Unlikely Friends

While the average Decimus and common Shmuel of the day passed each other in the street, perhaps Straight, they never shared anything except maybe a laugh.  Romans and Jews did not associate beyond necessary commerce and societal demands.  That is why the words of Luke as found in Acts 10 are so shocking.

Acts 10:22a,b (NIV)
The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people."

The Jewish people respected Cornelius, a Roman.  Don't miss the power of that statement.  To help establish the impact, think of it in this way - the people oppressed day-by-day respected one of the soldiers of the oppressing nation.  The man who represented their lack of freedom was the recipient of their respect.  

Now, that does not necessarily and probably does not mean that they . . .

• agreed with him on politics
• viewed Caesar in the same way as he
• understood his love of country
• liked his respect of chain-of-command

But, nevertheless, they respected him.  Why?  Luke informs us of two of the reasons.

1. Cornelius was righteous (not self-righteous, mind you).
2. Cornelius was a God-fearing man.  (That meant that he, as a non-Jew, nevertheless loved Yahweh God.)

I believe that one of the best things we could do in our so often fractured society today is to respect one another.  While that applies across the board (the breadth of society), I suggest we start with the Body of Christ, the Church.  

On a regular basis while in conversation with people, I tell them how within Rabbit Creek Church, we have "Blue" people and "Red" people; we have pro-vaccination individuals and no-way vaccination folks.  Some Rabbit Creekers watch Fox and others tune into CNN, and others ignore the news outlets as much as possible.  We make that work because we respect one another.  We respect one another because we love Jesus together.  

The last thing I want, as a pastor, is to lead a flock of birds of a feather.  We welcome people, regardless of the nature of their feathers, to come join us in a journey of loving God and loving neighbor as we live our everyday, Ordinary lives for Christ.  None of that would be possible without the key element known as respect.

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Romans 13:7-10 (NIV)
Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

#ordinarylives