No Ghosting Allowed

Scripture

11But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? Galatians 2:11-14

Observation

In the early Church they celebrated a “love feast” along with communion and, after the revelation of Acts 10 that God gave directly to Peter, Gentiles were welcome at the table. That is, until, James and some other Jewish Christians arrived in Antioch that apparently Peter wanted to impress. Before they arrived he happily joined in fellowship with the Gentile Christians. After they arrived Peter ghosted them completely and acted as if they weren’t Christians at all. Some scholars think Peter even turned these Gentile Christians away without warning. Paul was not about to allow this affront to the gospel, this contradiction of grace occur as others began to follow Peter’s lead and began to ghost the Gentile Christians along with him. Peter saw with his own eyes the Holy Ghost come upon Cornelius and his household in Acts 10. Now, years later, he was ghosting the very ones God had called clean as if they were unclean. It’s proof that we must be ever vigilant against ugliness of people pleasing, pride, and prejudice that can be so effective in discrediting our message of the amazing grace of Jesus for ALL who believe.

Application

It’s easy to stand back in disgust at Peter’s hypocrisy, but the truth is we have all experienced a revelation of the Holy Spirit’s grace only to return to the supposed safety of behavior modification promised through religious tradition. We have all sought to stay in the good graces of the “in crowd” at the cost of showing the good grace of God. We have all sought to stay at the cools kids table when Jesus is trying to flip it. Martin Luther once said, “No man’s standing is so secure that he may not fall. If Peter fell, I may fall. If he rose again, I may rise again. We have the same gifts that they had, the same Christ, the same baptism and the same Gospel, the same forgiveness of sins.” Therefore, there is hope for us today. Will we let The Holy Ghost have a fierce conversation with us about ghosting? The textbook definition of Ghosting: “The practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.” With so many new forms of communication there’s many new forms of being ghosted, ignored, rejected, without any reason being given. All of a sudden we will find ourselves on “the blacklist” and we didn’t even know there was a list. None of us like it when someone cuts off communication because it is cruel. This is especially hurtful when it’s a fellow Christian as we see here in Galatians 2. What’s the solution? The first is to repent to the person or people we have ghosted out of offense or resentment. The second is to have a fierce conversation as Paul had with Peter. The definition of a Fierce Conversation according to Susan Scott, “one in which you come out from behind yourself, into the conversation, and make it real. You know you're having a Fierce Conversation when: You are speaking in your real voice. You are speaking to the heart of the matter. You are really asking and really listening.” Paul had relationship with Peter. Peter had influence on many around him. Paul wouldn’t be doing Peter any favors by ignoring his actions. Love doesn’t say what we want to hear. Love says what we need to hear. History shows that Peter took this to heart and The Church is better because of it. The Church of the 21st Century needs to ask ourselves if we aren’t doing the same thing in ghosting people groups or even entire movements and denominations because they don’t do it “our way.” The grace of God calls us to have an open table instead of a closed one. Ultimately, if we want see The Holy Ghost moving in a fresh way in today’s Church we need a spirit of unity with those we have been ghosting instead of welcoming.

Prayer

Thank you for calling me on passive aggressive responses, people pleasing and pride, and the actions or inactions that disprove the grace I say I believe. I repent for times in the past when I have ghosted people just to stay at the very table You were flipping over.