1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20; Mark 3:20-35
Last summer, we read stories from Genesis, Exodus, and Joshua. These stories are mostly legend, oral history. The stories tell of God’s desire for a relationship with these particular – chosen – people and how they began to live it out.
This summer, we will read what came next. After Moses and
Joshua, there were judges who governed the people. They were all chosen,
called, by God for their specific time and place. Then, there were prophets,
Eli and Samuel. At this point in the story, Samuel has allowed his sons to be
leaders, but they are corrupt, and Samuel has heard about it.
“Instead of your sons, we want a king to govern us. All the
other nations have kings.” (We can almost hear a child’s whiny voice here.)
“All the other nations have kings. We want to be like them.”
Samuel takes this to God. “This request is not a rejection of
you, but of me. They no longer trust me to lead them through my chosen leaders.
They say they want a king, so I suggest you let them have a king, but make sure
you warn them what kings do.” So Samuel agreed to let the people have a king,
and warned them that the king will take their wealth, their sons, their women,
and will make them all into slaves.
We will read bits of what happened next over the summer, but
here’s a preview. Samuel anointed first Saul then David to be kings. Both
started out OK, then demonstrated their human frailties. Solomon was next, and
after him, there were few good and faithful kings. God’s warning, issued through
Samuel, was prophetic and too true.
By the time of Jesus, a thousand years later, the kingdom has
been conquered and regained, sort of. Herod the Great brought the city of
Jerusalem back to life, built beautiful buildings and enhanced the temple. There
was resentment among the people that Herod was the king, since he was not a
direct descendent of David. Further, his sons were not so great, and had
clearly aligned themselves with Rome and Caesar to retain the power they did
have. The once-great Kingdom of Israel had become a small principality of the
Roman empire.
… Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great – who had
the babies in Bethlehem slaughtered – and Jesus wandered around Galilee during
the reign of Herod Antipas, preaching and teaching and healing. Compared to
Jerusalem, Galilee was a backwards, unpopular region filled with Gentiles,
rebellious Jewish zealots, as well as Jews who tried to observe the Torah.
Jesus has a home in Capernaum, a city of about 1,500 on the
north shore of the Sea of Galilee. In my imagination, he has chatted his way
around town, getting to know the folks, looking for likely followers. He talks
with fishermen and their wives, with farmers and day laborers, and with tax collectors.
He talks with rabbis and scribes. He has drawn crowds as he begins speaking to
small groups, which grow larger and larger over time.
This mission start didn’t happen overnight, but is the result
of hard work over weeks or months as Jesus develops a base of listeners and fans.
He also has his detractors, because what he says is different from the
customary teachings by rabbis and scribes. Some accuse him of being possessed
by Satan.
By now, his family has heard of his activities and the
response to him. “C’mon, Jesus. Come home, take some time away and rest. We’re
worried about you,” they say, but they’re really worried about themselves. Having
a crazy or demonic person in the family is seriously damaging their reputation.
But Jesus declines to go with them, going so far as to
denounce them as his family. He turns to those near him and claims they are his
family because they do the will of God. In other words, they are family because
they believe that God sent him.
… It’s not that biological relationships aren’t important to
Jesus, it’s that relationships with each other that reflect the connection with
God are more important. Jesus is saying that the group of biologically
unrelated people around him are kin through their faith in God.
Kin is a word that connects a large family of relatives, some
close, some quite distant, some we have never met. Those who use genealogy
websites discover how deep and wide their biological kinship is to others,
living and long dead.
Jesus tells us that our kinship with others goes far beyond biological
connections. The Church (Capital C Church) provides us with a vast kinship of
believers from here to Canada, Guatemala, Venezuela, Chile, China, Japan, Russia,
Siberia, Botswana, Cameroon, Algeria, and Jerusalem, Galilee, and Gaza.
Jesus spoke constantly about the kingdom of God coming near,
being present. I prefer to talk about the reign of God, or rule of God, because
that implies action rather than location. I use the term kin-dom of God,
because it refers to all those people who believe and do the will of God – just
as Jesus says.
… So, what does this mean for us today? You know my main
message – welcome all people. This week I’ll add this: because they are kin to
us, they are part of God’s kin-dom.
I found this story in a journal called Plough. Here is
a short version of a longer interview between a pastor and a journalist. Sasha Riabyi is a pastor of a church on the
outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Pastor Sasha begins by saying “We’re just lucky to
live in Ukraine during this time.” “Lucky?” the interviewer asks. “Yes, because
we help each other. We started doing something for others, for all Ukrainians.
As a nation, that was an important change. We woke up. For over two years now,
we’ve been living knowing that tomorrow or today, life can change. In one
second, things can start falling apart.”
Sasha talks about how his small congregation has begun to
serve the community. “It’s not just for prayers and worship, but people come to
interact with each other, to have a meal together. We realized that we needed
to help the refugees from the war, and God helped us expand the building to accommodate
more people.
“Now we offer food and other assistance, but the most
important thing we do is offer a place for conversation. We ask, ‘What was the
worst thing that happened to you in the last month?’ And ‘What was the best
thing that happened to you in the last month?’”
Pastor Sasha and his congregation have made the connection
that they are kin with thousands of people they never knew before. They have
helped them all as if they were immediate family. Their kin-dom has expanded from
a suburb of Kyiv to all of Ukraine, and includes the whole church as a resource
for supplying the needs of hurting people.
… This week, I invite you to ponder two questions: Who are
your kin? How does God reign in your kin-dom?
Amen
