Guidance In Unrest

October 7, 2013

    “Why can’t we all just get along?”
    Rodney King was beaten by four Los Angeles police officers when they stopped him after a high-speed car chase in 1991; the beating was caught on video by a nearby resident, and it “went viral,” before the internet.
    The officers were ultimately charged, tried, acquitted… and the ensuing riot in downtown Los Angeles – from April 29 to May 4, 1992 – left 53 dead and thousands injured. During those difficult days in LA, Rodney King voiced his now-famous plea: “Why can’t we all just get along?”
    King died last year, or he could go to Washington and make the same request. The police tape in the Capitol Mall is keeping the crowd from forming, but the unrest in DC rivals the restlessness in LA that sparked the mayhem, over 20 years ago…
    Rancor has supplanted reason; rather than being politicized – which is normal in our democratic process – shrill voices have become polarized, with no apparent common ground to be found. Even within the parties, the “big tents” seem to have collapsing poles; the infighting has gone extra rounds…
    Almost 2000 years ago, a potential schism had emerged in the early days of the Church. What had begun as an uprising within the staid Jewish religion was breaking out of its ethnic boundaries: gentiles – non-Jewish people – were aligning themselves with the followers of the One who was being called the Messiah – or, the Christ – promised by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
    A self-appointed committee of enforcers – made up of men who were part of the Way (that was the Jewish name for the new movement) while still card-carrying Jews – came to Antioch. Antioch was the first gentile city with a church – they had already been rebranded as Christians– and these guys felt like someone had to rein-in what was happening. Their irritation: these “Christians” in Antioch hadn’t become Jews before they accepted Jesus! There was an “order” to the spiritual journey – in their view – that had not been respected and followed. Jew first, then Christian…
    Paul and Barnabas were back from their first missionary journey; they were the first leaders of the Antioch church, though they were – themselves – lifetime Jewish leaders before their inclusion in the faith-in-Jesus community. When they heard the demands of the men who were more defined by the Law than by Grace – that the new Christians must be circumcised for their faith to be a saving faith – they were incensed. They would not concede the point: they were sent to “Washington” (Jerusalem, actually), to get the matter settled, once and for all.
    The Council at Jerusalem brought the apostles and elders together to find consensus. Debate preceded the decision, but they reached agreement about the matter; they sent a letter to the church in Antioch – and, to all gentiles who would follow – with this conclusion: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.” (Acts 15:28-29)
    The Law that mandated behavior for Jewish life had just been streamlined for the new era; in a statement that was both concise and conclusive, the dispute had been dismissed. We’re living, today, in the freedom of that well-crafted concession…
    Quick: send your congressional representative and senators a cut-and-paste version of Acts 15. If the leaders in Jerusalem could find compromise on something far more crucial than anything on the table today in Washington, maybe we could invoke the same Holy Spirit to help guide our way out of this mess…

Bob Shank