The mother answered, “Well, God made Adam and Eve and then they had children, and then they had their own children and so on.”
Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. “How did the human race appear?” He answered, “Well, many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.”
The little girl was very confused and returned to her mother and said, “Mum, you told me we were created by God, and dad said we evolved from monkeys.”
So the mother answered, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his!”
We are coming towards to the end of our little series about family life, marriage, singleness, teenagers, aging relatives, children and grandchildren.
What about the church as a family? Is the church like a dysfunctional family unit?
Actually, someone might ask, is “family” even the right word to describe relationships in the local church? Some people don’t like the term “family services” because, either they live alone and feel excluded, or their experience of family is so bad they would just rather we find another word altogether.
The word “family” is used 17 times in the New Testament and perhaps only once is it used to describe the local church; it’s in Galatians 6.10 and it says this -
“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
That means the church. But it’s just one verse and some people might argue that the church isn’t really like a family at all. There are other metaphors in the Bible that are used much more often to express what church is like.
For example, the church is compared to a healthy body, a holy temple, a beautiful bride, a fertile field, a trained army, a royal priesthood and even a busy building site. (I have to admit I’ve met a few cowboy builders in my time in the church)!
But the Bible often uses family language to describe what happens to us when we come into a relationship with God through Jesus.
When you came to faith, God was no longer a remote and unfriendly being outside your experience. No, you experienced him as your heavenly Father. Christians are called children of God.
And relationships between Christians are given family-like words too. Paul called Timothy his true son in the faith. And in Romans 16, when he is saying “hello” to a list of acquaintances before signing off, Paul says “Greet Rufus… and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.”
All through the epistles believers are addressed as “brother and sisters.”
God does not want us to be on formal terms, addressing one another as Rev. Lambert or Doctor Littlehailes or Mr. Wake, but on first name terms and with the genuine familiarity and affection that siblings have.
You remember Winston Churchill’s speech to Parliament on 4th June 1940: “Whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Well, that sounds exactly like the back of the car on the way to my family holidays when I was about 8.
Most of my childhood was spent being tormented by, my sister (who was bossy because she was the oldest) and tormenting my brother (who got away with murder because he was the youngest).
Siblings do argue from time to time and Christians have disagreements too.
Christians fall out because they are brothers and sisters. God understands that and this is why the Bible says that we need to work hard at maintaining the unity of the Spirit.
And so, in 1 John 4.19, we are given the vision of church being family.
This is how John puts it in that verse: “We love because God first loved us. If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister (he is talking about fellow Christians), we are liars. For any of us who do not love a brother or sister whom we have seen, cannot love God whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.”
It is a wonderful thing that, when we come to Christ, we are born into a family with brothers and sisters. The church throughout the world is family. It’s an amazing thing, you know, you can travel to any part of the world and there you will find believers in Jesus Christ and you have this filial relationship with them as soon as you meet them.
Two weeks ago, I was in Edinburgh for our daughter’s wedding in the Free Reformed Church where she and Iain met. The church was very different in feel to both All Saints’ and Saint Mary’s – but Kathie and I immediately felt completely at ease. We sing the same worship songs, we read and treasure the same scriptures, we love the same God. We share the same vocabulary and values. I found myself thinking “I hardly know a soul in Edinburgh but this is just like home.”
They say you choose your friends but can’t change your family. Take a look around you this morning. These are your brothers and your sisters!
If you’re not a Christian yet, they are your potential brothers and sisters! I don’t know whether that would make you want to be a Christian or not! I hope it would… But we are one family and our common language is love.
In the world, we talk of big families, small families, dysfunctional families, happy families, single-parent families, extended families, weird families, extended families, broken families, famous families, tragic families and so on. What should the family of God be like?
Our reading from James suggests that it should be a community that believes certain things and that behaves a certain way. James paints a vivid picture of what that should look like. Let’s look at James 2.14-18 again:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister [note the family language] is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
So in the church family, there is no favouritism. Love must be genuine and words must be matched by deeds.
Holy Trinity Brompton’s annual Leadership Conference took place in May. Our own Kathryn Belmont was one of 4,000 people representing over 900 churches from over 50 countries who gathered at the Royal Albert Hall, which was full to bursting.
Such was the pressure for space, the Queen had even granted permission for the Royal Box to be used, which is quite something. Who do you think the organisers arranged to be seated in the Royal Box?
Well, Tony Blair was at the conference as a speaker but it wasn’t him. Rick Warren was there too (this is the man who led in prayer at Barak Obama’s investiture as US President and whose book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold 30 million copies) but it wasn’t him either. Several prominent bishops and politicians and ambassadors were there but none was seated in the Royal Box.
Who then? The organisers used it to seat homeless people and ex-offenders. Isn’t that just genius? I cannot imagine any other organisation on earth who would even think of doing that. But, you see, everyone is a VIP in the family of God - including you.
They say there’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. But one of the most painful things in Jesus’ life was that members of his family misunderstood him and even opposed him. So he said “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
John’s gospel reveals that, up until the resurrection, his brothers did not believe in him. Mark’s gospel says that they thought he was mad.
The incident in our Gospel reading tellingly finds Jesus’ family ‘outside’ while Jesus is ‘inside’. They weren’t interested in Jesus’ ministry. They wanted him to follow them – and if you’ve got family who aren’t believers you’ll probably know how that feels.
Jesus used this awkward situation to talk about who he thinks his real family is.
“Pointing to his disciples, [Mary Magdalene, Peter, James, John, Joanna, Susanna, Matthew…] he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12.49-50). What did his family make of that, I wonder?
They say that blood is thicker than water (meaning that family bonds are closer than any other and that allegiance should always be to family first).
But Jesus says otherwise here. When the family you are born into comes between you and the will God, as it did for Jesus, it has to be challenged.
I hope you have acknowledged who Jesus is and made a settled decision to follow him as Lord and Saviour. That alone is what brings someone into a relationship with Christ - and a friendship that, the Bible says, is closer than that of a brother. That alone is what makes you a member of the best family on earth - God’s family.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th July 2012
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