- Good Morning
Once again, I say: good morning. And I say that with extra intentionality. Because with all the anxiety that our current situation has placed in my life, and I suspect in yours, it is way too easy to forget that this day, this morning, is good. All we ever have is this present moment, and this present moment, right now, is good.
Many are choosing to watch our worship via livestream, instead of being physically present in our sanctuary. In fact, I have been surprised that, every Sunday since I started crudely streaming my sermons, that we’ve had dozens of people watch all or part via the internet. What an amazing time in which we live, that such a thing is possible!
To each of you watching, either live or at some point in the days ahead, I invite you to send a note or a comment so we know that you are here with us, that you are blessing us by being with us in that way.
Likewise, I hope that our livestream worship is a blessing to you. It may be the only way we'll be able to worship together in the weeks ahead. I can't help but think how fortunate we are to have this technology, which obviously wasn't available in during the 1918 epidemic, when schools, churches and other gathering places were closed for many weeks, and when the city of Long Beach even passed a "no-kissing" ordinance. History shows that strict social distancing and isolation are very effective in lessening the severity of an epidemic, and it is important for us in the church to model that to our community and to our world. So I encourage you all to do your part, for the safety and wellbeing of all in our community.
- Family Values
Today’s sermon is titled, “Family Values…”
The phrase “family values” is kind of a loaded term these days, a buzzword of sorts. The phrase carries with it a lot of baggage.
One would think that the phrase “family values” would imply doing what is best for families. Yet many who use that phrase are against welfare and other social services, things which provide great assistance to poor families. So maybe “family values” only applies to families that aren’t poor.
One would think that the phrase “family values” would imply doing whatever one can to strengthen family cohesiveness, family togetherness. Yet many who use that phrase are in support of our government’s policy of separating families at the border. So maybe “family values” only applies to families that are already in this country.
One would think that the phrase “family values” would imply keeping families healthy - especially now. Yet many who use that phrase are - even now - against providing equal, universal health care so that all families can receive the care they need. So maybe “family values” only applies to families that are already healthy.
One would think that the phrase “family values” would imply protecting families from the horrors of war. Yet many who use that phrase are pro-war, and support using our military even in situations where diplomacy and other peace efforts are better options. So maybe “family values” only applies to families that are fortunate enough to live in areas that are - for now - far removed from the horrors of war.
The truth is that many use the phrase “family values” as a sort of code-phrase, to draw boundaries, to define and separate who’s in and who’s out; who is a part of “us,” and who is a part of “them.”
And even though many who use that phrase claim to be people of faith - the Christian faith, mostly - any definition of family or family values that excludes people or divides people or separates people into categories of greater and lesser is contrary to the will of God, and goes against the values of God’s kingdom.
- The Samaritan Woman
Consider the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well.
The family values people back in Jerusalem would have you believe that this was a person far removed from the family of God. She was way beyond the boundaries of who was “in” and who was “out” in the kingdom of God.
For one thing, she was a Samaritan.
As she herself says in this story, “Jews do not share things with Samaritans.” They were two separate families. Two separate people. Two separate groups, two separate cultures, practicing two separate religions, who should have nothing to do with each other.
So she is dumbfounded that a Jew, passing by, would stop and ask her - a Samaritan - for a drink of water.
Also: she was a woman. In the social and political affairs of the world, women were considered inferior. Non-human, even, in that they were considered not worthy of a place in the public realm.
If you were a man and you wanted to talk to a woman, you talked to her husband, and he would convey the message to her. If he felt like it. You didn’t talk to her directly, because it was beneath you.
So when Jesus’ own disciples arrived and saw him talking with this woman, they were dumbfounded that he, a man, would stop and have a conversation with this woman. Men just didn’t do things like that.
But Jesus did. Because he saw what most other men did not. He saw that she was created in the image of God, just the same as him or any other male. And to not treat her as equal would be to deny the image of God that is within her. To not treat her as equal would be to deny her humanity.
Which, ironically, is something that today’s “family values” people do a lot. They deny humanity anytime they designate someone as “other.” Anytime they try to regulate rights and freedoms for others while they continue to enjoy those rights and freedoms themselves.
Voting rights. The right to have affordable health care. The right to flee countries and homelands where they are in danger.
And, since we’re talking about family values: do we even need to discuss the Samaritan woman’s own personal family circumstance? She had been married five times, and the person with whom she was currently in a relationship was not her husband.
So for the family values coalition back in Jerusalem, she was #1 on their list of people whose values and lifestyles clearly kept them far from the kingdom of God. And because of that, lines had to be drawn. Allowing her to think she could even come close to God’s kingdom - even come close to associating with the righteous “in crowd” - could not happen. She had to be considered an outcast, because she was a threat to every family value that the leaders in Jerusalem claimed to hold dear.
So what was Jesus doing talking to her?
To put it very simply: Jesus was welcoming her into the family of God.
He spoke to her about living water - and said that she could have it, that it was available to all who believe. Including her!
