The Food Sermon That Changed Everything

A Community I Was Learning to Know

We continued attending the Messianic synagogue. The people were friendly, and after each Saturday service, they invited us to a shared meal called Oneg.

I did not expect to enjoy staying after the service as much as I did. Many people volunteered to bring food, and the meal created space for conversation. We met people from many backgrounds and faith journeys. Their stories were different from mine, but I was grateful to listen and learn.

One day, someone handed us a small black prayer book called a siddur, which contained many of the prayers used during the service. I leaned over and told my husband, “We need to get one.” I was amazed that some people knew so many prayers by heart. I tried to give myself grace, but I still felt like I had a great deal to learn.

Then came a sermon that marked a turning point. I did not expect it to be a message about food, but it touched questions I had quietly carried for years.

A Sermon About Clean and Unclean Foods

The message focused on the categories of clean and unclean animals described in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Those passages were given within Israel’s covenant life and remain significant in Jewish practice and interpretation.

For years, I had wondered how those passages related to my own Christian faith. I had read the lists and asked why some believers continued to follow them while many Christians understood them differently.

Other Christians had pointed me to passages such as Mark 7:19, Acts 10, and Romans 14:14. Many understand Mark 7 as declaring all foods clean and Romans 14 as teaching that no food is unclean in itself. In Acts 10, the vision includes animals, while Peter later explains that God had shown him not to call any person impure or unclean.

Faithful readers reach different conclusions as they consider these passages together. Some understand the New Testament to release Christians from Israel’s dietary laws. Others emphasize Peter’s interpretation of the vision and continue distinguishing between clean and unclean animals.

At that point in my journey, the second understanding resonated with the questions I had carried. Hearing the sermon did not settle every theological debate, but it gave me language for a conviction that had been forming in me.

Holding a Personal Conviction With Humility

I began to see the biblical food boundaries as something meaningful rather than restrictive—a form of guidance I wanted to honor in my own life.

At the same time, I came to understand that receiving this practice personally did not make me Jewish, place me within the Jewish covenant, or require me to judge Christians who reached a different conclusion. It was a choice our family made as we sought to respond faithfully to what we believed God was showing us.

I also wanted to be careful not to speak as though one community takes Scripture seriously while another does not. Jewish, Christian, and Messianic readers bring distinct histories, interpretive traditions, and convictions to these texts. Respect does not require me to hide my conclusion; it asks me to hold it without dismissing someone else’s faith.

The sermon felt like a moment of clarity and relief. I remember sensing that this question was part of why God had led us there. My heart felt full, and I wondered with hope what else I might learn next.