WE
ARE FAMILY
When
I arrived at Virginia Seminary as a Middler (a second year student) I had been
told that Introduction to New Testament was a class that eliminated at least
one first year student a year.
I'd
studied at Harvard Divinity School for two year prior to that and had taken
several courses in New Testament. But I was curious and went to the first
meeting of New Testament 101 just to see what happened.
The
professor, Associate Dean Dick Reed, lectured for about 20 minutes about what
is true about New Testament studies--we don't have a clue what really happened.
That's
simply the Truth—we have no idea, really, about how accurate the Gospels are.
Then
a young man interrupted and asked Dean Reed, “Doctor Reed, could you tell me
how many of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels are 'authentic'?
Dick
Reed looked at him for a long moment. “Do you really want to know?” he asked
the young man.
“Yes,”
the student replied.
Professor
Reed took a deep breath and then asked, “are you really sure you want to know?
I mean, really sure?”
The
student nodded.
Dr.
Reed shook his head, smiled and said, “about half a dozen”. He then went on to
explain that the half-dozen or so 'authentic' sayings of Jesus are believed to
be 'authentic' because what Jesus says is something the early Church wouldn't
have recorded unless it was pretty sure Jesus actually said those words. The
'easy' stuff could have been said by Jesus or the writers of the Gospels
could have put the words in his mouth.
Today's
lesson has two saying that could be authentic since the early church would have
had no reason to have them that I can see.
The
first one is that odd and inexplicable idea that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is
the only unforgivable sin. Certainly, the early church—the second or third
generation of Christians who wrote the Gospels—had no idea whatsoever what
blaspheming against the Holy Spirit meant.
Neither
has anyone since. Nobody knows what that means.
It
is such a remarkably obscure and incomprehensible saying that surely it
wouldn't have been included in the Gospel if the oral tradition hadn't been
certain that Jesus had actually said it.
There
is no definitive answer about what that saying means, but let me give you my
cut on it anyway. This isn't 'the Truth', it's just a thought I have.
What
if we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit by our “resignation”?
Whenever
we are 'resigned' that 'things are the way they are and there is no possibility
of changing that', then the Spirit's power is diminished and extinguished. “No
possibility” denies the Spirit's power and accepts the Lie that 'things are
just the way they are and there's nothing we can do about it.'
Resignation,
even if it isn't the Sin against the Holy Spirit is the death knell for the
Spirit's power in our lives.
Then,
only a few verses later, Jesus' mother and brothers come to do an
'intervention' because they think he's gone a little crazy and Jesus not only
refuses to see them, he seems to indicate he's not part of that family any
more.
If
you think about it, Jesus never was very devoted to his mother. When he's 12 he
stays behind in the Temple talking to the priests while Mary and Joseph were
searching for him high and low. At the Wedding in Cana, when Mary approaches him
about the problem with the wine, his initial response is, “Woman, what do I
have to do with you?” Even on the cross in John's gospel, he calls her 'woman'
and tells her that the beloved disciple is her son and she is his mother.
And
then there's today--”Who is my mother and my brothers?” he asks. “Those who do
the will of God are my mother and sisters and brothers.
Pretty
harsh stuff. Why would Mark have included that if it wasn't a basic part of the
oral tradition?
My
father always hated this portion of the gospel. How could the King of Love, my
father wondered, be so unloving toward his own flesh and blood?
However.
I think there is a deep wisdom is realizing “family” is more than
mere blood. “Family” is often a relationship we create.
I'm
an only child. I have no blood sisters or brothers. And every time I start
feeling I've missed something, all I have to do is talk for a while with
someone who HAS SIBLINGS and I don't feel so bereft....Besides, I was the next
to youngest of 19 first cousins. Some of them were like brothers and sisters
you didn't have to live with!
My wife has a brother and sister,
both older than her. Her sister is dead and her brother is a late vocation
Roman Catholic priest in West Virginia, and neither ever married. So, our
children have NO first cousins. And besides, we live far away from our roots.
So,
for our sakes and the sake of our children, we “created” Family.
For
over 30 years we've had close friends over for major holidays. I'm as close to
those people as I could be to siblings.
And
I've always been blessed to be part of wonderful communities. You. As short as
our relationship has been, are 'family' to me.
I
don't for a moment want to denigrate “blood family”. Every moment I'm with my
son and daughter and their partners and my grandchildren is precious to me.
And,
there is something about sharing the journey to the Lover of Souls with you;
something about seeking to find and be found by God with you; something about
sharing the family table to feed and be fed by each other—there's simply
something about that which bonds us together in a profound and holy way. It's
what makes me say, as I give you the Bread of Life, “Brother/Sister, the Body
of Christ.”
To
quote those well-known theologians, Sly and the Family Stone: “We Are Family—my brothers and my
sisters and me.”
