The Sunday Sermon: August 7, 2022 – 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: Luke 12:46-50
Family Matters
Well … this feels good. I missed it, and I haven’t missed it in my month away. I was able to “not miss it” for the last four Sundays due in no small measure to those who were here in the pulpit. Ashia, Ashia, Wayne and John. “Challenges, questions, comforts, and calls” as I listened to the messages this past week. That’s a wonderful month, actually, for Christians, a bit of everything we need to transform ourselves and the world around us. Pretty wonderful.
I had a pretty wonderful month, myself, though I was only all by myself for four and half days. I shared most of my time off with family, my mother and father first, and then – after those four-plus days – with Katie, Sam, Annie, and Gabe, my own family. I also spent my time with all of you, try as I might to get you out of my head … I just couldn’t. At least not fully. And that’s a good thing, because you too … are family to me, we’re family to one another. Jesus is going to point that out in our scripture reading this morning, in a few moments.
I want to share a bit of my past month with you, in part to express the deep gratitude I have to all of you for allowing it, enabling it, and encouraging it. I’m sure I knew this would be the case even last month when I imagined my first Sunday back after four weeks off, but as this sermon message came together I realized the beginning of it was very “me-ological,’ and not until pretty close to the end was it going to be Christological and Theological. So, though it’s always my custom, I invite us all to pray that all my words this morning, and your thoughts find blessing.
Pray with me: Gracious and loving God, we give thanks for all that has been and for what is once again. Absence from one another has made our hearts grow fonder. We have been made more aware that we are never far from one another because we our bound by your Spirit and enfolded in your love. As we proclaim your Word this morning I pray, as we always do, that the words of my mouth – self centered and Christ centered – and the mediations of all our hearts, may be acceptable in your sight, you who are our Rock and Redeemer. Amen.
So, let’s read our passage from Luke at this point so you may be able to ponder it as I share more personal experiences up front. Page XX in your pew bible if you’d like to follow along. Listen for the Word of God.
Read Luke 12:46-50. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
So, keep those words in the back of your mind as I share a more personal journey. Keep in mind, too, that Jesus is not here limiting who family are – mothers, brothers, sisters, and fathers (thought that last doesn’t get a direct mention). He’s not rejecting his biological family. He’s expanding the profoundly traditional understanding of family. Keep this reading in mind as I share some of me with you … we, who are “us.”
A day and a half after I left our beautiful church campus on Sunday, July 3rd, I went to spend time with my mother and father in Pleasant Hill, TN, about 8 miles west of Crossville just off I-40. Mom and Dad have lived in a United Church of Christ of Christ retirement community called The Uplands since 2007. While you don’t have to be a member of the church to retire there and be a part of The Uplands, most of the residents are retired missionaries, Pastors, and former Church executives in the UCC. It is this incredibly progressive community situated on the Cumberland Plateau in what is a pretty conservative part of Eastern Tennessee. My whole family has loved going to visit Grandma and Grandpa since they moved there because of the ponds, lakes, creeks, falls, parks, and hiking trails. Most of those are right out the back door of my parents small home there.
I went alone for this first week away from all of you, for the first time ever. I had planned to do a bit more reading and maybe some writing while I was there. In fact, my dad had procured a small “retreat room” close to the assisted living facility for me, but I didn’t use it at all. I did a little hiking and sitting alone, but I spent most of my time talking and walking with them, helping with preparations for a memorial service that was to take place on the day I was leaving for one of the long-time, beloved residents who had died the week before. A regular occurrence, these services in this community, as you can imagine. As much a part of the Life there as everything else. Anyway, more than anything my first extended time alone with them in, I suppose the thirty-two years that Katie and I have been married, was a profound blessing. Here’s one of the discoveries I made while I was there. My mother and father are older than I think. They’re only soon-to-be eighty four and eighty-two, but I realized driving away on Saturday, July 9th, that somewhere in my mind they have been ageless. I think that may be the case for most children fortunate enough to have parents still in their own middle age. In my visits with Katie and our kids, or time with them in other family gatherings, I never really paid as close attention to them. I was able this trip. And it was a good realization to have. The parents of my family of origin are not timeless. They are part of time and I, we, need to spend time with them that recognizes what a gift it is. So, week one … family.
