Pieces of the Puzzle

What Peter and Cornelius can teach the church about grace, belonging, and learning to see one another differently.

Scripture: Isaiah 56:6–8; Acts 10:1–48

None of us shows every part of ourselves to everyone we meet.

There are parts of our lives we share easily. There are stories we tell only to people we trust. And there may be parts of ourselves we rarely talk about at all.

Sometimes that is simply healthy privacy. But sometimes experience has taught us to be careful about how much of ourselves we reveal.

We learn what people expect from us. We learn what seems acceptable and what might cause someone to see us differently. And somewhere beneath all of that can be a much deeper question:

If you really knew me, would you still receive me?

Would there still be room for me?

That question isn’t only about how other people see us. It can shape the way we see other people too.

Because just as others never see everything about us, we never see everything about them.

We see part of the story.

And sometimes we decide what the rest of the story must be.

Throughout the Christian life, we continue to discover what it means to be a people centered on Christ—a people shaped by grace, welcome, love, and growth. Following Jesus means continuing to allow Christ to shape us.

Acts 10 gives us a remarkable example.

Peter had followed Jesus from the beginning. He had heard Jesus teach. He had watched Jesus welcome people others overlooked. He had seen the risen Christ. He had received the Holy Spirit and become a leader in the early church.

And Peter was still learning.

Acts 10 brings Peter together with a man named Cornelius, a Roman centurion and a Gentile.

Cornelius is praying when he receives a vision telling him to send for Peter, so he sends messengers to find him (Acts 10:1–8).

But before those messengers arrive, Peter has a vision of his own (Acts 10:9–16).

By the time these two men meet, Peter will discover that God has been at work in ways he did not expect.

God Is Already at Work

One of the things that strikes me about this story is that God is already at work before Peter and Cornelius ever meet.

Cornelius is praying, giving generously to people in need, and seeking God (Acts 10:2).

And God is reaching toward him.

At the same time, God is at work in Peter.

While Cornelius is sending messengers to find him, Peter receives a vision that challenges some of the assumptions he has carried throughout his life.

Neither man can see the whole picture yet.

But God can.

Before Peter ever arrives at Cornelius’ house, God is already at work on both sides of the door.

In the Methodist tradition, we call this prevenient grace—the grace that goes before us. The church never goes anywhere that God has not already gone ahead of us.

We don’t carry God into someone else’s life as though God were absent until we arrived. We go with open eyes, paying attention for the signs of grace already at work.

Perhaps that should not surprise us.

Long before Peter and Cornelius met, Isaiah described God gathering people who might have wondered whether there could possibly be a place for them. God declares:

“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
—Isaiah 56:7

God’s vision was already larger than the boundaries people expected. And now, in Acts, Peter is about to discover just how large that vision really is.

Peter Has Something to Learn

Cornelius isn’t the only person in this story in whom God is at work.

God is changing Peter.

That is important, because Peter’s hesitation doesn’t come out of nowhere. He has been formed by religious practices that helped define what it meant to live faithfully as part of God’s people. There were foods he would not eat and boundaries he would not ordinarily cross.

Peter believed he understood where the boundaries were.

Then God gave him a vision.

Three times Peter sees something like a large sheet lowered from heaven, filled with animals he has been taught not to eat. He hears a voice telling him to kill and eat, and Peter resists (Acts 10:9–16).

Peter is trying to be faithful.

But God is showing him that faithfulness is going to require him to see something differently.

That becomes clear when Peter finally enters Cornelius’ home.

Peter says:

“God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”
—Acts 10:28

Notice those words:

“God has shown me.”

Peter doesn’t say, “I’ve decided to become a little more open-minded.”

He doesn’t say, “I’ve decided to make an exception for Cornelius.”

Something deeper is happening.

God is changing the way Peter sees another person.

And that is one of the more challenging parts of following Jesus.

We may like the idea that God is still working on us when we imagine God making us more patient, more loving, or more faithful.

But sometimes God’s work in us involves challenging something we were certain we already understood.

Sometimes following Jesus means discovering that God’s grace is larger than our understanding of God’s grace.

