Being the Family Of God

Some time back I came across a story about an effort to locate the cornerstone of the United States capital building. Apparently there was a grand dedication ceremony when the cornerstone was laid in the early part of the 19th century when the construction was begun on this historic building. But over the years, for one reason or another, the stone has sunk, virtually disappeared, eventually getting buried under years and years of debris. Now it simply cannot be located, much to the concern and consternation of historians. Of course, this being the federal government, an official commission was been appointed to find the darn thing.

You wouldn’t think that such a thing would get people so upset, but you see the cornerstone represents the history of this historic building. It’s a sign and symbol of the building’s purpose. The concern is that when we lose sight of the cornerstone, as a country we could easily lose sight of who we are, and what we stand for.

The same might be said of Christ’s church. We don't ever want to lose sight of who we are and what we stand for.

“So then you are no longer strangers, and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole thing is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” (Eph. 2:19-22)

Taking ourselves back to when this passage was first written, can imagine what these words must have meant to first-century gentiles, those who were not considered a part of Israel’s faith community? What can such promises mean to a people who have been excluded from the traditions and scriptures which have blessed God’s people for so long? If they cannot claim a relationship with God, if they are not included in this relationship, will they, in fact, be saved, will they be accorded all the same promises of God’s realm?

Well, yes, says the reading from Ephesians. Yes they will, by an amazing act of God in Christ Jesus. The promises of God are brought even to those outside the faith family, even to gentiles.

In the first chapter of Ephesians, the writer says that those outside the historic faith have been destined for salvation because “he destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ according the good pleasure of his will.” (Eph.1:5)

The emphasis is added in my part, but do you understand what it is saying? Now, for the first time, “according to the good pleasure of God’s will,” the scripture says, all are brought close to God through Christ.

What must this mean to someone who has been rejected time and time again and made to feel unworthy? If the words to the Ephesians are to be believed, now whatever barriers may appear to be in place have been removed. Now, with the sign and seal of the spirit, Jew and gentile alike are marked as “God’s own people” the scripture says. (1:14) Those who were once “far off” are “brought near by the blood of Christ.” (2:13)

Is it within our powers to fully comprehend what we are being told, that one so mighty and omnipotent as our God could choose to stoop so low to lovingly embrace our entire human family in all our odd variety of colors, shapes, and sizes? Is that not, in a very real sense, the essence of the good news? I think it is.

Yet, if we could play the role of devil’s advocate for just a moment, we might ask, “well, just how inclusive is God’s love? Just who exactly is being embraced here? How large is our extended family because we all know that there are some people we are not quite ready to get all warm and fuzzy about, aren't there? To what extent do we really have to embrace them as brothers and sisters in Christ? Yes, we want to praise God that God loves us and accepts us, warts and all. But what those other people, the ones we would sometimes rather not associate with. Are they a part of family too?

Like it or not, we are all part of a society which likes to categorize and classify its people. We do it statistically, and we do it emotionally. We use income levels, we use country of origin, and we use color and culture and native traditions. We may not always be aware of it, but we are a people and a society who continue to divide ourselves along distinctive and sometimes divisive ways.

I remember a story that made the news in Minnesota when we lived there. It was about a black man who was stopped leaving a public park in Minneapolis one evening. He was driving a BMW, and he’d just left an area where some drug dealers had been arrested. Two marked police cruisers and an unmarked drug task force vehicle stopped the man’s car and surrounded it. The man was ordered to get out of his vehicle, and to keep his hands in plain sight as he did so. He told the officers he was a public official with the city of Minneapolis, and he even directed them where to look for his identification.

The officers asked the man what he was doing in that area at that time of the evening. He explained that he was just driving through the park. When he saw an arrest going down he drove away because he just didn’t want to get involved.

After he had answered a number of questions, the man was allowed to be on his way with no further interference. It should be noted that this event unfolded as the man’s young granddaughter look on in awe and fear from the back seat of the car. We have to wonder just what sort of questions she asked him on the way home.

What makes this story so striking is that this man was a civil rights executive with the city of Minneapolis. His job was to oversee programs and policies which mandate the fair and equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of their color, age, or ethnic group. The newspaper article alluded to the practice of “racial profiling,” when police try to categorize someone according to their external appearances, rather than whatever the facts may be.

Of course it was all a regrettable incident. The mayor and police chief offered their apologies, citing poor execution of police policy, not racial profiling. Nonetheless, this story points out how easy it is for some people, police officers in this case, to categorize and classify someone else, based simply on external characteristics like the color of their skin or their apparent financial status. Sometimes it even happens with gender.

As some of you know, Joanne and I have a friend, Jerry Fritz, who is the pastor of the federated church in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. We like to kid jerry because his parsonage overlooks a beautiful bay that is just packed at this time of the year with expensive yachts and power cruisers of all sizes.

“Are you really working out there,” we ask him, "or you just sightseeing?”

One of the more interesting views from jerry’s front porch is this rather ordinary building which sits at the end of a nearby pier. It’s not the sort of thing that normally would catch your attention, except if you knew what it was and what it represented.

Locals call it “the men’s club.” The rumor mill says that it was constructed a long time ago as a place for the wealthier men of the community to have a place to smoke cigars and look at what we would discreetly describe as “gentlemen’s magazines” out of view of their wives and daughters.

Although I’m not sure how much "reading" goes on there now, my understanding is that it continues to be a men’s club. I’m told that women are welcome there as long as they are with their husbands or have been invited in as someone’s guest.

There probably isn't anything illegal about this club, and I’m not so naïve as to think that such things don't happen in our world, but I just found it so sad to discover for myself the lengths to which some will go to divide people along arbitrary lines of who’s in or who’s out.

Being the family of God means being willing to rise above the idea that some people are acceptable, and others not. Being the family of God means never forgetting who we are and what we stand for. As Christ’s church we are challenged to promote a new order that recognizes that it is only by the grace of God that any of us is loved and accepted.

Returning to our scripture reading, the writer of Ephesians has given us a creative illustration of what Christ’s church is supposed to be and be about. He says that believers are being built into "a holy temple" which is joined together in Christ in such a way as to give glory to the God who loves all people and who claims them as beloved, just the way they are! Being Christ’s church and God's family means making our own contributions which can both build upon and strengthen the foundation of the good work accomplished by those who lived out the gospel before us. We are called and challenged in our own time to do our part to create a world where everyone, everyone, can experience God's love and hospitality, just as we believe we have.

May it be so for us, to the glory of God?

Amen.