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The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, \u201cYou went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.\u201d Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story... When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, \u201cSo then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.\u201d (Acts 11:1-4, 18)

There are many barriers visible and invisible that separate us from one another.

In Peter's day, one of them was the separation between Jews and everyone who wasn't a Jew (i.e. Gentiles).

Now Peter had just visited the home of Cornelius, who was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile. Peter had, through some Spirit-led prompting, become Cornelius' guest, an opportunity to practice Christian hospitality through receiving the experience set before him\u2014eating and staying with Cornelius and his household for a few days. This was already a break in the barriers of Jewish kosher laws and established practices.

Through God's not-so-subtle prompting Peter also shared the Gospel with these Gentile folks from the nations, and God poured out His Spirit upon them, before Peter had even finished speaking. This was a sign to them all that the barrier between Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the Earth had been obliterated. This experience of God's work upended the church's theology.

Today, we are deeply hesitant and skeptical to allow experience to overturn our theology and practice or break down our barriers. Experience is subjective, after all\u2014who can trust it? We much prefer objective facts and "clear" texts. Yet sometimes in doing so, we limit God's Sovereignty to our finite conceptions: pinning His wings to the cork like a biology project.

You can see that play out in this section of Acts 11. When the other apostles and believers hear that the Gentiles received the word of God\u2014they're taken aback. The theology and practice of the barriers said that Jews did not associate with Gentiles and neither did their God. So they immediately pile criticism on Peter, using many of the same words used by the Pharisees to criticize Jesus for eating with sinners.

But then Peter again moves in Christian hospitality: he does not react defensively, but in humility, takes the criticism and hears their concerns. In turn, they humbly listen in to Peter's story of God's Sovereign work in the lives of these Gentiles gathered in Cornelius' home.

At the end, the other apostles and believers simply praised God. Together, with humility and hospitality, they discerned together through the objections raised to this experiential anomaly, and when they did, they found it truly to be an act of the Sovereign Lord! So they praised Him for it. Barriers had been broken and theology upended, but God was in it.

Many conflicts have raged in the church over the years. Some still continue today. And more conflict will surly come, especially as we navigate these choppy waters of COVID-19 and whatever "re-opening" a church building and navigating new ways of ministry and worship together may look like.

But what if, as we enter into these places of likely conflict where our barriers, theology, and practices are challenged, what if we enter into those conversations with a Christ-like humility, love, and hospitality\u2014ready to hear and receive one another's experience, fears, and concerns? What if we enter in, assuming that the Sovereign Lord is already at work\u2014in ways that we may not fully understand, but perhaps can, together and with the Spirit's help, discern our way through?

May God continue to open our eyes and ears and humble our hearts and minds to discern His Sovereign work among us today.