Monday, March 30, 2015


“Final Words: It is Finished…” 

 John 19:30a, Luke 23:43-47

March 29, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 
On this day we remember the Jesus' parade into Jerusalem with palm branches waving, children singing and shouts of "Hosanna, son of David."

We also come to the final words from the cross.  Less than a week after his entrance the crowd has turned ugly, calling "crucify him, crucify him!"  Pontus Pilate complies.  The carpenter from Nazareth, deemed a threat to the Roman Empire, is crucified in the crossroads of the capital city as a warning to anyone else thinking of sedition.   To preach that someday peace, justice and love will rule the human heart was revolutionary.  Still is today.  To welcome sinners and saints to the same table was just not done.  Still isn’t today. Power, prestige and greed would have little place in such a world promised in God's future and those invested in the status quo knew it.  They know it still.   And so the Messiah, entering Jerusalem on the back of a colt, to palm branches waving, must die.

After our study and meditation this Lenten season have you memorized "the seven last words?" 


      -Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing. (Luke 23:26, 33-34a)

      -Today you will be with me in Paradise. (Luke 23:32, 39-43)

      -Mother, behold your son, son behold your mother. (John 19:25-27)

      -My God, my God why have your forsaken me? (Mark 15:29-36a)

      -I thirst. (John 19:28-29)


And combining the last two this morning, "It is finished....Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

In these words we discover the complete humanity of Jesus and the transcending love of God.

The gospels Mark and Matthew simply write that Jesus "cries out" as he breathes his last.  In the gospel of Luke and John we hear what he shouts.

Adam Hamilton, author of our Lenten study book Final Words from the Cross (Abingdon 2013) reminds us that "It is finished!" in the original language could be understood as a victory cry, as one who crosses the finish line having completed the race, "It is finished!"

In fifty different passages of the gospels, Jesus explains to his confused disciples that he must suffer and die to fulfill his mission on earth.  That mission is multi-layered with meaning and purpose:

 
      -His death is like a seed which falling off a dying plant will bear much fruit
       (John 12:24)
 
      -His cross will draw all people to God (John 12:32)

      -His death establishes a new covenant between God and humanity as promised
       by the prophets (note: Jeremiah 31:31-34, Luke 20:22)

      -His death is a symbolic act of atonement such as the sacrificial Passover lamb,
       setting us free from death and liberating us from slavery (John 1:36)

 
Pastor Hamilton writes, "The cross is less like math and science than as it is poetry lived out in human flesh," metaphors and images to speak to the heart of God's never ending love (Hamilton, p. 107).  As Jesus dies, he has finished his race, he has done all God called him to do and he can cry triumphant, "It is finished!"

The cross is a central icon of our faith tradition.  It decorates our sanctuaries. We post it in public places as a statement of identity and welcome. We wear it as jewelry, this reminder of public execution and shame.  Ironic isn’t it, that the pivotal moment in humanity’s salvation should be wrapped in such brokenness and pain as a man's death on a cross?

In Luke's gospel, as Jesus dies, he quotes from Psalm 31, v. 5, “… into your hands I commend my spirit.”  In that moment Jesus calls on scripture and God.

Jesus adds the word “father” to his recollection of Psalm 31:5.   Jesus puts a title on his relationship with divinity, as a father to a son.   He did so teaching his disciples to pray, "Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name."  He did so previously on the cross, "Father, forgive them..."  As abandoned as he is while dying, in the end, he is not alone.   He still knows where to turn in that time of desperation.

Because of patriarchy, familial abuse and neglect, the term “father” can be pejorative for some when used in the context of faith.  We don’t want our words to get in the way of someone’s spiritual journey.  Yet, as sensitive as we must be to inclusive language, Jesus calls God by that title.  When the relationship between parent and child is based on love, it can speak to us all about the nature of the God of Jesus.

Consider the story of Andrew as told by Dennis Benson and Stan Steward (The Ministry of the Child, Abingdon, 1979).  Andrew had Downs Syndrome.  He had the body of a 15-year-old but his mind had stopped growing when he was four.  His Dad, Barry, could not accept the fact that Andrew was unable to keep growing.  The disappointment grew and compounded until Barry suffered a nervous breakdown.

