Picture the scene.
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 either...
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...
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.
Jesus's Mum and his
brothers.
Happy families!
I remember reading this
passage while my children were small and thinking
“If my children are
ever that rude to me in public – I'll have them across my knee
before they know what's 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 surely
have stung mother Mary like a slap on the cheek?
“Who are my mother
and my brothers?”
What IS going on?
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.
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 ways –
lest they should all be washed away and perish.
For the moment, they've
sided with his opponents in the cause of a quiet life.
But Jesus?
He will have none of
this
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.
He casts about, and
lights on those sitting listening – hungry for his words, for all
their tendency to baffle and to challenge.
A disparate group,
brought together solely because they are drawn there by Jesus.
A disparate group with
but one 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!
Bur through the
centuries it has proved so very hard for us to keep our grip on that
central 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.
To do God's will
continues to set us against contemporary values
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 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.
I'm very fond of Mary
Byrne's great hymn “Be thou my vision”....and we often sing it in
both our churches.
But think what
we're singing
“Be all else but
naught to me, save that thou art”
Nothing – not our
families, not our friends, not our position in the community, not our
much prized quiet lives.......NOTHING is to be more important to us
than our focus on God and on doing God's will.
It's hard to think of a
less comfortable calling.
It sounds so
straightforward
“What does the Lord
require of you? To do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your
God” says the prophet...
or, if you prefer,
there is the great Commandment of love for God and for neighbour.
Easy!
Except, of course, that
it isn't.
Doing God's will means,
again and again, upsetting other people...and that's hard.
We all like to be
liked, enjoy being in good standing in our communities – but as
C.S.Lewis pointed out in the final chapter of “Mere Christianity”
the choice is between “nice people or new men”.
Too often, in the
Church, we've opted for niceness – it might even be our besetting
sin – so that tv vicars, for example, when they're not sinister to
the core are damply ineffectual – their call to ministry revolving
around being kind to children, cats and little old ladies.
Of course, there's
absolutely nothing wrong with being kind...but it's not what the
church is for!
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 full 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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