The Cereal Aisle

 

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7 ESV).

 

I walk in to the local HEB and grab a shopping cart. Entering the store I turn right immediately greeted with fresh flowers and plants to choose from. Quickly passing those I enter the produce section. I am forced to choose between the eight different kinds of grapes, not to mention the three different sizes of packaging. Picking up a bag of seedless white grapes, a bunch of bananas, and a package of strawberries, I continue to make my way to the next aisle I need. It is the cereal aisle. That’s when the trouble begins.  A sea of cereal assaults me.  The sizes, colors, names and food labels blend into a kaleidoscope and all I want is a box of corn flakes. Not counting the various brands of the same product, there are eight different kinds of corn flakes to choose from. Really? Is this really necessary? The short answer is yes.

 

And, now let’s go shopping in a different way. The Church is like that. Often we fail to recognize how different we are, and how important that is to the health of the community of faith. The bigger challenge is how we maintain unity with so much diversity. That’s the background of our reading today. The early church was growing as a “needs-meeting” community of faith. And that growth brought challenges, including the challenge of “overlooking.”

 

If we enter a room full of people, we usually look first for people we know. As a result, we can overlook others. The followers of Jesus knew the Hebraic widows. They were the ones connected with families that they knew, or knew of. But the widows who came from Greek-speaking Jewish families were relatively unknown. So in the daily distribution of food, many of them went unnoticed, and unfed. As tensions rose, the potential for church division along ethnic lines grew. So the apostles called everyone together to address this need. The apostles would remain focused on prayer and the ministry of the Word of God. Seven others would serve the needy, and it’s clear from the names of these seven leaders that they were from a Greek background. So the church’s unity was restored, and its story continued.

 

The church is still threatened if we overlook others because of ethnicity, gender, economics, or other characteristics today. Next time you’re on the cereal aisle ask God to give us eyes to see so that the story of his church continues, to his praise and glory!