Healing the Wounds of Trauma

there. (Have the second group of widows start yelling and complaining.) Soon many in the church got involved in the argument. (Have the servers of food start arguing, some on the side of one group of widows, some on the other—by now all of them should be shouting and arguing.) (Now have “Peter” walk in with two or three other people. Peter says,) “Stop! It’s not right for us to stop studying and preaching God’s word in order to distribute food. So, choose some wisemen to put in charge of this problem.” The church members thought this was good and chose some people from each side. (Have them do this.) If they have not realized by now, tell them that this is the story in Acts 6. Then read the Bible story or retell it from memory: At the time when the Church was just beginning, many Jews had been displaced, and were living in foreign countries. They lived there so long that they took on the customs and language of their adopted country. They feared God and continued to worship him and made trips back to Jerusalem as often as possible. They believed it was good to be buried in the homeland, so older couples moved back to Israel if they could. Often the husband died first, leaving his widow in need of someone to provide for her. Meanwhile, the Jews who stayed in Israel through the years con- tinued to follow their customs and speak their own language. They felt that because they had never left their land or traditions, they were better in God’s eyes. Even though they were poorer, they looked down on the foreign Jews. One of their traditions was to care for widows as it was taught in the Bible. Out of obedience to God, they took care of the foreign Jewish widows just like they took care of their own. But there were so many foreign Jewish widows that the homeland Jews had a hard time caring for them. In the Early Church, it wasn’t long before tensions formed between the homeland Jews and the foreign Jews. The foreign Jews com- plained that their widows were not being given their share when food was handed out each day. So the apostles called a meeting to address the problem openly. They realized that these ethnic tensions could destroy the Church. They said, “It’s not right for us to give up God’s word in order to distribute food. So, brothers and sisters, choose

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How Can We Live as Christians in the Midst of Conflict?