St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
June 9, 2024
Year B, Proper 5: The Third Sunday after Pentecost
1 Samuel 8:4-20; 11:14-15
Psalm 138
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35
Jesus’ Family
Over the past week or so, it’s been nice to see all the high school graduation pictures getting posted on social media.
So much pride, excitement, and joy.
This time of year always gets me thinking back to my high school days, thinking back to the early 1980’s…now let’s see, how long has it been now…forty years!
Whew. My goodness!
I’ve mentioned to you before that I attended St. Peter’s Prep, an all-boys Jesuit high school in Jersey City, a brother school of Loyola Blakefield here in Baltimore and many other Jesuit schools across the country and around the world.
Making the sacrifice to send me to St. Peter’s Prep was certainly one of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave me.
It was a life-changing, life-defining experience.
Over those four years, I learned a lot – the subject matter, yes, or some of it, anyway - but most of all I learned a lot about myself, about other people, and, of course, about God.
All of us at Prep were taught that the highest ideal is to be a man for others.
One of the school’s great strengths back then (and it’s even more true now) was that there was no one way to be a Prep student.
And while I’m sure that it was sometimes challenging for some of my classmates, the truth is that there were jocks and nerds and theater kids and all the rest, and many who happily and confidently cut across those artificial categories.
And everyone more or less tolerated everybody else.
And I think everyone eventually found their people.
There wasn’t much pressure to be like everybody else.
Which was a good and beautiful thing – and a rare thing in a world where it’s often very hard to be different – a world where it can be very tempting, but ultimately self-defeating, self-destructive, to wear a mask, to put on an ill-fitting uniform, to try to be just like everybody else.
And, in a way, today’s lessons are about trying to fit in, trying to be just like everybody else.
A theme that runs through the Old Testament is that God did not choose the people of Israel because they were especially powerful or even particularly faithful.
No, the only thing that makes the people of Israel special, holy, is simply the fact that God chose this small and seemingly insignificant people.
So, on the one hand, what an honor to be chosen by God, to have God as your King.
But, on the other hand, it’s a lot of work to be God’s chosen people, all those rules to follow.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just be like everybody else?
Especially when other nations sure do seem so much richer and more powerful.
And that’s the tension we hear in today’s first lesson.
If you were here last Sunday, you may remember that we heard the story of God calling the boy Samuel.
Well, today we jump ahead many decades.
Samuel is now an old man, a respected leader of Israel.
The elders go to Samuel and ask for a human king – really, they’re asking to be like everybody else, to be like all the other kingdoms and empires, countries way more powerful and prosperous than Israel.
So, the elders think, you know what, let’s try that.
Let’s try being like everybody else.
Samuel warns them about all the downsides of a human king – the wealth that he’ll take, the lives that he’ll take – but the elders either don’t hear it or they’re simply willing to pay the price.
And so, Israel gets its first human king, Saul.
And, like all kings, the kings of Israel will be a mixed bag, some better than others but all flawed, sometimes deeply flawed.
As a monarchy, Israel doesn’t lose its chosen-ness, doesn’t lose its holiness, but, unfortunately, it does become more like every other nation, more like everybody else.
Which brings us, finally, to Jesus’ family.
They really make quite a scene in today’s gospel lesson, don’t they?
For Jesus, facing opposition from the religious leaders must have been hard, especially when, as we heard today, they accuse him of being in cahoots with the devil.
But opposition from his own family must have really stung.
The family members – we’re told even including his mother - try to keep Jesus from his mission and ministry, begging him to come home.
Why do they do this?
Well, maybe they’re trying to protect Jesus from very real dangers.
Or maybe they’re embarrassed by Jesus, maybe they’re tired of the neighbors mocking Jesus, sick of all the whispering and eye-rolling.
Maybe Jesus’ family just wants him to be like everybody else.
“Come on, Jesus, settle down in Nazareth, earn a good living in the carpentry shop, get married, just be ‘normal.’”
It must have been painful for Jesus to hear the pleas of his family.
And, as we heard at the conclusion of today’s gospel lesson, Jesus rejects his family.
He asks the crowd, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And then he answers his own question:
“Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Whoever does the will of God is a member of Jesus’ family.
A hard experience for Jesus but good news for us.
We’re all invited to be part of Jesus’ family.
And we accept that invitation in the water of Baptism, just as the wonderful father and son duo of Will and Paul will accept that invitation, right here, in just a few minutes.
And we live in Jesus’ family by doing our best, with God’s help, to live out our baptismal promises:
Coming here to pray and break bread together.
Asking for forgiveness when we mess up and striving to do better.
Proclaiming the Good News by word and example.
Seeking Christ in everybody, loving our neighbor as our self.
Striving for justice and peace.
With God’s help.
Always and only with God’s help.
Long ago, the people of Israel wanted a human king, they just wanted to be like every other country.
And long ago, Jesus’ family wanted him to turn away from his mission, wanted him to just be like everybody else, to just be “normal.”
And today, even if we graduated from high school decades ago, we may feel peer pressure to just be like everybody else out there – look out for number one, demonize the people we disagree with, fear and hate people who are different, refuse to hear the voices of the frightened and the suffering, and give our ultimate loyalty not to God but to a human king.
But we know that’s not the way.
That’s not the way of Jesus.
Being part of Jesus’ family means doing God’s will, each in our own unique way.
Being part of Jesus’ family means being a person for others.
We are all invited to be part of Jesus’ family.
Let’s accept the invitation.
Amen.
Posts
