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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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The Family of God |
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Jeremiah
31:1 Third
Sunday after Trinity June
8, 2006 We live in a transient society that has been described as rootless and individualistic. It is no exaggeration to say that the individual and individualism is venerated almost to the point of worship. Yet one of our favorite symbols of comfort and contentment is still the family. Whether we are listening to Bing Crosby sing, “There’s No Place like Home for the Holidays,” or watching Dorothy tap her heels in the “Wizard of Oz,” we still hope the famous words of John Howard Payne are true, “Through pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” What makes this so amazing is that we cling to the family in its ideal state, even in the face of some very disconcerting evidence that the family falls very far short of that ideal. We still cling to the idea that somewhere there is someone who will always be there for us, to help us when we’re in need, to encourage us when we’re despondent, to rejoice in our success, and even to take us in hand when we go astray. In short, to love us. Family symbolizes roots and stability, and a sense of belonging and identity. It pictures people working together with shared goals, shared values, shared space, and mutual love and respect, all in a spirit of cooperation and joy. If we apply all those mental images and hopes of the ideal family to the Church, we begin to get an understanding of God’s will and plan for the Church. For the church is not a building or a place or an organization so much as it is a family. It is the family of God. Thus God says in Jer. 3:19, “I am a father to Israel. In Eph 3:14-15 He is the Father of the Church, the whole family in heaven and earth. And in that great exemplary prayer, Christ Himself taught us to call upon God as “our Father who art in heaven.” The implication is clear, if God is our Father, we are family. Here, in the Church, according to God’s plan, is a people dedicated to our encouragement, our success, to weeping with us when we are sorrowful, and rejoicing with us when we are glad. Here is a people dedicated to our common goals and values, and mutual love. Here we find identity and belonging, acceptance and forbearance, forgiveness and strength. And here, most of all, we find people to love us and people we can love back. Here is family. At least, that is the Biblical ideal. The truth is most churches don’t have anything like this. Why? Primarily because most churches see the “sense of family” as an emotional feeling, which they attempt to create by artificial means. There is an entire field of studies in today’s seminaries which examines the way people form friendships, and seeks to create those conditions in the church to make people “feel like they belong.” Of course the relationships developed this way are generally shallow, “good time” friendships, very similar to the kind people develop with others they see regularly at the sport stadiums or the vacation resorts. They are nice relationships, but not deep relationships, because those people aren’t really involved in their lives. These seminary classes teach a “cafeteria” approach to the church and Christian relationships. You can take a little of this, and a little of that, and skip over the things you don’t like. We all know the cafeteria style restaurants load the front part of the serving line with enticing desserts, and that people, like me, tend to take the desserts and fill up on them. The same is true of cafeteria style relationships wherever they are formed. They tend to be long on sugar and sweets but woefully short on real “nutrition.” When I was in seminary I was required to take some of these classes. The intent was to get the first year students together and let us “bond” through the group dynamics. At the same time, we were supposed to learn how to help people bond in the Church. Now, seminary was a wonderful experience. I become very close to the people I went through school with, but it was not the group dynamics classes that did that for us. It was having the common goal of getting the research papers done, and mastering the very extensive reading assignments we were given every day, and studying for the next test, and getting our degrees. More than that, however, was our common knowledge of Christ as Saviour, and our common desire to serve Him as ministers and pastors in His Church. These are the things that brought us together. The friendship and the bonding and the sense of belonging were by-products of our greater purpose. And so it is in the Church, or in any other organization; the real relationships will develop naturally as we go about our greater purpose and calling. What is our greater purpose and calling? I think we can answer this with the words of our Saviour, who, teaching us about trusting God for our needs in this life, told us, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” (Mt. 6:33). That is always the very first calling of every person, so it can be no less the primary calling of the Church. We exist to be His people. We exist to seek Him. The Westminster Shorter Catechism captures this truth well, saying, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Seeking and finding God is at the same time both our highest duty and our greatest joy. He is that “Pearl of Great Price,” and nothing is more worth seeking or finding than His Kingdom and righteousness. As we seek Him first, and I am speaking collectively of the Church and of this congregation, we draw closer to one another and we find ourselves developing the relationships with each other that are described in the Bible as that of the family of God. So, the question arises, how do we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, collectively? Well, the great surprise here is that there’s no great surprise here. We simply, but earnestly, go about the things God has called us to do; biblical study, biblical faith, biblical worship, and biblical living. The only thing some people might consider surprising about any of this is that it is not primarily something we do alone. It is something we do together, collectively as the Church, and especially as the local congregation. Biblical study comes first. The people of God by definition are the people of the Bible. No organization, no matter how religious, no matter how pious, no matter how good and generous its people may be, can legitimately call itself a Church if it does not gather itself around the written Word of God we call the Holy Bible. It is in the Bible that we find the charter and constitution of the Church. In the Bible we find light and hope in a dark and desperate world that has already concluded life is meaningless and hopeless. In the Bible we find the Word of Life revealed unto us. In the Bible we learn about God who loves us and became flesh and lived and suffered and died on the cross for our salvation. I know many “churches” have left the Bible for more fashionable books. Many “ministers” laugh it to scorn. The world calls it an old fashioned, out of touch fable. But in reality it is the greatest love story ever lived. As we gather around the Bible we become one. We grow in our love and commitment to one another. We become family. Biblical faith comes next. We must believe the Bible. We must accept the truth it teaches. This is no minor point. We cannot simply read the Bible as a matter of religious formality, without accepting it as true. I know many who say the Apostle’s Creed as a part of the liturgy, but don’t believe what it says. It is just part of a pretty ritual they happen to like but don’t believe. They read the Bible in the same way. It is a tradition, but it does not “inform” their thoughts or activities in life. Let us not make that mistake. The Bible must inform our whole life, not just our “Christian” life. As we read it we absorb God’s ideas, God’s goals, and God’s values. We are shaped by them. We are conformed to the will of God. We begin to think what God thinks and believe what He believes. This is what I mean by biblical faith. Next comes biblical worship, that is, worship as the Bible instructs it to be done. Too much of what passes for worship today is directed at people instead of God. People are the focus of the activities and the performances. Let us not mistake that for worship. Biblical worship is God oriented. It is directed at God, not us. We, the worshipers, are like singers in a choir, each one doing his or her part in the presentation of the music unto God. Notice that the choir members do not perform the music for their own benefit. The members do not even really hear the music. The music is for the listeners, and, in the case of worship, the Listener is God, not the congregation. You have all heard that the word, “liturgy” means, “work of the people.” That is exactly what worship is. We, the worshipers, work together like singers in a choir, to present the worship to God. Finally comes biblical living. We live what we learn in the Bible. We find our lives have become transformed. We are different, and each passing year brings a greater difference in us. We become much more concerned with the things of God and His people. We pray more. We study the Bible more. We worship more. And we love the brethren more. This is how we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And, again I say this is not just an individual thing, this is something we do together as the Church. As we seek Him together, and as we grow in Him together, we automatically grow closer to one another. We become friends in Christ. We become family. Holy Father, help us, your children, to be family. In Christ’s Holy Name. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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