Acts 10:24-11:15: No Favoritism (Inclusion) Friday's Reading!

More Than We Think

Peter arrives to a whole household (family, servants, friends), rather than just a meeting with one person. People in sales know that each customer is connected to a network of up to 200 or more (sometimes much more). Meeting a true need for a person or gaining a fully satisfied customer will have an impact far beyond that person. This is why I believe authentic witness in our everyday work settings has been greatly underrated. Hunger for the love of God and the desire for a better and more productive life is all around us. If we build genuine relationships with people, then when we have the opportunity to share faith it is not only heard by that person, but also by many others in that person’s network.

Peter notes right away the uniqueness of their meeting. He is learning the lessons of “inclusion”, rather than “exclusion” (our theme for this week in Slaughter’s book). It’s easy to underestimate what Peter was facing. For a Jew there were two kinds of people, Jews and the ethnoi (the other nations), God’s chosen and “the others.” It was and continues to be an exclusive religion. Jews are not out to convert others, they are just to be a faithful separate people. Jews can and are called of God to bless the world, but they do not desire for the world to become Jewish. Christianity, on the other hand, is meant to be an “inclusive” faith that constantly broadens in influence and number. The Holy Spirit drives us toward inclusion, constantly taking down barriers between people and overcoming divisions based on history and customs.

Gentiles Receive the Spirit

Peter, after preaching the gospel, is surprised to see that the Holy Spirit falls upon the people even before they are baptized or make profession of faith, right while Peter is speaking. That must have been one astonishing moment. Peter goes back to the disciples in Jerusalem and things do not play well. It took a lot of persuasion to get the “buy in” of the Jewish Christian leadership. Isn’t it interesting how quickly we determine the ways that God acts or does not act? The religious leaders were sure that Christianity was to be a Jewish movement, but it was more than that. Their first reaction then was to resist this move of the Spirit.

You and I live in a time when the Holy Spirit is moving in new ways that require risk and the real possibility of failure. In the days ahead, the Church may well have to learn to fail forward! I wonder what surprises God has in store. What things will we end up doing that we have never done before? What resistance points will we find in ourselves and in those around us?