Faithful Pathways: Family

Mark 3:31-35 surprises Jesus's listeners. The family was the primary unit in the first century. Your economic well-being, your social well-being, your physical well-being came from the family. It was the focus of ultimate loyalty.

And while families made connections with other people, they did so with an eye, and ear, and a mind to preserving their honor and avoiding any suggestion of "shame" that might literally ruin their ability to eat and be housed. This honor/shame equation was a matter of life and death.

Jesus turns that on its head. He ignores his biological family who has come to rescue him from himself. Remember, he's been in consistent trouble for eating with the wrong people, for being around disease, for forgiving sins (usurping God's power), for putting the welfare of the people above the temple law. And if Jesus is in trouble, so is his family.

Jesus response redefines the family. "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

One of the gifts of the institutional church for me and for others is the "family" called together by God. You couldn't put those people together if you tried. Oh, people would be polite to each other, like you are in the grocery store, but worship together? serve together? stay together when you don't agree? learn to respect and love each other? practice forgiveness and reconciliation?

Too easy to leave...go somewhere else where you like people...not go be with those people at all.

But together, the weak and the strong, the black and white, the gay and straight, the funny and serious, the old and the young, rich and poor, progressive and conservative...our differences go on forever...together we are family.

But this is our "new community"--before the "church" had doctrine and rules, high or low liturgy, even orders of worship, we had a new community. All were welcome. All were considered as gift from God.

Easy gift? Not always. Perhaps like those Ikea items...we have to figure how all the parts fit together to do our job. But they do...they will...

We're family.