Breaking Out of Our Boxes

Introduction

It’s Just A Steeple: In 16th-century England, a disagreement erupted among well-meaning Christians about the shape of their church steeples. Some wanted them tall and pointed, claiming they aimed to reach heaven, while others preferred a more rounded dome, believing it embodied God's embrace. This bickering became so intense that townsfolk joked about forming a council to chart the 'Official Church Steeple Shape.' The light-hearted contention reminds us that even good intentions can lead to quirky disagreements. It signals how, within our faith, keeping unity is a challenge despite our love for God!

Jesus commands the church to be unified, but we need more than just good will to accomplish this goal.

The church is called to serve as a sign of God’s welcome to all people, but in practicality, welcoming all kinds of people is hard work.

In my own experience, I remember

Generational Divides over worship: instruments, hymn books, song choice and dress codes

Cultural Divides: Attending a church started by Dutch immigrants, should they sing a traditional Christmas song in Dutch.

Culinary Divides: As some people brought dishes to potlucks that people weren’t familiar with.

The Temptation is for us to silo into churches of similar people

This could make congregational life easier, but tends to increase misunderstanding and hostility between congregations or denominations.

It also leaves people from small groups without a place to call home

So how can we find unity while being faithful to Jesus’ call to diversity?

Paul’s First Missionary Journey Provokes a situation where the church must wrestle with the tensions of creating unity while fostering diversity.

For God’s people, who had previously always been ethnically or at least culturally homogenous, this involved some painful sacrifices.

But we see in their interactions a seriousness about holding these tensions of unity and diversity together.

PROPOSITION: So if We’re serious about our calling as the church, we need to pursue a diversity that will almost inevitably lead to conflict and misunderstandings, so we must work to maintain our diversity by making everyone feel welcomed, making everyone feel heard, and making everyone feel valued.

I. Making Everyone Feel Welcomed

Despite Jesus’ command to be witnesses all over the world, the earliest believers—all Jews—had a preference for reaching out to their own people.

The earliest evangelism focused in Jerusalem, but as it the good news spread out, it stayed largely confined to diaspora communities.

Eventually, the Spirit compelled Peter to share Good News with Cornelius and his family, and they experienced a sort of second pentecost.

Through his actions, God had clearly shown that he wanted Gentiles to be welcomed into the church as full members.

So when Peter reported what the Spirit had done to leaders in Jerusalem, they accepted, at least in principle, that God wanted the church to welcome Gentiles.

However, despite their recognition that Gentiles had a place in the church not a lot of evangelism happened until Paul & Barnabas

Their travels in Cyprus and Asia Minor greatly increased the number of Gentiles in the church.

The increased points of contact between Jews & Gentiles made questions of how they relate more urgent

How Paul made people feel welcomed

Because Jews had a very particular diet, food was an obvious place for the first flashpoint between how Jews and Gentiles related.

We see this in an interaction between Peter and Paul in Antioch

Paul had to confront Peter because his exclusion of Gentiles from the table undermined the unity of the church.

Paul recounts the story in Galatians 2:11-14

Galatians 2:11–14 NIV

11 When Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Paul values unity, but here he knows he has to risk the fight because the church needs to make sure that Gentiles feel like full members. They won’t if Jews eat separately.

Jews exclusion of Gentiles from table fellowship is a sign that they aren’t accepted. Jews exclusion of Gentiles, tends to created hostility among Gentiles towards Jews

So if the Jews and Gentiles can’t figure out how to eat together, conflict is going to pop up in every area of their relationship.

When Paul returns to Antioch, following his first missionary journey, he encounters exclusionary attitudes among some in the church.

Acts 15:1 NIV

1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

It might seem counter-intuitive that having a fight is necessary to maintain unity, but when one group is acting in a way that excludes, it can become necessary.

Paul fights to ensure that the church can stay open for all who would receive Jesus.

Making People Feel Welcome Today

While the church today doesn’t divide over Jew vs. Gentile Identity, we also struggle with making the church a welcoming place for all kinds of people

Without actively forbidding certain groups to come, we often act in ways that make others feel unwelcome.

Maybe its an emphasis on political and cultural issues that are popular with a particular group

Maybe its leadership that only reflects a single gender, generation or a single ethnic group

Our exclusions doesn’t even need to be intentional

Things we say or do send signals about the kind of people ‘we’ are. If that idea of ‘we’ excludes people who attend, they can feel unwelcome

Creating a community where everyone is like me feels natural and comfortable, so we often fall into it without intending to do so.

At the same time, we don’t even realize we’re doing it, so we need to try to be mindful of how others might feel.

Its also helpful, if we’re feeling like second class citizens, to explain how we feel and give suggestions for how that could be fixed.

Having a conciliatory tone when telling others how their actions make us feel excluded goes a long way to maintaining unity in an uncomfortable situation.

And if people are expressing how they feel excluded by me or my group, avoiding a defensive posture is also helpful for maintaining unity

If we want to build a community of unified diversity, we have to be willing to tolerate some discomfort and conflict. If we humbly work through the uncomfortable parts, we’ll be better at our calling (to show how God welcomes everyone)

II. Making Everyone Feel Heard

Unity can only survive if we have cultivated a willingness to discuss our areas of disagreement in a loving and respectful way.

How Paul Made Everyone Feel Heard

Paul could easily say, “In our Churches, we don’t require Gentiles to follow the Law,” but he wants to maintain the unity of church, so he requests a meeting with leadership in Jerusalem, so everyone can have their say and a consensus can emerge.

