Without Blinders

Whom do you accept into your life?

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. - Acts of the Apostles 11:1

Today is the feast day of the Apostle Peter and the self-professed apostle, Paul.  Despite their differences both in how they came to be called by Jesus and what they believed about the message he brought, they came to be champions of spreading that word to the Gentiles, people like us.

What I find interesting is that the decision to accept others into the fold led to the rejection of those for whom the message of salvation originally came.  Jesus was a devout Jew who believed in the law.

But Jesus accepted people the leaders of his faith saw as unclean, and that began the schism that widened with the acceptance of these others and their strange traditions.

Would widening the scope of God's kingdom lead to corruption of the promise God made to his people?

Some may say "Yes" and that makes it difficult to build trust across divisions, leading to all sorts of conflicts between faiths.

When we hold fast to our traditions and laws, we stand as stoic and uncompromising as those who came before us, and yet we see evidence that more laws and not fewer become the norm.

As we remember Peter and Paul today, I wonder if we could do as Christ had them do and look beyond our walls and laws to those on the margins and those who see the world differently.

If I can do that, maybe I will have a vision of my own that changes everything, and I, like Peter and Paul, will walk in the light of God, without blinders.

More to come...