Two Headed Coins -or- There's Two Sides To Every Story

 

We walk into Acts chapter 11 today and find Peter having to explain himself.
It's no fun many time having to explain your actions or intentions to an audience that many times won't understand. People are funny, meaning "strange", by nature. We are raised with certain biases. We are taught certain traits. We even learn racial tones and familiar inflections by following what the generation before us has always done. The Church can fall prey to these tendencies as well. The church is made of human beings who have those natural or even carnal inclinations built in. Walking across those lines in a counter-cultural fashion can be deadly to one's familiar friendships, or even to one's own life. 

There's two sides to every story. I just explained one side. That should be easy enough to understand. And, from those well taught inclinations and biases would come feelings like, "Peter is out of his flipping mind!" "Who does he think he is? Going off and talking to a bunch of Gentiles about our Jesus!" "He should probably stop being an apostle if he intends to hang around with those people." 

Lets jump into Acts 11 and see what happens when Peter begins to explain what happened at Cornelius' house.

There are two sides to every story. And, many of us have lived through the way I explained things at the beginning. Maybe even some of us have even been partakers in the kind of stubborn headed, prejudicial way that people think when it comes to dealing  with those outside our own family lines or, dare I say, racial boundaries. 

Jesus, himself, pushed into this area as well to deal with our feelings about outsiders. John 4 is where we see our Lord sit down next to a woman at a well. Why would he be talking to a woman? This is the discourse the disciples engage in when they return from their short search for food. They come back and find Jesus in the middle of a conversation. But, it is who he is talking to that worries them more than why he is talking to her at all. A Samaritan woman is his audience. What did it mean to be Samaritan? A simple Google search on the word samaria shows us what many of us probably don't know.

"Samaria" has multiple meanings and uses, most notably referring to a significant ancient city that was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and also to the broader geographical region between Galilee and Judea in ancient Palestine. Linguistically, the name is derived from Hebrew and can mean "watch mountain" or "guardian," reflecting the city's strategic location. 

Well, that's a strong meaning to give to the word and the region for which it is about. But, that's not the story many of us are familiar with when it comes to this place or the people associated with it. For many of us, we have associated the people and area as a place where those who lived through the great times of bondage and oppression felt by the Hebrew people in the Old Testament. Times when people were either killed or taken to places like Assyria and Babylon. If they did survive, they most likely mixed in with the cultures from those places. If they or their ancestors go t the opportunity to return to Israel at all, then they were probably looked down upon. Thought of as "half breeds" and not truly Jewish. They even created their own holy mountain, similar to Jerusalem, in the north. Archeologist have uncovered much of the historic location at Mount Gerazim. After the Babylonian exile and destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, the Samaritan people build their own place of worship at Gerazim. The "mountain" piece if the original definition seems to live on but not with its original intention. All this should help us see and understand one side of he coin in this story. 

Jewish people are raised with these biases and many of us have been raised with certain prejudices of our own. We don't like to associate with certain people or have anything to do a family we aren't familiar with just because of what we don't know. We haven't taken the time to listen and understand either side of he story. The history. The background. Who they are. What they are all about. We haven't taken the time to hear either side of the story. We simply run with our gut and our gut tells us to run. Keep to ourselves. Stay away. 

When we enter into Chap 11, it looks like the audience around Peter might be headed in that direction already. They are blurting our what they think they know and understand and it sound like they are not happy with Peter and what he has done. Why is it that we seem to think that this religion, this Jesus, this faith and all that goes with it, is ours to possess and own? As we will see in the next section, people had been moving about and sharing the word about Jesus with others, but mainly staying within Jewish community. After hearing about Peter's exploits and the direction the apostle is given from Above, then we see others following suit. They seems to learn that this faith is not something keep to themselves or  within the bounds of a certain community. It is for everybody. Lets read on. 

Something of a fire took off in a place known as Antioch. So much so that the people who believe are given a name. Christians. Read what you want into the passage, there's nothing to suggest here that the word has any ill meaning. Many have suggested that the word comes from this need to focus on "Christ in me". People are going to associate us with what we feel is most important. If Jesus is most important to us, if that is what's bubbling out from inside through our lips and preceded by our actions, then so be it. Let people call us what they want. Let our lives be focused on Jesus Christ if that is what is truly important to us. 

We see Saul coming back into our story line. Barnabas has sought him out and brought the controversial new believer back into the story line. Why does Barnabas think he needs to go find Saul and bring him back to Antioch? There's no directive that we read about. No angel appears and speak to Barnabas saying, "Go get Saul". Barnabas was there a couple chapters ago right after Saul's conversion. There seems to be something that speaks to the disciple and says Saul is needed for this situation. Something Saul can share or witness to will take effect here. These men spend a year or more working in this town and growing the church. Have you ever felt that kind of direction? Have you ever been taken over with a desire to just go to a place and dive in? Share all you can about Jesus and what he has done for you? Read over the last part of Chapter 11 and let it wash over your soul. Maybe God wants to use you in a certain place or area. Maybe we need to hear both sides of the story. 

I love to tell the story

Twill be my theme in glory

to tell the old old story
of Jesus and his love

Blessings all