FIRST READING: Acts 13:14; 43-52. Paul and Barnabas passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. And many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’” And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
SECOND READING: Revelation 7:9; 14-17. I, John, looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And one of the elders said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
GOSPEL: John 10: 27-30. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
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During his first missionary journey, accompanied by Barnabas, Paul clashed with the Jews at Antioch (today’s Yalvaç) in the region of Pisidia in Asia Minor (today’s Antalya in Turkey). They were jealous of his success amongst the Gentiles because they saw in it a waning of their own power. They thus stirred up the established class to persecute him and force him to stop destabilising the status quo. (Though Paul moved eastward to Iconium, today’s Konya, in the region of Lycaonia, a large Christian community was nevertheless established at Antioch.) Paul’s destabilising message basically consisted in disrupting the oppressive hierarchical structures which the Jews upheld in the name of the Mosaic law. Seeing the deployment of the common people into a community of equals agonized the Jews profoundly, as it still does today anyone who wields power over the masses.
John, conveying his message in visionary terms, strikes the same note. He beholds all people as equal before God. Not only, his multitude—those persecution under Nero (54-68) and also all who suffered and continue to suffer persecutions and injustices for the sake of justice and peace—is victorious (indicated by palm branches). Ultimately, the oppressors never hold out.
Power in the hands of oppressors is illusionary and transitory. Jesus says as much while using a current political term—‘shepherd’—which was a title commonly used for the King or ruler of the people in ancient Mesopotamia and also in Israel (see Jer. 2:8; 3:15; Ez. 34: 2-21) and also for God himself (Gen. 48:15; Ps. 28:9 etc.). It is Jesus and his community who wield real and permanent power. It is they who guarantee life and safety. They are the victorious over all the false models of power.
i said is about antalya and they responded to me , you that is in syria or other place to write the directions more clear if they can
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