Village Shepherd

You always get one! The person on another table in the restaurant who holds forth very loudly and at great length so that the whole room can hear what he or she is saying. Or the person in a meeting, where everyone knows that whatever the subject, this particular person will invariably disagree. Or the one member of a family, who for some unknown reason is always incredibly difficult.

And films have been made about the one person on a jury who refuses to go along with the otherwise unanimous verdict and insists on keeping the jury for hours or maybe days or weeks because he or she won't budge.

They're members of the awkward squad and every community, whether the family, the village, the Church, the school, the pub or whatever, has them. They refuse to conform, they refuse to fit in with everyone else, and mostly they make life difficult and uncomfortable for the rest of us.

Some communities deal with the awkward squad by removing them. The Roman Catholic Church deals with its dissident theologians by excommunicating them, or at least withdrawing their licence to teach. Schools suspend or expel their most difficult pupils. Trade union members who refuse to strike with their colleagues are usually ostracised and sent to Coventry. Some countries deal with their criminals by sending them to an offshore island or a prison ship. And some Church communities refuse to admit those who won't submit to stringent rules and regulations.

The Church of England is often criticised for being too weak and wishy-washy. The implication is that there should be certain rules to which members ought to subscribe, and that those who refuse to subscribe to such rules should be excluded or disciplined in some way.

A community of like-minded people who are all pulling in the same direction, is usually a much more comfortable place to be than a community which contains members of the awkward squad. The like-minded can get on with things without being constantly interrupted by arguments and dissension. Discussion flows smoothly, and members of the community feel warm and safe and comfortable.

Communities containing the awkward squad are far less comfortable places to be. Argument and dissension is often rife, it takes much longer to get things done, and members of the community sometimes feel anxious and unsure of themselves.

Yet at the end of the day, it sometimes turns out to be the awkward squad who have been the most valuable members of society. They're the ones who force people to stop and think before taking action - like the inevitable protesters who slow us down and make us think every time a new road is scheduled to be built.

They're the ones who often drag our thinking forward - like Gallileo who insisted that the sun rather than the earth was the centre of the solar system, despite all the apparent evidence to the contrary and despite torture and excommunication for his views. Gallileo turned out to be the father of modern science.

They're the ones who make leaps of faith and bring us new insights - like Hans Kung, the German Roman Catholic theologian who has written wonderful books making Christianity real and accessible to the 20th century. But who was removed from his teaching post by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, because when Christianity becomes really accessible, its subversive, dangerous message of love and freedom becomes very clear.

They're the ones in local communities who refuse to allow us to sit back in complacent comfort, but force us to argue and discuss and think through what we're about. So that in the end we stagger onto the right path for the right reasons instead of just letting things happen because we're too lazy to bother to change or to challenge.

But these members of the awkward squad tend to be uncomfortable people, and are often judged a pain or unholy or evil or whatever by the rest of us.

Jesus warned against judging other people. He said, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get." (Matthew 7:1-2) And he followed this up with the humorous story of the man who tried to remove the speck of dust from his friend's eye, while all the time he had a plank in his own eye.

Today's story of the weeds found growing amongst the wheat is another example of Jesus' attitude of inclusiveness. When darnel begins to grow it's indistinguishable from wheat. It's only at the end of its life, at the time of harvest, that the darnel can really be seen for what it is. And then only by the harvester.

The message is clear. None of us has the right to judge another, for as Jesus says in John's gospel, "You judge by human standards; I judge no one." (John 8:15) None of us know what's in someone else's heart, nor where they've come from. Only God, who understands all and who is therefore incredibly and unbelievably forgiving, is in a position to judge.

And so our churches must be places which have ever-open doors and soft walls, where everybody is always welcome no matter how awkward they are, and where we learn from each other.

And perhaps those who are especially welcome are the awkward squad, because they're the ones who dare to rock the boat and ruffle the surface, and who so often bring honesty into our church community. A church which allows dissension and argument may not feel very comfortable, and may not appear to those outside to be very loving or very nice, but it's usually a church which is alive and growing. And it's only by learning to love and accept the awkward squad that we can really begin to know what loving is all about.

So in fear and trepidation let's welcome the awkward squad, for they force us to grow, and in the end they just might turn out to be right.