The next week I spent alone. From Monday to Friday, I slept, woke up, ate, and went to bed in the Hermitage on the grounds of the Mt. St. Francis Center for Spirituality in Floyds Knobs, IN – just across the river off I-64, actually. When I first decided to rent this one room accommodation back in March or April, I was told that there was no shower or air conditioning, but there was a toilet and a little kitchenette with a microwave and mini-fridge. As it turned out, by the time I got there on July 11th, they had put in a window AC unit and changed their policy to allow anyone staying at the Hermitage more than one night to use the shower recently installed in the Calving Barns art studios. So, I hardly roughed it this week. I spent my time hiking the many trails, through forest and fields, there. Visiting the humble shrines and spending time on the many benches reading. I would have a bowl of cereal for breakfast and spend the morning reading during breaks from hiking. I’d get back to my cabin at Noon, have lunch and rest until about two, avoiding the heat of the day, before heading back out in the afternoon to do the same until about six o’clock when I’d come back “home” for dinner. I wandered down to the lake in the evenings for some beautiful sunsets. I read three full books in those days. A signed copy of Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Holy Envy, given to me by D.D. Hendrickson. Microchurches: A Smaller Way, by Brian Sanders – a book that Ashia and I were reading together at her suggestion, given the conversations we’re all having here in our own church. And Jesus Takes a Side: Embracing the Political Demands of the Gospel, by Jonny Rashid, the July book study that our Just Conversations class was engaging. (I missed the gathering at the McCarsons on July 24th, of course, but was very excited about, and challenged by, this book and its call to speak truth, peace and justice into a world that would rather the church be silent about our teachings of truth, peace, and justice.)
So, all of you, through all of that, were very much a part of my second week away. That, too, was a good thing. My time alone brought me closer to this family. We have work to do here. We’re doing it and we are so lucky we are. You don’t know how many church communities that don’t have the time, interest, members or resources to look ahead, to dream about what’s next, and to imagine a future, let alone plan for a one. We do. I think we have a tendency to feel that we as a church are timeless, too. But we’re not. We are part of time and we need to spend time recognizing what a gift this community is, to us and to the world around us, so this community may continue into the future. So, week two … family.
The last two weeks were spent preparing for, traveling to, and thoroughly enjoying time with my most immediate family in London, England. Gabe and I left on Tuesday, July 19th, meeting Sam in Chicago and flying to London. There we met Katie, who had been studying with her English Speaking Union colleagues at the Globe Theatre for two weeks already. A day later Annie flew in from Pisa, Italy after three weeks of vocal study with mmmmmm. I’ll share whatever more any of you wish to listen to about this incredible time together with my closest family in the days and weeks ahead, but in a nutshell, we stayed at an AirBNB in Clapham, south of the city center that was a perfect retreat from days full of walking, talking, touring, eating and soaking in London-town. We were able to take a quick two day trip to Dublin and crammed in as much as we could, which included a tour through the Guinness Storehouse in St. James Gate for Sam and me. Week’s three and four … family.
“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Jesus asks. Who are our family?
As you have just heard, I thought a lot about that in the gift of this past month. Literal and physical time with my own mom and dad, and my wife and children were all undergirded by my profound awareness of the family that is this church – “my” church, not just as a Pastoral leader, but as a member of the family. I spent some time wrestling with that, to be honest. I thought I needed to forget all of you, all of this, for this time away – that this was a big part of what I was supposed to do on this mini-sabbatical. And, lest I sound too self-less and pure, I didn’t carry all of you and all of this around every moment of every day. I don’t do that with my own parents, but … you were with me, because you are a part of me in some wonderful ways.
The scene in our gospel reading has no biographical interests. Jesus’ mother appears for the first time since the narrative of Jesus’ birth and his brothers and sisters appear for the only time in Matthew. None of them plays any further role in the Gospel. Matthew is not diminishing Jesus’ biological family in any way. His only interest is in using Jesus’ family as symbols for the Christian community, which here is described as part of his natural family.
“Whoever does the will of God … is part of our family.” What strikes me, and should interest us all, most in this passage for this morning, is that Jesus’ definition of “true family” here is not Christological. It is ethical. Family is not, here, defined by what we believe or say about Jesus or God, or anything. It’s about what we do. That’s not to say that faith in Jesus isn’t important for Matthew, or for us! It is to suggest, however, that it is primarily what we do that distinguishes us from “false believers.” Brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers in Christ, live the life of the Kin-dom. That’s what makes us One.
This passage reminds us of our familial relationships, and reminds us that family matters. Discipleship to Jesus cannot be an individualistic matter, it cannot be limited to any one group – like a biological family. To be a disciple of Christ is to belong to a wider family of the community of faith, and my time away from you and from this place “physically” has re-enforced our connection to one another “spiritually.”
How cool is it that we have a picnic today – that our tables are set inside and out this morning? Let’s prepare ourselves for some real family time.
Amen.
Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor
Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / August 7, 2022