Called to love a city

Acts 13: 43 - 52

43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

We live in a society full of influencers, leaders, and people who affect crowds by millions. Through social media and TV shows, also through Hollywood and other entertainment products derived from a high-cost global entertainment industry, people are interconnected, communicated, and we are having a lot of fun, as was announced by Epicurus, Bentham, and other philosophers of the pleasure. That is truth and not, because the reality is there are a lot of people who experience the loneliness, suffering and millions of people feel like they are not relevant for others even their for parents and a lot of them are children under 18 years old but also a lot of adults are affected for high levels of anxiety and the cases of suicide, stress, and other expression of dissatisfaction are the more clear evidence of the previous affirmation. Who really cares about humanity? Well, the answer to this question is easy: God really cares about the entire humanity, and He sent His Son die for our salvation, but the church is committed the spread this message and taking care of the people in the name of Jesus. How can we become good shepherds of humanity, starting with our neighborhood?
 
The Greek word agape (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian invention, a new word for a new thing (apart from about twenty occurrences in the Greek version of the Old Testament, it is almost nonexistent before the New Testament Agape draws its meaning directly from the revelation of God in Christ. It is not a form of natural affection, however intense, but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). It is a matter of will rather than feeling (for Christian’s mint love even those they dislike-Matt. 5:44-48). It is the basic element in Christlikeness
 
In the present reflection, we are going to address three relevant points about the idea of the good shepherd presented in the biblical text. 1. Christ chooses to incarnate the good shepherd, which was his motivation and divine call 2. The need to contextualize the pastoral model of Christ for the Christian Church here and now 3. We must be a church that attends a society affected by the lack of love and justice and covered with religiosity; we must find the call that encourages us to go towards the whole transformation of reality
 
It is important to remember that the Biblical passages like Acts 13:14, 43-52 occur in specific contexts, in specific circumstances, and are received by specific people from specific issuers. The interpretation of the Scriptures must recognize this context. In general, individuals, inspired by the Spirit of God, wrote about concrete situations that illuminate the lives of specific people today. That integrates exegesis and contextualization as part of a deeper reflection guided by the Holy Spirit through the whole history.
 
When we preach, we face circumstances different than those faced by the first witnesses. The reading of the Acts shows Paul and Barnabas facing opposition because of the preaching of the resurrection of Christ, the Jews denied the teachings of Jesus, as well as his lordship of him, and therefore confronted the first Christian communities and their proclamation of hope. According to our doctrine, we could consider that the Jews experienced a problem related to the effective call; within some, it was not possible to recognize the message of Christ, on the contrary, conspired to cause harm and ended up expelling the apostles. But Paul and Barnabas did not desist and proclaimed with enthusiasm to the Gentiles.
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We must carefully review the attitude reflected by the Jews in the text of Acts. It seems that sometimes people are willing to face the proclamation of the gospel because of jealousy, and in response, they act in clear contradiction; they can be passive, that is, they do not admit their opposition, but sometimes they do so directly and actively. It highlights the courage of the apostles who respond to each contradiction with great determination. But it also highlights the attitude of the Gentiles who welcomed the proclamation with joy; they received it as good news. The scene closes chapter thirteen with a kind of negotiation putting at the center the social power represented in the distinguished women and prominent men of the city; the objective of the negotiation was the persecution of the messengers of the gospel.
 
in Revelation 7 we are shown the result of this opening to the Gentiles that is seers in the book of Acts through a metaphor consisting of an uncountable multitude of all nations, tribes and peoples and languages, in front of the throne and dressed in white clothes as a kind of international congress before the Lamb of God in venues 14 through 17 the eternal Kingdom is announced under the shepherding of the lamb from whom they will receive consolation
 
Chapter 10 of the Gospel of John gathers an extraordinary metaphor that connects with prophetic figures of the Old Testament, like the test of Ezekiel 34. Jesus compares the attitude of the salaried shepherd with the attitude of the good shepherd. He does not seem to avoid pointing out the clear difficulty that represents for the leadership of Israel of his time to have left the project of God in terms of caring for the most destitute people. Jesus uses a continuous parallel to contrast the ruling class of Israel against the model of service that has been embodied by him. It is important to note that, at this point, Jesus has made a series of miracles in favor of people with an obvious need for help. The problem became more intense after the Jews condemned the works of Jesus for a mere religious zeal; their indifference towards the most vulnerable was evident, to the point of preferring to keep their religious precepts to serve those who needed. Jesus takes advantage of the circumstances to announce a project of reconciliation from God. The metaphor of the good shepherd is also used to summon those who had been considered astray. Jesus calls at the meeting of the faith to people of different ethnic or social status. Paul, later, is going to replicate this message when he affirms that there is no Jew, nor Greek, slave, nor free. Jesus is the good shepherd of those whom God has chosen to be part of his flock and his pastoral mission for them and to take care of them, keep them within his covenant. John, in his gospel, proposes that eternal life begins in this world, in the same way that eternal death begins in the same unbelief. Jesus offers a covenant from which no one can separate his beloved from him, and that is the guarantee of those who accept the gift of love and confirm his call through following Jesus as evidence of the presence of the Spirit of God.
 
Pastor Weldmann says: The church is God's means of expressing His love to the world. When we fully understand the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be quick to love others as we have been loved by God. We live out our love by encouraging, comforting, and admonishing others to abide in the love of God. Data collected in Canada from April to June 2022 showed that just over half (53%) of people aged 15 years and older said that they trust many or most of the people in their neighborhood. The remaining 47% said they trust a few or none of the people in their neighborhood.
 
The model proposed by Jesus is extremely difficult in a society highly open to religious activities but not very committed to following Jesus. The leadership model based on the service to others and primarily to the most vulnerable people become a deep challenge. One of the immediate actions that we should value in our pastoral model, for example, for the city, should be to give priority to offering different relief actions to people in need. Organize ourselves with the wisdom that comes from God, to manage what is necessary and offer in a concrete way, food, perhaps shelter for people living in need but also, to develop skills and competences to be mentors, offering the adequate orientation with all the wisdom coming from the bible for families and people needed not just for material needs but also spiritual needs in the midst of the richness or wealth. Our societies have become societies based on competition or confrontation paradigms for human coexistence; regrettably, we need to recognize the wisdom coming from other cultures.
 
Ubuntu describes a set of closely related African-origin value systems that emphasize the interconnectedness of individuals with their surrounding societal and physical worlds. "Ubuntu" is sometimes translated as "I am because we are" (also "I am because you are"), or "humanity towards others". Ubuntu often meant in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.
 
We must pray for our rulers and people in eminence so that we can live quietly and peacefully; in the same way, we must prophetically watch their actions to confront them in the light of the gospel, of the project of the Kingdom of God. The contradiction, in the same way, has occurred in the time of Jesus, often remains interesting; therefore, we must announce the paradigm of the gospel of giving priority to the people who had priority in the message of Jesus, those people who attended preferably, and to whom I announce the hope of the Kingdom of God. In summary, to shepherd the city as Jesus did, that is the call not for a group of specialists or technicians in biblical interpretation or pastoral skills, but it is the call of all the people of God. Let us be the shepherd people who lead this city to the feet of the Lamb to receive consolation and to participate in the feast of salvation.