The group head to Jerusalem for ‘the council of Jerusalem’ where they hash out the issues.

Acts 15:5–6 NIV

5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question.

Peter shares his experience preaching to Cornelius, pointing out that God has already voted by giving the Holy Spirit to Gentiles who had not been circumcised. He summarizes by saying,

Acts 15:10–11 NIV

10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

To back this up, Paul and Barnabas are invited to share what they’ve seen God doing among Gentile churches.

When everyone is heard, James gives voice to the consensus: God had acted to invite the Gentiles in, so it wasn’t the church’s job to stand in the way.

Acts 15:13–19 NIV

13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon [Peter] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16 “ ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’— 18 things known from long ago. 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

The church didn’t come to a full decision until all the parties had a chance to explain their perspective.

How we make everyone Feel Heard

If we live as a multi-generational, multi-cultural family that invites all to come, we’re going to have misunderstandings.

We have to avoid one of two pitfalls

Being offended and not talking about it (this only makes our sense of grievance fester)

Making the space feel uncomfortable for people who are different than the dominant group (so the people who are different naturally go away)

If we feel hurt by others, we need to bring it to light, but we will have more success if we bring it up in a constructive, rather than confrontational way.

Do we believe the best of each other or the worst. When a disagreement happens, do we default to believing it’s an oversight, or that it’s the other person or group deliberately trying to anger and exclude us?

Explaining: “When this happens, this is how it makes me feel” is more helpful than “You always do this”

When we work to address these concerns, it shows goodwill to the group who feels agreived (this is especially important for the dominant group to show goodwill to the less dominant group). This helps build unity.

Another example is in the distribution of food - Hellenistic Jews felt their widows were getting unfairly overlooked, so the Apostles appointed Hellenistic Jews to oversee the church’s benevolence program.

So let’s remember, no one in the church should feel like they are a second class citizen who has no voice because they’re a part of a minority group. Everyone needs a voice.

III. Making Everyone Feel Valued

The Council in Jerusalem reaches a conclusion that asks the two groups to submit themselves to one another in love. As we value one another enough to lay down our freedom in love, we build a community that can stand in the face of disagreements.

How The Church Made Everyone Feel Valued

The council concluded that Gentiles didn’t need to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses.

Jews had been commanded by God to follow him in a specific way. But it was the specific way God had for them.

The law represented a way of serving God that made sense for that cultural group

But there are other ways that other groups in different cultural contexts can serve God.

The common ingredient is allegiance (faith) towards Jesus.

The particulars (Sabath observance, circumcision, kosher diet) were cultural expressions of love for God. In other cultures it could be expressed differently.

So Gentiles didn’t need to become culturally Jewish to follow Jesus. But Despite their freedom from the law, the council asked the Gentiles to avoid certain activities that would most offend the Jewish Christians.

Acts 15:28–29 NIV

28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

So if the Gentiles don’t need to follow the law, what is the meaning of the exceptions the Apostles make?

This isn’t intended as a comprehensive list of Christian behaviours. (nothing about greed, dishonesty, violence for example)

The Apostles are asking them to avoid behaviours associated with pagan worship, knowing such practices will cause the greatest offence to Jewish Christians.

Pagan religious practices often involved eating sacrificed meat (with blood or that had been strangled) and cultic sexual practices.

Christians should make a clean break from these places of pagan worship, especially because these sins will be especially offensive to Jewish believers.

What we see in this compromise is mutual submission.

Jews give up their right to enforce cultural uniformity on their Gentile brothers and sisters

Gentiles give up some practices understanding that they would be especially triggering for Jewish brothers and sisters.

This works because both groups value the other enough to give up something to remain in community.

Making Everyone Feel Valued Today

Aside from the command to abstain from sexual immorality, the list of commands the church gave the Gentiles doesn’t seem relevant to us.

Because we didn’t come out of pagan idolatry and because we don’t have a mix of Jews and Gentiles, the issues that cause conflicts are different.

But there are things that every church can easily do that make some people feel unwelcome.

The way we talk about other cultures, people who have different political convictions

The way we act towards new Christians who might not have a full grasp of the Bible.

The way we treat single people or married couples who haven’t had kids

Whatever the issue, do we value others enough to adapt to their needs and sensitivities?

We need to communicate to others what we need or what would help us to feel welcomed, but avoid the temptation to try to force the issue.

It’s more profitable to ask myself, “how can I change to make that person or group feel welcome” rather than, “How should they change to make me feel welcome”.

As we accommodate each other in our differences, we’ll find that we can build a loving community with people who are very different than us. And this is a sign pointing towards Jesus’ coming universal kingdom.

Conclusion

When Jesus told his disciples to go into the nations and make disciples, he knew he was giving us a hard job

He wasn’t just telling them to instruct people about his teaching, but also to teach them to be a united family

It’s hard enough being family with people like you, but it’s much harder with others who are different.

But Jesus gave us this command because it shows his power at work in us

When a worldwide body of people who are very different holds together, it says something about the power of whatever is at the centre of their common identity.

But to be the sign Jesus wants us to be, means making everyone feel welcome, even when this involves discomfort

When we look for the comfortable and the familiar at church, we may inadvertently be acting as a roadblock to the church’s mission.

So let’s love one another enough that we’re willing to be uncomfortable so that we can be one.