What does it mean that we call ourselves family in the church?

I’m wondering what ideas you had. The children said they’re people that you love and care for, and who love and care for you. They’re people that you are related to, and we are related through this common story of the Bible. Family is love.

This ability to be together and to support one another. Because the reality is life is hard. We all have really hard moments, and the way that we get through that, the way we can get through our guilt and our grief is by caring for one another. By talking together and reminding each other of this love that we have.

The presence of Christ, which sometimes we feel it and sometimes not as much. We can feel sometimes like God’s not listening. So we need to remind each other that God is listening, even if our prayers don’t get answered the way we wanted them to be answered, or in the time frame we wanted, right?

The other reality about family is sometimes there’s members that you just want to say, “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” It’s really good when we don’t all think the same, because that’s how we grow in faith. If we all think exactly the same thing, that’s a boring life. We won’t get anywhere. We won’t deepen our faith. We won’t trust more. We need people that challenge our thinking. So it’s good, it’s really good that we don’t all think the same.

But one of the challenges right now of the church is, we have to decide how much of our faith, of the church that we have been, do we want to continue? And how much do we need to break open to be something new?

That’s part of the thing that I think is happening the entire way through the Bible, is that God is inviting us not to have a more closed mind. But to break our hearts open so that we have the ability to love more fully, to love more people, more diverse people, more people that we wouldn’t always love. That’s part of the story.

I do think that, in our culture now, we use that language of “family of origin” and “family of choice.” Because some of us, unfortunately, our families of origin have not always been healthy places. Many of us it was a very healthy place and praise God, but some of us not. So, we can also choose family.

That is what we think we’re doing when we come to the church. Is that this is a family of choice. I want to push us just a little bit to say, “Hey, I wonder how much God influences that choice?” How much are we here because God has called us to be here in this group with these people at this time? We may think that we did wake up and decide to come to church on our own. But I think God is also in there nudging us towards being part of a community of Christ.

These scriptures, when you put John 3:11-19 and Acts 3:1-7 together, it’s a real dichotomy.

Because John’s scripture, the letter of John, is encouraging and it’s about love and light and community. Then you get to hear Peter’s words and Peter feels like he’s shaming us and he wants us to have that guilt.

I want to say, this is Peter. Peter often got it wrong when Jesus was alive. Not to say that this is right or wrong. It’s in the scriptures. It’s there. But I don’t think it’s meant to just guilt us. I think that Peter, at this point in the right, has actually had a come to Jesus moment. He’s had a real one. So in those days leading up to Jesus death, he was the denier. He was the one that said, not me, I don’t know that guy, I’m out. That’s the same guy that we hear today saying, “…but you didn’t stand up for him.” You’re in this too, Peter.

I was frustrated by this text because Peter doesn’t own his own part in it. We all know he had a part. But Peter has also been forgiven. After Jesus’s resurrection, Peter has a meeting with Jesus. Where he has to admit, “Yes, Jesus, I did deny you just like you said I was going to. That was me. And I’m really sorry.” Jesus forgave. Jesus offers all of us forgiveness. That’s why I can say we are all loved and worthy.

This is the picture of the gospel reading today, which is the two men on the road to Emmaus who encounter this stranger and what they do is they bring him home to have dinner with them and in the breaking of the bread they realize that it’s Jesus.

There is something about the breaking that we all need to experience that opens us up to a better encounter of God. To a better understanding of who Jesus really is and who we are called to be. We need to have our hearts broken. That’s a hard message because none of us like pain. Nobody wants to go through the heartbreak.

And yet, it is through the heartbreak that we find life and joy and love and the abundant life that we didn’t know before.

I want to share a clip with you of the miracle club. It is a movie that’s right now, streaming on Netflix for free. It’s a movie about three women who go looking for a miracle at Lourdes. If you don’t know what Lourdes is, Lourdes is a cathedral in France where the Virgin Mary had made an appearance. At Lourdes there are baths that you can go into and people have had miracles. It’s a good family movie. British humor, but a good family movie.

So that is the challenge are we going to get a miracle?

I don’t know, but we can heal together and we are better together than we are apart. So, I encourage you to think about how we are family. To think about what that means to you. And to really make a commitment to that. To make a commitment with your time, your talents, and your gifts.

Because we say that we offer Inclusive Refuge, that everyone is welcome. Especially if you are afraid or powerless. People are walking in our door and we want to show them the love of Christ that we have received.

May it be so. Amen.

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