correctly. Peter just had a vision without a recipe—he saw the food, but did not understand how to prepare it.
Fortunately, the Bible does not end with Peter’s vision. If we read the rest of the chapter, we learn that the point is not about food. God was preparing Peter to share forgiveness with the Gentiles (non-Jewish folks like us). Let’s read the story
(Acts 11:1-18 NIV) The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
The obvious first issue in this story is that we can eat whatever we please. We are no longer bound by the eating restrictions of Mosaic Law. But, you and I do not have a problem with dietary laws. From the look of us, we don’t have any problems eating. So we need to find additional meaning.
Peter says that the vision of the food was to help him understand that because God made all people, the Good News is withheld from no one. Race, religion, lifestyle, economic station and the like do not hold back God’s offer of forgiveness. We are all sinners in need of Jesus’ salvation. Again, however, I doubt that any of us in this room would try to make a case for segregating a group of people from the Gospel.
I think that the issue may be simpler than what to eat or who should hear about Jesus. The issue is grow up and go up.
Grow Up
Peter had to realize that his pious religiosity did not impress God. You and I do not get any points from the throne when we act real spiritual either. Grow up past relying on religious points of order and trust your life to a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Grow up past cursing the neighbors and bless them instead. Grow up past having to be right and start overlooking offenses. Grow up past coming to church so you can shake your finger at someone who stays home and start worshiping the Lord. Grow up past trusting gossip into trusting God’s word. Grow up past basing your salvation on abstinence from things God made (alcohol or crab legs for example) to the fact that Jesus will save our sorry souls from hell—even though none of us deserves it.
Go Up
Some people seem to be waiting for a crisis to strike before they will love others. Stop waiting for lightning to strike your brother—go up to him and love him. Stop waiting for your sister’s kid to get pregnant—go up to her and love her. Stop waiting for your neighbor to wreck her car—go up to her and care about her.
The point of this story is that the gospel is not withheld from you. God came up to you when you needed Him. He did not withhold the Good News from you.
To the first believers in the first church, you and I were unfit for the Good News. Because we are Gentiles, the first Christians would have though of us as not fit to share their supper. Peter’s first inclination—as a good Jewish man—was to withhold the gospel from people like you and me. God had other plans and Peter followed God’s plans.
Of course, it follows that if the gospel is not withheld from you and me, we do not want to withhold it from others, right? So, how do we get the word out? This is real simple:
Prepare the way
When you or I want to tell our friends and neighbors about Jesus, we might consider smoothing out the road first. If you think your calling is to go door-to-door to spread the gospel, that’s a great idea. If you think you should accost the occupants of the homes you visit with a turn or burn message, you’re wrong. That is not you calling. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Prepare the way by walking around your neighborhood, asking God to bless your neighbors. That’s it, just ask for a blessing. I have a very strong belief that when enough God gets on my neighbors, they will want more. I think that when God invades their home, He will turn off the junk and turn on the light. I think that when some of the junk gets cleared away, they might be able to hear me preaching.
Know the way
So what will I say to them when my neighbors are ready to hear about God? Please do not walk them through your Bible. Instead tell them your story of how you found Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus you have not always been. The Bible teaches us that everyone must to turn to God from a position of recognizing themselves as a sinner—all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
The story of how you recognized yourself as a sinner and turned to Jesus for forgiveness is your story. Whether you turned to him at age nine or forty-nine, no one else has a story like yours. Practice telling your story in two minutes, and then ask God to let you tell it to someone for whom you’ve prepared the way.
Show the way
Let’s review. You prayed that God would bless your neighbor, your niece, your Dad, your daughter, whomever (but at least the people who live on your block). These neighbors start to talk to you in a new way because God is getting into their lives. They ask what makes you so different and you tell them—in two minutes—your story. When your neighbor heard your story he looked at you a little differently than usual and said, “Oh, that’s nice.” Then he went back inside his house. Now what do you do?
You keep blessing him. I guarantee that sooner or later your neighbor will encounter a problem that he cannot solve on his own. Since he knows that you are connected to God, he will ask you for help.
Your neighbor’s entreaty is not your opportunity to preach. It’s your chance to pray. Listen to his problem, but offer no advice. None, zero, nada (tough, huh?). instead, show him the way to God by praying that God will solve his problem.
At that moment, God has your buddy right where He wants him. When you pray with your friend, you will open him or her up to what God can offer. Let the Father do the rest.
Thank you Father for letting us into your family. Help us share your Good News of forgiveness with our neighbors and our family. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
