We asked yesterday if you could list of what comes to mind when you hear the word “church”.  Our lists probably included buildings, events and services.  It may have included organ and choir music, stained glass windows, dusty books, bake sales and more.  It may evoke good experiences, or bad ones.

But not how the Bible usually sees “church”.  Church is described in several cases as a family.  This is why our vision is to become a church made up of many groups who are “like family” with one another.

But you might immediately think this means something strange and cultish, usually because our ideas of family today is pretty narrow.  We think of family as the nuclear, immediate family in isolation.

But in Jesus’ culture, in some cultures today, and not so long ago in Western culture, the family was the word used more naturally to describe an extended network of relations, often living in the same area.

That was the context for family in Jesus’ day, and Jesus had plans to develop a new kind of extended family.  Here’s a striking moment when he described his plans to create an alternate family:

Matthew 12:46-50 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”  And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, 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.”

On the one hand, it seems Jesus just put down his mother.  I just saw “Guilt Trip” where Barbra Streisand plays Seth Rogen’s overbearing mother.  She calls several times a day, tries to get him to drink water constantly, and so on.  In the middle of their road trip, he finally snaps, and tells her off.

It seems like that might be what Jesus is doing to his mother here.  Is he putting her down, in his plans to join another family?  Look at it another way.  Jesus is actually elevating his disciples to family status.  His followers, fellow practitioners of his kingdom, are his family.

She’s not excluded.  Later in the story of Jesus’ life and death, we see Mary his mother appearing as a devoted member of this extended family, and Jesus even assigns one of the disciples to look after her after his death, saying he’s her new son, and vice versa.

Jesus isn’t narrowing his definition of family to exclude blood relatives.  He’s broadening it, to include his extended family of followers as if they are blood relatives.

Question: Imagine your immediate family suddenly adopting a dozen new members.  How would it change your way of life?  What would be the pros and cons?

Ryan Sim - July 3, 2013

Wednesday - Change It - Knowing

Yesterday, we saw one misunderstanding of Christian faith – that's it's just about saying the right words to go to heaven. Words can be faked, spoken out of fear or manipulation, or we may be afraid of their power. So it’s tempting to say Christian faith is not at all about words, and only about good works. You may know people like this - I knew one who said they didn't need to be part of a Christian community, or church, simply because she was a nurse who cared for sick people. People regularly quote St. Francis of Assisi, who the current Roman Catholic Pope named himself after, as having said something like “Always remember to preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.” But it’s a misquote, he probably never said it, and probably didn’t belive it. Neither did Jesus. That's why this is the second misunderstanding of Christian faith Jesus wanted to confront. Jesus says he’ll send away those who say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" It seems these people did amazing things in Jesus name. They performed many of the same deeds as the disciples. They would prophesy – speaking God’s truth. They were casting out demons, and doing other mighty works – miracles! But these things aren’t enough. For example, with the miracles, it seems God could do great things through people like this. But that didn’t make the person great, and it's apparent they considered themselves great because of their deeds. The problem is their dependence on those great acts. They plan to show up at heaven and explain all they’ve done. Like a celebrity stalker showing up at the celebrity’s house, to tell them how great their imaginary relationship is, and all the things he’s been doing to earn her love. No thank you. I don’t know you. Something is missing. It can’t just be words, can’t just be actions. We'll see tomorrow what it is. Question: If Christian faith was just about doing the right thing, how would this contradict what Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, or elsewhere? We meet for coffee every Wednesday night at Starbucks in the Chapters Store in Ajax, in Durham Region just East of Toronto. Maybe we'll see you there?

From Series: "Sermon on the Mount"

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