The Bible is adamant that God is building one church. The unity of the church is of paramount importance to God and has to overcome all our cultural, racial and gender preconceptions. Most of us are comfortable with people who are similar to us and there are many who advocate churches gathering along cultural or racial lines. There is even a principle espoused by the Church Growth movement, “the homogeneous unit” principle, which states that people are attracted to churches that have “their kind of people,” and advocates that we should be targeting a certain segment of the society (e.g. Generation Xers or ‘Baby Boomers’). I’m not comfortable with that, because I believe God is building a church ‘from every tribe and language and people and nation.’ (Rev 5:9) God is the one who chooses the people and He is wanting salvation to touch every age group and racial group without discrimination.

Steven J. Cole says that ‘the church should be as racially diverse as the local population,’ and I think this is true. The church needs people of all ages and races, because it is the family of God. The acceptance of Gentiles into the church in the same way as Jews (described in Acts 10 and 11 and elaborated by Paul in Ephesians 2 and 3) shows us clearly that we don’t get to pick and choose whom God chooses or how He works. Our wrong thinking has to be transformed; our minds have to be renewed. (Rom 12:1-2) One of the greatest testimonies to the power of God is to see people of all ages, temperaments, races and backgrounds working together for God’s glory, united in the love of God and serving His purposes for their locality and generation. May He work in us to bring together people and build His church.

Acts 11:1-18 shows us the ramifications of God’s miraculous work in both Peter and Cornelius. You would think that the message of salvation for the Gentiles would be warmly received since it is further evidence of God’s mercy, love and grace, but unfortunately since we are all people tainted by sin, we don’t always respond to God’s workings with as much enthusiasm as we should! Peter was roundly criticised by people who felt that being Jewish was the only way to approach God. The implications of what happened to Cornelius and his family – namely that the Holy Spirit fell on them just as He had on the Jews on the Day of Pentecost, demonstrating that God had granted repentance even to Gentiles without any need for circumcision or other rituals – meant a radical shift in beliefs which had uncomfortable ramifications for many people.

Peter needed God’s explicit instructions to go with Gentiles to Cornelius’s house and to let go of decades of living according to Jewish laws. Others needed to hear of the miraculous way in which God led all parties to accept the Gentiles as fellow believers rather than as the despised enemy. We face similar situations today, whether that it is accepting people of other races or beliefs or letting go of decades of prejudice and taboos. If there is anything which stops us reaching out to people (our cultural baggage, so to speak, including spiritual cultural baggage!), we need to let go of those things, for there is nothing more important than our obedience to Jesus’s Great Commission.

Acts 10 and 11 introduce to us one of the most radical changes in history, and not surprisingly, many Jews found this difficult to accept. Centuries of religious belief had led Jews to believe they were God’s chosen people and that the world would be saved and blessed through them. They were not averse to others becoming Jews, but this meant an adoption of all things Jewish, including circumcision (the visible sign of Jewishness for men) and dietary laws. For Gentiles to be accepted into the church without having to go through this initiation ritual or follow these food laws was a revolutionary concept.

Peter is forced to explain himself when members of the circumcision group asked why he had gone into the house of Gentiles and eaten with them. (Acts 11:2-3) His story (Acts 11:4-17) recounts the visions given to him and to Cornelius and what actually happened to persuade him to go there, as well as how the Holy Spirit fell on the group even as he was speaking. He remembered Jesus’s words to the apostles (Acts 1:5) and realised he was witnessing what Jesus had prophesied. How then could he stand in God’s way?

This explanation pacified the circumcision group at the time (though this became a recurring theme, as Acts 15 and Galatians 2 demonstrate.) We might feel impatient with the church’s difficulties in accepting Gentile believers with the benefit of almost two thousand years of history, but we do need to remember, as Tom Wright says, that we are all ‘more conditioned than we sometimes realise by the swirling currents of political, social and cultural pressures.’ (Tom Wright, ‘Acts For Everyone Pt 1’, P 175) Change is always difficult to accept because it challenges our preconceptions and our prior beliefs. Not all change is good and of God, so we need (like Peter) to be open to the Holy Spirit, rooted in God’s word and possessing a humility to accept that we do not have all the answers and may need to change. Peter later found it all too easy to revert back to the familiar (see Gal 2:11-12); often, this is the case with us too. Radical change will shake us, but God shakes us ‘so that what cannot be shaken may remain.’ (Heb 12:27) We personally benefit from this change – maybe there are others out there who will benefit from further changes if we are brave enough to listen to the Holy Spirit and move forward.

Grumbling and complaining are very human characteristics. We tend to do these on a daily basis almost without thinking about it. God gives us strict instructions about these, however, reminding us that grumbling once resulted in the deaths of many (1 Cor 10:10, see Exodus 15 & Numbers 16) and that we are to ‘do everything without grumbling or arguing.’ (Phil 2:14)

Grumbling often arises from selfishness, discontent and ingratitude, and a better way of dealing with situations is to look for the positive and speak positively (see James 3:9-10). It can be very easy to grumble and complain about people and situations – and even to extend this to grumbling against God (the many examples of grumbling in the wilderness are often associated with putting the Lord to the test.) When you find yourself grumbling or complaining, make a conscious decision to stop and to speak positively, to encourage and to bless. Not only does this help others, it puts a smile on our own faces!

Grumbling tends to focus on other people’s faults and failings (and there will always be plenty of those around.) One of the things we need to give up for Lent (and beyond) is our willingness to play the ‘blame game’. This is probably the oldest game in the world (see Gen 3:12-13). It’s great fun, because it absolves us from any blame and puts the fault squarely on someone else’s shoulders. But the blame game and grumbling are ways of avoiding our own responsibilities and culpability and we need to let go of these attitudes in order to embrace encouragement and blessing.

The story goes that when Michelangelo completed the painting of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, he was asked why he had spent so much time on areas which would be unseen by people because of the height and the position. His reply was that whilst these areas might not be seen by people, they were seen by God, and he painted for the glory of God.

We may feel that Michelangelo’s genius is beyond us and that his attitude therefore need not apply to us, but mediocrity is not a right response to God’s extravagant love and care for us. A laissez-faire attitude towards God is not what God requires. He seeks for us to give our all to Him, to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Excellence is the opposite of mediocrity, but it’s clothed in hard work. Thomas Edison once remarked, ‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.’ Michelangelo himself said, ‘If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.’ To eschew mediocrity means to be prepared to work hard at whatever God calls us to do: ‘And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ (Col 3:17)

Times of trouble concentrate the mind wonderfully and often help us to see what is truly important in life. When things are relatively calm, pettiness rears its head. Pettiness means we focus on trivial things that are not really important and act as though they are really significant. It seems to me, especially on social media, that we are very good at focussing on the petty and not very good at discerning what is truly important.

I have known arguments over things like the colour of curtains and feuds which have lasted decades over things which were really unimportant. We live in a society which enjoys being outraged and which takes offence at the least little thing. Such attitudes are not worthy of God’s children. He shows us what is really important in life (‘to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8)), and these are the things which need to engage our attention and time.

So let go of pettiness and concentrate on the big things in life!