I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. – Galatians 2:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 18, 2018): Galatians 2

Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver insists that “there is more power in unity than division.” We can get more done if we are all pulling in the same direction, than if we choose to pull toward different goals. One of the first tasks of any team is to make sure that everyone is trying to achieve the same goal. We add our effort to the other and multiply our abilities, getting ourselves much closer accomplishing our goals than we could be if we remained apart.

Paul continues to tell his story to the Galatians. And he reminds them that there was a time, even after his conversion experience, when he stood apart from the developing Christian Church. After his conversion in Damascus, he had tried to fit into the Christian Church, but because of his past, he could never find his place in the church. And so he went home to Tarsus. He studied what the Christians believed, and apparently continued to receive some kind of revelation in the faith. And, maybe partially because of his distance from the centers of Judaism, he had become convinced that becoming a Christian did not mean that you first had to become a Jew. The Gospel that Paul preached was that a belief in the Jewish Messiah was available for people of all cultures and races. And the presence of an uncircumcised (read “not a Jew”) man named Titus was a result of this gospel. But Paul was not convinced that his teaching would be acceptable to the largely Jewish church in Jerusalem. We have no idea what might have happened if Jerusalem had opposed the Pauline Gospel, but at the encouragement of Barnabas, Paul decides to make a trip to Jerusalem and, there, he would talk with the elders. All of this took place about seventeen years after his conversion experience on the road to Damascus.

The trip that Paul makes to Jerusalem is most likely the same trip that is described in Acts 11:27-30. Paul decides to take advantage of this trip to find out if his teaching, and his revelation, is in keeping with the understanding of the apostles. It is quite possible that Paul had no idea that Peter had received a similar revelation and that God was moving in a unified way through the whole church. The meeting in Jerusalem became a moment of confirmation both for Paul and for the Church in Jerusalem.

It is these moments of confirmation on which we need to dwell in the contemporary church. The world sees us as divided into denominations which, at times, seem to pull against each other. But the truth is that most of the areas in which we disagree are really peripheral movements within the Christian Church. On the most important elements of the church, we stand in agreement and support. The Christian Church is more unified than we sometimes understand. And this unified face and belief in the resurrected Jesus, who came for all the people, is the one that we should be showing to the world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Galatians 3