We reflected last week on the suffering that may come when we try to proclaim the good news in our society. Perhaps no dimension of that message will provoke more opposition these days than the perspective expressed in today’s readings.

In our first reading, Paul and Barnabas encounter opposition and “violent abuse” because they were preaching to Gentiles and inviting them to seek salvation through Christ. It got so bad that the two Christian preachers were expelled from the city.

Those opponents wouldn’t have liked our second reading either. John sees a vision of “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” The idea that all nations can be saved was anathema to those Jews, who thought God belonged to them and only they belonged to God.

The Gospel today is less clear about the universal nature of redemption through Christ, but even here, we may assume that the flock of Jesus is bigger than any one nation or group.

The universal nature of God’s love and the teaching of Jesus that we are to love as God loves, even loving our enemies, have always provoked opposition. Human beings seem to have an innate tendency to separate into groups and to favor their group over everyone else. Then, they assume that God is on their side, so he must be against those other groups too.

We certainly see that tendency today, not only in our own country, but all around the world. We live in a rapidly changing world, and we have not learned how to cope with rapid change. That leads to fear and fear leads to hatred. We see that in our own political scene, and we can see it around the world as leaders stir up fear and hatred of “the other,” whether that means another race, another culture, another religion or people with another viewpoint.

Fear and hatred cannot be the principles on which Christians live and act. The mission of the church is to proclaim God’s love for all people and to foster reconciliation and healing in our world. Christ came to reconcile us to the Father and to one another, and Paul reminds us that Christ entrusted that ministry of reconciliation to us.

Planners can help the church embrace and carry on this mission. By choosing songs that pray for all peoples, we plant seeds of acceptance of the other in worshipers’ minds and hearts. By frequently crafting petitions that pray for those seen as threatening or different, we remind ourselves that God loves them all. By including music and art and ritual customs from various cultures, we remind ourselves that we are part of a universal church.

What other ways might help your people keep a global view that strives to match God’s universal love?

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