This Sunday and last Sunday involved scripture about “outsiders” demanding to know “what is to prevent us from being included?”

In both cases there was PLENTY of scripture which legalists could have appealed to, to justify continued exclusion.

In both cases they were open to what the Spirit was doing in the lives of these apparently “unclean / unworthy” people.

In both cases this inclusive Spirit entirely trumped “the authority” of specific texts calling for exclusion.

“What I have called holy, you must not call profane” God says to Peter, concerning the Gentiles.

And how did Peter come to the conclusion that God’s holiness *was* at work among the Gentiles? He joined them. He listened to them. He witnessed their faith and their lives.

It still works the same way. People are still confronted with scripture verses that justify silencing women, condemning LGBTQIA persons, excluding and oppressing people of different ethnicities and religions.

And then, they experience the lived reality of these people...

And the Spirit is clearly at work among them and in them just as strongly as it is among the “clean ones”, if not more so.

And they’re faced with a choice: double down on their previous beliefs or let themselves be changed by what God has gifted them through these witnesses.

Philip listened to the Eunuch and witnessed his faith. Peter listened to Cornelius and witnessed the faith of the Gentiles.

By closing ourselves to the witness of those our traditions have excluded, are we “respecting biblical authority” or denying the reconciling work of God?