But how could he? How could he just welcome her into God’s family like that? Is there any sign here that she has changed her life, repented of her ways, and found her way back to the straight and narrow?
Not as far as I can see.
Yet he welcomed her anyway. Treated her as if she were as good as him.
And this gets tricky. Because haven’t I been preaching a lot about repentance and changing one’s life these past few weeks, and how important that is?
Yes. Yes I have.
- Love and Welcome First
But here’s the thing. We can welcome people into God’s family and still invite and encourage and admonish people to change their lives.
In fact, I might even go so far as to say that repentance doesn’t happen apart from the family of God - repentance is more likely to happen after one is brought into the family of God.
Think about this:
Does a child grow and mature in order to be loved by their parent? Or does the unconditional love of the parent encourage the growth and maturation of the child?
I would argue it’s the latter. The love comes first. The acceptance comes first. And that helps growth and maturity happen.
Which is why we welcome all, including children, to the communion table.
Back in my day, only those who had been baptized were invited to partake of communion. Understanding had to come first, followed by welcome.
But the growth and maturity that can help lead a person to baptism and to faith is more likely to occur when one is fully welcomed - fully welcomed - into the family of God.
The welcome comes first. The love comes first.
The understanding that we hope for develops through welcome and participation.
Instead of understanding first so that we are allowed to participate, we are allowed to participate, and that helps lead us to understanding.
You see this throughout Jesus’ ministry.
You see this throughout the entire Bible.
People are welcomed into God’s family. They are embraced, brought into the community, with no restrictions.
They are loved.
The boundaries that kept them apart from God’s family are erased. Because God’s family has no boundaries.
And it is once love has been made known to them, that they change their lives.
- Adopted into the Family
I’ve been reading a book lately by Kelley Nikondeha. She is a theologian with ties to both California and Burundi. She is also an adopted child and an interacial adoptive parent, and the book I’m reading is titled Adopted.
In that book she writes:
“In a world shaped by bloodlines and carefully, deliberately shaped boundaries, God breaks those boundaries and welcomes outsiders. Eunuchs and foreigners. The outcast Tamar. Rahab the Canaanite prostitute. Ruth the Moabite.
The uncircumcised, adopted into God's family... Israel is God's chosen people, yet the boundary that separates the chosen from others is broken down.
We are all adopted into God's family. Gentiles. Sinners… yet children of God. "All who want in can be grafted into this family tree...and our notion of family, defined by bloodlines and ethnicities, begins to look narrow and far too exclusive to resemble God's largess."
That, my friends, is the kingdom of God. It is family love that extends beyond family. It is tribal love that extends beyond tribe. Beyond race. Beyond religion.
In her book, Kelley Nikondeha also mentions the time when Jesus is in his hometown, and his mother and his brothers are trying to get his attention, so some people call out to Jesus: “Hey, Jesus! Your mother and your brothers are asking for you…”
And Jesus replies, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? … Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, even my mother.”
The crowd is stunned into silence. Is he insulting the family in which he grew up?
But he’s not. He’s simply expanding his definition of family. And his family is not insulted, because it was his family who helped teach him to expand the definition. After all, as the story goes, he was not the biological son of Joseph, yet Joseph accepted him and claimed him as his own, and gave him a name. Even the genealogy of Jesus that we focused on back in Advent - that geneology that shows the family from which Jesus is descended - is a family that Jesus is a part of through adoption.
So yeah; family is bigger than some would claim. God’s definition of family is an expanded definition.
And that expanded definition of family is something Jesus carries with him throughout his ministry.
How we respond to the current situation with the COVID 19 virus is, in part, reflective of our belief in the expanded family of God. Since every person is a part of God’s one family, we take care to ensure not only our health, but the health of those around us. We buy what we need to be healthy, but make sure there is enough for others as well. We curtail our activities, not just for our own sake, but especially for the sake of the most vulnerable among us, those for whom this virus could be deadly. And, yes, we need to vote out leaders who focus only on a few, only on the rich, only on the people of one nation; leaders whose short-sightedness has failed to prepare us for the situation we are in now; leaders who time and time again have neglected the poor and the vulnerable. Leaders who even now are voting against expanding health care, or providing funding to help those who are getting sick, or for requiring paid sick leave for all people.
They still don’t know that the God they claim to worship, the God they claim to pray to, is the God of all people.
All people, including (and especially) the poor and the vulnerable, are a part of the family. And as this virus has shown us, if we neglect the health and wellbeing of any person anywhere in the world, eventually that will come around and threaten our health and wellbeing as well. Because we are all connected. We are all one family.
So it is for the sake of every one of our brothers and sisters, including those who may be affected much more drastically by the virus than some of us will be, that we are called upon to take actions that may seem to be an overreaction, but which really aren’t.
It may be inconvenient. It may require sacrifice. It may completely change our lives in ways we do not desire.
But we do it out of love.
We do it for the sake of our expanded family.
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