December 15, 2024 SERMON

Church Family

Galatians 6:7-10 

Church folks came out of nowhere; from small villages and obscure city streets, from backwoods farms and hard labor mines; from workingmen’s cottages, and from the ranks of domestics and cooks. 

They were a humble people, schooled by experience rather than the universities; and a modest people, doing without elegant things, living on plain food, wearing nondescript clothes.

They were much like those described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, “not many wise, not many powerful, and not many of noble birth,” an ordinary group of people.

Folks that would travel for miles on a dirt road to stand outside looking in window opening for hours to participate in church family life because inside was full.

They would never have been noticed by the historians, except for one thing.

They were a fiercely independent people. They held a belief so powerful, so revolutionary, that some of their number would stand before kings and 

congresses and defy them.

A belief so vigorous that they chose to stand apart from all the privilege they might have had, if only they had chosen another way. 

Independent people who disliked the thought of any earthly authority telling them how to believe.

They were not only a fiercely independent but they were also an exceptionally aggressive people, a winsome people. 

They did all they could to convince others of their way, and, once convinced, those others made new converts, and they in turn made others, so that these people and their beliefs spread like wildfire, without plan or strategy, without the permission or the help of the authorities. 

They just grew and multiplied. An exceptionally aggressive and winsome people.

And yet, there is a shadow side to their history as well. There are some negatives. 

In their fierce independence, they became known as a contentious people, and others felt that they had too brittle an edge, too harsh a flavor. They were thought of as angry, insensitive and more.

Their very success held in it the seeds of their destruction. Their very popularity made them desire popularity even more. 

Here and there, as they became a little too popular, they got cozy with the powers that be. They lost the ability to speak the truth, because they had prospered by living the half-truth. 

They lost their distinctiveness, because they wanted to be big and to be accepted more than to be faithful to their principles.

And so they began to have real troubles. These people began to pick fights with one another. They began to forget what had brought them into being in the first place. 

They became so middle-class, so respectable and acceptable, that they forgot those from whom they had come. 

They forgot that they had come out of the poor, the humble, the needy, and the downtrodden. 

These people of whom I speak caught a kind of corporate amnesia. They forgot who they really are.

These people of whom I speak are my family, and your family, our family of faith. They are the people who were first called Christians because that society recognized them as followers of Jesus. 

After two thousand years of history, some of it glorious and some of it cowardly. But it is my family and yours. It is who we are. 

Today I want to call us to learn from that history. I want to call us to recommit ourselves to that family of faith.  

Now, all that was just the prelude to the message.

Listen to this old preacher, dealing with people is always messy. There is no way you can work with human beings and have everything neat and clean. When you deal with people, you get a mess. 

They misunderstand, they misinterpret, they make mistakes, and they get it wrong. And that’s just on Sundays! The rest of the week is even worse. Mess is just a part of life.

Some of us have been involved in mess-cleaning around this church building in recent weeks. We have removed mildewed uncovered long-forgotten stuff, painted walls, installed window coverings, cleaned toilets, (I mean with chemicals, scrapers, elbow grease and prayer.) 

We’ve torn up flooring, cleaned kitchen cabinets and we’re only starting. We’ve been dealing with mess in this church building, and it’s a chore to deal with a mess.

But I’ll tell you, it’s a whole lot better than the alternative, because mess clean-up means that there is life here, so praise the Lord for the mess! 

The church of the Lord Jesus Christ, this church, gladly lives with mess. We are not sweet and antiseptic. 

We are a laboratory of love, learning to love one another through the mess. That’s what fellowship is about. Working with and through the mess.

Prayerfully some will come that are in a worse mess than we are so we’ll be able to love them also.

You see, sometimes we get our notion of fellowship all wrong. Sometimes we get our idea about church all out of whack. 

We think the church is supposed to be a perfect place, where everybody lives in some sort of heavenly glow, speaks with “thee” and “thou” language, and never makes any mistake. 

If you find a church like that, go and join it. You know what will happen? If you or I join that perfect church, it won’t be perfect anymore! 

So, let’s begin this morning by acknowledging that we are a mess. We are a mess because we are alive. 

We are a mess because we work at the business of being church, with real people who have real needs and who are not perfect. 

But that is not so much an issue as it is an opportunity! That is not so much a problem as it is an occasion for grace. 

