God's Family

"Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross…." That is the collect for Good Friday. Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family. That’s our prayer. Today. Look upon us graciously, O God. Look upon us, your family.

We use the language and imagery of family so often as we describe our relationship with God, it is easy to forget how remarkable it is. And what a gift it is. I know that for some people, the image of family is not a positive one, that their human families have not been places of health and growth and safety. I am sorry. That seems a particularly grievous manifestation of human sinfulness. I ask you, if possible, to put those bad experiences aside as we consider what a miraculous privilege it is to be children of God.

And that is one of the gifts that Jesus, the Christ, gives to us from the cross. It is one thing, as the Hebrew people did, to call God Lord, to revere God’s power to create a world, to celebrate God’s special care for those who know themselves to be the people of God. In addition to all that, it is quite another thing also to be family. To be family with God.

But that is what Jesus taught and it is what he created by his death on the cross. Last night, as many of you know, we heard John’s account of the Last Supper with the story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. As Peter protests Jesus’ action, Jesus says to him, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." If we cast that as a positive statement, Jesus says, "As I wash you, I give you a share with me." Some scholars would translate that phrase: I share my heritage with you. Heritage. In that first communion meal, Jesus offered the disciples his own heritage. If we surrender our feet, our lives, to him Jesus will share his divine heritage with us.

Or consider the Lord’s prayer, probably far and away the best known of Jesus’ words. When his disciples asked Jesus to teach them a prayer, he taught them to say, "Our Father." My father is our father, Jesus said to his followers, his friends. Our father. Jesus taught over and over again that we are truly children of God, full members of God’s family.

It was on the cross that Jesus’ words became more than words. It was in Jesus’ death that what might have been just an image used for illustrative purposes in teaching became a reality. It is not just that we should model our relationship with God upon that of an ideal human family. It is not that God thinks of us in the same way that a parent considers a child. We really are children of God.

When the divine Son of God suffered a human death, the link was forged. When God was fully united with humankind in death, then were we united with God in God’s life. When Jesus bled upon the cross, he became our blood brother. And we became his.

We are linked to God by bonds of family. Think of the richness and strength and closeness of those bonds. They unite us to God, and through God, to one another no matter where we are or who we are. We are never alone. In life or in death.

And, as family, we are in the will. We, along with our brother Jesus, have been offered a share in God’s kingdom.

I am reminded of phrases we say during the exiting procession at a burial service. (You know, in the context of our worship, there is no such thing as a recession. We never recede; we always proceed somewhere.) These are words that we say as we proceed onwards following a burial service. They describe the inheritance of the children of God. They are words to remember as we look upon Jesus hanging dead on the cross.

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tomb.

The Sun of Righteousness is gloriously risen, giving light to those [his sisters and brothers] who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death.

The Lord will guide our feet into the way of peace, having taken away the sin of the world.

Christ will open the kingdom of heaven to all who believe in his Name, saying, Come, O blessed of my Father… Come O blessed of our Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you.