Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging.
The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, May 6, 2019
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
God had stirred the hearts of two very different men—Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, and Peter, a Jew and follower of Christ. God knew these men had to come together to begin the hard work of reconciling the nations under one God—the triune God. For this to work, both had to be open to hearing the stories of the other. And both had to be willing to change for the sake of the other. No easy tasks.
We have a long way to go before we live in a world under one God. We will never get there if our tactics are force, hatred, fear, oppression, or an unwillingness to be moved. We will only become united under God by summoning the courage to hear the stories of the other, and to become willing to change for the sake of the other. If we want Muslims to know Christ, for example, then we also need to be willing to learn about Allah. If we want atheists to believe in a higher power, then we need to be willing to understand what motivates someone to lose faith in something or someone bigger than themselves. There is no movement when either party is unwilling to listen and learn.
Who knows? Your own faith might be strengthened by learning of the faith traditions of someone quite different from you.
![Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10 [4:1-11], Jonah and God’s Mercy](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/6bbb490e-4992-4659-a8be-02d8397d68af/24-11-10.jpg)
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