Good News...for All People! Pavyzdys

For too long, many in the Church have argued that unity in the body of Christ across ethnic and class lines is a separate issue from the gospel. There has been the suggestion that we can be reconciled to God without being reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Scripture doesn’t bear that out. We only need to examine what happened when the Church was birthed to see exactly how God intends for this issue of reconciliation within the body of Christ to fall out. In the book of Acts, we begin to see what happens when God’s radical vision for the Church collides with the culture. Man is sinful and does not easily give up his prejudices and dislikes. But again and again, the Holy Spirit had His way and wrestled the people of God to submission on this issue of reconciliation.

The apostle Peter struggled with the vision of reconciliation. He was steeped in Jewish culture, which had taught him to see non-Jews as unclean. But God opened his eyes to a new truth when Peter fell into a trance. In this trance, he saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. These were clean and unclean animals, according to Jewish law! All mixed up together. And suddenly a voice spoke to him saying, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat” (Acts 10:13).

You can just imagine how insulted Peter was to hear these words! He understood that it was the Lord speaking, yet he said, “No, Lord.” Somewhere along the way, I’ve heard it said that you can’t say, “No” and “Lord” in the same sentence. They just don’t go together. If He is Lord, then He is Ruler and Commander. So the Lord tells Peter once again not to call what He has made unclean or common. This happened three times, but Peter was still confused about the vision.

I can identify with Peter. It’s taken a long time for me to really understand how crucial it is for the Church to be united. I’ve worked at the issue of reconciliation from the outside and I’ve worked with black churches and white churches. And I’m just now seeing clearly that the black church can’t fix this. And the white church can’t fix this. It must be the reconciled Church, black and white Christians together imaging Christ to the world.