Let’s be clear, the recent rhetoric around Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, has been found to be untrue. But there was a time when early Christians feared what and how others ate, and the lesson it teaches applies to us today as followers of Jesus.
When Paul confronted Peter and the other apostles about no longer eating with Gentiles (Galatians 2:11-21), he knew the underlying issue wasn’t what Gentiles ate, but it was about who the Gentiles were. They were “strangers” and “others” to the still immature and developing Christians and church leaders.
Underneath the rhetoric of what the Gentiles were eating as unclean and unwholesome was a failure to understand the Image of God, the Mission of God, and the Movement of God that was in their midst. What set the Apostle Paul’s mindset apart from the other apostles was that he knew the vulnerable and the poor were an integral part of the Christian worldview (Galatians 2:10).
We are changed most by those at our dinner tables.
Our churches can only be as diverse and welcoming as our tables. Divisive rhetoric will keep church tables out of the proximity of those who are different. But the courage of church leadership in our time, and in weeks like this (and every other week that follows) is to embrace the discipleship journey needed to become churches of welcome.
