Laughter: Carbonated Grace

A Seriously Dysfunctional Family Are We!

Did you ever cringe over the scripture where Mary and the family of Jesus are outside where he is and worried about him and when people tell Jesus that his family wants to see him, his response is that his family were all those that ‘”get” him enough to follow him. As a mom that bothered me. But today I “get” it. Family is the basic unit of humanity. Now, as is obvious in the Scriptures, being human they often do not get along well. But the ideal of family remains. And Jesus says that those that “get” what he is saying enough to actually follow in his footsteps are his family. But there are many who have come to know and live what Jesus taught without knowing Jesus, but by hearing the Spirit of God within. And many who technically follow Jesus, but do not follow the Spirit within. “You will know them by their Love.” And that’s a love like Jesus loved when he died on the cross.

What does it mean to follow Jesus? To be a disciple? What did Jesus mean when he said that He is the WAY. Does it mean a momentary commitment asking Him to be not only our Savior, but our Lord? Is that like a magic incantation? Or is it just the beginning of our journey like it was to those confused disciples who thought it meant freedom from the hostile rule of Rome, freedom from suffering, freedom to be special and important, to be empowered and protected, and having the keys to the kingdom of God (or at least to the Sky room at the airport!).

What does it mean to pick up our cross to follow him?

Not ANY of the above.

What does the cross symbolize? Dying to self. It’s that simple and that scary and that inescapable.

Does being the family of Jesus mean we immediately have the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth? NO!

Peter who was the closest friend of Jesus argued with Paul about circumcision and Jewish rules. God had to intervene and show Peter both in a dream and by sending him to witness Cornelius and all his Gentile family experiencing all the gifts of the Spirit not only without being circumcised, but without being baptized! If that doesn’t make you question a couple of thousand years of theologians’ rules, you are clinging like the “good” Jews to thinking we can limit/control God and coast if we just play the game by the rules.

A relationship with God starts within. The Spirit of God is within us if we open to it whether we have met the technical game rules or not. It’s a relationship between the kind of human that we see in Jesus and the God that created everything and is still creating disciples like Jesus even through other teachers. Jesus is the Son of God. That’s a relationship. Jesus is our brother. That’s a relationship. The same Spirit of God within Jesus also connects us all as brothers and sisters. We ARE family. Like it or not! And the WAY of Jesus is the Spiritual Journey that he took where he started out thinking he was sent for his religious family, the Jews. And step by step the Spirit freed him from limiting the Spirit to just men, just the clean, just the righteous, just the Jews, just the conquered, just those that did NOT torture and crucify him. “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

Watch whom he heals and recognize how each step of the way he broadened his understanding of the “People of God.” And look around you and see whom you consider your enemy and be afraid, very afraid, that you are missing the point.