Through the help of a therapist, Barry learned that his rejection of Andrew had been a cause of the breakdown.  He was helped to see Andrew as he was and not as Barry wanted him to be.  In this light, Barry found Andrew to be more of a son than the father had ever discovered.

At Andrew’s Sunday school class, one of the teachers made a connection between the rising of the moon and the constantly renewed love of God.  Andrew became enthralled by this idea.  He asked his father if he would sit with him and watch the moonrise one night.

On the next night of the full moon, the whole family sat on the porch facing the east.  As the moon climbed over the edge of the distant hills, Andrew shook with excitement.  Then, as it moved into full view he did something he had never done before.  Andrew reached out and encircled his father with his arms.  Barry was completely taken by surprise.  Tears streamed down his face.  Andrew continued gripping his father.  He spoke in awed tones, “I’ve never seen the moon rise before. Have you Dad?”  Barry was too emotional to reply.

A few minutes passed in silence.  It was as if Andrew’s sense of awe was contagious.  It was as if none of them had ever seen the moon rise before.  When the moon was fully launched into the sky, Andrew announced, “God keeps loving all of us, you know, Dad.”

Children can teach their parents and other adults a lot about healing and hope.  Parents can lay the foundation for the same in their kid’s lives.  That's true of any loving and responsible adult in a child's life not only a parents'.  And, just as Jesus is about to let go of his life, he turns to his father.

Pastor Hamilton in our Lenten study suggests that the recitation of Psalm 31 v. 5 was one of the earliest prayers taught by loving parents to their children.  It wouldn't be a bad one to teach our children as they fall asleep.  It wouldn't be a bad prayer for us to remember as adults whenever we enter a dark time of the soul:

Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.


As we have heard through these final words of Jesus, his sense of abandonment on the cross is complete but it will not be the last word in his death.  That is true for those who follow him as well.   Consider:

Edith Louisa Cavell (1865-1915) was a British nurse. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides in World War I without distinction and in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium, for which she was arrested. She was court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.  Despite international pressure for mercy, she was shot by a German firing squad. Her execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.  Her last words were, "Standing, as I do, in the view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough.  I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." The Church of England has set aside an annual day of commemoration in her honor.  Over the years countless Nursing Schools, public schools, streets and memorials have been named in her honor in Great Britain and Belgium. (Wikipedia) Those who took her life and why have long been forgotten but the inspiration of her discipleship, her sacrificial love and service live on.


That's the way it is with a life dedicated to the spiritual practice of discipleship to Jesus.   At worst we might find ourselves in lots of trouble.   The cost, at best, might be inconvenient and counter-cultural.  But in the end of such a life, there won't be any doubt about who we are or why we lived.

On the Good Friday cross Jesus knows where to turn and because of his sacrifice, so do we.   Abandonment, estrangement and forsakenness, as real as they may be, will not have the final word.  In Jesus’ death or in our lives.

Amen.

 

Monday, March 23, 2015


Final Words: “I Thirst”

John 19:28
 
March 22, 2015
 
Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

It was an absolute scandal for a Jew to be crucified.    Roman citizens rarely were; beheading was the norm for Roman execution.   Crucifixion was reserved for the most heinous crimes in the colonies of Rome.

For Jews such a death, to be hung on a tree, was to be cursed by God ("...anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse..." Deuteronomy 21:23).

The writers of the gospels had other things on their minds as they considered Jesus' death.   As we explore the “seven last words on the cross” this Lenten season listen to how the gospel writers want us to know that Jesus life, death and resurrection are a blessing not a curse.

 They are also intent on proving that Jesus's suffering and death fulfilled scriptures prophesying the Messiah.  Remember most in the Hebrew nation expected the Messiah to be a military leader, expelling the Roman occupation forces and restoring Israel to its greatness under King David a thousand years before.  Those Hebrews who believed that Jesus was Messiah had to make a great effort to convince the pious otherwise.  That Jesus fulfills messianic prophecy is one of the central themes of all four gospels. 

