Among the many different Bible translations that you’ll find in a good Christian bookshhop, there are also some extra special editions for particular groups...Youth Bibles, Devotional Bibles for Mothers, and Fathers, Revolution Bibles for Teen Guys (I kid you not), and probably Bibles for dog-lovers and cat-lovers too. Of course, there are red-letter Bibles too, with Jesus’s words in stand-out ink, but as far as I can see, there’s one special edition missing.
Nobody
has yet published a Bible with the words we wish Jesus hadn’t
said picked out in florescent green. I’m sure it would be a
best-seller – because there are so MANY of them.
You
know the ones.
“Deny
yourself, take up your cross and follow me” “Sell all you have
and give the money to the poor” “Love your enemy, bless those who
persecute you”…
You
will probably have your own list of texts that make you wince...Mine
include those above, but I really wouldn’t mind if he’d kept
quiet instead of giving us this morning’s words too “Whoever
does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother”
It
sounds so easy, but it feels so hard.
Honestly,
couldn’t he be a little less challenging? He’ll lose all his
friends.
Picture
the scene.
Here’s
Jesus surrounded by a crowd so huge that nobody is even THINKING
about feeding them...and he's not telling them gentle stories about
lost sheep or prodigal sons.
Instead
he is, not to put too fine a point on it, having a bit of a rant.
“How
can Satan cast out Satan? …..Whoever blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit can never be forgiven...”
It's
not comfortable listening, even at the beginning.
Nobody
much is enjoying themselves...I’m willing to bet that there’s not
a lot of eye contact between Jesus and his hearers. They’re all
wishing themselves far far away.
Small
wonder that the Scribes, present perhaps to ensure that orthodoxy is
attended to, set out to discredit Jesus – to divert his hearers in
mid flow...
“Don't
listen to HIM. He's not well...He's raving...Might even be
possessed...Ignore him”.
And,
in their task of persuading Jesus to shut up, to stop his incendiary
diatribe, they recruit some rather unlikely allies...Mary and her
sons and daughters.
Jesus's
Mum and his siblings
That’s
when I start to get a bit anxious.
I
remember reading this passage while my children were small and
thinking
“ Oh Jesus! Why? If my children are ever that rude to me in public I'll...maybe cry...maybe hit them...”
Nobody
likes to hear family tensions being aired in a public space....and
certainly the way in which Jesus seems to reject his own flesh and
blood is an affront to those “family values” which were as
powerful a force in 1st
century
Palestine as they are, in a rather different way, in 21st
century
Britain.
So,
what's going on as Jesus asks his outrageous, offensive question, one
that must have stung mother Mary like a slap on the cheek?
“Who
are my mother and my brothers?”
Is
it possible that Jesus looks at them without really seeing?
That
in the flood tide of his preaching he has actually lost sight of
reality, forgotten who he is and where he comes from?
I
don't think so for a moment.
As
they appear, intent on leading him away, calming him down, winning
his silence, Mary and her sons are allied with the voice of law and
order, concerned to keep up appearances, anxious that Jesus should
stop making waves – lest they should all be washed away and perish.
Jesus
must be feeling under pressure...no time to grab a sandwich, people
surrounding him on every side – and nothing like enough friendly
faces in the crowd...and now his nearest and dearest are missing the
point too.
And
yet...and yet, he will not be silenced, not even by his mother’s
pleas.
He
rejects both his family and their agenda of status quo, peace and
stability, and casts about instead for a new family, a core community
more truly able to offer support and encouragement, to share his
vision and the task he has embraced as his own calling.
Searching,
he lights on those sitting listening – hungry for his teaching,
despite its tendency to baffle and to challenge.
A
disparate group, brought together solely because they are drawn there
by Jesus.
The
kind of group you might assemble if the “Coventry welcome” on our
front page was made real in our congregation today.
Nothing
in common, except the single calling -to do the will of God.
“Here
are my mother and brothers...”
And
so the Church is born – as surely as it is at the foot of the cross
when Jesus gives Mary and John to one another, as surprisingly as
when the Spirit came on the disciples at Pentecost.
The
Church – the family of Jesus in truth and in deed...drawn by him
and existing to do God's will.
It's
as simple – and as difficult – as that! Our core purpose in a
sentence – which will take us a lifetime to unpack
Bur
through the centuries it has proved so very hard for us to keep our
grip on that calling.
It's
so much easier to be God's family in name than in truth.
But
to live it...to do God's will...that hasn't got any easier.
Sometimes,
it’s not quite obvious where God’s will lies – and all kinds of
family squabbles can break out then, resulting in unimaginable hurt
that clouds the gospel for generations... More often, though, God’s
will is all too obvious, but a bit too costly as well.
You
see, to do God's will is never a recipe for social success.
It
forces us to speak out against injustice – even the sort of
injustice that is such an habitual part of life that we are barely
aware of it.
It
means standing on the edge with the excluded, the neglected, the
outsiders
It
means that instead of being the voice of stability and tranquility,
we find ourselves needing to make waves again and again and again.
It
involves us in letting go of much that we treasure and long to cling
to.
We
are here, purely and simply, to do God's will...to live as signs of
God's kingdom of love and justice and joy.
That
won't often win us friends or allies...for the kingdom is founded on
challenge not complacency.
It
won't give us an easy ride, at home or abroad – indeed, an easy
ride is almost in itself a guarantee that we've lost the plot.
It
has been truly said that if we really preached the gospel, we would
empty the churches – for the cost of obedience to God is higher
than most of us are willing or able to pay.
But
– and of this I'm certain – though doing God's will will not
guarantee peace and prosperity it will fill us with the kind of joy
that stems from knowing that all our security, all our identity, is
found in God as we seek to do God's will.
We
will stumble, fall and fail a thousand times – our human nature
pretty much guarantees that.
But
still and all, we ARE God's family – drawn by Jesus, called to do
God's will.
So
let us pause for a moment, reflect, and confess in our hearts our
failure as individuals and as community to BE the Church, the family
of Christ...our tendency to settle for an easy compromise, our
longing for approval from our family and friends...
and
having paused, let us turn our faces to the Son and begin our journey
again.
If
we do so, I know that God's grace will meet us, raise us from death
to life and bring us, through Christ our brother, to an eternal
weight of glory beyond all measure.
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