The Family Resemblance--April 28, 2021

The Family Resemblance--April 28, 2021

"For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father..." [Hebrews 2:11a]

It's more like a family, less like a club.

In fact, to hear the writer of Hebrews tell it, the Christian community is almost nothing like a club, and very very much a family in a meaningful way, even if it's a "found" family or one we have been adopted into.

The train of thought here is that Jesus (the one who "sanctifies," which is a fancy way of saying, "makes others holy") and all of us (the ones who get made holy by Jesus, or to be fancy again, "who are sanctified") are all in one family, with God in the role of parent, and all of us in the role of children.  Jesus is our brother, and our belonging in the family is just as real, just as sure, and just as permanent as his.  

That says a lot right there.  Being in a family implies at least three really big things.  First off, unlike, say, a club, your belonging in a family isn't conditional.  Your club membership can lapse, or if your interests or your address should change, you can always choose to resign from a club.  Maybe you're just tired of stamp collecting or playing cards.  But a family is different--your belonging is a more permanent sort of claim, one that is not up for renewal or review, and one that doesn't depend on you bringing in a certain amount of profits to the company or a certain kind of snacks to the meetings.  Taking that seriously as children of God means that we aren't important to God because of what we can do or bring in or profit God, just like you don't love your children or grandchildren or your dog or your cat because of their contributions to the family income.   Their belonging comes from love, and that love is non-negotiable.  Same with us and God, Hebrews says:  God looks at you as a permanent member of the family as surely as Jesus is.  Since Jesus' spot at the family dinner table is sure, so is yours.

Second, and this is connected to that unconditional kind of belonging, your place in a family is created by grace, not by earning.  It is a gift, not a reward, and it is given, not paid out.  Your salary or wages for your job are part of a transaction--you do the job, you get the paycheck, and if you don't work, you don't get money.  But grace doesn't work like that.  Grace, which is the way God's kind of economy works, doesn't award belonging in exchange for past good behavior, present righteous deeds, or future payments to God.  Grace says, "I love you just for your own sake, and so you belong. No strings."  That's how family works, too--so when we hear the writer of Hebrews say that we are like children in a family with the same Father, it's a way of saying, "Your belonging here is a gift, not something you have to earn or renew or worry about losing.  You cannot lose this love."

And yet at the same time, there is a third reality about life in families that we need to explore--to belong in a family means you are opening yourself up to be shaped in the likeness of other family members.  Not necessarily in physical appearance, of course--although that does happen, too, and sometimes you can spot a Smith or a Jones from a mile away by their family's distinctive red hair or wide smile or green eyes.  But even when a family is made up of people who don't share DNA, our souls kind of rub off on one another.  You take on the traits, for good and for ill, of the people you build your life around (which, while we're on the subject, is probably why changes with those people who are closest in our lives are the most daunting or difficult to live through--like the Fleetwood Mac song puts it, "I've been afraid of changing, 'cause I built my life around you.")  While that can sometimes be disastrous, like a child learning the patterns of addiction or abuse from a parent who is already an addict or an abuser, it can also be wonderful, like when a child learns empathy, respect, or courage from the people in their lives.  And in the household of God, we come to take on the character of God.  We come to share a family resemblance with Jesus.  Our usual word for that is holiness.  We become more and more like the siblings and parents in the household--that's not a matter of earning a place in the family, but rather living into the place we've already been given by grace.

So today, hear it and know it is true: you have been brought into the family of God.  Belonging in this family, unlike a club or a company you work for, is a permanent arrangement given by grace... and yet it is a reality that makes us more and more like the God into whose family we have been brought.  Jesus has claimed us for his family just as we are... and yet his love has a way of making us to be more as he is.

May we, in this day, let Jesus' love shape us to become more like him, even now.

Lord Jesus, thank you for your love that has claimed us, and thank you for the way that same love makes us to be like you.