There was no “Bible” as we understand it today in first century Palestine.   What we understand as the Old Testament would not be collected and codified until after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE.    Yet the words of the prophets, the psalms of the Temple and the Torah in separate and dispersed documents were well known by the literate, as were the many interpretations by noted rabbi.    Jesus was a student of these scriptures in Hebrew, Aramaic and possibly the Greek translation as well.    From his passion for debate when only twelve years old in the temple (Luke 2:41-f), to his remarkable retention of the scriptures to his extraordinary authority in applying and interpreting them, it was obvious that Jesus loved the Word of God and felt very at home with them.

Thus, although found only in the gospel of John, it is no accident for Jesus to say just before he dies, “I am thirsty”.   The gospel writer John adds in parenthesis, “in order to fulfill scripture”.    Jesus is quoting from Psalm 69 verse 21, “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

Psalm 69 is a prayer for deliverance from persecution.    The psalmist cries out:

 
Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good;

   according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant,

   for I am in distress—make haste to answer me.

Draw near to me, redeem me,

   set me free because of my enemies.

 

You know the insults I receive,

   and my shame and dishonor;

   my foes are all known to you.

Insults have broken my heart,

   so that I am in despair.

I looked for pity, but there was none;

   and for comforters, but I found none.

They gave me poison for food,

   and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

 

The sense of despair in the psalm might echo what Jesus said before about God abandoning and forsaking him, also a quote from a psalm (22:1).

Consider the irony of the Son of God dying with a swollen tongue and parched thirst.  This man turned water into wine (John 2).  This man offered life giving water that would never go dry to the women at the well (John 4).

Could this be one of the most human moments of our Lord as he dies asking for a simple drink of water?

According to the World Health Organization of the United Nations 1.8 million people die every year to unsafe water supplies, sanitation and hygiene; most of those are women and children; about 5,000 people a day. The average person could live without food for 20-40 days but without water for only 3-5 days max.  Water is as essential to living as the air we breathe.

When Jesus says "I thirst" it is a fulfillment of scripture but something more.

The next verse goes, "A jar full of sour wine was standing there.  So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth".

The gospels differ as to whether Jesus drank the wine offered.   Mark and Matthew suggest that he refused the drugged wine as they nailed him to the cross (Mt 27:34, Mk 15:23).   He also does not drink the wine-filled sponge offered just as he expires because it is cruelly withdrawn before he can drink (Mt 27:49, Mk. 15:36).  Luke doesn’t mention anything at all about Jesus’ thirst at the cross.   And the gospel writer John implies that indeed he “receives” the wine as he dies.

Pastor Adam Hamilton in our devotional book Final Words from the Cross (Abingdon 2013) reminds us that, like Socrates' death by hemlock three hundred years before, when the women offered Jesus drugged wine before his crucifixion began they were offering him the opportunity to die painlessly.   Jesus refused to drink the mixture.  The whole point of the cross was for God to share all that humanity has to endure.  Jesus wanted to know the full depth of pain; showing what it costs God to share humanity and for God to show the limitlessness of divine love.

Pastor Adam also reminds us of the genius in the gospel writer John's identification of the branch holding the sponge of wine as "hyssop".  The branch is mentioned in Mark and Matthew as a “reed” but only identified with its botanical name in John.  That is not by accident.

The gospel writer John places the story of Jesus’ ministry in the context of the Hebrew Passover traditions.  Jesus is crucified on Passover.  When Moses instructed the children of Israel to prepare themselves for their exodus from slavery in Egypt they were to wipe the blood of the lamb consumed in their final meal in bondage over the doorways as a sign for the Angel of Death to “pass over”, keeping their families safe (Exodus 12).  This sign of faith and hope in the One God was done with a branch of "hyssop".  

Today’s verses come from the gospel writer John who has John the Baptist proclaim to the world, of Jesus at his baptism, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).  

The gospel writer John wants us to know that the one dying on the cross is the one that will deliver us from death and slavery, the one that can liberate our fears and take us to the Promised Land.

On the cross of Calvary God shares the human condition.   And wherever the innocent suffer, even today, God is there sharing the same.

