Family Values

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 -- Week of 2 Lent

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 953)
Psalms 61, 62 (morning) 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 (evening)
Genesis 42:1-17
1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Mark 3:19b-35

The conflicts that Mark presents to us are fascinating. Jesus' activity has stirred up controversy. He goes home and finds family resistance. They try to restrain Jesus from continuing because people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." Authorities from Jerusalem have a strong accusation: "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."

Jesus lived in a very stable culture, where a son usually followed in a father's footsteps, taking the family business and caring for it. A successful life -- the model and ideal -- would be a life in which a young man would work in his family's business until he inherited the leadership, and then would continue in that tradition so that when he passed it along, nothing would have been lost and nothing gained. The ideal family would be one in which generations would ply the same trade or fields in the same economic condition as their ancestors.

For someone to try to advance their family's wealth or social position was deeply problematic. It was a violation of the cultural norms and regarded as acting sinfully, acting out of greed. Greed was very possibly the most serious offense. The underlying assumption was that resources and wealth are a zero-sum game. If someone gains, someone else must lose. Therefore, for you to increase your wealth, it must be at the expense of someone else. Your greed is someone else's suffering. This was the cultural norm, and this world view exercised a powerful influence over the culture that Jesus lived in.

There was great social pressure for a son, especially an eldest son, to lead the family by maintaining the family's position, economically and socially. One bad son could upset generations of faithful sons by failing to do his part and sending his family into perpetual shame and ruin.

So when Jesus did not enter into the work of Joseph, but became a traveling teacher, it was a cause of scandal, local shame, and potential family ruin. We have several stories of his family's resistance to his work.

Jesus' response is a radical one. In a culture that is dominated by one's duty to family, a culture where identity was entirely dictated by one's family situation, Jesus upsets the powerful conventional family values. Jesus redefines the understanding of family beyond the limits of blood. "Here are my mother and my brother! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

Now this is crazy talk, at least that's how it would have been perceived from the perspective of his family and culture. I'm trying to think of some parallels. How about this? I stir up a group of followers and we set up my teaching and feeding in the front yards of a half dozen residents down the street. The home owners protest, saying, "What are you doing on my property? Who gave you permission?" "This land is your land; this land is my land. The land belongs to God and God belongs to all of us. Who can claim to own the land? The land belongs to us all!"

Imagine how that might play in Fayetteville or elsewhere in the U.S. If you feel some sense of outrage or scandal, you've got a taste of how radical Jesus' behavior was from the perspective of the normal family values of his time. He created families that were divided against themselves.

I think the fact that James the brother of our Lord became the first leader of the Jerusalem church following the resurrection and that Mary his mother was identified with the movement, though it took her away from Nazareth, are powerful testimonies to the truth of the resurrection. If his family, who resisted his ministry and interfered with his work, who knew him most intimately from the humble perspective of childhood -- if they followed him as Lord and worshiped him as the Risen One, something remarkable must have happened to change their perspective of their prodigal son.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas