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? (more…)