“Imagine No Malaria” is the United Methodist effort with a number of other institutions to wipe out malaria in the tropical world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa.  Malaria is found in a blood parasite, often collecting in the kidneys.  When a person, especially a child is malnourished or drinks unsanitary water, they don’t have the ability to fight infections such as malaria.  I’ve had malaria twice and to this over-fed, adult North American it was a serious nuisance but not a threat to life.  “Imagine No Malaria” provides low cost mosquito nets, community education and organizes community projects draining standing water and teaching water hygiene in the tropical world.  When we contribute to our Conference goal of raising $2 million for “Imagine No Malaria” we are responding as Christians to the thirst of the world.

Jesus’ death on the cross reveals the powers of the world for the false gods that they are; nothing more than broken promises.   Caesar imposed PAX Romana on the known world by the brutal force of his legions, convinced that Roman culture, government and science would redeem primitive and chaotic societies.   Extending the borders of the empire also insured Rome security; better to be fighting one’s enemies on their own territory than at home [a strategy still in place today.]

That this arrogant imperialism brought profit and power to Rome was so much the better. 

But the world would not be redeemed by empire building; nor by those invested in its status quo.   Remember it was the religious that put Jesus on the cross.   It was the law, not lawlessness that ordered his execution.    The apparatus of a corrupt society arranged for this murder and the pious blessed it.

By their violence against an innocent man those in power…political and social, economic and religious…exposed themselves.  Their interest was not the common good but the preservation of their own prestige and wealth.  

This Messiah’s battle will not be waged with a sword but with compassion and humility.    He will defeat Rome and the Sanhedrin with his capacity to suffer.    He will redeem the human heart with his capacity to suffer and to serve.  

On the cross and in the empty tomb, Jesus will expose death for the illusion that it is; not the end of life but the transition to the next.  

Although Jesus shows us the depths to which God will share the human condition with us as he dies saying, “I thirst…” the cries of a victim of persecution are not how Psalm 69 ends.    Rather it concludes with the hope of redemption and the restoration of Israel:

 

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.  For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own that are in bonds.   For God will save Zion…”

 
 As one who loved scriptures as he did, Jesus knew the end of the story.  Through all the pain of his suffering and the loving commitment of his followers, God would make the world new.

            A God whose nature is so completely love that in his humanity he says, "I thirst" and in his divinity proclaims,  "Come to me all who are thirsty and drink, I will give you rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38).

            Stay thirsty my friends!

Amen.

 

Monday, March 16, 2015


Final Words: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

 
Mark 15:29-36a (Matthew 27:46)

 
March 15, 2015

 
Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            In our Lenten study book Final Words from the Cross (Abingdon 2013), Pastor Adam Hamilton reminds us that those in the crowd who mock Jesus had just the night before celebrated Passover.  Passover, of course, was the essential annual festival of the Hebrew people as they remembered the God who led them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.  They went from an evening of joyous celebration, songs of praise for the steadfast love of the Lord to become a screaming mob hurling insults and taunts at an innocent man crucified by their enemies.

            These were the good and pious people of Jerusalem who frequented the Temple.  They prayed for the coming of a messiah who would lead a revolution to drive out the Romans from the occupation of the Holy Land.   They put their trust in power and might and expected their God to act accordingly.   That Jesus would be dying in shame and humiliation as a common criminal was scandalous.

            Are we so different?   Don't we want God on our terms?  And when God isn’t, we turn away?

            Pastor Hamilton asks, "Do you see yourself in the crowd?"...."it wasn't Jesus who was on trial, but the human race...."  (Hamilton p. 69)

             As Jesus dies on the cross, he quotes from Psalm 22, verse one, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  It is a hymn describing the depths of human physical and emotional suffering.  It speaks of one surrounded by enemies and forces beyond one’s control at the time of greatest vulnerability.  The psalmist reaches out in desperation for God as the only hope. 

            That Jesus would quote from the scriptures shortly after a brutal beating, leaving him just inches from death, speaks of the depth of intimacy he had with the Hebrew Scriptures.  It also describes his understanding of, and shared experience with, the anguish of the deepest human pain. 

Broken bodies and dreams are bad enough but abandonment might be worse.

