We Are Family

Second Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 5 – Year B

June 7, 2015

Mark 3:20-35

And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" — for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

I'm not sure exactly how old I was when I first became aware of it, but I'm sure I wasn't more than 10 years old. Aware of what? Well, of my embarrassment about my parents. We've all been there. We suddenly become aware of our parents. We suddenly discover that in some way they aren't the awesomely cool people we thought they were. They are sometimes downright weird and strange. And suddenly, the people that we have wanted to spend as much time with as possible, are the last people in the world we want to be seen with. The way they dress, the music they listen to, the jokes they tell, where they shop, the car they drive. It's just so uncool. So, we hang our heads, walk 15 feet behind them, ignoring them in public places trying to separate ourselves from them.

Of course, the shoe can also be on the other foot. As parents we too can sometimes be embarrassed by the things our children do. We gather together at a family function, everyone is having a great time. Then suddenly, our beloved child decides to walk into the middle of the room and do a striptease for their aunts and uncles. They come home from the mall with a haircut that looks like it was done by Freddy Krueger and colored by Rainbow Brite. We wonder about letting our children out the door because of the outfits they are wearing, or the color combinations they have put together.

We don't want to admit that that's our brother, or that's our sister. We deny being related to them. The last thing we want to admit is that our relative is the one on the front page of the paper, or the talk of the town. It would be one thing if they were the captain of the winning football team, or had won the lottery, but president of the chess club just doesn't have the same prestige. We've all experienced some of level of embarrassment about a family member, now think about how we would feel if the town was saying our brother, our son, our father, our cousin was insane; maybe even possessed of demons. What would we do then?

Before I was a full-time pastor, I worked in a jewelry store as a goldsmith. In a retail job like that, you tend to meet all kinds of people. Some of them you get to know pretty well. They come in regularly to get their jewelry cleaned, to buy a gift for their wife, or sometimes just to look around at all the shiny, pretty stuff. One of our customers, I came to know had a rather notorious parent. Her father was so notorious that she had left town for more than 20 years after his crimes had become known, she had only returned after changing her name, getting married. And even when she did return, she lived in a neighboring community, she avoided all the people who had known her before. She wanted nothing to do with the family name she had been born with. It didn't seem to matter how wonderful she was, how her laughter could light up a room, how her daughter was as cute as a bug, how well she did her job. She was terrified of how she would be treated if it became public knowledge that her father was the mass-murderer John Wayne Gacy.

Families are important, relationships with our siblings, with our children, with our parents are important. Family is one part of the multitude of things that shape who we are. Often, we learn our first morals, our first ideas about how we treat other people from our families. We learn to live with others. We learn to work with another person, how to help and give a hand when necessary. We learn to care about the lives of another person, we learn to celebrate another persons successes and support them in their disappointments. But, we also feel like our families are reflections of ourselves and vice versa. We feel what we do reflects on the family, and what members of the family do reflects on us.

Our passage from Mark this morning is from the beginning of Jesus' ministry. He was just getting going. His reputation was just getting made. People were coming to hear and see him more out of curiosity than because he had gained a reputation as a teacher and healer (but that reputation was building.) Of course, Jesus being Jesus, meant that he did things his way. Most of the time he didn't care about the effect his actions would have on his reputation, or on his families reputation. If he saw someone in need, if he saw someone in pain, if he saw someone who had been excluded or cast out, someone who had experienced the sting of injustice, he acted. And, that wasn't a good thing.

There were standards. There were expectations. There were traditions that just weren't ignored. You couldn't just heal people and send them on their way, they needed to be examined by the priests at the temple. You didn't just reach out to those unclean people, you don't associate with people like that. What happens if some of their 'yuck' got on you? And demons? Everyone knew that once you had a demon, that was it; the story was over, there was nothing that could be done. And here comes Jesus, doing things in a different way. Touching people. Reaching out to people. Healing them. Restoring them. Loving them. Accepting them. “But, darn it, we've never done it that way before!”

“The religious leaders are calling Jesus all sorts of names, and his family feels it has gone far enough. They want to protect him, and they are worried about him, but they, like the religious leaders at the time, cannot see the good that Jesus is doing. They do not see the people who have been healed, the oppressed who have been lifted up, the marginalized who have been brought in.”¹ They don't see that; all they see is the possibility, the danger, the risk that in Jesus bringing people in, he could in fact be putting himself (and them) out. Jesus was redrawing boundaries with his actions, and they could end up on wrong side. That had to be stopped. The family stepped in, and stepped in it.

“Jesus, stop for a second. Think about what you are doing, what people are thinking. Think about your family!” “My family? Oh, you mean the people that are doing the will of God. I am thinking about them. They are my family.” Jesus doesn't say family isn't important. Jesus doesn't throw his birth family to the curb. Jesus redefines family. It is not based on blood or other allegiances, it is based on the way in which we look to one another, and treat one another. It doesn't matter who your mother or father is, or what you've done in the past. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, gay or straight, old or young, rich or poor, completely able-bodied or not (most of us are not), one race or ethnic group or another. "Looking around him at the crowd of misfits, crazies, and his relentlessly undiscerning disciples he says, 'This is my family!'…[this] diverse mess of humanity, with all of its moral, physical, spiritual beauty and imperfection".²

Those who challenged Jesus, those who challenged his way of doing things, those who stuck to their way of doing things are not rejected or excluded, but they do fail to open their eyes and hearts to what Jesus is saying and doing, and they are gravely mistaken when they choose not to see goodness right before their eyes. They have created their boundaries, they have drawn a line in the sand, and find themselves on the outside of the circle of grace.

The church is often called the family of God. We are family. We call each other sisters and brothers in Christ; we seek to do the will of God. And yes, that mean that sometimes we are pulled aside by others and challenged, questioned, called names. I've been called a 'fake Christian' because of the way I welcome and embrace people that are different. I've lost friends because of the positions I've taken on issues of human rights and equality. I have family members that think I've gone off the deep end because of some of the things I have chosen to live my life according to. But, as much as I have lost, I have gained so much more.

The family that I have found, the family that God has surrounded me with is worth the price of admission. It's worth the stares and accusations, it's worth the questioning and ridicule. There have been times for all of us when we have been embarrassed by our birth families, by our siblings, by our parents, by our children. But, we should never be embarrassed by our family of faith, by the family that God has created and given us. We should never be embarrassed or ashamed to declare that we stand on the side of love, that we expand God's welcome rather than limit it, that we can declare with confidence that God's grace is more than enough to make us family. May we be that family, may we listen to our still speaking God, and seek to do God's will. Amen.

1rev-o-lution.org/2015/05/29/worship-resources-for-june-7-2015-second-sunday-after-pentecost/

2Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 3