Some thoughts from our discussion, January 24

Cultural images of power -

and the values of the Good Shepherd

Early fresco of the Good Shepherd

Roman Catacombs, 2nd century

Cultural values shape our religious beliefs much more than we like to think.

Our human cultures have strong ideas about who should have power - and how power should be exercised.  And, despite transforming insights into the nature of God - and the value of every human being in God's eyes - these cultural values persist over many centuries. 

In the middle of the first century AD,  Paul's transforming insight was written down for the Galatians: 

There is no longer Jew or Greek,

there is no longer slave or free,

there is no longer male and female;

for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 

 (Galatians 3:28)

One way to view the trajectory of Christian history is to see at it as the (very) gradual realization of what Paul’s insight really means – the Spirit’s presence, power and care extends to every human being – whether they are perceived to have power or not. 

For instance, the very early church seems to have incorporated the ministries of women to a far greater extent than the later church would.  Were later centuries too oppressed by cultural ideas about the intrinsic value of women, of Jews and gentiles, of slaves?

By the nineteenth century – influenced by the abolitionist movement – the poet John Oxenham was writing, in an echo of Galatians 3:28:

In Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth. 

Join hands, then, brothers of the faith, what e’er your race may be!  Who serves my Father as a son is surely kin to me. 

By the late twentieth century, Oxenham’s lyrics had been changed to this:

Join hands, disciples of the faith, what e’er your race many be!  Who serves my Father as his child is surely kin to me.

(Some of you reading these lines from Oxenham’s modified hymn will see other words you would like to change – to reflect your own image of God.)

Yesterday, we had a fairly intense discussion of the abuse of children by Christian clergy in our own time.  Revelations continue to arise about the abuse of children, and we see that that the natural instinct of human institutions is to cover up the abuse, rather than care for the victims.

But in the twenty-first century, could Christians be finally coming to see that even small, powerless children are fully people, and fully deserving of the Good Shepherd’s care?