Institutionalized children will fail to thrive if they do not come into regular human contact.  Prisoners can only take so many days of solitary confinement before they break emotionally.  Most marriages do not end in divorce because of violence or anger but the weight of growing isolation between two good people that cannot be overcome.

Jesus will share birth, childhood, work, laughter, tears, frustration and joy as a human being, but it may be in this moment when he shares the deepest longing in abandonment that he might be most human of all.
 

“Commentators have observed that the record in Matthew and Mark is one the strongest proofs that we have an authentic account of what took place on the cross.  For what reason would the founders of a new religion put such despairing words in the mouth of their dying hero…unless that’s precisely what he said.”  (Philip Yancy, The Jesus I Never Knew, Zondervan, 1995, p. 201)

 
            ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
 
            Even today we still think of someone who dies a criminal’s death as a failure.  Yet those who knew the apostle Paul would later reflect about Jesus, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15)

 
“The racist sheriffs who locked Martin Luther King Jr. in the jail cells, the Soviets who deported Solzhenitsyn, the Czechs who imprisoned Vaclav Havel, the Filipinos who murdered Benigno Aquino, the South Africans who imprisoned Nelson Mandela, all these thought they were solving a problem, yet instead all ended up unmasking their own violence and injustice…” (Yancy p. 203)

 
In September 1940, during World War II, Adolph Hitler’s German Luftwaffe air force mercilessly bombed civilian populations in the United Kingdom, the city of London in particular, killing 43,000 in only nine months.   The purpose was to prepare England for invasion by demoralizing its people and defeating their will to fight back.  The result was just the opposite.

During twenty years of what we call the Vietnam War, the United States and its allies killed somewhere over 2 million southeast Asians; Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians.   Our air force dropped millions of pounds of armaments in that war and on North Vietnam in particular, hoping in part to demoralize its people and defeat their will to win.  The result was just the opposite.

            Two thousand years ago, agents of one of the greatest empires in history colluded with local authorities to crucify a threat to their political status quo.   Pontus Pilate and the Sanhedrin thought that the execution of the carpenter from Nazareth would be the end of his story.  That it would finish off his movement.   They put their faith in power, might and force.   The result of their violence was just the opposite.

Here we are two thousand years later honoring the death of that one single man.  And where is the Roman Empire?    Where is the South African empire of racial apartheid today?   What became of the Third Reich, the dictators of the 20th century?  Those who worship power, might and force are doomed to fail.  

            ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

Why?

That through his life, suffering and resurrection Jesus would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, remove the last illusion of our separation from God which is what we call death.

 
“What changed history was the disciples’ dawning awareness (it took the Resurrection to convince them) that God himself had chosen the way of weakness.  The cross redefines God as One who was willing to relinquish power for the sake of love...Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering.  Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it.  In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.”  (Yancy pp. 204-205)

 
            Adam Hamilton reminds us that by quoting the first verse of a hymn, what we call Psalm 22, everyone in hearing distance would have also known how the song ended:

 

For he did not despise or abhor

   the affliction of the afflicted;

he did not hide his face from me,

   but heard when I cried to him.

 

The poor shall eat and be satisfied;

   those who seek him shall praise the Lord.

   May your hearts live forever!

 

All the ends of the earth shall remember

   and turn to the Lord;

and all the families of the nations

   shall worship before him.  (Ps 22:24, 26-27)

 

            The song that Jesus quotes while dying wasn't just for the crowd.  It is also for us.  For anyone of us who is at the end of our rope, for whom the pain is too much, for each of us who lives with heartbreak.   God understands the darkness we walk through.   

            But it does not get the last word.

            Maybe it takes those moments when our resources are exhausted and everything we have tried has failed to finally reach out to God on God's terms, not our own.....and in so doing discover the power of love in our lives and for the world.

 
“God is not greater than He is in his humiliation.  God is not more glorious than He is in his self-surrender.  God is not more powerful than He is in his helplessness.  God is not more divine that He is in his humanity” Jurgen Moltman (Crucified God, Harper & Row, 1974, page 205).

