Who can we trust? How do we know who to follow? When new information and novel ideas enter the culture should we consider them even when they threaten what our family and our ancestors have always thought and believed–what seems ‘right’? What if it also threatens our sense of who we are as a people and our purpose for being, our place in the world? This is the predicament of the Jews in Antioch as they listen to Paul and Barnabas speaking in the synagogue one day, then observe crowds of Gentiles getting excited about their message the following week. Paul is actually including these Gentiles in God’s “chosen people”! He is telling them, as well as his Jewish listeners, that God is making ALL of them a light to the nations and a means of salvation to the ends of the earth! To the Jewish mind this is heresy. Even more than that, it is a threat to their primacy in God’s plan. It is a threat to everything they’ve known, their history, their suffering, their purpose and place as God’s “one” people. This isn’t what they expect a Pharisee to be saying, and it is appalling to see Gentiles rallying to these words. This is THEIR tradition after all, and both Paul and Barnabas are simply giving it away. In their fury and jealousy they rally the city’s leaders and boot Barnabas and Paul out of town, maybe believing they can erase from memory what has already been said, eliminate the excitement already felt, and defuse the threat to their exclusive identity as a group.
But the Spirit can’t be shuttered or controlled. New beliefs, new realities surface in every culture, every institution, every age. They overturn a group or culture’s sense of order and its need to feel significant and safe. This happened in the church during and after Vatican II, and it’s happening today under Pope Francis. People and institutions once trusted have become the arbiters of change. Where are the guides when those we’ve depended on are either gone or seem to have betrayed, or are betraying, everything we hold dear? This is where we are now on a global scale, culture to culture, society to society. It’s where we are in this country, where we are in this church, where we are in our relationships and our families. It is the basis of accusations against Pope Francis and the challenge posed by populist leaders world-wide. In many ways we are lost sheep without a shepherd, on our own and frightened, angry, searching for someone to follow, someone to lead us out of this mess of uncertainty and fear we find ourselves in. And wherever we look what see are people as confused and overwhelmed as we are, even when some have ideas that sound promising and worth pursuing. Who and what do we support? Who do we follow?
One of the strongest challenges we face today, and one of our biggest fears, is the same one we see reflected in Luke’s portrayal of Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. It is all about in-groups and outsiders. We continue to wrestle with how to value the gifts and experiences of particular groups with their unique identities while also recognizing and appreciating what each group has to offer all of us as family. Because, after all, that’s exactly what we are—all of us—the one family of God.
We know from sociological research that “us vs. them” thinking is the surest way to create strong, cohesive bonds between members of any size group. This is true for sports teams, nations, religious denominations, and political parties, to name just a few examples. The struggle for dominance rests on the fear of being invisible and unnecessary, an expendable player on the world stage. There are economic and survival factors involved, to be sure, but the refusal to be “nothing” drives many a fight for recognition and much of the resolve to exclude/diminish others.
The Jewish leaders in Paul’s time unconsciously faced this dilemma watching Gentiles being welcomed into the “chosen” family. The church today faces this same dilemma as male clerics continue to assert dominance over women, rejecting their legitimate historical claim to spiritual and sacramental leadership in the early church on a par with men. Somehow the ‘tradition’ can claim men were ‘ordained’ in the first century church (though there is no evidence of ordination back then) but refuses to recognize that women functioned in the same roles and capacities as men in those pre-institutional days, and even later. What is dominant wishes to remain so, and forces the issue through exclusion. The so-called culture wars provide another powerful example, as do gender politics and gender fluidity. Whose ideas, beliefs and needs will be honored with a place at the table and whose will be dismissed, ignored and excluded?
It is the voice of the Spirit, the Shepherd and the Mother of us all that is silenced when we exclude others. Yet it is clear from both Scripture and the tide of history that the Spirit will never be silenced. It is HER Voice that leads us painfully, but inevitably, toward overcoming exclusive tribal identities.
The good mother and the good shepherd are aware of ALL of us “sheep,” ALL of us “children.” Their VOICE gets our attention. As we follow that VOICE we see others following as well. We recognize we are part of a flock, part of a large all-encompassing family, whether we like it or not. We are part of a Oneness, part of a Wholeness, with differences that add to, rather than subtract from, the family we have no choice but to BE. “I saw before me an immense crowd without number, from every nation, tribe, people, language,” says John. We might say he is referring to the sheepfold of the shepherd. This is the all-inclusive family of our Mother God.
We are on an evolutionary track toward inclusivity. The animosity we feel and witness every day—the wars, the hatreds, the cultural fears—these are our growing pains. None of us want to be here but few of us know how to be both identified with a group and inclusive of those outside who are not like us—at all. So we continue to listen to the call of the shepherd and heed the embracing arms of our Mother who loves us all equally. We struggle. We grow. It takes time—generations of time. But we are all invited to follow the Good Shepherd who will, without fail, inevitably, lead us Home.
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