We asked yesterday if you could list of what comes to mind when you hear the word “church”.  Our lists probably included buildings, events and services.  It may have included organ and choir music, stained glass windows, dusty books, bake sales and more.  It may evoke good experiences, or bad ones.

But not how the Bible usually sees “church”.  Church is described in several cases as a family.  This is why our vision is to become a church made up of many groups who are “like family” with one another.

But you might immediately think this means something strange and cultish, usually because our ideas of family today is pretty narrow.  We think of family as the nuclear, immediate family in isolation.

But in Jesus’ culture, in some cultures today, and not so long ago in Western culture, the family was the word used more naturally to describe an extended network of relations, often living in the same area.

That was the context for family in Jesus’ day, and Jesus had plans to develop a new kind of extended family.  Here’s a striking moment when he described his plans to create an alternate family:

Matthew 12:46-50 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”  And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

On the one hand, it seems Jesus just put down his mother.  I just saw “Guilt Trip” where Barbra Streisand plays Seth Rogen’s overbearing mother.  She calls several times a day, tries to get him to drink water constantly, and so on.  In the middle of their road trip, he finally snaps, and tells her off.

It seems like that might be what Jesus is doing to his mother here.  Is he putting her down, in his plans to join another family?  Look at it another way.  Jesus is actually elevating his disciples to family status.  His followers, fellow practitioners of his kingdom, are his family.

She’s not excluded.  Later in the story of Jesus’ life and death, we see Mary his mother appearing as a devoted member of this extended family, and Jesus even assigns one of the disciples to look after her after his death, saying he’s her new son, and vice versa.

Jesus isn’t narrowing his definition of family to exclude blood relatives.  He’s broadening it, to include his extended family of followers as if they are blood relatives.

Question: Imagine your immediate family suddenly adopting a dozen new members.  How would it change your way of life?  What would be the pros and cons?

Ryan Sim - May 23, 2013

Thursday- Act On It - Priorities

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24 ESV) Illustrate with two cups (money, God) beside each other. Can only fill one. Remember Monday – I asked you to list your priorities in order. One per rank, no ties. Illustrated with stacked cups. Still can only fill one. And money isn’t the only thing we can prioritize in life, it’s just one of the most common, and Jesus said it was one of the most seductive challengers to God’s place in our lives. Almost effortlessly it is able to lure us into its sphere of influence. When we grow from dependent children into adults, before we know it, we are living lives in its service. It calls us, it drives us, it threatens us, it rewards us. We don’t know if we have enough here, too much there, need to make more, invest more or borrow more. Money is a deep rooted power. It reaches to the very centre of who we are and what we live for – the heart and eye we spoke of yesterday. Jesus ascribed to money almost ultimate power. “No one” he said “can serve two masters, one cannot serve God and money.” You can only serve one master faithfully. This isn’t about taking on two jobs – he deliberately uses the language of slavery from his culture – where people sold themselves, in entirety, to pay off a debt – and could naturally not sell a second “self” to someone else. Jesus says money has that kind of demand on our lives – it is the most likely thing to challenge God in our lives. The point he was leading to was this: You cannot serve both God and money! If God and the vision of God’s reign is not the ultimate focus of our lives, something else will be. For many of us the something else will be money in its various forms. Money has a power all of its own. It has the power to take the very place of God in our lives. Money can lure us into its service. But putting God as our first priority doesn’t mean we deny our children, spouses, and other good things in our lives. God made them, said they were good. This is not an either/or. God wants to fill every area of our lives with his love, his power, his leadership. Illustrated with four cups on level 1, and a full God cup on level 2. Pouring water into God’s cup overflows into the others. When we start to open ourselves to God, welcoming the reality that he poured himself out for us by dying on the cross, we quickly find he pours out into all areas of our lives, and then into others. People who give of their time in service of others will tell you time and time again how incredibly fulfilling it is…that happiness doesn’t come from wealth, financial or otherwise, but rather because they have handed over all areas of their lives to God’s care as Lord. They are able to be contented and happy in all things, and that is a kind of wealth in itself that overflows into all area of life. Challenge: Take another look at your list of priorities from Monday. What does Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the mount say to you about each of these? Have any of them been prioritized over God’s will? IF so, ask God to be Lord over, and pour into that area of your life.

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