If you listened to the scripture lesson as it was read, you will know,
this is a tough text. It falls under the category that I have named as,
“words I wish Jesus had never said”. This is not a text that would be
popular in today’s political scene, or in the offices of denominational
headquarters and certainly not in the halls of ecumenical councils.
If you listen to television or watch political conventions, you will
hear a lot about “family values.” More and more people are blaming the
breakdown of the family for the growing list of social problems. It
doesn’t matter whether you are talking about crime, unemployment, the
prejudice that manifest itself in ugly behaviour or immorality, people
say the family is where children learn values. Everyone, it seems is in
favor of family values, even though very few are able to state clearly
just what they are.
The Mafia is one group where family values are crucially important.
When the Nazis were powerful, one of their emphases was upon strong
families. To say we are in favour of strong family values means little,
until one knows just what those values are.
It’s ironic that this concern is coming during a time when there are
more broken families than ever before in our country's history. Today’s
young people-those under 25- do not trust adults or parents. “People
who love you hurt you”, they say. “People say they love you, then they
walk out”. We are rearing a society of independent thinking, non-
trusting young people. We are in an era where both parents work out of
the home, in the main, if they are together, and that results in
families assuming less and less responsibility.
Many today want to shift their responsibility to the schools. Let
teachers teach morals, ethics and etiquette in addition to their
educational mandate. It’s a huge task, because while they want more and
more responsibility shifted, people are unwilling to finance the
salaries and resources that this would require, even if they agree with
the emphasis. The schools are facing this demand because fewer and
fewer of the parents, either as a couple or as single parents, are
involved in the life of any church; so, the potential influence of the
Church is not very profound. The result is that the values of the
Christian faith are no longer necessarily mirrored in the clubs,
committees and functions of the community.
Jesus has a definition of “family values”, although I suspect it is not
to your liking. It certainly would not get him elected, and all the
trendy religious movements like "Focus on the Family," "The Moral
Majority" and a host of others who spout “family values” would be
completely against his definition. I find it fascinating that they
conveniently skirt the tough words of Jesus.
Listen to what he says, “From now on, five in a household will be
divided; three against two and two against three; father against son
and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against
mother; mother-in-law against her daughter in-law and daughter-in –law
against her mother-in-law.” What is going on here? Isn’t this the
Prince of Peace, the great reconciler, the lover and forgiver of
humanity? Our tendency might be to forget Luke, ignore this
passage, but if we did that, we would still have to deal with Matthew
who said in chapter 10 verse 34, “I have not come to bring peace, but
to bring a sword.” It’s OK to divide us from our enemies, from
those who hurt or injure us, but from our families?
Unfortunately some people understand what Jesus is talking about. Some
families are so dysfunctional that the only way to save your life is to
lose your family. What makes this text so tough is that Jesus is
talking about what happens to some families when they ask him into
their lives. He is talking about what happens to husbands and wives and
brothers and sisters when he walks in. It’s not so tough for us
to understand. Look at most Churches today; in fact, look at this
Church. Why is it that men seem to be frightened away when their
wives try to live like Jesus? Why are men so much more intimidated by
faith in Jesus than women? Do you suppose that subconsciously that is
why so many women want a male pastor - maybe he will get to my husband.
That’s talk that Church leaders and seminary officials don’t like to
hear.
Sometimes, in the midst of their common living, the gospel falls like a
sword over the dinner table and families are afraid. They have a dream
of their son, let’s say of him becoming a famous Doctor or a respected
lawyer, or even of him taking over the family business. Over the dinner
table he states: "Mom, Dad, I have accepted Christ and become a
Christian. I am going to seminary and become a pastor or a worker
aiding people dying in famine ravished Sudan or helping with the Aids
epidemic in Mozambique." Stunned, they sit there in stony
silence! Or how about the kids who go to court to try and declare
their parents mentally incompetent because instead of passing on their
goods to their already affluent children, they have willed it to a
Church or a Mission?
Bishop “Woodie” White, United Methodist Bishop of Indiana states that
two business executives have written a new book titled, “If it Ain’t
Broke, Break It.” It is a book challenging business leaders to look
beyond the traditional modes and attitudes, to see what now exists that
should be broken. Don’t you think that would be a marvelous thing
for Churches to look at? We’ve become accustomed to certain patterns of
life and thinking: prejudices, parochialism, selfishness, materialism,
ways of life that have become almost second nature because we do them
so naturally. Let me ask you: If you call yourself a Christian
and a follower of Jesus Christ, what in your life needs to be broken?
Is there some attitude, some mode of thinking, some pattern, some
disrespect for people who are of a different color or from a different
country?
Why is it we have become a meaner society than previously, even with
all the material advances that we have? Why is it that so few have any
respect for others' possessions, or in some cases, even for other
people? Why is it that in any community, we have hatreds and prejudices
against those are simply different from us? Jesus addressed these
concerns, but as is so often the case, his views were not popular, then
or now. The truth is that Jesus was not an easy child to rear. When he
was twelve, he went with his parents on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When
they left for home, he stayed behind. After three days of frantic
searching, they finally found him in the temple, sitting among the
rabbis. “Why have you treated us like this” they asked? Jesus
replied, “Why are you searching for me? Did you not know I must be
about my Father’s business.” (Luke 2:34-35)
Or how about the time that Jesus was teaching and someone said to him
that his Mother and some of his brothers were in the audience. Jesus
replied, “My Mother and my brothers are those who hear the gospel and
do it.” (Luke 8:21)
Why is it, Jesus asks, that you can interpret the skies-you know when
it looks like rain or when a “Squamish” will whistle down the valley or
it’s going to be hot, but you cannot discern this present age?
