The growth of the early Christian Church has been compared to the way people grow up. Growing up is a difficult process. As we have heard these past Sundays, that was also the way it was with the young church. Growing up produced pain, misunderstandings and controversies. Some of these struggles came about because Christianity was born in a Jewish home. We Christians sometimes forget that Christ was a Jew. We owe much to the Jewish people. The debt should create a spirit of gratitude instead of suspicion, hostility, and snide remarks.

Though the church began as a Jewish institution, it was not to stay that way. Old differences and distinctions were not to be perpetuated. The people of Pentecost who became the people of the Way, were called to move across national and racial boundaries. A …