On My Way to Cornelius' House: Sharing Faith in Fear

“God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.” – Peter, Acts 10:28b

“Therefore, I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.” – Cornelius, Acts 10:33

Have you ever been hesitant to share your faith with someone? I know I have. It’s scary attempting to minister to communities who have been marginalized by the church, trying to take into consideration how people have been hurt by the church while trying to stay true to your own beliefs.

Conversely, when someone uses your faith as a weapon against you, it’s hard to defend yourself when you share the scriptures they weaponize against you and interpret them differently.

Circle Community Church is currently reading through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings, and we are about to hear about the Apostle Peter meeting the Centurion Cornelius.

These two people had to listen to and trust in God when God told them to work together. Peter had grown up believing, “It is unlawful for me to associate with a Gentile.” Cornelius’ nation was in political and military power over Peter’s people. The idea that they would work together to show God’s love to a wider group of people would have been preposterous to many at the time.

Jesus Himself chose Peter to lead the Early Church, but Peter had his hesitations about what he was okay with doing for God. He had been told not to eat certain foods or associate with certain people for so long, and when God showed him that it was not only okay, but encouraged, it was still scary for Peter to continue in ministry.

The community around Cornelius seemed more receptive to hearing from Peter than Peter was of his own call to ministry!

When I interned as a chaplain in the psychiatric hospital, one of the things that an experienced chaplain told me was, “If something in ministry scares you, run toward it, not away from it.” People are generally understanding, patient, and receptive when you want a normal, loving conversation. We often get scared of society because so much video content available to us is protest, confrontation, fail blogs, and other sources about people yelling about their differences instead of making efforts to work through them.

The majority of people are not like that. Maybe the loud minority of people are. Can we make the peaceful, loving majority the loud ones now? Can someone please say, “I disagree with your stance on this issue, but I believe that God honors that you are trying to honor God”? If love is the greatest commandment, and God is love, then your mission to love better literally puts greater reflection of God into people’s lives.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts– what’s been hard about sharing your faith? Where have you seen God move in unexpected ways? Let us know in the comments!