The thing to grasp here is that Jesus is not disputing the concept of
family, but he is redefining it. As Barbara Brown Taylor states, “for
Jesus, family was not a matter of whose chromosomes you carry around
inside of you, but whose image were you created in. It’s not a matter
of who has the same last name, or lives at the same address, but who
serves the same God.”
Jesus' family was large because it contained Roman centurions, scruffy
looking fishermen, reformed prostitutes lepers, tax collectors and
hordes of screaming children. When Jesus chose his disciples, he
chose some people who were partly weak, partly faithful people. They
argued over who would be first in the kingdom. They doubted the wisdom
of some of Jesus' decisions; none of them was present at his
crucifixion except John, to receive Mary and care for her. Peter, one
of the leaders, denied he had ever known this Jesus, and Judas betrayed
him. Yet it was to this group that Jesus gave the keys to the
kingdom. If you don’t believe that the Kingdom looks like that,
right here in Squamish, then there isn’t much reason to gather around
the table and share the word. We are a family, warts and all, a family
because, despite our failings, despite our falling short, despite our
failure to follow through with our best intentions, we still know WHOSE
we are and we are still trying to improve in that life.
Jesus was not out to subvert the family as we know it, it was simply
that he was expousing a vision of God and the changes that come with
that vision. Jesus' vision was in direct conflict with some of the
absolute claims that dominate our lives. He has words to say about the
absolute nature of God versus claims we sometimes make as absolute-
claims such as wealth, possessions, land. culture, religion and family.
Jesus encouraged people to dislocate from familial settings IF those
settings clashed with the allegiance that he requests and requires to
be a follower of God. Jesus knew that if you take the God part out of
family life, community life or national life, you are on a collision
course. Without God, selfishness (which I think is the best definition
of sin) will take over our thoughts, and we will become a selfish,
unethical and immoral society. Either we will try to worship the
God proclaimed by Jesus, or we will fall and follow the gods of this
world. One or the other will become our dominant desire, with the
resulting impact upon society in general.
People who worship at the altar of wealth are not very concerned about
the plight of the poor or the addicted. They don’t care very much about
the environment of the area where they are building or manufacturing or
leasing their high rise buildings. People who worship at the altar of
leisure don’t care much for people in Africa who are dying of AIDS.
They don’t care about the young person who knows he or she is gay and
is scared stiff to tell parents or friends. Jesus is
saying, if you follow me, there will be conflict with those who hold to
the value standards of the world-even if they are blood family members.
Jesus is asking us to accept the grace that is available and gives us
the ability to stand on our own two feet and say no. When we follow
him, we are saying, I am willing to grow up in a different environment,
I am now reborn to a different life perspective.
To the Jews, family trees were very important; the first chapter of
Matthew is a mute symbol of that reality. Such was not the case with
Jesus. Jesus walked about collecting people like a recycling addict,
gathering from all over the place-some from one family some from
another, all because of there allegiance to one Father. It is in
the family that Jesus talks about where people learn what is right and
what is wrong. There they learn what is worth living for and what is
not. It supercedes what they may have learnt from their parent's knee.
The family of Jesus gives us another chance to learn what is truly of
value, what it means to love and to forgive. Goodness, how they
squabbled; how they still do- but with Jesus as Lord, we remain a
family, the one he was willing to die for even though it was tragically
painful for his own Mother.
The gospel hangs over every person’s head like the sword of Damocles.
It can calm us, or it can send shivers down our spine. It can fall
right in the middle of a family celebration and divide, but it always
brings hope to those who are brave enough to listen. The gospel
we proclaim is not a flashlight in a dark world, but a flaming fire- it
can warm, but it can also burn. The gospel is not a table knife but a
sword, and it can divide. The gospel is not oatmeal, it is powerful
stuff. The message of Jesus can nourish, but it can also challenge the
most intimate of human relations. In short it can be frightening, but
it need not be something that is feared. The gospel is about
radical inclusiveness, even when we would make it restrictive. It’s
about peace. Jesus has given us something worth fighting about. In the
end, when we embrace the gospel, it not only brings peace, but it also
brings power that can piece by piece break down the largest
impediments.
The world in which we live is often frightening and unpredictable. It
brings us joy at times, but it also brings us great sorrow. We struggle
with what is the meaning of this life, what is truly important when all
else has been set aside. Just what is it that is large enough to
captivate my life?
We have this Church so that we can wrestle with such problems. The
questions we struggle with may be very large, and while we may not
agree with each other all of the time, we know that if our lives are
linked to God through Jesus Christ. We have a hammer that will break
the largest rock that we may ever face- even if it as big as “The
Chief. Thanks be to God.”
