Meetings!
Over the next three weeks after the service we will be having meetings.
I don’t like meetings.
I don’t think Jesus said – now go and have lots of meetings, I think he said: “Go and make disciples.” But unfortunately the business of making disciples demands a little bit of organisation – something at which I am terrible – that’s where you come in.
Its my guess – in my understanding of the earliest church – the one we read about in the Bible – that a lot of what their weekly meal and service was about was also about co-ordinating what they were going to do in service of God together.
Just conversation that led to action:
“See you tomorrow at sunset – and we’ll go visit the sick.”
“I’m baking bread tomorrow – can I bake you some?”
“Theophilus has a new book from Luke – he says he’ll be reading it out loud on Friday – let’s go and listen.”
Perhaps one of the grandmothers of the church, accustomed to telling stories, someone good at remembering the stories about Jesus said:
“Bring your kids to my house on Saturday morning and I will tell them some of the stories that I have heard about Jesus.”
* * *
One of the things that Nicky Gumbel said has stuck with me: Church is a lot like a football game.
Thousands of people desperately in need of exercise watching a few people desperately in need of a rest.
I don’t think Paarl Methodist is totally like that – but the goal for the next three weeks will be to get more of us involved in and doing the work of God in this place to build the Kingdom.
This congregation has one minister – and no other staff – so being part of it means taking part in it.
* * *
Family in the Story of the Bible
I want to look at a bit at what family means in the story of the Christian scriptures – in order for us to understand what we can do in obedience to God and why we are doing it.
Honest
Often the first verse I think of when I think of families and Christianity is Jesus’ difficult words to us:
35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 10:35-38
The earliest church was faced with the terrible reality that religion often divides people and families.
In some cases within the early church whole households were converted to Christianity – everyone including slaves baptised in one go.
But where individuals joined the faith there was bound to be conflict; members of elite families who joined the early church would have soon been in trouble for associating, eating and fellowshipping with all the wrong sort of people. For disrupting the order in society – treating slaves and servants as if they were brothers and sisters.
Roman society and religion centred around the gods of a particular family – the patriarch or male parent, paterfamilias was the priest of the family and his house was practically a temple to the gods of his family.
When gentiles deserted their domestic religions they literally became divorced from their original families because their rejection of the family Gods was so scandalous.
* * *
So we have this picture of divided family – but there is also a picture of a newly created family: Those who became Christians became part of what was understood to be a whole new clan; when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray he teaches them:
9 “Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
- Matthew 6:9
When I call God Father by implication I call you brother and sister.
In Romans 6:28 when Paul speaks about the resurrection of Christ he says that he is the firstborn within a large family – the family he is talking about is the great church of which we are all a part.
Christian Household
Within the family of the church – Paul set out codes of behaviour within Christian families:
In Col
‘Wives, submit to your husbands’
reflecting a Roman norm,
‘husbands, don’t be harsh with / embitter your wives.’
‘children, obey your parents…’
‘children, obey your parents…’
My favourite when I was a teenager:
‘parents do not irritate your children.’
‘slaves – obey your masters…’
‘slaves – obey your masters…’
Paul draws a picture of Christian family that reflects household order in Roman homes, but he reminds but he ends his passage with a reminder of who we are in relation to God:
“Masters, be fair and just in the way you treat your slaves. Remember that you too have a Master in heaven.”
- Romans 4:1
Remember that you too have a Master in heaven.
A kind of threatening reminder that you will be held accountable for the way you treat the people in your household – family and staff alike.
A frightening reminder – I think to those who use these verses as an excuse to abuse their wives, children and staff – that one day they will receive what they have given; because our God is merciful, but also a God of justice who ‘protects the weak from the strong’ (Psalm 35:10).
* * *
Paul helps the typical Roman household to see how the living God makes a difference in the way they live in and see the world.
In the typical Roman household the Father is head of everything, and he is the family priest – the one who communicates with the gods.
He has a lot of power – he is like a mini God himself; he can treat his family as he likes – in some ways the father is the family’s God.
* * *
In Christian families – the relationship is different. Children, wives, (even) slaves – everyone must be treated with dignity because the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ is King.
The physical father no longer has all the power – he has to be subject to God’s power.
* * *
So in Christian families we see a change in the way the world operates, and they become symbols of God’s Kingdom – the family becomes a mini symbol of the Kingdom of God
A symbol of God’s Kingdom
In the Old Testament we read about how the family is where the Kingdom of God
We hear the thoughts of God about letting Abraham see the destruction of Sodom
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed by him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him”
- Genesis 18:17-19
God wants Abraham (the symbolic father of all of Israel) to raise his family in the way of justice and righteousness – Sodom represents the opposite of this, in Ezekiel 16 we read about why God decided to destroy Sodom:
“This was the guilt of (your sister) Sodom
- Ezekiel 16:48
God’s plan for Abraham and his family is that they be a community radically different to those who are proud, greedy, lazy and selfish.
And teaching these values begins at home with the Israelite’s story of the world and who created it and how he wants it to be – and continues through the generous life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – and then through us the Kingdom living community that Christ begins and empowers with the help of the Holy Spirit.
What should we do?
In scripture we have several pictures of family – Jesus paints a picture of family divided in some cases because of the gospel and the demands of faithfulness to Christ.
Paul shows how family takes on a new shape as people realise each other’s value in the light of the love of God.
In the Old Testament God shows Abraham is judgment on the selfish on the proud – so that Abraham will raise his descendants to live differently – in a way that establishes the Kingdom of God
* * *
Today people look all over the place for the people and leaders that will change the world. They invest their hope in Barak Obama; Nelson Mandela; Trevor Manuel and the list goes on and on…
I think they’re looking in the wrong place.
I think we need to look down and not up – I believe that its God’s plan to change the world through the way we raise our families and our children; as we learn to live by the values that Christ has taught us and raise our children to do the same.
* * *
After the service – those who are interested will meet together to discuss some of the things that we could do to minister to youth and families in this community, and hopefully bring the Kingdom in that way.
Amen
