June 10, 2012
Second Sunday of Kingdomtide
Worship Theme: Family
1 Samuel 16:1-23
Mark 3:31-35
A reading from the Gospel of Mark. . .Chapter three. . .verses thirty-one through thirty-five. . .I am reading from the Message Bible this morning. Listen. . .for a word from God for you and for me. . .the people of God. . .
You know. . .I really believe that the movie producers and TV show producers of all these family shows really have it wrong. We either see these so completely dysfunctional families and say to ourselves, “boy, I am glad my family is not like that”. . .or we see these family’s that we say to ourselves,” yah right. . .only on TV or the big screen.” I think that real families are somewhere in the middle. But one thing is true in all cases whether on TV or in real life, we need family to survive.
Sometimes we have a family that is not “blood relatives” and other times we have family’s that even with all their dysfunction. . .they still are family, they still stick together through thick and thin. . .It is hard sometimes to function as a family even in the best of them. Unfortunately, there are many in humanity that don’t have either, they don’t have a spiritual family or a physical one. . .but that’s another sermon for another day. . .having both is great but you need at least one place to call home. . .one place where you accepted. . .one place where the grace of God abounds. . .
We need to have two families, our physical family and our faith family. But I think that the most important one is our faith family because without it, a lot of times, we don’t have anyone to help us through the dysfunction of our physical one. . .Jesus knew about the need for humanity to have that Spiritual family. . .that Spiritual home. . .where all are welcome. . .
In the Old Testament Reading this morning, we hear about David and Saul. Now Saul was having issues with evil spirits, and it was his own fault. They came and tormented him because the Lord had departed from Saul because of the things he had done. So he told his servants to find someone to play music for him and the spirits would go away. They remember David and recommended him for the job.
Now when David came and played, the spirits departed from Saul. He was so pleased with David that he took him in. . .he found favor with Saul. In time David even became like family to Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan and David became like brothers. David had a new family not of blood but family anyway. How ironic it is that David became a king, a king that was a “man after God’s own heart”. . .hmmmm. This outsider became like family. . .
In the reading from Mark this morning that I read, we hear Jesus doing a completely radical thing. . . now his biological family showed up to come and get Him out of there. They thought that Jesus was out of His mind so they were going to take Him home before something really bad happened. . .they were more than likely a little embarrassed by Him than anything else. But Jesus did a real radical thing. He said that His family was not just the physical family but also the Spiritual family. . .all who believed. . .all who obey God. . .All who obey and believe. . .this was the beginning of the adoption at the cross. . .the writing of the document that Jesus sealed with His blood for you and for me. . .
In this new, radical family, we become related to God as Father, Christ as our brother and the church as the mother. You see having the physical family, and only the physical family, you are lost but having the Spiritual one as well, even if we don’t have the physical family, your spiritual family is sufficient enough for eternal life with God. And yes even within that spiritual family, with in that church as mother part of the family of faith there is dysfunction. And to me. . .that’s a shame. Don’t get me wrong, I know there is dysfunction of some sort in most relationships. But when we decide to shun others because of their doctrine. . .their color. . .their gender. . .their lifestyle. . . that’s when we need to look in the mirror at ourselves we need to change ourselves.
You may be wondering why the stole I am wearing today is much shorter than the ones I usually wear. No. . .Shanequa didn’t go wild with a pair of scissors this morning. I wear it in solidarity with some of my brothers and sisters in Christ. When I was at Annual Conference. . .there was some talk about what happened at General Conference this year. There was a lot of debate. . .a lot of un-Christ-like attitudes and actions at General Conference this year. We as a family got it wrong on many layers. But we are family. At General Conference, there were labels put on people. . .there was division. . .there were some who made to feel unworthy of their call from God and were told they could not follow their call from God. But we are family. What a tragedy when God’s people hurt their family members.
Jesus began a new type of family during His ministry on earth. . .A family that is for all believers. . .not just for ones who believe as you and I do but for all who obey God and follow Jesus. We need to get this right. We need to get this right because if we don’t. . .the family ties become severed and may never be healed. We need to build the family ties that bind and become the healing balm for the nations. Let us go forth for Christ with the “Super Glue” of our faith and graft all of our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter who or where they are. We are all Family. . .you and I. . .and the whole body of Christ.
AMEN!
