Having grown up in the Church, trained at seminary, and working as a pastor, I've got a real insider perspective on things. I see the faults of the Church far more often and easily than I see the benefits - I take the benefits for granted.
This treatment of Cornelius helped me recover the radical Good News of the gospel. Gospel literally means Good News - and what Paul has to say to Cornelius is life changing, fog-dissolving, depression suppressing news. This guy who could never, ever be "in," could, in Christ, be "in." And not just as a convert or a latecomer, a step-child, but accepted and included as a full member in God's people with as much right and privilege as anyone else.
That is radically good news.
I often lose the reality of that gospel in the very real criticism that "Christians just want to tell me what to do," because, let's face it, we do. A lot. We're infatuated with telling people what to do, especially people who've never even asked for advice.
I wonder if the "insiders" forget what it's like to be outside, feel out of place, unloved, lost, or alone. That probably means we're spending too much time with insiders.
I tend to cringe when people talk about Jesus - not because I have any problem with Jesus, of course I don't. I suppose I've just seen the Church get it wrong more than we get it right. I often assume the worst because very rarely do the words we say sound like good news.
Perhaps we get caught up in trying to explain something that can only be experienced. People have lived through too many empty "I love yous" to put much stalk in even earnest talk.
Peter had to travel a distance to get to Cornelius. He had to walk into the home of a Roman soldier, a non-Jew. He ate and talked and laughed with his family. The good news was only good news because it was consistent with experience.
Perhaps we just do away with this insider-outsider nonsense and just love people like they're worth loving - just because they're people.
I suspect being loved without condition is exceptionally good news.
This month, and apparently it's available now on Amazon, another book is coming out. I did not write this one, although I wrote a chapter in it. It has my name and thoughts and stuff included. It is also from a publishing company - a small, relatively young publishing company, but a really good one. If they can recoup the cost of publishing the book, I will make some small sum of money from it.
This post is shameless self-promotion, but of course, I would not have contributed to the book if I didn't think it was a good book. Quite frankly, it's a better book than I anticipated. My chapter is one of the least good parts of it - and my chapter ain't half bad.
The book is called "One in Christ," it focuses on shalom, in short. The subtitle is "Reconciliation, Justice, and Mutuality. Really it is about the Kingdom of God, the reality and future of a world in which people get along with each other, not for any other reason than because we are made to get along with each other.
The book is written in a cool narrative style - each chapter features a dramatic retelling of a passage of scripture, along with several real life narrative examples of a similar theme. The commentary and exposition is at a minimum to emphasis the evolving, relational aspect of life and faith. Hopefully, this technique allows readers to imagine the Kingdom as it is and as it is becoming - and also to imagine ways in which we can all participate and contribute to God's shalom in the world.
Christians believe in resurrection - that means we have to get along with each other, because we're always going to be here. Death is not the end; you can't wait someone out or ignore them. We need each other and we must get along with each other. That takes something special, something beyond our own abilities. We need the grace of God to be different, to be what we were created to be. Scripture helps us discover that grace and, hopefully, this book can help us better discover scripture and our place in the world.
