the BRIEFING

Who is my mother and who are my brothers?

2006-11-01T10:04:00.000Z

I had the privilege of teaching Matthew 12:46-50 recently.

46While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."

48He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Is he simply showing that we shouldn't values our biological families more than being part of the family of Christ? That is surely a huge issue in British evangelicalism. We love our families and church often plays second fiddle.

But in preparing I was trying to force myself to think contextually. After all, that's what I'm being told week in week out at the Northern Training course (www.northerntraining.org - I can highly recommend it!)

Well in context there is a growing confrontation between Jesus and Israel and its leaders (most recently prophecy against cities (11:20-25), debate over Sabbath observance (12:1-14) and the Pharisees claim Jesus was in fact Beelzebub (1212:22fff.)) Then the leaders ask for a sign, but none will be given them, Jesus promises, except his death andresurrectionn (the 'sign of Jonah' v. 39ff).

And then Jesus's mother and brothers turn up outside the building, and they can't get in to him.

Most commentators that I read, on explaining this passage, talk about Jesus elevating relationship to him over physical family as being the central issue.

But I just wonder, given the context of confrontation between Jesus and Israel, whether theappearancee of Jesus' mother and brothers has given him the ideal opportunity to make a bigger point - that he is rejecting Israel. Being part of the big Jewish family won't bring you in to the Kingdom of God. What matters is whether you follow the Messiah, which the disciples (his 'mother and brothers') are doing (v. 49). (Following the Messiah is what I think we are expected to understand from 'doing the will of my Father in heaven' v. 50)

I think Jesus is doing more here than trying to make us think again about our familial ties. That is perhaps an application that flows out, but surely the main point is that Jesus is showing himself in opposition to Israel.Israell, the people and most pointedly their leaders who represent them, stand outside the kingdom. John Fenton, in a little Penguin commentary, writes,

The only relationship which [Jesus] recognizes is that of a common obedience to God. The relatives of Jesus, whom he disowns here, stand for the whole of Israel; thediscipless, on the other hand, are the new Israel, the Church...

The positions of the two groups, his physical kindred outside and his disciples inside, are symbolic of the unbelievers and the faithful. (J. C. Fenton, Saint Matthew (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 205-206).

Come to ours!

2006-01-20T10:21:00.000Z
Our mission group (a home group with church-planting intentions) met last Wednesday at 6.30 pm. At least 6.30 pm is the scheduled time: often folk turn up fifteen or thirty minutes earlier. L and I are quite bad at responding to people turning up early; L gets home from work at 5 pm, and since mission group finally winds up at about 10 pm, we're often quite jealous of our bit of time together and to get things ready before things kick off. Our own little joke is that people will turn up at 4!

Anyway, to continue the story... late Wednesday afternoon (the day that mission group meets) I was walking home whilst trying to pray at the same time. I was praying that God would soften my heart to his will and break my stubbornness. I arrived home at 4.45, and then the door bell went 5 minutes later. L home from work early? I went to the door, and who should it be but my mate mark from mission group – some hour and forty minutes early!

My initial thoughts... annoyed! What on earth was he doing here so early!? But a few minutes later God in his grace reminded me of the prayer I had asked just a few minutes earlier: soften my heart to his will. The real question was who on earth am I to be so possessive of the time I have? For all the Crowded House talk of wanting to live like family, I was just acting the hypocrite! Praise God that Mark felt he was able to come round at whatever time he likes! Praise be to God for bending my heart just that tiny bit! And if you ever read this Mark, thanks for coming and teaching me a lesson!

Our kind of evangelicals really are rubbish at this. If we fix a time for a meeting, we expect it to be that time: no later (how ill disciplined!), but also definitely no earlier, and certainly not an hour and a half! I would have once felt (and still feel now really) completely unable to arrive that early unannounced. But why? Why why why why? Why are we like that? If your brother said he'd be home at 6, but arrived at 4, would you be shaken by it!? Then why are we so concerned when a brother or sister in Christ (closer to us than any biological relative) comes over to our house (or should I say his house Mt 19:29) any time of the day? Shouldn't we consider it a privilege? Isn't it part of our witness to the world?

Come over to ours! (What time do you think it will be? Only we have our tea at 5.30)

Sacrificial loving

2006-01-19T08:50:00.000Z
Excellent talk from ST on Sunday morning. Working through TCH values, and this week the turn of 'Mission Through Community.' He made a telling comment: when we think of 'mission', we usually instinctively think 'evangelism'. In our minds the two are synonymous. But of course that is to limit mission; in fact it doesn't really explain mission. Mission isn't the one-of evangelistic event or week of events, it isn't even me and my 'personal' evangelism in the work place, the pub, the sports club, at school or wherever. Mission describes the central purpose of the church in the world; the church exists for mission, and as such everything we do should be centered on the need for mission.

We were looking at John 13, where we read of Jesus washing his disciples feet. This was remarkable enough, but of course he would go even further – all the way to the cross. Jesus said, 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also are to love one another. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.' (John 13 vv 34-35).

The masterplan! People will know that we are disciples of the Lord if we love one another. And let's not be confused about the extent of that love: Jesus calls for genuine, deep, sacrificial love. Love that will even lead us to die for others, let alone wash one another's mucky feet!

But what of our traditional church structures? Thinking through it myself, I guess there are a few questions we could about our churches:

1. Are we sacrificially loving each other? Even the people that we don't know very well, or the brothers and sisters we find it difficult to get along with? It's oh so easy to love people we like (and whom we get something out of – respect, service, laughter, happiness...) but not the people we don't like (and who don't give us anything).

And what is the extent of that love: Speaking politely to each other? Invite others round for the occasional meal if it's when it's convenient for us? Give people a lift home if we're going that way?

Or would we go a further? Do we actually ask if there are ways we can help people (or do we ensure the conversation doesn't get that far)? Would we happily give someone a lift at 3 in the morning if they could do with it? Would we give someone something nice to enjoy if we don't already have it ourselves (e.g. Would I give someone the money for a holiday if I thought that I needed one first?). Where does our money go? Where is our time spent?

2. Can non-Christians see our sacrificial love for each other? There may be lots of sacrificial loving going on in our churches, but if non-Christians are not exposed to it then they won't know that we are Jesus' disciples! Is it all done behind closed doors? Are we expecting non-Christians to come in to our church buildings to see our love for each other? Surely it needs to be lived out every day, hour by hour, played out in front of the watching world.

As churches we should be thinking through ways of exposing non-Christians to our self sacrificial communities in the hope that they will see the extent that we love each other. And when they ask why, we can point them to Jesus, who went all the way to Calvary for us.

Small churches (very small, think a dozen people!) provide the opportunity to love each other sacrificially. In a church with anything over fifty people (or even less) you're going to be able to find people who are 'like you', who share your sense of humour or enjoy the same things as you do, and loving them will be easy!; in a tiny church you have little choice about who you are to love, you just have to love the people who are there. And that is much more powerful in the eyes of our non-Christian friends and family.

3. What is the mainstay of our mission? Do we leave it up to the one-off evangelistic events, the mission weeks or the evangelistic courses? Do we leave 'mission' up to the 'mission committee'? The courses, the events and the special one-off weeks all have their place, but my experience has been that we let them be the driving edge of mission. Don't you think the mainstay of our mission is to take place 24 hours a day through loving our brothers and sisters and our non-Christians friends constantly and sacrificially, showing them and telling them the gospel of grace?