By Bill Lamar
We are a tribal people. We live with people like us, we worship with people like us, we marry people like us, and we procreate with people like us. By and large this is the case with precious few exceptions. We are sophisticated enough to call this phenomenon people of similar socioeconomic strata congregating together. But it is what it is. It’s tribalism.
The God fully revealed in Jesus Christ has no favorites. Peter says as much. God does not love Americans more than Iraqis. God does not love Christians more than Muslims. God does not love conservatives more than liberals. This truth is jarring to us. We want a God with our politics, our theology, and, whether we admit or not, our hatreds. But that God is not the God who created us in God’s own image and likeness; that is the God that we have created in our image and likeness.
Jesus got in big trouble in Luke’s gospel for preaching that God blessed and called folk outside of Israel’s tribe. His hometown crowd tried to murder him. Jesus moved about blessing and healing all people. He crossed fences and borders and tribal divisions. Peter witnessed Jesus’ extraordinary ministry. He witnessed Jesus’ execution at the hands of political and religious authorities who despised our boundary-crossing, uncontrollable God. And Peter witnessed that their big gun – death - was powerless over Jesus.
Peter preached and modeled this God beyond tribe after a divine vision prodded him forward.And Gentiles were baptized and received God’s Spirit. There are people waiting on you and me to defy tribe and convention. Who are they? Where are they? Yoda might say, “Find them, we must!”
- Name the tribes to which you belong.
- How does the gospel threaten tribal loyalty? When has tribal loyalty trumped the Holy Spirit’s movement in your life?
- Peter had to be pushed to proclaim a God beyond tribe. What push will be necessary for our churches to emulate Peter’s bold proclamation?
Prayer: Lord, you are not the possession of America. You are the God of the universe. You do not belong to the NRA. You do not belong to the ACLU. You are the God of all people. Help us to follow you beyond tribe.