 

 Amen

Monday, March 9, 2015


Final Words: Behold your sonBehold your mother.
John 19: 25-27
 
March 8, 2015
Mark S. Bollwinkel
 

            Age and dementia had done their worst.    Their mother could no longer take care of herself.    Two of the three sisters lived in close proximity and decided that our mother will never end up in a nursing home.     The family could only afford 8 hours of in-home care a day so the two sisters took turns caring for her the rest of the time.   After three years they were exhausted, as you can imagine.   The third sister lived and worked across the country.   She helped with the finances but was only able to visit during her vacations.   The resentment between the three sisters grew to the point of open conflict; You never asked me or Mom if she wanted to stay in the house no matter what it costs; If you really loved our Mother you would move home to help; All you think about is your own needs, youve always been that way!

            So on her vacation days the third sister flew home to care for her mother so that the other sisters could get a break.   The one thing they all agreed upon was that they would no longer speak to each other.  When the third sister entered the house the other sisters were to leave out the back door so they wouldnt see each other.  

The last thing in the world their mother would have ever wanted was for her illness to divide her family.
 
            Any of these themes sound familiar?  Noble and unspoken assumptions, miscommunication, the projection of past hurts into the present and the wounds of exhaustion and stress?

            We absolutely should praise God for the good and loving family members in our lives whose nurture and sacrifice have formed us into the people we are today.    We absolutely can see God at work in the love of good moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, even cousins every now and then!   If you were blessed with a loving family thank God and never pass up the chance to say I love you.

            And, lets be honest.   The life of all-too-many families are anything but ideal.   We live in a society with a 50% divorce rate.   Families are complicated systems of human relationships where pain and disappointment, often carried around for years, are all too common. Statistically it is far more likely that murder, assault, rape and the sexual molestation of minors will occur in the family unit than anywhere else in society (Family Violence Prevention Fund/endabuse.org).  

            The institution of family represents our highest ideals: love, safety, self-sacrifice, honor.   And it can.  And it should.  The church can be a vital resource to help our families thrive.

            Some of Jesus teachings make us wonder how he really felt about his family. 

In Luke a young Jesus runs off from his mom and dad in order to discuss theology with the elders (2:41-52).  When Joseph and Mary realize that Jesus is missing, they hurry back to find him three days later in the Temple of Jerusalem.  The boy is anything but repentant for the anxiety and grief he has caused his parents.  He responds to their concerns in amazement that they didnt know where he was all along, Didnt you know that I had to be in my Fathers house?  Even Jesus had the God-given right of teenagers to scare their parents to death!

            In the gospel of Mark we hear, Then Jesus mother and brothers arrived.  They stood outside the house and sent in a message asking for him.  A crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they said to him, Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, and they want you.  Jesus answered, Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?  He looked at the people sitting around him and said, Look!  Here are my mothers and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother (Mark 3:31-35).

           In Matthew, what are we to make of these words of Jesus?:  I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothersa mans worst enemies will be the members of his own family.  Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not fit to be my disciple…” (Matthew 10:34-39)?

           The literary technique of placing the new family of the Christian community in contrast with the biological family is to exemplify that the Christian community is not to be in the character of, nor will it be run like, the patriarchal families of Jesus time.

           Two thousand years ago the male head of household had sole authority over the family unit.  He could divorce his wife with the mere repletion of a phrase.  He could sell his children into slavery if he so choose.

           In contrast, the new family of Christ was not constituted by blood or patriarchal relationships, rather by the free decision to join the Christian movement.  Those who responded to Jesus call to join the reign of God on earth were his brothers, sisters and mothers.  There was supposed to be no father, no leadership position in terms of domination and subordination.  There was only one Father, God, not a male idol but the source of community.  Discipleship was based on an equality of the gospels call to loving faith in action.

           The intention of the gospel writers was not to condemn human family but to propose the existence of a radically new family in the Christian community.  The Christian family, the church, is intended to be a community of compassion, kindness, patience, forgiveness and love in which the peace of Christ rules our hearts.

            In our scripture lesson this morning, while dying on the cross, Jesus provides for the care of his mother by directing John the Beloved, his best friend, to take Mary into his household.    As the first born male of his family it was Jesus responsibility to care for his mothers future welfare.   Knowing he was about to die he does just that.  Scriptures tells us that Mary was a part of the entourage that travelled with Jesus and the disciples throughout their earthly ministry.  She will be there after his death as a member of the early church (Acts 1:14).

