It is true that birds of a feather flock together. Look at the animals gathered by species in the barnyard. See the high school cafeteria divided into small subsets as one is struck by the invisible zoning boundaries that segment the population.
Neighborhoods in large cities become made up of families sharing common ancestry. Democrats and Republicans gather in separate conversation caucuses at opposite ends of the local bar to discuss the political races as they glance up at the television station committed to slanting the news in their favor. As birds of a feather flock together, herds of humans do the same.
What can draw us out of our isolating silos, and is it even desirable to do so? Luke tells us the story of Cornelius and Simon Peter meeting—two birds who were definitely NOT of a common feather! (Acts 10:25-48) Cornelius was Roman, a Gentile, an officer in the elite Italian Regiment of the Roman Legion army occupying Peter’s homeland. He was the ultimate outsider to a Jew. Simon Peter was a Christian of Jewish descent, a Galilean no less—an area within Israel famous for rebellious uprisings against foreign oppressors. Peter was an unlearned and unschooled fisherman who had never traveled far beyond the boundaries of Israel. These two men could not have looked more different, at least from the outside.
Yet, when you look deep beneath the surface where demographic differences abound, these two men did share some common ground. As it turns out, Cornelius had become enamored by the faith of Israel during his tour of duty there. By the time he met Peter, Cornelius had become known for his good deeds to the poor, his devotion to the God of Israel, and his daily prayers. Funny how often a person is more complex and endearing than they appear, don’t you think?
As Luke tells the story, they are both on a headlong collision course with one another, engineered by none other than God himself. While each was praying, God directed their course toward each other through a vision. By the time Peter came into the house of Cornelius, God had already prepared.
Their hearts to be open to each other. Just imagine the scene: Peter, the fisherman from Galilee, is a guest in the house of an elite Roman officer! It was an encounter neither could ever have imagined nor desired at an earlier time in their lives. Romans were taught from the cradle that all non-Romans were barbarians, unlettered, uncouth, uncivilized, and only served to pay taxes to the superior culture of Rome. Meanwhile, Jews were taught from the cradle that Gentiles were barbarians, unclean, and of inferior culture. But God had a different word for these two men, an instruction that canceled out the bias they had learned in their upbringing. As Peter stood to preach in a house he was raised never to enter, he announced that he had learned that “God shows no partiality.” The literal meaning of that phrase could be translated as “God does not look upon the face.”
Peter was learning the profound truth, even as he taught it, that if God does not look upon the external aspects that so easily divide the human family, neither should those who claim to be followers of God. And as if to reinforce Peter’s point with heavenly fireworks, the Holy Spirit interrupted Peter’s sermon mid-sentence at that very point and fell upon all in the house of Cornelius as though inaugurating a second Pentecost, accompanied by speaking in foreign tongues and the praise of God. Just imagine that to God, we are all—the entire human family—birds of different feathers, but still part of
one big flock!
Today, the human family still wrestles with figuring out how to stretch across our surface distinctions. We are still too fragmented by race, age, nationality, or ideology. Therefore, the church should be the place where that fragmentation is least present. It only makes sense that the church should be where the human family’s diversity is celebrated and accepted.
This very diversity holds the potential to enrich our common experience, broaden our horizons of ideas, and stretch our small-mindedness and narrowness that so easily goes unchallenged in the stagnant pool of homogeneity. And thank God that this wall of separation fell on the day Peter preached to the house of Cornelius! As a result, we have a worldwide church today with uncommon diversity, spanning all continents—beautifully multicultural, multilingual, and multicolored.
by Pastor Allen Walworth
