Family Reunion - 6/13/21

 Call to worship:

L: Let us lift up the name of our God!

P: Let us praise the faithfulness of the Lord!

L: For just as the Lord’s greatness fills the heavens,

P: The Lord’s love embraces the earth,

L: Preserving our life in the midst of trouble.

A: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God!

Opening Hymn:   It’s Me, It’s Me, O Lord   #352

Refrain:
It’s me, it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer.
It’s me, it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer.

1 Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer.
Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer. [Refrain]

2 Not the preacher, not the deacon, but it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer.
Not the preacher, not the deacon, but it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer. [Refrain]

3 Not my father, not my mother, but it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer.
Not my father, not my mother, but it’s me, O Lord,
standing in the need of prayer. [Refrain]

Opening Prayer:   

We turn to you, O Lord, for we have learned the folly of putting our trust in earthly rulers. They promise peace with justice for our children, yet they take them from us and make them run before war’s chariots. Now, O Lord, we put our trust in you, assured that, if we seek your justice, we will receive it; that, if we seek your peace, we shall find it – a peace other rulers can neither give nor take away. Amen.

Epistle Reading:  II Corinthians 4: 13 – 5: 1

¹³ But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸ because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

Hymn:  Have Thine Own Way, Lord   #382

1. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter;
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me
after thy will,
while I am waiting,
yielded and still.

2. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Search me and try me,
Savior today!
Wash me just now, Lord,
wash me just now,
as in thy presence
humbly I bow.

3. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Wounded and weary,
help me I pray!
Power, all power,
surely is thine!
Touch me and heal me,
Savior divine!

4. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Hold o'er my being
absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit
till all shall see
Christ only, always,
living in me! 

Prayer of Dedication:

O God, hear our prayer! We need to know that, beyond us, you are. For while we seek our own salvation, it cannot be had through striving. We think highly of ourselves, O Lord, but we are not great – only driven by dreams of greatness. And we have stumbled upon such dreams until finally we have fallen and plunged into the pit.

But, YES, Lord, we shall be saved! Reveal to us our potential for evil and for good, that the pit might become the crest of your mountain, and our fall, a fall upward to you!  Amen.

Gospel Reading:   Mark 3: 20-35

²⁰ and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹ When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” ²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” ²³ And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷ But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

²⁸ “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹ Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” ³³ And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Sermon Title:    Family reunion

When I was a kid, I loved family reunions. The whole lot of us would get together for a Sunday afternoon after church, in the park, and we would play games with our cousins for hours while intermittently eating some of the best food ever made. Of course, the kids had it easy. All we had to do was play and eat and let all the grown-ups talk. 

When I got older, there were fewer cousins that showed up and we didn’t really want to run around and get our outfits messed up or get all sweaty. By the time I was an adult and had moved to another state, the family reunion had all but gone to the wayside as folks just didn’t want to or couldn’t make the effort anymore.

Somehow, though, they did manage to defy the test of time and effort and by the time I was a grandparent, they came back; the cousins, the fun, the food, and everything else that went along. Somehow, they were even better. It was great to be able to bring a favorite dish to share and it was even better to watch the kids play together while us grown up cousins sat and reminisced about days gone by.

The scene that we read in the Gospel of Mark, however, does not seem to be quite the pleasant gathering that we have enjoyed over the years. In fact, it appears to be somewhat of a genuine hub bub. The crowd is pressing in so intently so that Jesus cannot even get a chance to sit down and eat; his family believes him to be crazy and is endeavoring to get him away from the crowd; and then he is accused of having Beelzebul (bē-elzebul) in him and that is how he is able to tell the demons what to do. By all accounts, this event is shaping up to be quite the disaster. It is more like a family dis-union than a reunion.

If we take a look back in the passage that pre-empts our reading for today, you see that Jesus had called his disciples (also calling them apostles), the twelve of them and he had been traveling with them long enough for them to provide some amount of protection from the pressing crowd. They were pressing in on him to be touched by him for they had heard of all the miracle healings he had done. Every person who had an ailment of any kind was there to see if he could do the same for them. He was so well known, in fact, that the unclean spirits fell down in front of him and shouted out that they knew he was the Son of God.

And then he went home…but the crowd did not relinquish their positions, and so he was healing so many that he did not even have a chance to eat. And then the “dis-union” begins with his family thinking that he has gone out of his mind and thus endeavoring to restrain him; and the scribes and other religious elites are accusing him of being in cahoots with Satan (Beelzebul). But none of this matters and Jesus completely keeps his cool and speaks to them in parables. 

Can Satan cast out Satan? Can a house that is divided stand? No, the answer is NO! And finally, we get to the part where the table is set with fried chicken, potato salad, pickles, casseroles, fruit salad, and of course a big ol’ jug of lemonade. That’s right; it’s family reunion time.

Jesus is told that his mother and his brothers and sisters are outside asking for him. And while Jesus loved his family made of blood relatives, he also loved his family of believers. He explained to the crowd that they are his family; whoever does the will of God is in the holy family.

Every Sunday and a few other days as well; we get together for a family reunion. We may not always eat fried chicken and all that, but we are the believers that make up the family of God.

Amen!

Closing Hymn:  Father, We Praise Thee   #680

1. Father, we praise thee, now the night is over;
active and watchful, stand we all before thee;
singing, we offer prayer and meditation;
thus we adore thee.

2. Monarch of all things, fit us for thy mansions;
banish our weakness, health and wholeness sending;
bring us to heaven, with thy saints united;
joy without ending.

3. All-holy Father, Son, and equal Spirit,
Trinity blessed, send us thy salvation;
thine is the glory, gleaming and resounding
through all creation.