God bless this mess, because in the midst of the mess, we are going to find out something profound about what Christ has done for us.

One of the overriding images of the church in the New Testament is ‘The Family’. We are meant to view church through the lens of family. A functional, loving family. 

How easily do we forget that church isn’t a building, it isn’t an event, or a product. It’s not a brand or a TV show…Church is family. 

And if church is family, then there comes a point when physically being in the same room together (as far as that is possible) really really matters. 

Actually, if we’re serious about following Jesus then it is absolutely pointless to try and do it in isolation. It’s pointless to do it outside the context of the church family because church operates best as family. 

It’s also important to remember that you will never find the perfect family. And you are never going to find the perfect church. And again, if you do find the perfect church, please don’t go to it, because you’ll mess it up!

This church, our church, is not perfect; but we do want to be as intentional as possible about our church feeling like family. 

That can be challenging as the church gets bigger. That’s why I’m sharing it now.  But in order for our church to feel like family, it won’t happen because we stop the church from growing. 

It won’t happen because we keep making our church services better and better. It won’t happen because we run more and more programs. 

For our church to feel like family it will take each person who calls this church ‘home’ to make the decision to view this church as family.

The way we view church really matters. It’s a bit like the difference between having dinner at home and having dinner in a restaurant. 

It would be weird in a restaurant if the waiter approached you halfway through your meal and said “I know you’re eating, but there’s actually loads to do in the kitchen right now; onions to chop, pans to wash. Could you please put down your utensils and come with me and help?”

It would be weird because it’s not family. In a restaurant you’re paying for a service.

We view family differently. Imagine if in the middle of family dinner at home your 8-year-old son obnoxiously clicked his fingers and gestured for you to come over immediately. And imagine if he said to you “These fish fingers, they’re not up to standard… they’re burned on the outside and tasteless on the inside. I need to speak with the manager.”

That would be weird because we view family differently. 

In a restaurant we’re entitled, but in a family we’re responsible. 

The way we view church really matters. Is it a service we’re consuming? Or a family we belong to?

When we’re part of a healthy family, maturity isn’t an option, maturity is a by-product. It’s naturally what begins to happen when you’re immersed in a healthy family.

When we view church as family we grow in maturity as followers of Jesus. In a healthy family we shape each other, we encourage each other, we sharpen each other. 

In family we learn patience. We discover the importance of “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you”. We learn discipline and perseverance, collaboration and compromise. 

We experience the value of constructive criticism and conflict resolution. We learn how to celebrate other people. We’re taught how to laugh together, to cry together, and how to serve together.

When we view church as family, we grow up…but we also show up.

We make the decision to “jump in” to “roll up our sleeves” and get involved. When we view church as family we show up. We choose to make a contribution to the life of the church, the family.

Sometimes we’ve heard people say regarding the church “when is the church going to DO something about whatever??? 

God willing the time will come for opportunities for people to get involved in centrally run programs and initiatives that facilitate community, and mission, and evangelism. 

But when we view church as family we initiate. We take responsibility. We don’t wait for someone else to fix the problem we choose to be part of the solution.  

You’ll hear me say “If you see a need, it’s a call to ministry.”

Paul teaches us a profound lesson about living within a family of faith: in our scripture today. Galatians 6:7-10

“You reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh.”

We need to confess that as a people we have sown to the flesh and are reaping corruption from the flesh. We have sown to the flesh, we have catered to selfishness. And today we are paying the price for that.

What do I mean, sown to the flesh? I mean that in our eagerness to be successful, as the world counts success, we have damaged our witness.

We have damaged our witness by playing to the galleries instead of being serious in our thinking. We have found it easier to be entertaining, easier to whip up the troops, than to be honest and serious about God.

I wonder if I could get anyone this morning to admit that there are times in which you do not even like to admit to being a Christian? 

The reputation we have is for being opinionated and overly emotional. You know the old joke about when you get three Pentecostals in a room, on any question you will have at least four opinions. 

You have read about some senator making a speech, and they will say that he sounded more like a preacher than a statesman. Much of the world thinks we don’t make sense. 

Those comments are not complimentary. Heat but not light. Sound and fury, signifying nothing.

That word, “Especially” suggests that there is something extra about the fellowship of faith, something unique about being church. 

