Family resemblance

N.B. I preached this sermon on the day a member of the congregation was baptised.

The saying goes: ‘You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.” And it’s very true, you have no choice when it comes to which one you are born into. Your race, culture or class, your family history and the many personalities within it, are determined by “accident” of birth.

Sometimes our family members can be a source of embarrassment to us. Doing or saying things in public that make us cringe.

For Jesus, it was no different. In today’s Gospel passage (Mark 3: 20-34) we hear that Jesus was causing embarrassment and concern to his family. Crowds were following him and creating so much chaos he couldn’t even find time to eat.

People were telling Jesus’s family that he had lost his mind.

Not the crowds who were actually following Jesus, they knew he was no ordinary man. The crowds followed him closely because they had listened to his words and seen the miracles and healings he did.

It was the people on the outskirts of the crowd who thought Jesus was mad. They didn’t get close enough to know him or believe his words. They didn’t get close enough to put their trust in him. So, from a distance, they judged him to have gone out of his mind.

In fact, everyone seemed to have an opinion about Jesus. Religious scribes had come from as far as Jerusalem just to give their opinion and find a reason to accuse him.

They were not impressed with what Jesus had been doing – recently he had healed a man with a shrivelled hand on the Sabbath day. In the scribes’ minds he had broken the law that commanded everyone to rest from work. Jesus had also been casting out demons, and the scribes saw sinister powers at work behind these apparent miracles.

These scribes thought they were close to God. They knew the Holy Scriptures back to front. They had studied God’s Laws all their lives and had memorised the words and could recite the passages. But they hadn’t truly absorbed the message. They obeyed the commandments without understanding the spirit of love that underpins all of God’s laws.

Yes, they had noticed Jesus healing the sick man but they focused on what day of the week it was instead of seeing God’s work being done. They didn’t realise that the love of God that commands people to rest their bodies and minds from a hard week’s work, is also a love that wants people to rest from the pain of physical, mental and spiritual illness, no matter what day of the week that healing and freedom comes.

The scribes were so boxed in by the Law, they didn’t see the Spirit of Life that had inspired it. They couldn’t see that this man, Jesus, was filled by that same Spirit, that he was doing the work of the Spirit and had “Come that people may have life, life in all it’s abundance”.

The scribes called the Spirit working through Jesus, evil and wicked. They called the Truth a lie, and good bad. And because of this, they missed their chance to receive the truth of God’s salvation open to all.

Even Jesus’ own mum and siblings at that time didn’t fully understand his mission. So when they heard the people saying he had gone mad, they went outside the house Jesus was in and called for him.

When told his family were asking for him Jesus’ replied, “Who are my mother and my brother?” then looked at the people who sat close around him and said: “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

And, perhaps today we can hear Jesus saying the same to us. He says don’t stay at a distance, don’t stay on the outskirts of the crowd, come closer to me and I will come closer to you, follow me as I do the will of the Father.

Today, as Alan has chosen to be baptised, he is demonstrating to all of us here in public that he is not keeping his distance or staying on the outskirts, he is publicly declaring that he has been born into a new family. Jesus says that unless we are born again, born by the Spirit, we shall not enter into the kingdom, the family of God, and our baptism symbolises the breaking of spiritual waters and our entry into the family of faith as a new child.

This family of faith we enter into is one that can encourage and nurture us. It is also a family that sometimes has its ups and downs, just like in our earthly families. There will at times be misunderstandings, personality clashes, tensions and irritations. There are some family members who are still healing from the bruises and hurts that life has thrown at them. We may even encounter some Pharisees, those so rigid with traditions and law that they can’t see the moving of God’s Spirit and fail to embody the spirit of love held within each commandment. Quick to criticise and slow to encourage others.

As a new family member there will be lots to learn. We start off with milk, the basic tenets of the Faith. But God wants us to grow on to solid food. He wants us to learn how to walk with him. He will, as a loving parent, guide us along each stage of development and growth. He will watch lovingly as we take our first stumbling steps. When we fall flat on our faces and fall into sinful behaviour, we can run to Him with confidence. Our Heavenly Father will pick us up, clean us up, give us reassurance that – though we fell – we are still loved, we are forgiven, we are still His child and we are still believed in; that we can do it better next time, walk a bit further before having another fall, slowly learn to overcome that particular obstacle or temptation and avoid falling into it in the future.

As the Psalm says, “With the Lord there is mercy and plenteous redemption.” He has saved us and will continue to save us as we walk with Him. And God has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us, to teach us, and to help us to stay connected to the will of God.

Whoever does God’s will are Jesus’s brothers and sisters, part of the kingdom family. And what is His will? That we would come to Him, all who are weary, and find rest. His will is that we would not hide our sins and shame from him like Adam and Eve did, but that we would come to our Heavenly Father in repentance and receive the sacrifice of Jesus that covers all of our sins.

God wills us to receive His Sabbath rest, peace from the striving to follow the law in our own strength and power. He wants us to walk with the Spirit who empowers us to walk and live and be who we are called to be – children of God, members of His family.

So, this morning I encourage you, Alan, and all those who are baptised, and those who are sceptics, atheists, agnostics, unsure, standing on the outskirts… I encourage you not to be deterred from the Faith by the negative opinions of others. Don’t be discouraged because there are many who think having faith in a supernatural being in the 21st century is unsophisticated and embarrassing. Or perhaps there are people in your life who know you and the mistakes you’ve made in the past and feel it’s not possible for you to change from the person they believe you are.

Don’t be discouraged and beaten down by those, like the scribes, who want to trip you up and condemn you.

You have been adopted into a new family, the family of God.

Alan, your new brothers and sisters, your new mothers and fathers, wise uncles and aunts, annoying siblings, are here in this Parish to support you. So please stay in community with us, sharing your gifts and growing with us. God will send family members to support you wherever you find yourself in life.

And I encourage everyone in this church and parish, everyone in God’s kingdom family, to work together. Let’s help each other to grow by being encouragers, supporters and guides. Let’s love each other in word and deed. Because God wills us, his children, to grow to maturity and to share the good news of the kingdom with people on the outskirts, those looking from a distance and wondering who the crazy people of faith are and why they follow Jesus.

Let’s not be divided by disagreements and factions, but let’s draw close to God by spending time with Him in prayer, reading His words, by receiving His forgiveness and grace for our failures and, in turn, being forgiving and gracious with the members of our church family and our own families at home when they get things wrong.

As Paul writes to the Corinthian church, God wants “our inner nature to be renewed day by day” so that through our lives and actions people around us will see the family resemblance we share with Jesus and our Heavenly Father.