Sunday, June 9, 2024

Kingdom to Kin-dom


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