The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Galatia, says, “Whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.” 

This tells us to be intentional and purposeful. This tells us to reach out and do something for one another. It tells us not to live in isolation, but to connect to one another, specific, and on purpose.

We’re in the season of Advent, looking forward to the coming of Christ with anticipation, and since we’re family that ought to include Christmas.

The thing I remember most, as a child, was Christmas lunch because everyone had a job. My first job as a child was ‘setting the table’. Then once I was responsible enough to handle a sharp implement, I graduated to ‘peeling the potatoes. 

My siblings had jobs too, so did my Aunt and Uncle. I don’t ever remember resenting having to peel those potatoes; it was what let me participate in Christmaslunch it was what made family, family. 

In fact when we all fed into that Christmas feast I felt this satisfying feeling of ownership which somehow made those potatoes taste even better! 

But there was something I noticed over that festive season with all that fellowship and food. Looking back, I observed that, apart from the immediate family members who all had jobs to do, there were different kinds of visitors. All the visitors received the same warm welcome. They all got fed, they all got loved. But they were all different.

The first group was the ‘INVITED’…

These were people that had not been to our house before. There was no way my mom was going to let them lift a finger because they were “invited guests”. Our job was to host them, and to serve them.

The next group were the ‘INFANTS’…

These were the little kids. There was no expectation that they could or would do anything constructive to contribute to the workload. They were appropriately immature and had to stay out of the kitchen, preferably outside.

Then there was the ‘INEXPERIENCED’…

These were the ones who, for whatever reason, weren’t used to being in a healthy family. They didn’t know how it worked. 

It wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t want to help, they just didn’t know how. They needed a bit of guidance, and a bit of encouragement.

There was also the ‘INJURED’…

There were always one or two adults who were hurting during Christmas, whether it was physically or emotionally, they were struggling that year. 

And we knew that if they were well, they’d be eager to help, but at that particular moment what they needed was extra care. They needed to be served and that was ok.

The last group was the ‘INACTIVE’…

These were the ones who came every year. They were perfectly capable of helping out, but they were more interested in heading for the most comfortable seat and waiting for everyone to serve them!

When we view church as family there will always be invited guests. At Maranatha we LOVE invited guests. Our desire is that every invited guest would get the warmest welcome and be made to feel at home from the moment they walk through the door. 

I remember at one church I pastored, chatting to a woman who said to me “I love the worship, and I love the talks, but the reason I decided to come back to this church was because on my second week someone remembered my name.”

Other people who come to church might be immature in their faith.  They’re just exploring faith. They’re still figuring things out. That’s great. They will be so welcomed. 

There will also be those who walk through the door and they’re hurting.  They’re navigating a season of pain loss hopelessness. They’re disorientated or burned out and in need of rest and healing until they feel better. And that’s ok too.

Then there are the ones who come and they want to spectate, to consume. And that’s ok too… for a time. Whatever the reason people walk into a church gathering on a Sunday, our desire is that everyone is made to feel loved and welcomed.

But there’s a sixth type of visitor. These are the people who arrive as ‘guests’ but leave as ‘family’. They are the ones who come to your house, and they don’t expect to be served. They’ve worked out where everything is in the kitchen. They don’t need everything to be clean and tidy. And if they find a mess they’ll clean it up. 

The way we view church really matters. The more we show up, the more we grow up. And the more we grow up, the more we show up.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:9-10

I think it’s fair to say that lots of people are carrying a sense of weariness. In many ways we need to be kind to ourselves. But the danger is, if we’re not careful, our weariness’ can morph into apathy. 

Our ‘weariness’ turns into a desire to stay comfortable and safe. Our ‘weariness’ becomes an excuse to merely “look out for number one”. 

We are called to ‘do good’. We are designed to “do good”. It’s in our DNA as children of God to ‘do good’. 

There’s a reason Paul implores the Galatian church not to grow weary of doing good, because there’s so much at stake. There’s a much bigger picture for us to be aware of.

“For at the proper time we will reap a harvest”. 

When we view church as family, when we step out from the shadows of merely spectating and consuming, we discover that we get to be part of the story that God is writing not just within our church community, but our city, our nation, and across the whole earth. 

Maybe it’s time for us to pick up the metaphorical potato peeler and get involved, realizing we’re family.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!