2021.06.06 | Family of Choice
“Family of Choice”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
June 6, 2021
Mark 3:20–35 (NRSV)
Good morning, Rainbow People! If you’re like me, you may find the gospel passage today just a little confusing. Amen? So I’m going to start with a summary of the pericope.
The way that Mark tells the story, Jesus had just appointed twelve disciples and commissioned them to cast out demons. Then he headed home for supper; but his evening meal was delayed by a crowd of paparazzi, fair-weather friends, and some detractors who had gathered around his house.
Some of his detractors accused Jesus of being out of his mind, which was a nice way of saying “crazy.” Others, like the Jewish scribes, who had come down from Jerusalem, said that he was possessed by Beelzebul, the Philistines’ god, who was the prince of devils.
Neither charge was complimentary, but Jesus was not deterred. He countered these allegations with logical arguments, explaining that he could not be both the devil and the one who casts out the devil. He was either one or the other.
And, he called the people who said that he was possessed “blasphemers,” which meant that they were guilty of an unforgivable sin. This, he explained, was so, because they were equating the work that God was doing through him with the work of the devil.
Just as tempers were about to flare, one of the disciples announced that Jesus’ family had arrived on the scene. They were standing outside, asking for Jesus, which implies that they were either wanting to know, like others, what was going on with him, or they were wanting to whisk him away for fear of his health and safety and their own, and they were too afraid or unwilling to stand their ground.
Rather than going out to greet his mother and brothers and possibly flee the scene with them, Jesus explained that the people who were already inside of his house--his family of choice--not his family of origin was who he defined as his family.
And, who comprised Jesus’ family of choice? Answer--the least, the last, and the lost, and those who did the will of God by healing the sick and making it possible to return to their homes, families, communities, jobs, and religious life.
II
Jesus' example of how he handled his detractors offers a timely warning and correction for modern Christians who are super sure that they know exactly is living the Christian life and what a faithful Christian witness looks like. Take for example those who are super sure that only heterosexual couple’s love and marriages and, only nuclear families are divinely-sanctioned marriages and families.
Jesus’ instructions to the crowd are also an important reminder that those who say that God’s work and God’s workers are demonic are on thin ice. They are blasphemers--they are people whose sins--if you believe that some sins are mortal sins--are unforgivable, thus damming, even damming one to hell.
Holy Cow! Did you hear? It’s no wonder translators have obscured the translation of this story from street Greek into modern English. Jesus’ instruction to his detractors--and even his supporters--must have been mind blowing. His assertions must have also caused his contemporaries to wonder how the political and religious leaders of his day got so far off track from the liberating and healing prophecies of earlier prophets.
We may wonder too. So I’ll explain that the dominant deciders during Jesus’ day lost track of the purposes or the spirit of the codes, and instead, they embrassed legalistic interpretations that caused them to promote conformity to man-made rituals and laws rather than to promote the type of human transformation that would fulfill God’s vision for one and all.
III
The religious establishment in Jesus’ day promoted rigid adherence to man-made rituals and laws, while the reform movement promoted a recommitment to feed the hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead, care for widows and orphans, and welcome strangers and aliens.
Similarly, today, there are significant differences between those who participate in the dominant religious establishment, and those who, like Jesus, participate in minority reform movements and who suffer the consequences of their convictions and actions.
Many who participate in the religious establishment today promote rigid adherence to ancient holiness codes and family law codes, while modern religious reformers promote a world view and laws that are more equitable and just.
Christians who engage in these reform movements today, like in Jesus’ day, are often considered “crazy” or demonic, and too often, modern Christians play the role of Jesus’ family of origin, by remaining silent when they should have spoken up, and by trying to whisk away LGBT people into “conversion therapy” programs, or back in the closet, rather than addressing and resolving their own homophobia and heterosexism.
Professor Ted Jennings, an erstwhile Methodist Christian ethicist and my Ph.D. advisor at Chicago Theological Seminary, often said that there hasn’t been a split in US Protestant denominations like the one we are now experiencing over the inclusion (or not) of LGBT people, since the Civil War when many Protestant denominations split over the ownership of slaves.
Those who believed that slave ownership was inconsistent with the Christian life went one way, and those who disagreed went the other. And, there they remained, houses divided, for over a century.
After most of these divided denominations reunited in the 1970s and 1980s, after literally a generation of conversations and legal processes, they began to split again over LGBT issues.
Some like Jesus’ detractors said that LGBT persons and families and our advocates were crazy. Others argued that they were working for the devil or that we were even the devil incarnate.
Meanwhile, some others tried to muffle our prophetic voices, and put us back in the closet, so that we wouldn't get hurt (so much), and so that they didn’t feel so pressured to deal with their own homophobia or heterosexism.
Like Jesus’ first-century followers, we modern Christians have options. We can be out and proud about our participation in Christ’s healing ministry and claim our membership in Jesus’ family of choice, or we can maintain the status quo.
Jesus and I are hoping and praying that you’ll come out and stay out--out and proud--about your Christian faith and the good news that you were fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, and called and claimed to members of Jesus’ faith family and family of choice.
If you hear a knock at the door, it’s probably Jesus inviting you to let him in, to heal your pain, and to welcome you into his family of choice. All you have to do is say, “You’re welcome,” let the healing begin, and share that Good News with others. Amen.