            Jesus not only provides for his mother but essentially adopts John the Beloved into his family.   In one of his last words from the cross Jesus affirms the importance of family and its essential mission as a community of loving care.

            The social and emotional programming we received in our family units dominate how we see ourselves as adults and how we relate to others.  The experts tell us that it is most likely that we will raise our children as we were raised.   We will frame our marriages more than likely in the models of our own parents.   If that past was good, loving and graceful we can have a sure foundation on which to build our own families and marriages.   If that past wasnt good, wasnt healthy and loving we have to consciously work to change our predispositions to treat others the way we were treated. 

           If we want our families to thrive, consider those voices in our past that still shape how we relate to friends and family.   As powerful as the past may be it does not have to determine our future.   We are free to choose how we will love and live with others. 

          These last words of Jesus remind us that we find family in many places, not just amongst our given relatives. 

         “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.   (Robert Frost)   

          We dont get to pick our families.   We are born into a mix of personalities and needs that may or may not be helpful.   After 38 years of pastoral counseling I am convinced that there is no such thing as a perfect family.   There is dysfunction in the best of homes.

           In our nation's debate about same gender marriage, I grimace every time a politician suggests we need to return to "the biblical foundations of family".   As much as the Bible in places lays out ideals of monogamy, parenthood and family the realities of some of our heroes is anything but ideal.

           Abraham, the patriarch of Israel, had children with multiple wives and slaves.  He allowed his wife Sarai to be molested by Egyptian officials to save his own life (Genesis 12:10-20).

           King David had more than 50 official sons from at least eight wives, many more concubines; he abandoned his first wife and arranged for the murder of a trusted solider to possess another.  In the end some of his own sons tried to kill him and take over his kingdom.

          If we broaden the definition of family to include any community of relationships committed to love and the health and safety of its members, we will find family in many places outside of our given surnames, cultural expectations and history.  The church should welcome and nurture all kinds of families not condemn them if they dont look like our own.

         Jesus found his family to include all those seeking the reign of love, peace and justice.  

        The apostle Paul finds this family and offers it to the world in the church, the body of Christ, and a community in which "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28).

             In the ancient world the life of the widow was one of desperation.   Her children were in the custody of the fathers family.   Her birth family had no legal obligation to take her back.   A widow had little claim to property or security and often ended up victimized in the worst ways.  Jesus knew this and even as he dies provide for Mary, inviting her and John into the family of God we call the church.

            In our scripture lesson this morning a best friend and a mother are watching Jesus die.   Yet we can know even in such a moment, tragedy will not get the last word.   Even in the death of Jesus, God is luring us to hope and possibility beyond our dreams.

            There may not be any such thing as the perfect familybut our homes and marriages can be places of great love and joy. I youve been blessed with one celebrate that!   If we need help with that, your Christian family can and should be a place of nurture and hope as well.

           Do you remember the story of Ruth and Naomi in the Old Testament?   A Hebrew family from Bethlehem in Judah immigrates to neighboring Moab where they start a family; the father of the family, and then his two sons, die, leaving Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth to fend for themselves.   To survive Naomi returns home but implores her two daughters-in-law to remain in Moab in hopes of finding husbands among their own people.  Orpah does but out of her great love for the aging Naomi, Ruth insists on re-settling in a foreign land.    There Naomis kinsman Boaz falls in love with Ruth and they live happily ever after, bearing son Obed, who will bear Jesse, who will bear David who will become the greatest king/messiah in Israels history.   Jesus son of Joseph is born in the lineage of this family in their ancestral home town, Bethlehem.   Ruth is the distant grandmother of Jesus.

            The Book of Ruth is a fabulous story of a family with honor and integrity and faith.   I wanted to name my first son Boaz but Bonnie vetoed the idea; I guess Boaz Bollwinkel would have been problematic! 

             A caring and loving family can be the place we grow through out faults, heal our wounds and receive second chances again and again.  Kind of like the church.

             Jesus wanted this for his mother and friend.  How much more so for each of us?

Amen.