Peter had gone to Cornelius’ house thinking he knew where the boundaries were.

But when he arrived, he discovered that God had gotten there first.

Perhaps that is a next faithful step some of us are called to take.

Not deciding how somebody else needs to change.

But becoming open to the possibility that God may still be changing us.

When People Wonder Whether There Is Room for Them

This brings us back to the question we began with:

If you really knew me, would there still be room for me?

The good news of grace is that God already knows.

God knows our strengths and our wounds, our faith and our questions, the things we celebrate and the things we carry quietly.

And still, God moves toward us in love.

That doesn’t mean every part of our lives remains unchanged. Grace receives us, and grace continues to shape us.

But we do not have to become someone else before God will love us.

As Paul writes, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

And if that is how God has received us, then it raises an important question about the kind of church we are becoming.

What would it mean for our churches to be places where people do not have to pretend in order to belong?

This doesn’t mean everyone has to tell everyone everything. Trust takes time, healthy boundaries matter, and some people have good reasons for being careful with their stories.

But the church can become a community worthy of greater trust.

A place where questions do not disqualify you.

Where struggles do not make you an outsider.

Where your past does not become the only thing people see when they look at you.

Where you do not have to become more like everyone else in the room before someone believes God might be at work in your life.

Peter entered Cornelius’ home and discovered that God was already there.

Perhaps part of having an open heart is learning to believe that about the people who enter our lives as well.

God may already be at work in them before we know their story.

Open Hearts Begin with Seeing Differently

When Peter begins to speak in Cornelius’ home, he says:

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality.”
—Acts 10:34

Peter is beginning to see differently.

And perhaps that is where an open-hearted church begins.

Being welcoming matters. But an open heart goes deeper than being friendly.

We can welcome someone into the room and still quietly expect them to become more like us before they really belong.

Peter discovers that he cannot simply make a little more room for Cornelius while holding on to all of his old assumptions. God is changing the way he sees Cornelius in the first place.

So perhaps the question isn’t only:

“How can we welcome more people?”

Perhaps it is:

“Whom is God inviting us to see differently?”

Who have we already decided probably wouldn’t be interested?

Whose story have we assumed we already understand?

And where might God already be at work beyond what we can see?

Following Jesus is gradually freeing us from both the need to prove that we belong and the temptation to decide who else belongs.

Peter entered Cornelius’ home and discovered that God’s grace was already there.

Then something happened that Peter and those who came with him could not ignore. While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles who were listening (Acts 10:44–46).

Peter did not bring the Spirit into the room.

God was already acting.

Peter’s task was to recognize what God was doing.

He responded:

“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
—Acts 10:47

An open-hearted church learns to live with that same expectation.

We look at the people God places before us and remain open to the possibility:

God may have something to show us here.

There Is Room

Long before Peter entered Cornelius’ home, Isaiah spoke of God’s promise:

“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
—Isaiah 56:7

Generations later, Peter walked through a doorway he once would not have crossed and said:

“God has shown me.” (Acts 10:28)

Maybe those words are worth carrying with us.

God has shown me that grace is already at work.

God has shown me that I do not always see the whole story.

God has shown me that the boundaries I expect are not always the boundaries of God’s grace.

And God is still showing us.

We began with a question:

If you really knew me, would there still be room for me?

The good news is that God already knows.

God sees beneath every layer. God knows the stories we tell and the stories we carry quietly. God knows our faith and our questions, our hopes and our wounds.

God sees us fully, and God loves us still.

That grace also invites us to examine our own hearts.

Where have our assumptions shaped the way we see another person?

Where have we decided that we already know someone’s story?

Where has fear made it difficult to make room for someone else?

And where might God be inviting us to cross a doorway we once would not have crossed?

The story of Peter and Cornelius reminds us that an open-hearted church is not simply a church that opens its doors.

It is a church whose people remain open to God.

Open to grace.

Open to growth.

Open to seeing our neighbors differently.

Open to discovering that God has been at work in places—and in people—we never expected.

Because sometimes we walk through the door believing we are bringing the welcome of God with us.

And then we discover:

God was already there.